5 Reasons To Get Over The Hype And Start Loving Windows 8.1

[vcfan]

This is one of the reasons why Windows 8 sales are closer to Vista rather than Windows 7. OEM's are bringing back Windows 7 due to demand from consumers.

for that to happen, the percentage of windows 8 pcs compared to all pc shipments in the last 9 months would need to have dropped from 65%(percentage from the first 6 months of release) to something like 20%. yeah, wishful thinking(today,more hardware,cheaper prices compared to release). Microsoft is about to announce 300 million copies of windows 8 sold between next month and build. Today, 100 million PCs more a year are sold than the vista days. Let me put it more in perspective. To be comparable to vista, they would have had to only be able to sell 50 million copies in the last 9 months, in a time where 230 million PCs were sold, and compared to the 100 million they sold in the first 6 months. Keep fighting the good fight though.

[MindTrickz]

for that to happen, the percentage of windows 8 pcs compared to all pc shipments in the last 9 months would need to have dropped from 65%(percentage from the first 6 months of release) to something like 20%. yeah, wishful thinking. Microsoft is about to announce 300 million copies of windows 8 sold between next month and build. Today, 100 million PCs more a year are sold than the vista days. Keep fighting the good fight though.

 

LOL! What the heck are you talking about? Windows 8 is far closer to Vista than Windows 7. And as for these 300 million supposedly sold copies, lol, no one seems to know where they are........

 

 

 

[vcfan]

LOL! What the heck are you talking about?

I dont think you even know what you posted. that's not sales.

 

and I quote

This is one of the reasons why Windows 8 sales are closer to Vista rather than Windows 7. OEM's are bringing back

[BajiRav]

<<snipped>>

Did you go to Apple School of Mathematics Percentages?

[Eric Veteran]

Can we cut out the hostile posts, please? It's totally unnecessary.

[MindTrickz]

I dont think you even know what you posted. that's not sales.

 

and I quote

 

You're arguing technicalities. Sales to OEM's doesn't matter, just as sales to retailers isn't indicative of consumer adoption rates. It's misleading and false. Point remains Windows 8 is closer to Vista than Windows 7.

[Eric Veteran]

You're arguing technicalities. Sales to OEM's doesn't matter, just as sales to retailers isn't indicative of consumer adoption rates. It's misleading and false. Point remains Windows 8 is closer to Vista than Windows 7.

What you posted has no context at all. The first is an ambivalent graph and the second appears to be web browser tracking statistics?

EDIT: Also, how can you say OEM sales don't count? Who do you think buys most of the Windows licenses? The major OEMs have known about Windows 8 way before we even saw leaked screenshots and they didn't preorder it blindly or just "hope" it would be good.

[vcfan]

You're arguing technicalities. Sales to OEM's doesn't matter, just as sales to retailers isn't indicative of consumer adoption rates. It's misleading and false. Point remains Windows 8 is closer to Vista than Windows 7.

from the original source of your charts (netapplications)

 

Our methodology change occurred starting with data from November 2007. We started doing country-level weighting, which means we compare our traffic to the CIA Internet Traffic by Country table, and weight our data accordingly. For example, if our global data shows that Brazil represents 2% of our traffic, and the CIA table shows Brazil to represent 4% of global Internet traffic, we will count each unique visitor from Brazil twice. This is done to balance out our global data. All regions have differing markets, and if our traffic were concentrated in one or more regions, our global data would be inappropriately affected by those regions. Country level weighting removes any bias by region.

Comparisons of data before and after the change in methodology are invalid because of the massive shift caused by the weighting. It?s apples and oranges now.

We can?t go back before 11/2007 because the weighting required a completely new data collection structure. The two data sets are now incompatible with each other.

meaning, your vista vs win8 adoption rate charts are bogus,and the source(netapplications) who you are using is the one saying it.

[Eric Veteran]

Did you go to Apple School of Mathematics Percentages?

I don't care for Apple very much but I wouldn't condemn them like that. The way I've seen people fudge Windows 8 sales on Neowin OS X Mavericks and iOS have an adoption rate of ZERO because they either come with the devices or are free. :)

[BajiRav]

I don't care for Apple very much but I wouldn't condemn them like that. The way I've seen people fudge Windows 8 sales on Neowin OS X Mavericks and iOS have an adoption rate of ZERO because they either come with the devices or are free. :)

I was just referring to the infamous Tim Cook % chart that even had a FP article. % are misleading and useless when base is different.

