Windows Blue Is Officially Windows 8.1, Free For Existing Users

Several readers sent word that Microsoft has officially dubbed the upcoming revision to its flagship operating system "Windows 8.1," retiring the code-name "Windows Blue." They also said the update would be freely available to anybody with Windows 8. It will be available through the Windows Store. "Reller declined to provide an exact release date for Windows 8.1, but said that Microsoft is 'very sensitive to the timing of the holidays.' Ideally, Microsoft will be able to provide devices with Windows 8.1 pre-loaded in time for the holiday 2013 season, Reller said, but those who purchase a Windows 8 device later this year will be able to easily upgrade to 8.1."

Service pack

[Anonymous Coward]

So, then it is the unofficial return of the service packs.

Wow...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I honestly wasn't expecting that. Toward the end of Vista's lifecycle, I think that they were offering 'buy this computer now, upgrade for free*(additional charges may apply) when 7 comes out' in order to avoid having a sales slump while people waited it out; but offering '8.1' as a free update, this soon after 8, is about as close to a concession speech as you could expect to see. (Especially in light of the rumored move to a 'release often cheaply or by subscription' model, which would have made a cheap, but nonzero, upgrade price a more natural option than it otherwise would have been)

Will they address feedback

[onyxruby]

The single biggest question is whether or not they will address feedback from the masses on two things that they have been repeatedly told were very bad ideas?

Restore the start menu (not just bounce you back to TIFNAM)
Boot directly to the desktop

If they don't address these two issues with an option to allow both the enterprise is going to continue their mass boycott of Windows 8 for years to come. Microsoft has been particularly stubborn on these points, even though they are dragging the PC industry down with them by being pig headed about things. Microsoft, can your arrogance be overcome?

Re:Wow...

[jones_supa]

I seriously can't know how people can be comfortable with the Win8 Start screen. Here's a picture of my Start menu [metropolia.fi] in Win7. Everything is nicely pinned right there (no moving mouse around the screen), the search functionality works the same and there is direct access to things like Control Panel. It does not steal the attention with a full screen jumbled mess of harshly colored icons.

Some things never change.

[neoshroom]

Personally, I'm going to wait for Windows 8.1 for Workgroups [wikipedia.org]...

__

Re:Fuck the Walled Garden

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I really the only one who sees the irony here?

Yes. Most of us saw the humor.

Re:Wow...

[UnknowingFool]

The lack of visual clues is appalling. My roommate has Win 8 and she asked me how she should change a setting. Well it was in the Control Panel but there is no apparent way to get to the Control Panel anymore. We had to look it up on the Internet. She had to find the one hot corner that showed her "Settings". There's no visual clue that's what she should do. It's also not a matter of getting used to change; there was no obvious clue that a specific corner shows you Settings.

Re:Too little, too late?

[UnknowingFool]

For those of us who have used Windows find 8 annoying because of the changes that were made that hamper our ability to use it as a desktop. For complete novices they don't have to change their behaviors, but Win 8 fails here because it provides you no clue on what to do. For example, how to make changes. You have to click on one of the corners to get "Settings". How in the world is anyone supposed to know that?

Re:Wow...

[Marillion]

If you want to consider how the engineers inside Microsoft think of the code base, I'd suggest considering how they internally number the versions. I think it's very insightful. The windows API has a self-identification function that returns the internal version numbering.
Windows NT 4.0 self-identified as NT4.0
Windows 2000 self-identified as NT5.0
Windows XP self-identified as NT5.1
Windows Vista self-identified as NT6.0
Windows 7 self-identified as NT6.1
Windows 8 self-identified as NT6.2

Re:Wow...

[phantomfive]

When your UI is so undiscoverable that people need to use search to get anything done, then you know you have a lousy UI.

Re:Too little, too late?

[SJHillman]

I'm counting among the people who gave Windows 8 a chance rather than going in hating it already. I ended up going back to Windows 7 (as I said), but I don't think 8 is the disaster that so many people claim it to be.

