Windoze 8

A very intriguing screen shot of Win8.1 Update 1 surfaced. It's the taskbar dialogue box, with the option "Pin store apps to the taskbar." The bar itself shows the Windows Store icon pinned, or opened, in the taskbar.

This may either mean just ahving the apps there, so you can open them while switching to the M/M/W interface more easily, or that M/M/W apps will run on the desktop. As yet it's not clear. The latter option was an early rumor conerning Windows 9, though. So maybe MS is starting this early.

Sky Drive is dead. Long live One Drive.

Microsoft has now renamed it's online storage service.

And has again displayed its knack for picking odd names. I assume this fits witht the "One Microsoft" model we keep hearing so much about. To me it sounds like an incomplete address. as though it should be 123 One Drive, Redmond, WA, 01001 or something.

Granted naming such things might be tricky, but what was the problem with, say, Microsoft Drive, Windows Drive, or even Microsoft Cloud?

On other things, Win 8.1 Update 1 will feature the follwoing:

right-click context menus on the M/M/W interface
Visible controls for search and shut down on the M/M/W Start screen
Pinning M/M/W apps on the desktop taskbar, complete with useless miniature previews.

Less certainly (ie I've not seen a screen shot), M/M/W "apps" will have visible controls on the upper right corner to minimize and close the "app."

And still no start menu, nor an uncripppled desktop.

Still, I hat to admit it but had this been the release of Win8 to begin with, I might not hAve hated it so much aNd might even have bought a PC running it in Late 2012 or early 2013. I'd like to think I'd still would ahve ended up with Start8, modern mix and Window Blinds, but I'd be pressed to say so for certain even now.

As it is, my enmity towards all things Windows 8 and related releases remains undimminished. I would not get this version of the OS anymore than I'd purposefully get the chicken pox. And while I await a goodn enough OS with Windows 9, I'm not hopeful about it.

So for now I'll call Windows 8.1 Update 1: a day late and a dollar short.

Quote: Nareed

To me it sounds like an incomplete address. as though it should be 123 One Drive, Redmond, WA, 01001 or something.

Now, that should read 11011 One Drive, etc etc. since as you know there are 10 kinds of people, those who know binary and so on... ;)

Quote: Nareed

As it is, my enmity towards all things Windows 8 and related releases remains undimminished. I would not get this version of the OS anymore than I'd purposefully get the chicken pox. And while I await a goodn enough OS with Windows 9, I'm not hopeful about it.

I'm pretty optimistic for Windows 9...MS has a rich tradition of shipping garbage with every other OS release. See Windows ME and Windows Vista (and some would say 98, although it worked well for me). 95, XP, 7 were all competent.

My fiance got a new laptop that shipped with Windows 8.1. It's as bad as you have complained about, Nareed.

Quote: AcesAndEights

I'm pretty optimistic for Windows 9...MS has a rich tradition of shipping garbage with every other OS release. See Windows ME and Windows Vista (and some would say 98, although it worked well for me). 95, XP, 7 were all competent.

I never even saw a machine running WinME. It was well-known MS put it up as a stop-gap upgrade, and most people just waited for the next one. I don't even count it as a Windows release.

Win98 was great, once I added some RAM to my PC and fixed a nagging sound-card driver issue.

Since then, in the public perception, it's XP good, Vista bad, 7 good, 8(.1) abominable.

But like most else in life it's not so simple.

Vista wasn't bad, if you overestimated the recommended hardware requirements by a factor of 2 and added 15% on top for good measure. Ohter than that there was an issue with the user permissions, which was as bad as everyone claimed. But that got fixed.

On the other hand Win7 is not as good as people claim. Sure, it's better than Vista and the hardware requirements were drawn up right, but for me it took some configuring in order to get it working right (and there are a few minor annoyances I can't fix). I do NOT understand the idea of pinning programs to the taskbar, for example. They just get in the way of one's work. I don't get the search thing either (waste of time), or the brilliant flashing colors in the taskbar (distracting), or the taskbar miniature windows (utterly useless).

