Here's a bigger discussion on Win8
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Feb 07, 2012 5:50 PM EDT |
I happened to be browsing this morning and hit this article: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/five-reasons-why-windo... SJVN pretty much sums up all the reasons why he sees Win8 as big a failure as Vista. I think he is right in that there is going to be enormous resistance to software whose basics are so different to the entire range of WindowsOS products, and also that business will see very little reason for an upgrade. I found it a pretty good, logical read. |
| Khamul Feb 07, 2012 7:00 PM EDT |
It does seem like it's echoing XP->Vista in several ways. When XP came out, it fixed a lot of the big problems with previous MS OSes; it was "good enough". In fact, it's been SO "good enough" that lots of places are still using it and refusing to upgrade. 7 has been pretty similar (as after all this time, XP has gotten really long in the tooth, and developed a lot of age-related problems that are unavoidable); it's "good enough" so people who need something newer than XP have moved to 7, jumping over the badly-executed Vista. But now, like with XP, if they're happy with 7 for the most part, they're not going to be clamoring to jump to something else (8); the fact that 8 makes some really big UI changes is going to cement their decision. |
| lxerguest Feb 07, 2012 7:55 PM EDT |
Some people thought Microsoft did not want netbooks to succeed,because with the low margins, they would be cannibalizing their own desktop x86 high-margin monopoly market. So here we have a budding market of arm-based devices which are just as low-margin as netbooks and even worse, and this is a key point: The vast ecosystem of sw that exclusively supports the MS OS which gives their monopoly so much inertia,and which they strive so hard to protect by various measures,does not exist yet on Arm. In fact it is Linux which has a huge ecosystem which is almost ready to go ,with a little bugfixing ;), on Arm, RIGHT NOW. So absolutely, it would be great MS for the arm-based device market to NOT be particularly useful. |
| JaseP Feb 08, 2012 10:28 AM EDT |
The ironic thing is that it seems every OS is undergoing major, unwanted UI changes. Ubuntu, any Gnome based distro, Windoze, and even to an extent,... Android. Has every UI developer suddenly gone bipolar?!?! |
| lxerguest Feb 08, 2012 12:59 PM EDT |
JaseP , right,not everything needs to be suspected of being a conspiracy(though if there is a pattern of nefarious behavior,why not ;) ). I think it is reasonable to look at other factors, like traditional weakness of marketing research in the low budget free software projects, and even head scratching marketing decisions in the high tech field generally.Not to mention this touch screen technology is new and being fleshed out ,while tiptoeing around a patent minefield. |
| number6x Feb 08, 2012 1:20 PM EDT |
Its just all so 1980's Use a central 'launcher' to launch an app that takes up all the focus. Switch back to the central launcher to launch a different app, that takes up all the focus. It just seems like all the designers are racing away from usability and convenience and being as disruptive to work-flow as possible. Sure you can work in it, but why? Maybe in a few years Microsoft will 'innovate' a multitasking single desktop with menu driven applications and, after patenting it all (with complete disregard to prior art) will commence to sue the rest of the world out of existence. |
| jdixon Feb 08, 2012 3:28 PM EDT |
Quit giving them ideas, number6x. |
| JaseP Feb 08, 2012 7:00 PM EDT |
@lxerguest The touch screen technology is not all that new, it's just more affordable. Before, it was for high end kiosks, etc. Now it's on everything. There's no big secret on how to make a touch screen interface. All you do is make a pop-up keyboard and make the doohickies big enough for fat fingers. |
| BernardSwiss Feb 08, 2012 7:13 PM EDT |
Quoting:Some people thought Microsoft did not want netbooks to succeed,because with the low margins, they would be cannibalizing their own desktop x86 high-margin monopoly market. Well, they clearly didn't, and clearly in large part for those very reasons. Hence the official rules about what Microsoft was willing to accept as being a "netbook" and what would lead to MS's displeasure. Intel also played this game for those reasons (while MS clearly had additional concerns). But playing King Canute only works for a while. As the tide rises one eventually must acknowledge reality. But King Canute was a lot smarter than he's often given credit for -- he knew all along how the tide would go, and what he was trying to accomplish. The trick for the king is how he prepares for the inevitable, and how he sells it to the people. |
| lxerguest Feb 09, 2012 6:18 AM EDT |
JaseP , please tell that to them,because in their quest for an iPerfect UI, I get seriously annoyed when my swipe actions get interpreted as some other cute commamd. BSwiss, then we shall look forward to the glorious tale of how the gallant and brave Sir Barnes and Noble tore a new one off the despicable King Canute. |
| JaseP Feb 09, 2012 10:16 AM EDT |
@ lxerguest: I never used swipe, I found it to be too alien an experience. It prefer Palm's graffiti interface to that. Does swipe have a predicted word pop-up??? That adds speed and accuracy on an on-screen keyboard,... big time. Haptic feedback helps too, but can be annoying. I'd actually like to see word prediction with physical keyboards (on the screen, not an lsd bar on the keyboard or anything) and a dedicated "OK" key (maybe the "Win" or "Home" key, that largely goes useless). |
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