People treat it like a house with a cracked foundation and rotting trusses when it really just needs new siding and maybe a few non-structural walls moved.

Re:Wow...

[UnknowingFool]

[sarcasm]Yes because Windows key + "Control Panel" is so obvious to a user using a mouse.[/sarcasm]. That like saying searching in emacs has always been Ctrl-S [Return] string [Return]. [sarcasm] I means why would anyone need to Google that?[/sarcasm]

Re:Too little, too late?

[Wookact]

Really, I find it interesting that all of the "IT folks" that I know have all disparaged the metro interface. Even the ones that like it, will voice support for the ones who dont, after all there was no reason to remove features.

Perhaps you don't actually have to work with any customers that know 0 about computers. I do. I have customers that could not tell you what version of windows they use. Hell when I try to use the start button to narrow it down, is it a blue circle or a green oval, they get confused. I do NOT need another interface to hold hands though. I do NOT want to waste the time teaching all of my users how to do something that they have been doing for 15 years.

I hate windows 8 not because I have to get used to it, but because I have to help every single one of my customers get used to it. That is the major issue. This issue would not have existed if they had left the option to boot to desktop, and left the windows orb in the corner. Now get off of your high horse please. Ohh and the reason you posted anon is obvious. You know you are wrong and are trying to avoid any negative moderation.

Re:Maybe I can Start loving Windows again

[dgatwood]

Stop saddling me with your damn phone interface and we'll see.

Hear, hear. I put up with those sorts of interfaces on my phone because of what it is. The interface inherently must be limited, or else it would not be usable on a tiny screen when operated by big, clumsy fingers.

When I'm on a computer, I have a nice, big screen, a mouse, and a keyboard. There's plenty of screen real estate to use for things like multiple windows with scroll bars and title bars, tabs, navigation controls galore, etc. There is no good reason to be stingy in terms of your user interface. If I wanted a limited UI, I would have bought a tablet in the first place.

Re:Maybe I can Start loving Windows again

[PhxBlue]

That's nice, but Windows 7 works just fine. So why would I pay to upgrade to Windows 8, then pay more to remove functionality I don't want from the software?

Re:Wow...

[0123456]

That's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it is: if your UI is so discoverable that all you have to do is hit one key and then type whatever you're looking for and *boom* there it is, you know you have a great UI.

DOS was even better. You didn't even have to 'hit one key' before you could type the command you were looking for.

Back in the real world, if your GRAPHICAL User Interface requires you to type the name of a program to start it, it's a lousy UI.

Re:Wow...

[danbert8]

That's your problem... You are assuming power users. Do you know how many people I know who still go to the edit menu to select COPY and PASTE rather than using keyboard shortcuts or even right clicking?

Re:Wow...

[UnknowingFool]

I don't know about you but when I hit Start, Control Panel shows up right away as an option. If I right click on the desktop, Personalize takes me to Control Panel in a less direct way. The user can discover these things on their own without any knowledge of Windows 7. I discovered both in user 10 seconds. In Win 8, a user has to know to click on a specific corner (and know that clicking on a corner does something). It's not about the change; it is the lack of visual clues in the current design. Another example is how in Win 8, labels are flat exactly like buttons so to the user they don't know if clicking on something should perform an action. They are left to click on anything that resembles a button. That is poor UI in my opinion.

Re:Wohoo! Windows blew

[mcgrew]

If all you want is a start menu just install kubuntu or Mandriva and you'll have all the functionality of all the versions of Windows, with no lacking features whatever, plus features Windows never had. And your system will be faster and more responsive.

Windows? Ballmer blue it!

Re:Wow...

[Darinbob]

No visual clues AND no documentation. You are either supposed to just figure it out yourself (not something that happens with the typical "I need something simple since I'm scared to touch buttons" user), or spent time researching online.

There is oddly enough, a sort of tutorial added later, but you must first obtain an account and subscribe to the store (their entire goal with W8 is to get faces to the store). Not sure why they were unable to have this built in from the start, except that it's clear they had to whip W8 too soon before it was complete.