What has been going on since Vista and has kept going is a lack of choice for customizing the interface. In either Vista or 7 there are a number of things that can't be changed or are hard to change. All I mentioned above, for example. This is even more the case in Win8(.1)

The thing is that some of the bad ideas not only keep surviving from one bad Os to a good one, but then get mroe entrenched. So for Win 9 I expect a crippled desktop with a nod to the start menu, which will likely be of only limited use and only to run programs. I do not expect the "charms bar" to go away, either. I also expect the mandatory MS account log-in, the lock screen and the flat look to remain.

Quote:

My fiance got a new laptop that shipped with Windows 8.1. It's as bad as you have complained about, Nareed.

Get Start8 now. Then add Modern Mix and try Window Blinds. There are ways around the rest.

Sometimes it's the little things.

From Paul Thurrot's latest on the Win8.1 Update 1:

Quote:

But Windows 9 won't ship to customers until April 2015, Microsoft expects, and its year-long gestation suggests that it won't be a particularly major release, but rather something akin to Windows 8.1. In fact, my sources tell me the "Windows 9" naming decision is based more around a desire to distance the OS from the poorly received Windows 8.

Link: http://windowsitpro.com/windows-81/need-know-windows-81-update-1-and-windows-phone-81

Now read my post above.

That was exactly what I was afraid of when the first stirrings of Windows 9 came about. What I think this means is we'll still have the "charms bar," the lock screen, the mandatory MS account log-in, etc. So it's time to prepare, and to beat the drums while this thing is still in development. So:

1) Make sure there is room for a BIG partition in my HD to run Win9 when it comes out. I won't just switch to it and hope for the best, and I want to keep 7 just in case.

2) Post in every forum I can think of what MS needs to do, and boil it down always to one thing and one thing only: choice.

3) Seriously find time to finish moving non-essential files from the old Vista, in order to seriously find time to try out Linux on it.

Our work skips versions of Windows. We went from XP to Windows 7, and likely we'll skip Windows 8 for Windows 9.

The goal of Windows 8 was to give an across the board familiarity so that you would operate your PC like you do your tablet like you do your smartphone. In my opinion, it failed. Yet the demand for that still exists so MicroSoft has to do it better. It also has to appease its business owners as most businesses will stil be running traditional operating systems. So, I see Win9 as having the traditional interface AND the new interface which is easily and entirely switchable. The issue is overhead.

Quote: boymimbo

Our work skips versions of Windows. We went from XP to Windows 7, and likely we'll skip Windows 8 for Windows 9.

I'm trying to rename Linux Mint Windows Mint to see if that makes the transition easier ;)

Quote:

The goal of Windows 8 was to give an across the board familiarity so that you would operate your PC like you do your tablet like you do your smartphone. In my opinion, it failed.

Of course it failed. Everyone's been missreading the market.

First, it turns out that the rumors about the demise of the PC were not greatly exaggerated, but rather vastly exaggerated. It's "just" that the PC market shrnak and the tablet market grew. This menas people are hanging on to their PCs longer, and are snapping up the new "it" thing. But now tablet sales are slowing. naturally so, as people who want tablets now ahve them. And unlike phones, people won't change their tablets every year or two. I envision tablets remaining in service for 3-6 years, depending on personal tastes, unless the price drops dramatically (as if in cell companies decide to subsidize tablets as well as phones).

But also fundamentally, as I've said before, tablets are not PCs. Sure, one can read email, browse the web, do social networks and even some shopping and banking on a tablet. But try a doing 15 by 650 spreadsheet with lots of copying from three source files and lots of formulae on a tiny 10" screen with just touch. I'm willing to bet you can't. You could if you hooked up a keyboard and a mouse and probably a monitor to get a bigger image. In other words, you could if your tablet becomes a desktop PC.

So PCs cannot be used like tablets, nor are they used for the same jobs.

