Windows 8 is the new Windows XP

[Dot Matrix]

This new version of Windows is going to be a disaster, pundits say. It will be completely rejected by businesses, who will stick with old versions even after Microsoft drops support for them.

And its new interface is so hideous and unusable that customers who are forced to use it will trip over themselves finding ways to restore the old Start menu.

I am, of course, talking about Windows XP, which was released 11 years ago this week. It lived down to all those insults and dire predictions for years before it finally and implausibly became a success.

If you?re a lazy pundit and haven?t written your Windows 8 wrap-ups yet, feel free to use these decade-old stories, just substituting 8 for XP.

[...]

Continued at source: Ed Bott and ZDNet.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Denis W

[duddit2]

very well done to you sir! people forget too quickly.

[Crimson Rain]

+1

[MS Bob 11]

Except that Windows XP did not remove anything and offered a balance of customization vs simplicity. :p That is why it was super-successful. :p So Ed Bott (and Msft) completely missing the point.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

It's not XP. It's M.E.

Still, a good read, with good facts. But to be honest no one knows how good or bad 8 will be until it's release.

What it comes down to for me (and many others) is how un-usable the desktop (metro) is for the general user. Things are so far tucked away in the UI and require 5-6 clicks for things that used to take only 2 or 3.

Don't get me wrong, its great for tablets and phones, but for a desktop operating system, its just un-usable as at least 90% of people on desktops still use the good ol mouse and keyboard. Infact - I find it hard to beleive that M$ would bring out a touch orientated UI so early, instead of gradually bringing it in.

[Max Norris]

Except that Windows XP did not remove anything

Wellllll there were a couple things removed.. for example, seem to recall some people complaining about MSDOS being removed from XP and were unable to run some of their older applications or games that relied on certain things that the command console couldn't provide. (Well, until DOSBox came along later.)

[MS Bob 11]

You seem to be confusing Windows Me with XP. DOS was restricted only in Windows Me. MS DOS was never part of Windows NT except the Startup disk. :p

[Dick Montage]

Except that Windows XP did not remove anything

MS DOS was never part of Windows NT except the Startup disk

Feel free to rewrite history at any point.

[Max Norris]

MS DOS was never part of Windows NT except the Startup disk. :p

The "average user" didn't know or care about the differences between the 95 and NT code bases.. all they saw was their stuff running nicely on 9x, upgraded to XP and all of a sudden a lot of software wouldn't work anymore.

[jakem1]

Except that Windows XP did not remove anything and offered a balance of customization vs simplicity. :p That is why it was super-successful. :p So Ed Bott (and Msft) completely missing the point.

Windows 8 is just as customisable as XP (if not more so) and adds different levels of simplicity for the general user and the power user. Plus it works great on any device you want to run it on from a phone to a tablet to a laptop to a desktop to a server. XP couldn't do that.

[(Account no longer active)]

I believe that Windows 7 is the "new XP".

There is nothing like the Classic theme - it's perfection.

[Eins.MY]

I'm typing this on my PC running Windows 8...with cool metro app snapped at the right side...

more and more quality metro apps and games coming to windows store...lots of them are free too

and by the way, someone already figured out how to restore native Windows 7 start menu to Windows 8 and disable metro...

[xWhiplash]

Do you honestly think businesses will ever get Windows 8? Most businesses are still on Windows XP and are just barely moving to Windows 7. Let's be honest here, Windows 7 requires far less training than Windows 8. It still requires some training, we had to do it for a few employees, but Windows 8 will cause a nightmare in a business environment.

[Dot Matrix]

Except that Windows XP did not remove anything

You can't keep every little feature forever. Code bloat, security issues, and other nasties occur as a result.

[Ambroos]

I hope 8 won't be the new XP. I can't imagine being stuck with Windows 8 as the 'latest' version for five whole years. It's not even officially out and I'm already sick of it :p

[AJerman]

Do you honestly think businesses will ever get Windows 8? Most businesses are still on Windows XP and are just barely moving to Windows 7. Let's be honest here, Windows 7 requires far less training than Windows 8. It still requires some training, we had to do it for a few employees, but Windows 8 will cause a nightmare in a business environment.

Absolutely not. As XP support is dying, and has been, Windows 7 has proven to be one of, if not THE best version of WIndows ever. Driver support is very good at this point, and the platform is solid. Businesses are just now starting to migrate from XP to the proven WIndows 7. IBM, for example, is upgrading all of it's internal systems from XP to Windows 7. Windows 8 will never be looked at by most companies. Most will be moving to Windows 7 and will stick with it until long after Windows 8 has come and gone. Most businesses won't upgrade again until Windows 10 or so I'd guess.

