I am sick of the Windows 95 comparisons, Win 8 is far away from the glory o


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If some other outlets, other than just The Register (a terrible media outlet), pick up on this apparent story, I may give it some of my attention. Having said that, this apparent story means nothing regarding how Microsoft feel about Windows 8 and the future of Windows because very few businesses jump on the latest version of Windows. That has always been the case. Clearly, Microsoft understand that and they're focussing on trying to get people off of XP as soon as possible; the best way for them to do that is to try to influence the businesses to upgrade to the more mature Windows 7, as most of them wouldn't upgrade to Windows 8 so close to its release.

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If some other outlets, other than just The Register (a terrible media outlet), pick up on this apparent story, I may give it some of my attention.

Your attention is not required. Frankly, I don't give a toss one way or another.

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I don't think that means what you think it means. It's perfecty sensible for Microsoft to encourage enterprises to continue upgrading to Windows 7 as it's a mature OS with a good reputation and many businesses will currently be working on upgrading to it from XP. Very few if any enterprises would be prepared to switch to Windows 8 at this stage and that has nothing to do with whether Windows 8 is good or bad, it's simply a reflection of the way corporations work. Microsoft know this and the only people who don't understand it seem to be the haters who struggle to adapt to the changes in Windows 8.

In any case, Microsoft have started the process of advertising Windows 8 to businesses as part of a longer term strategy.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/products/windows-8.aspx

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You're using The Register as a source? LOL

Why not the Daily Mail or the National Enquirer?

:rolleyes:

I read the other day Bat Boy loves Windows 8. :laugh:

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I'm pretty sure Microsoft created Windows 8 with zero intentions of marketing it to businesses. I still have to use XP at work, and the turnover time for computers here gets longer and longer.

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Huh? So if I understand you correctly, apps shouldn't be allowed to be cross device?

Clearly that's not what I said. My point was that applications should be built for the platform they are running on and having an app that runs on desktop, tablet and phone can and does lead to compromises being made.

And what the heck is a "tablet app"? If you're referring to Metro apps, they are not "tablet apps". That **** has been debunked to death. I've been running Metro apps on my desktop without issue, in fact some have even replaced their desktop equivalents. Skype, Calendar, OneNote, EverNote, SkyDrive, Bing, Weather, Lync, Yellow Pages, Kindle, Wikipedia, etc. I could go on, but I won't. I run those AND more on my desktop. They work, and they work well.

By "tablet app" I don't mean all Metro apps, only those that are clearly not designed for desktop use. That includes Mail, Music, Video, Skype, Camera and Calendar - they all function on the desktop but are inferior to their desktop counterparts. There are plenty of Metro apps that are suited to the desktop environment, like XE.com, Cocktail Flow and Solitaire - they're still limited by the WinRT platform (can't resize them; rely on the Charm bar; right-click menus that appear away from the mouse) but they work well on the desktop. Some of the Metro apps you list are terrible on the desktop, like Skype, SkyDrive, Weather, Calendar, etc. I can't see why anyone in their right mind would choose to use the Metro version of Skype on a desktop system.

The limitations are all the more apparent to me because I have a 30" 2560x1600 display and heavily multi-task. The Metro versions of Chrome are simply unusable for me because they are terrible for any website that has a flexible layout (Blue's News and the Neowin forums are a good example of that), as it's very difficult to read text across the full width of the screen. Using a Metro app prevents me from doing other things, so they are only good to me for specifics purposes (playing Solitaire is one example).

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Clearly that's not what I said. My point was that applications should be built for the platform they are running on and having an app that runs on desktop, tablet and phone can and does lead to compromises being made.

By "tablet app" I don't mean all Metro apps, only those that are clearly not designed for desktop use. That includes Mail, Music, Video, Skype, Camera and Calendar - they all function on the desktop but are inferior to their desktop counterparts. There are plenty of Metro apps that are suited to the desktop environment, like XE.com, Cocktail Flow and Solitaire - they're still limited by the WinRT platform (can't resize them; rely on the Charm bar; right-click menus that appear away from the mouse) but they work well on the desktop. Some of the Metro apps you list are terrible on the desktop, like Skype, SkyDrive, Weather, Calendar, etc. I can't see why anyone in their right mind would choose to use the Metro version of Skype on a desktop system.

The limitations are all the more apparent to me because I have a 30" 2560x1600 display and heavily multi-task. The Metro versions of Chrome are simply unusable for me because they are terrible for any website that has a flexible layout (Blue's News and the Neowin forums are a good example of that), as it's very difficult to read text across the full width of the screen. Using a Metro app prevents me from doing other things, so they are only good to me for specifics purposes (playing Solitaire is one example).

I really can't see what the big deal is. You have a large high resolution monitor so the Metro apps clearly aren't for you because you want to take advantage of all the screen real estate at your disposal. That's fine and you can continue running all your old desktop apps as you always have. However, basic users like my mother don't need or want or understand how to run multiple applications on their desktop so Metro apps will benefit her. For example, she refuses to use Outlook (even though she could clearly benefit from many of its features) because she finds it too complicated. She also struggles to understand that she can run multiple applications at once and tends to run everything full screen, opening and closing applications as she needs them. Fullscreen, simple Metro-style apps like Mail and Calendar will improve her computing experience immensely. Fortunately, Windows 8 caters for both your needs equally well by offering choices without limitations. You're both able to use similar hardware but in different ways that suit your needs.

Your arguments related to cross-platform development don't make much sense either. Clearly WinRT won't be used for desktop apps but for everything else it's a win-win for developers. Using the same (or close to the same) code set developers can target phones, tablets and PCs in one hit which means faster development, fewer bugs and more time to focus on features. It's not going to replace all development but for anyone interested in development of Metro apps it's a huge positive.

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as it's very difficult to read text across the full width of the screen.

You read left to right everywhere else, what makes digital different?

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You read left to right everywhere else, what makes digital different?

To be fair, it is hard to read right across the screen on a 30" monitor at native resolution and it's not well suited to full screen apps.

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Ars said that? How they have fallen.

You can call them what ever you'd like. They are still Metro-apps. They works perfectly fine on all platforms. Once the market starts taking advantage of them, we will see a ecosystem like no other.

Also, compare HootSuite (Win32) to MetroTwit (RT/ModernUI) and see which Twitter application YOU like best - both are third-party full-screen Twitter applications. (In my case, HootSuite was replaced by MetroTwit - remember, I own nary a single portable PC, and Windows 8 is my OS of choice - BY choice.)

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You read left to right everywhere else, what makes digital different?

Clearly you haven't used a high resolution display before. The extreme width makes it more difficult to follow which line you're reading and it's hard to discern paragraphs when they look like only a couple of really wide sentences - it looks very unnatural. To demonstrate:

Snapped:

snapped.jpg

Full:

fullu.jpg

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To be fair, it is hard to read right across the screen on a 30" monitor at native resolution and it's not well suited to full screen apps.

mine is a 40". no issues with reading

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what is weird that most non-microsoft metro apps will launch, while a lot of MS made metro apps will not start.

Faulting application name: Solitaire.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x504e83e4

Server Editions of Windows 2012, 2008 R2, and 2008 are never 100% complete when it comes to gaming. There are always a few critical DLL?s missing, even after the Desktop Experience feature is enabled. Sadly this has been the case for the last three editions of Windows Server. Depends on the title, but eventually you find the ones that cannot work on Server without a tiny bit of leg work on your part.

  1. Add the following Roles:

    1. Hyper-V
      1. Or your virtualization platform of choice. Use this and install a legally licensed copy of Windows 8 for your desktop. You will use this to rip the missing components that will be added to Server 2012.

      1. Add the following Features:

      2. .NET Framework 3.5 Features\.NET Framework 3.5 (includes .NET 2.0 and 3.0)

        [*]User Interfaces and Infrastructure\Desktop Experience

        1. Install the DirectX End User Runtime Redistributable:

          1. Now, to resolve all the problems with Modern UI games crashing on Server 2012

          2. Install Windows 8 in Hyper-V and once its fully complete shutdown
          3. Locate your installed Windows 8 VHDX file, right click, and mount
          4. Now locate the following missing files in Windows 8 and add them to the same location in Server 2012:

            If you discover your missing other things required for older desktop games, I recommend looking at guides that show you how to turn both Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012 into a Workstation. I do not however recommend taking or trusting any third party?s Windows files and injecting them into your copy of Windows. You should only use your own trusted, legal, installs of the Windows desktop as your source. There are also guides if you want the Windows 8 performance tools to work on Server 2012.


        2. .\Windows\System32\XAudio2_8.dll
        3. .\Windows\System32\XInput1_4.dll
        4. .\Windows\System32\XInput9_1_0.dll
        5. .\Windows\System32\en-US\XAudio2_8.dll.mui
        6. .\Windows\System32\en-US\XInput1_4.dll.mui
        7. .\Windows\System32\en-US\XInput9_1_0.dll.mui
        8. .\Windows\SysWOW64\XAudio2_8.dll
        9. .\Windows\SysWOW64\XInput1_4.dll
        10. .\Windows\SysWOW64\XInput9_1_0.dll
        11. .\Windows\SysWOW64\en-US\XAudio2_8.dll.mui
        12. .\Windows\SysWOW64\en-US\XInput1_4.dll.mui
        13. .\Windows\SysWOW64\en-US\XInput9_1_0.dll.mui

    2. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

If you are planning to play older desktop titles, install this feature now rather than waiting. Many games will attempt to install an invalid version of .NET intended for Desktops if this is not already present, and then the game installer will either abort or crash.

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So, everyone wants a big monitor, and then complain about all the ergonomic issues that result? Why not increase your DPI? I have a 22 inch monitor, and my DPI is set at 125%.

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mine is a 40". no issues with reading

And the issue he is referring to is a site-design/page-design mismatch issue to the viewer of the site/page - the mismatch can be to the resolution of the viewer (most common) or even something as simple-yet-as-awkward as a browser-style mismatch. It is, in fact, one of THE most frustrating things for a sitemaster/webmaster to deal with - but deal with it he must. (It does NOT help when mobile browsers must also be deal with.)

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You think so? I feel like they have a pretty high-quality series of articles on Win8/RT going right now. I especially enjoyed the one about WinRT that Peter Bright wrote.

They have good articles. Not arguing that. I just feel the standard at Ars have been reduced.
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And what is the resolution of this 40 inch display?

Exactly my question. It seems that after 30", you get lower resolutions again. The highest would be close to 1920x1080, which I have on my 22.5" monitor.

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mine is a 40". no issues with reading

And what's the resolution of your monitor? There's a big difference between a 1920x1080 40" monitor and a 2560x1600 30" monitor. Just take a look at the screenshots theyarecomingforyou posted right above your post and you'll see the difficulties you face at that resolution.

So, everyone wants a big monitor, and then complain about all the ergonomic issues that result? Why not increase your DPI? I have a 22 inch monitor, and my DPI is set at 125%.

That's not the point. He wants a high-res 30" monitor so he has more screen real estate available for open windows. Telling him to change the DPI so he can run applications full screen isn't going to help him is it. It's clear that Metro apps aren't designed for niche situations like theyarecomingforyou's which is fine because he doesn't have to use those apps.

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