Quote:

Yet the demand for that still exists so MicroSoft has to do it better. It also has to appease its business owners as most businesses will stil be running traditional operating systems. So, I see Win9 as having the traditional interface AND the new interface which is easily and entirely switchable. The issue is overhead.

I hope, and there is some indication that it may, MS rather settles for allowing the M/M/W "apps" to run on the desktop. By all means keep the M/M/W interface. But with the option to keep it far away from such users who so wish to.

Rumor has it Win8.1 Update 1 will feature a default boot-to-desktop setting.

No word yet on a start menu, though.

Still a little too little and a little too late (what's with all he song references today, I've no idea*).

On other thigns there's this blog post: http://www.marco.org/2014/01/31/microsoft-customers-defeat-microsoft

The writer makes a good point: MS lost sight of who their customers are. Not to mention they lost sight of the fact people ahve memories. Come on, bragging about being able to have FOUR WINDOWS OPENED AT ONCE!!! is so laughable as to be pathetic. Also remember the original Win8 release didn't allow even two full windows on the screen oepened at once. And even now all these opened windows will be vertical only.

Oh, well. I mention all this to refute just one line of the linked post. And that is that Metro wasn't bad. I kind of agree, but only in my ironic/sarcastic way of saying "Of course ti wasn't bad. it was terrible."

There is much concern that the M/M/W interface will now wither and die. Maybe it will. But I don't think so. if you let desktop users run M/M/W "apps" in floating windows, all manageable from the desktopwith mouse and keybaord, they may, however unlikely this seems, find "apps" they can actually use. If they do, this will make them more likely to get a Windows tablet later on. To me "apps" just make zero sense on a desktop PC. Just about all one can use web-based "apps" can be done better through websites using a single program (Firefox, Chrome, IE, etc) on a desktop PC. But other people are different (and don't ever lose sight of that).



* Pat Benatar's "It's a little too little, it's a little too late. I'm a little too hurt, and there's nothing left that I've got to say. You can cry to me baby, but there's only so much, only so much I can take. It's a little too little, it's a little too late."

Quote: Nareed

The writer makes a good point: MS lost sight of who their customers are.

I've almost posted a hundred times, but declined due to ignorance. But this snippet, I think it sums it all up.

I hate change. If it was still supported, I'd probably still be using Win93, or Win95, or anything that didn't require change. But like anyone else, I've been forced to change.

Mostly, I've gotten lucky. By resisting change, I miss all the hullabaloo because it's usually fixed by the time I transfer. I think Vista was my latest example, as I heard nothing but rage when it was released, yet hardly noticed a difference when I finally switched. I'm now on 7 as a result of an upgrade to a high powered gaming rig, and I love it. Some things I'm not used to are simply awesome to me now. And it's interesting how tastes differ. That "pin to the taskbar" thing you find pointless is a godsend to me. When I'm doing my image manipulation (GIMP) to paint cars for my race team, I can't do tabs as not all of the stuff is browser based. I also can't do desktop or Start menu because some of it is. Pinning allows me to have all my resources bing-bang-boom right where I need them. To put, say, ONE decal on ONE fender involves several switches between as many as four different programs, probably upwards of 40 times in total. Expand that to a whole paint scheme, and that's a lot of switching. Sure, I could alt+tab, but having 6 or 7 things open causes a good deal of shuffling. Using the taskbar is just a click, and they're always where I expect them to be. I LOVE it.

MS's fight to stay on the cutting edge allows stuff like this to develope. Most times, it seems they are a hit. One doesn't amass a fortune of their size by botching many things. But in the case of Win8, it appears they reached too far. As the snippet so succinctly stated, "They lost sight of who their cstomers where".

I suspect they will take a step back and return to a more recognizable and functioning system with either a patch or a trash and rerelease as Win9. Hopefully (to tie into another thread of yours), this will make everyone realize the PC ain't dead, and if people wanted a "tablet experience", then they'd...wait for it... Buy A Tablet!