[ATLien_0]

Well done with the comparison! If anything I think Windows 8 will be like Windows XP at the start however Windows 7 is now going to be the modern day XP. So many people are probably going to stick with that. For those though calling 8 similar to ME, give me a break. Even Vista which initially was pretty slow and buggy was less like ME but than 8. People didn't adopt ME because of features, but rather the bugginess and contant crashing. ME was a fiasco compared to Vista and 8.

[f0rk_b0mb]

I'll stick with Windows 7. It's going to be supported until 2020, so I'm not worried about it. :)

[Riggers]

I totally understand the point of view and where people are coming from, i just don`t get that "i must have it" from 8 as i did with 7. Don`t get me wrong i will still get an upgrade on at least one box, but whereas i wanted to uprage every box to 7 as soon as possible i just don`t have the same desire with 8. It does some things better and maybe justs needs to mature a little.

Sure it won`t be a complete flop as many tablets will be running it, it was designed with tablets and touch screens in mind though :)

How the masses adopt to it, well i suppose we`ll see!

[ahhell]

OP is wrong. Windows 7 is the new XP. Businesses are still in the process of rolling out Win7. They'll be using that until it's end of life.

Sad but true.

[Astra.Xtreme]

It doesn't make sense to compare 8 to the history of XP. Companies were hesitant to upgrade to XP due to potential compatibility issues. Companies will be hesitant to upgrade to 8 because it's a completely foreign UI and hardly makes anything faster/easier. Win 95 wasn't much different in design than XP, but 8 is much much different than any other version of Windows. Throwing it at employees is going to p*ss them off and end up wasting a ton of time with either training or frustration.

8 will be more like Vista in that a year of two after launch, nobody will be using it, and already looking forward to the next version.

[spaceelf]

I have to laugh at anyone who thinks it's a completely foreign UI and hardly makes anything faster/easier.

A lot.

I just read this on Eds site and don't think you should be reposting the entire article. You're basically ripping him off of any ad money he gets.

That said, though, it is amusing how quickly people forget. EVERY new MS OS is heralded as a disaster, and yet hundreds of millions of people still use them and most of them without complaint.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I have to laugh at anyone who thinks it's a completely foreign UI and hardly makes anything faster/easier.

I have to laugh at anybody who posts a comment like that and is too lazy to explain their thoughts... A lot.

So please do explain how Win 8 will make computing faster/easier in the business world. And while you're at it, consider that 95% of people out there barely know how to do anything on a computer except open an internet browser or "hunt and peck" and email together.

I've been using Win 8 daily since it's RTM'd, and I find it annoying as hell. But I'm going to continue giving it a chance.

[theyarecomingforyou]

People seem to forget that Windows XP actually was terrible. It was horrifically insecure, with incredibly high profile attacks and crippling worms. It had a horribly oversized childish interface. It was unstable. Certainly it was better than Win9x but that isn't saying much. People talk about it with fondness because it's what they're familiar with.

The biggest concern about Windows 8 isn't even the new start screen, Metro or using the cloud to store account data - it's the Windows Store. By creating a new app ecosystem and preventing other stores from competing Microsoft is committing a brazenly anti-competitive move, especially in light of their previous action taken against them by the US and EU. That means that competing stores like Steam and digital retailers like Amazon are unable to compete. It reduces competition, it increases Microsoft's influence and it's bad for consumers. Even Android allows competing stores and mobile phones have never been known for being an open ecosystem like Windows has historically.

[Dot Matrix]

The biggest concern about Windows 8 isn't even the new start screen, Metro or using the cloud to store account data - it's the Windows Store. By creating a new app ecosystem and preventing other stores from competing Microsoft is committing a brazenly anti-competitive move, especially in light of their previous action taken against them by the US and EU. That means that competing stores like Steam and digital retailers like Amazon are unable to compete. It reduces competition, it increases Microsoft's influence and it's bad for consumers. Even Android allows competing stores and mobile phones have never been known for being an open ecosystem like Windows has historically.

Huh? Since when do Amazon apps run on Windows? Since when do iOS apps run on Kindles? Since when do Android apps run on Windows (natively)? No other store works outside their respective ecosystem, yet Microsoft is the anti-competitive one? Steam isn't supported, but still runs. There are no Steam games inside the Windows Store.

So please do explain how Win 8 will make computing faster/easier in the business world. And while you're at it, consider that 95% of people out there barely know how to do anything on a computer except open an internet browser or "hunt and peck" and email together.

This is exactly what Ed's article is doing. Watch:

So please do explain how Win XP will make computing faster/easier in the business world. And while you're at it, consider that 95% of people out there barely know how to do anything on a computer except open an internet browser or "hunt and peck" and email together.

See what I did there?