[adrynalyne]

So, how do you tell the difference? How do you know what you're missing if you're afraid of changing things up?

Market research and I really, really doubt any of their research showed that we want change that doesn't help us in any way and instead solves problems that don't yet exist.

 

 

Let's just toss something out there and see if someone bites?

 

 

Just...no.

 

Anyway, I've already said what I was going to in this thread, so no need for me to regurgitate it again.

 

Moving on...

[PGHammer]

The answer is simple. Because it "was" broken on tablets and phones. Microsoft's challenge is to integrate it in a more seamless and unobtrusive fashion on the desktop. They're headed in the right direction.

 

I'm actually finding myself wishing they would get their Modern UI/WinRT act together so we could have full fledged/functional Modern apps to actually replace most of what we do in Win32. Probably not going to happen, there are just too many limitations to a touch-centric UI when it comes to micro-management and precision. But they can do a lot better.

 

I'm not looking forward to windowed Modern apps though, I think snap views is superior. I really think it's a mistake. Let those few who care, buy ModernMix.

True - that is something I haven't disputed.  There ARE two rather nasty problems there (neither of which are Microsoft's fault) - the older-OS user base (not even XP, but Vista and, to an extent, even 7) and  a still-sour economy in a lot of pockets of the planet (including several pockets of these here United States).  Because Windows 8+ still remains under one-quarter the Windows user base (no matter how you slice it), developers will give it short shrift for all except niche applications (and critics will continue to paint the same Windows 8 as a failure - never mind that by raw numbers Windows 8 has sold more than any other Windows during the same time period).  The Windows user base is growing - which even Windows 8's critics admit - however, it is growing due to refurbs entering the sale/resale market AND the odd new PC sale.  (Those same refurbs, if they have Windows on them, will have either XP or 7, not 8 - even if the refurb is quite capable of running 8.  Refurbs - and especially quality refurbs, are having a secondary impact on the sales of new PCs - lastly, you won't find these same refurbs at big-box retailers.)

[PGHammer]

Market research and I really, really doubt any of their research showed that we want change that doesn't help us in any way and instead solves problems that don't yet exist.

 

 

Let's just toss something out there and see if someone bites?

 

 

Just...no.

 

Anyway, I've already said what I was going to in this thread, so no need for me to regurgitate it again.

 

Moving on...

And you don't see bias toward pointing devices as being a problem?  (Yes - I am asking if you specifically see it as a problem.)

 

Most folks that don't see it as a problem are going to be the folks it was biased in favor of - how many whites in the South had issues with "Jim Crow" laws?  (While they may have been used to primarily target Blacks, there WERE white folks that got caught in that trap, as well - however, the same folks behind the laws wrote them  - their fellows - off as "collateral damage".)  That, in my opinion, explains the disparity of opinions between pointing-device-centric users and keyboard-centric users: the pointing-device-centric users had thrown us under the bus over a decade ago and were looking with dread on the touch-screen users (just as newer groups of immigrants have replaced Blacks in the crosshairs of racial-discrimination attacks).  Meanwhile, it's like someone pushed the reset button on the entire Windows UI/UX - it's honestly unbiased, favoring no one class of user - not touch, not pointing device, and not really even keyboard.  All have to give up some things - the advantage for keyboard users is twofold, though - we're out from under the bus, and the Start menu is not a major distraction, as it had been even with 7.  The pointing-device-centric users were so concerned with touch-screen users (the newest class of Windows users), that they forgot about the keyboard-centric users that had been thrown under the bus nearly two decades ago.

 

Wake up - we're out from under the bus, we know WHY we got thrown under the bus, and we're definitely not going back under the bus, and especially not for the pointing-device-centric.

[adrynalyne]

And you don't see bias toward pointing devices as being a problem?  (Yes - I am asking if you specifically see it as a problem.)

