Windows 9 To Win Over Windows 7 Users, Disables Start Screen For Desktop 681
DroidJason1 writes One of Microsoft's main goals with Windows 9, the next major version of Windows, is to win over Windows 7 hold outs. The operating system will look and work differently based on hardware type. Microsoft is looking to showcase the desktop for desktop and laptop users, while two-in-one devices like the Surface Pro or Lenovo Yoga will support switching between the Metro interface and the classic desktop interface. The new desktop will allow Modern UI apps to run in windowed mode, and have Modern UI apps pinned to the Start Menu instead of a Start Screen. There will also be a mini-start menu. Microsoft is looking to undo the usability mistakes it made with Windows 8 for those who are not on a touch device. WIndows 9 is expected around spring of 2015.
hmmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that supposed to be windows 8.2?
One switch to rule them all? (Score:5, Insightful)
And here I'm hoping... (Score:5, Insightful)
That it goes x64 only, much like they said a year and change ago.
Touch Server (Score:4, Insightful)
Hah! (Score:4, Insightful)
I finally got my Windows 7 system working reliably. I'm not budging until I have to.
[John]
Re:hmmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
It has become an industry law that every other major windows version be the good one.
So now, they have to number the products to fit the law.
Windows 8.X / 8.1X needs a new name to (Score:5, Insightful)
Windows 8.X / 8.1X needs a new name to get rid of the bad PR and make the changes stand out more.
Wouldn't it be more appropriate to say... (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as they love to pat themselves on the back for having such a "revolutionary" design, there is no better evidence that it Win 8 was a groupthink circlejerk than how no one who had the choice would use it.
Windows 7 end of life... (Score:5, Insightful)
.
Why in the world would I want to give Microsoft more money just to stay on the Microsoft Upgrade Treadmill©?
How to fix Windows (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Umm, ctrl+c/ctrl+v? (Score:5, Insightful)
I was wondering when one of the "oh the new start menu is great, it's just misunderstood and needs to be relabeled" goblins crawls out of his cave to poop his bullshit on this thread.
Did the epic failure of 8 teach you nothing? We WANT the proper tree menu in start menu. Not your shitty catastrophe that can't even have a proper tree structure. An actual, usable start menu.
Go back to your cave. Eight is dead as is (hopefully) start screen. Even microsoft is apparently starting to get it.
Re:hmmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe because touch devices make shitty desktop devices and they shouldn't be integrated for that reason.
Re:Why didn't they just listen to users? (Score:4, Insightful)
What happened to listening to your customers? To providing options? Historically MS has always been all about that, and *Apple* has been the "our way, or the highway" company. It was really strange to see things reversed for Windows 8.
The big difference being that, at least when Jobs was around, Jobs was almost always right about what a vast majority of the users actually wanted vs what they said they wanted. Yes, I know you want to say how much it sucked, but that's why I said a vast majority of users, certainly not all users. MS, OTOH, has generally gone for what users say they want rather than what they really want (anybody who has developed software for non-techy customers knows what I mean). They tried it Apple's way for Windows 8, but apparently they didn't have anybody pragmatic enough to understand real-life users.
In other words, users said they wanted A, but Jobs knew they'd like B better. He made B, and 90% of them loved it. MS users said that wanted C, MS thought they'd like D better, they made D, and 90% of them hated it. The right answer for MS is probably not C or D, so they need to find the value of E.
I won't upgrade. (Score:5, Insightful)
They release new versions of windows too often, and charge too much for the upgrades. Also, far too many things stop working once one upgrades.
I intend to hang on to 7 until the end of extended support, and possibly after that, because I have no incentive to upgrade. Their willingness to give me back the interface they shouldn't have taken away in the first place is not an incentive to upgrade, it is merely one less disincentive.
Re:Why didn't they just listen to users? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the Windows Store and Bing Search.
The only reason they have been so stubborn about putting the Metro Start in front of everyone, even Server users, is to force them to look at the Windows Store tile(s).
The store is a core part of Microsoft's bid to integrate a new revenue stream and a new way of bringing users into the fold of a subscription-based licensing model.
Another reason is to force users to use the Bing Search to find anything they used to just double-click from the desktop or the single click in the Start Menu. Each search gets routed to Bing and gets counted as a page view for the ads...
Re:I won't upgrade. (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think they care about software upgrades. I do think they care about hardware OEM's shipping old versions of their OS.
Re:One switch to rule them all? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or just switch to Open Office or other derivatives.
That is exactly what I did. Unfortunately every once in a while one of my colleagues will send me a document (usually a power point presentation) that won't open in anything other than the newest version of office (and sometimes only the newest version on the same platform as their, to boot). They then get to listen to me cursing office for some time while I try to read their document.
This happens often, even with people who are using older versions of Office. My daughter's high school used to do this all the time -- append docx documents, get complaints from parents, and then re-save in doc format and resend. I dunno what kind of deal the school gets for software, but most of us, unless we've stolen a copy from work, are using an old version of Office or in some cases a third party equivalent.
So in your case, I'd do the same thing I did with daughter's high school teachers. Politely ask them to save the document in a less proprietary format and resend.
Seriously, I don't think I ever received anything from them that couldn't be sent in RTF format, but that's another story.
Re:One switch to rule them all? (Score:2, Insightful)
Do you really think that the only reason people could hate the ribbon is because they don't know how to use it? That's simply delusional. At least now I know where the equally mistaken belief that the only reason people could hate Metro is because they don't know how to use it comes from.
Re:I skipped Windows 7... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:hmmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:One switch to rule them all? (Score:2, Insightful)
If the Ribbons in MS's various products were even remotely configurable/customizable, they wouldn't nearly be such an atrocity to me at least (maybe others?).
You may want to look again. Current Ribbon is completely customizable.
Performing an action via Toolbar or Drop-Down menu, doesn't change your menus or interface. Whereas the Ribbon requires - changing to a "specialty" ribbon, finding said function on the ribbon, clicking, changing back to "Home".
And this is different from "opening a closed menu, finding function on the menu, changing back to the closed menu", exactly how? At least if you want to use several functions from the same Ribbon section you don't have to re-open it each time. And if you set the Ribbon to auto-hide, is functionally identical to a drop-down menu - just with a horizontal rather than vertical layout.
Re:One switch to rule them all? (Score:4, Insightful)
Your coworkers get butchered documents from you, then ignore it and revisions later, IT gets asked to "cleanup" the formatting bugs yuou injected and everyone else copy pasted over.
I'm not saying MS Office is better than Open/Libre Office is better. Excel, Outlook, PPT and Word generally are better, if not necessarily Access, but there are only substitutes, not equivalents in GPL or other vendors.
My experience is that MS Office doesn't play well with others - or even with itself. Try sending a PC Powerpoint to a Mac Office PowerPoint, and you'll not likely enjoy th difference. If Microsoft programs can't even play with their own selves, then no thanks.
I've achieved remarkable compatibility by using Open Office on all my machines, no matter the OS.
Microsoft is becoming the outlier here.