697 replies to this topic 4 votes

[soldier1st]

Windowz 8 is terrible atm but it ain't final yet.

[PGHammer]

soldier1st, on 13 May 2012 - 08:35, said:

Windowz 8 is terrible atm but it ain't final yet.

And why is it terrible?

The biggest change (compared to previous versions - and 7 in particular) is that the bias in favor of keyboard and mouse users (desktop form-factor) is gone at the OS level.

All the *neither fish nor fowl* comments about the UI merely demonstrate exactly how jarring that LACK of bias is.

However, let's be honest about the sales of Windows PCs (and more importantly, licenses of Windows) since Windows XP went RTM.

Laptops capable of running Windows had already begun increasing in number - simply due to Windows XP alone.

As the notebook has overtaken the laptop (and now the netbook and Ultrabook threaten the notebook) the entire portable PC space is becoming the majority space.

However, Windows itself had NOT changed to match the sales skewing - touchpads (standard with laptops, and still largely standard with portable PCs) are using mouse emulation - not a truly native driver.

Windows 7 did correct the emulation issue - however, the OS itself retained the bias in favor of the desktop formfactor.

Now, along comes Windows 8 (first in Developer Preview, then Consumer Preview form). The desktop bias is gone.

And the screams have begun!

Never mind that - despite the lack of a desktop-favoring bias - the compatibility with desktop-biased applications is the best that any beta version of Windows, if not any version of Windows, has displayed. Because the bias is gone, it's ridiculed and dismissed - even Vista was not heaped with such scorn, and the Consumer Preview deserves it far less.

The issue isn't backward-compatibility with applications - even those doing the screaming (rather grudgingly) admit that. However, the longtime bias in favor of desktop PC users is no longer there.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview can be said to be the first form-factor-neutral general-purpose operating system.

That is why I was, in fact, very skeptical when I installed the Developer Preview, and why I installed it on a desktop.

I'm coming at Windows - for the first time - from a position of non-favor.

I found that - even with the Developer Preview - that the issues I personally had were so overblown as to be laughable.

Applications worked as well as ever. So has the existing desktop hardware.

So I moved on to the Consumer Preview. Armed with a much larger (1 TB, as opposed to 500GB) boot drive, I grabbed more applications. More games. More data files.

I had already replaced the E3400 I had started using with the Developer Preview with a Q6600, and upgraded the system RAM from 3 GB to 4 GB.

Sorry - so far, nothing has broken. The new applications work as well as they would under 7, if not better. The beta applications and games have (and are) also working swimmingly. (I'm referring to non-WinRT applications and games - there are still issues with WinRT.)

The screaming still continues from the detractors - if anything, it's gotten more vociferous.

"Neither fish nor fowl!" the screaming comes down to.

Of course it's not - the bias isn't there any more.

A bias by Windows in favor of desktop PCs is about as sensible as a racial bias; if anything, it's far LESS sensible - as desktops aren't the majority of PCs sold year over year.

Are desktop PCs irrelevant? No - I've never said it OR implied it - I haven't heard one user in favor of the Windows 8 UI say that, either. The only folks that HAVE said OR implied any such thing are those seeking to return to the desktop bias of previous versions of Windows. A lack of bias is NOT the same thing as saying that one or the other is irrelevant. (Has Rev. Al Sharpton - or even Rev. Jeremiah Wright - said that whites are irrelevant?)

[Subhadip]

The post above is a logical tour-de-force.

[downhillrider]

so ive been running windows 8 for a little bit now as my primary OS. the only issue I'm having is using Firefox. Random icons get messed up and if I move my cursor over them they go back to normal. Is anyone else having this issue?

[Anthonyd]

downhillrider, on 17 May 2012 - 02:11, said:

so ive been running windows 8 for a little bit now as my primary OS. the only issue I'm having is using Firefox. Random icons get messed up and if I move my cursor over them they go back to normal. Is anyone else having this issue?

Nope.
Please don't tell me that your are using nightly build

[PGHammer]

Anthonyd, on 17 May 2012 - 08:04, said:

Nope.
Please don't tell me that your are using nightly build

I'm running Waterfox (x64-optimized Firefox - same code as Firefox otherwise), I have no such issues.

[downhillrider]

Im using FF 12, no nightly or anything like that. you can see the + and - as well as the bookmark folder. sometimes it will happen with the back/forward buttons or the whole toolbar sometimes.

[aiir]

I use Windows 8 as my Prime OS.
I don't really use the metro. I use it for: searching,opening programs,etc.