 

Most folks that don't see it as a problem are going to be the folks it was biased in favor of - how many whites in the South had issues with "Jim Crow" laws?  (While they may have been used to primarily target Blacks, there WERE white folks that got caught in that trap, as well - however, the same folks behind the laws wrote them  - their fellows - off as "collateral damage".)  That, in my opinion, explains the disparity of opinions between pointing-device-centric users and keyboard-centric users: the pointing-device-centric users had thrown us under the bus over a decade ago and were looking with dread on the touch-screen users (just as newer groups of immigrants have replaced Blacks in the crosshairs of racial-discrimination attacks).  Meanwhile, it's like someone pushed the reset button on the entire Windows UI/UX - it's honestly unbiased, favoring no one class of user - not touch, not pointing device, and not really even keyboard.  All have to give up some things - the advantage for keyboard users is twofold, though - we're out from under the bus, and the Start menu is not a major distraction, as it had been even with 7.  The pointing-device-centric users were so concerned with touch-screen users (the newest class of Windows users), that they forgot about the keyboard-centric users that had been thrown under the bus nearly two decades ago.

 

Wake up - we're out from under the bus, we know WHY we got thrown under the bus, and we're definitely not going back under the bus, and especially not for the pointing-device-centric.

 

 

Are fingers not pointing devices as well?

 

I've always been accustomed to using keyboard shortcuts in Windows and OS X.  A mouse is optional for me.

 

Read back to my previous comments....I am not a fan of start menu or start screen, but the start screen gets in the way more than a menu does.

[PGHammer]

Are fingers not pointing devices as well?

 

I've always been accustomed to using keyboard shortcuts in Windows and OS X.  A mouse is optional for me.

 

Read back to my previous comments....I am not a fan of start menu or start screen, but the start screen gets in the way more than a menu does.

I left touch-screens out on purpose - because I did not want to give the fanatics additional ammunition first, and touch-screen users are absolutely irrelevant to my side of the argument,

Touch-screens are irrelevant because I don't have one on any Windows PCs that I own.  None.  (While Windows-based touch-screen computers have come in to be worked on, they don't belong to me.)

The fanatics are basically trying to say that Windows should always remained biased toward pointing devices - that is very much the "Jim Crow"/pro-majority argument (that was used to throw keyboard-centric users under the bus with the Start menu in the first place).  Notice that I'm not saying that touch-screen users don't benefit - that would be a lie.  However, if anything, most keyboard-centric users benefit far more than touch-screen users do simply due to the Start menu not being a major distraction.

 

And how does the StartScreen get in the way?  Possibly due to keyboard lag? (Keyboard lag can create a situation where the StartScreen pops up when you don't mean it to, and it's a greater problem with wireless keyboards than wired keyboards - and my own keyboard is wireless.)  I HAVE had problems with keyboard lag - however, it's not due to Windows, and it has issues in other OSes than Windows.  However, I happen to like my wireless keyboard - which means I have to deal with the lag factor.  Basically, it's a hardware problem - not an OS problem. 

[Athernar]

The fanatics are basically trying to say that Windows should always remained biased toward pointing devices

 

No matter how many times you repeat this, it's still completely wrong.

[PGHammer]

No matter how many times you repeat this, it's still completely wrong.

Oh?  The majority of the fanatics are insisting upon a return of the Start menu, which is absolutely biased toward pointing devices - which none of them deny in the slightest; so how am I wrong?

 

If you are not one of them, why are you stating the equivalent as your position?

 

In fact, you yourself - several times - have stated, categorically, your preference for a Start menu, and that the inclusion thereof would fend off touch-screen users.  That tells me that you were so concerned about touch-screen users that you paid no attention to the keyboard-centered - those were already casualties dating back to the Start menu's birth.

  While I have no animus toward touch-screens, is it my preference?  Several times  I have put the answer as a categorical no.  Further, while I could adapt my own display to a touch-screen model (without a screwdriver) I have no interest in doing so.  (And that is despite having hardware that dates back to Vista - not 7.)  Lastly I loathe - with a passion - virtual keyboards.  All of them.  In any and every OS.  Therefore, I am NOT arguing in favor of a touch-biased UI.

 

Instead, I am arguing in favor of a non-pointing-device-biased UI - which ModernUI decidedly is.

[Athernar]

Oh?  The majority of the fanatics are insisting upon a return of the Start menu, which is absolutely biased toward pointing devices - which none of them deny in the slightest; so how am I wrong?

 

If you are not one of them, why are you stating the equivalent as your position?

 

In fact, you yourself - several times - have stated, categorically, your preference for a Start menu, and that the inclusion thereof would fend off touch-screen users.  That tells me that you were so concerned about touch-screen users that you paid no attention to the keyboard-centered - those were already casualties dating back to the Start menu's birth.

  While I have no animus toward touch-screens, is it my preference?  Several times  I have put the answer as a categorical no.  Further, while I could adapt my own display to a touch-screen model (without a screwdriver) I have no interest in doing so.  (And that is despite having hardware that dates back to Vista - not 7.)  Lastly I loathe - with a passion - virtual keyboards.  All of them.  In any and every OS.  Therefore, I am NOT arguing in favor of a touch-biased UI.

 

Instead, I am arguing in favor of a non-pointing-device-biased UI - which ModernUI decidedly is.

 

First off, I've already clearly proven you wrong about the start menu being "pointing device biased" - a truth which you have run away from when you found yourself unable to counter it.

 

Secondly, restoring the start menu does in no way preclude the existence of metro/start screen, so again your statement that people calling for it's return are thusly "demanding Windows be always pointing deviced biased" is wrong.

 

You are completely off-base and wrong on multiple levels, it's as simple as that.

[seafirex]

Well we already know they are moving away from the traditional desktop and the reason should be obvious to all. They are even starting to get a new software out that will go in direct competition with apple Siri. 

That should let people know where there going with the desktop soon you wont have to type almost anything you will dictate to windows what you want but they are keeping the traditional keyboard and mouse that's good for gamers etc..

 

Also if you guy's notice in the past they had a video on youtube regarding the house of the future like microsoft where trying to build with all the appliances that where computer controlled, the kitchen counter with the display in them etc.

They all have a windows 8 feel to it. Think about it future is not far from today but people have to get pass the traditional desktop to live it, otherwise they will stay in the past while other people will move forward.

 

Everything they build since the last 5 to 8 years is to reach that goal. here is a link i found about it and look at the video carefully : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2289770/Microsoft-reveals-home-office-future-like.html

[Atlantico]

Good article posted by the OP and it debunks pretty much every single criticism of Windows 8. Nothing is perfect, however it can be said without hesitation that Windows 8 is the single best OS ever made by Microsoft. It matches or surpasses every other major OS both technologically and in user interface. I never thought I would say this, but Microsoft are leading the world in consumer and professional operating systems in every respect.

[Active.]

I certainly enjoy 8.1 a lot more than 8. By the looks of it, it's only going to get better with 8.11. And while I'm skeptical about the claim that 8.1 "matches or surpasses every other major OS both technologically and in user interface." I actually greatly prefer it to Windows 7. 

[+Warwagon MVC]

I just got a call from a customer who wanted to install 8.1 She said she was at some windows 8.1 website and she was going to download it from there :D

 

I think the issue is the few people who actually know or have even heard about 8.1 don't know how to get it.

[LaP]

I certainly enjoy 8.1 a lot more than 8. By the looks of it, it's only going to get better with 8.11. And while I'm skeptical about the claim that 8.1 "matches or surpasses every other major OS both technologically and in user interface." I actually greatly prefer it to Windows 7. 

 

Windows 8.1 is definately better than Windows 8 (8 was imo unusable i uninstalled it after 1 day). The changes are subtle but they make the whole experience less painful than Windows 8. But there's still a lot of work to be done before Windows 8  can be considered "better" than Windows 7 on desktop.

 

For one MS needs to improve RT apps. Mail needs to support pop 3. I don't need Outlook at home and mail would do the job but right now i have to install Windows Live Mail desktop app cause my isp support pop 3 only. Photo needs to be improved A LOT. Right now it's not even close to Photo Gallery. The video app is a joke i wont even waste time talking about it. Most of the RT apps i tried in the store are useless and crippled.

 

For two while i welcome the changes to the start screen in 8.1 there's still lot of work to be done here. Can we get a power button on the start screen please. I don't use sleep or hybrid sleep and i turn off my PC every night. It would be nice if desktop apps could create a live tile too instead of using the systray. I wish i could display windows over the start screen too. The start screen needs to be a little bit more customizable too. Why do i have to display 2 columns when i need one only?

[djdanster]

Nothing is perfect, however it can be said without hesitation that Windows 8 is the single best OS ever made by Microsoft. It matches or surpasses every other major OS both technologically and in user interface.

 

This made me cringe so much!

[Jarrichvdv]

Everyone hating here on Windows 8 like it's some sort of cancer, you guys are getting desperate and laughable.

It's so childish. Typical geeks reluctant to change.