What made Windows 8 a memorable failure

August 25th, 2014 at 1:17:38 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
I've mentioned a number of times that the story of Windows 8, and its variants, should be studied alongside other such remarkable industrial failures as the Ford Edsel or New Coke. I would like to list some of the biggest issues I had with the system:

1) The Metro environment was a) completely different from all that came before and b) near-useless for serious desktop work.

1a) While similar to iOS and Android tablet environments, it was different enough from them, too, to make the operation non-obvious. I had no trouble with Android in part because there was a minimal tutorial in the first Android tablet I used and there were visible hints for controls. At that, some more advanced functions in Android are not easily accessible or easily recognized.

1b) From the original Windows 8 to the revised Windows 8.1 version, the Metro environment never allowed more than 4 opened "windows" at one time, and these could only be scaled horizontally. In addition, the controls used, besides being hidden, were not easy to use with a mouse

2) A corollary to the first point: No tutorial at all. None. Upon starting the system urged one to "touch any corner." With a tablet, the instruction seems obvious, if befuddling. with a mouse and keyboard it only seems befuddling. Do I click or mouse over? Yes, I could try both and see what happens. but what happened then leads me to the next point:

3) The Charms Bar failed spectacularly. Again, the function here is not immediately obvious nor intuitive. but worse still, the Charms tended to pop up any time I tried to close a window on desktop mode. Even in Metro mode, several functions were unavailable. Worse yet, you could have 600 "apps" opened on the desktop and two on metro, and it would show only the Metro apps individually. the desktop would show only as one "app"

4) The crippled desktop. Beyond the lack of a start menu (more on that later), MS also took away the quick launch icons (though that began in windows 7, and they can be restored with a little effort once you Google for it), and made it impossible to launch programs from the desktop unless one were willing to a) pin them to the taskbar or b) make short-cuts on the desktop. For me this change totally cripples the desktop. A start menu would have helped, as would quick launch icons. Beyond me, I've heard many complaints about the lack of a start menu for several reasons. Even users who don't utilize this feature often, do rely on it for several things.

But this point deserves a chapter of its own.

5) The insistence on touch. A lot was made of about older PCs without a touch screen. little was said of people who did not want to use a touch screen on a desktop or laptop PC. Simply put, in most desktop-type work, the screen is too far away to be used as an input device. This is so even when browsing Facebook or watching videos.

6) Windows 8.1. While this revision introduced some changes to enhance mouse and keyboard functionality, IMO it tried to use a start button as a pacifier for desktop users. The button itself did nothing but open the Metro environment. Right-clicking on it did bring up useful features, like the ability to shut down the PC, but again it wasn't obvious. Windows users know about right-clicking, but few know the start button can be right-clicked (try it on Win7, it does something).

I use the word pacifier on purpose. the Win 8.1 Start Button felt like a slap in the face to desktop users.

7) The imposition of the Metro environment. With the desktop relegated to a mere "app," one had to resort tot he Metro environment for just about everything: running programs, copying files, shutting down the PC, etc. Beyond that, the default set for file associations were Metro versions of the software. That is, if you were on the desktop and double-clicked on an icon there to run a video, it would run on the Metro version of the video player. Same with links, audio and other types of files.

Related is what happens when you click the start button or press the Windows key: your work screen is removed and replaced with a bunch of tiles. This makes focusing on work more difficult. In the first version, Windows 8, the background on metro could not match the one on the desktop. in the latter 8.1 version it could. This might help, but only a little.

8) Metro isn't even good for launching "apps." It's true the start menu required "drilling down" to the program or feature you needed. For example, start-all programs-games-Star Wars-X-Wing vs Tie Fighter. But having all the programs come up on the screen at once is no better. I managed while using the Win 8.1 preview (only a couple of days before I gave up and put in a start menu replacement), only because I didn't have many programs.

9) For tablet users there is still no touch-based Office suite. Ironically, after forcing desktop users to the tablet, touch-centric Metro area, Windows 8 also forces tablet users to the PC, mouse-centric desktop area if they want to run any Office program (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). There is a touch-based Office for iOS, but not for Windows. For a system that tries to pretend everything is a tablet, doing this to tablet users is just mean. Granted one cannot do any kind of extensive work using touch, not for delicate tasks which require a precise pointing device, but even scrolling can be a chore when using a finger for a job meant to use a mouse.

Of course, that's just for starters.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER
August 26th, 2014 at 2:54:58 PM permalink
Nareed
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 346
Posts: 12545
I failed to mention the live tiles, which were if not the most publicized feature, then one that received a great deal of attention.

The problem for me is that I completely lack any use for them, on a desktop PC. 99.99999% of the time, the screen is either showing an open window or it's off. I see the desktop only briefly before I run anything and when I'm ready to turn off the PC. So for me the live tiles would be little more than a constant resource drain on my PC. One of the first things I did with the preview was shut them down.

On a tablet I might find them more useful. I do use my tablet, sometimes, to get a quick look at the time or date, and sometimes I'll glance at the notification drawer where Google Now displays weather. On a phone I think they'd be too small.

But I don't think they're a bad idea at all. Some people might appreciate having that kind of information avalanche on their PCs. One commentator described them as a dashboard. that's fair enough.

Besides, they can be easily disabled or enabled at need. So whether you make use of them or not, they're ok.
Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER