The Glade 4.0

I couldn't make it through the first 7 minutes. All he was doing was talking trash without giving any explanation of how Windows 8 fell short. If he can't make a cogent point in the first 25% of his 23 minute video, well, ain't nobody got time fo' dat.

I've been using Windows 8 for the last 6 months on my laptop. I use it to work remotely. I use it for school. Recently I've used it for gaming. It does everything Windows 7 does. I can access everything faster on Windows 8. There are just different behaviors to learn to do it. It took me all of about two weeks to fully get the hang of it.

Tom's Hardware had no problems "doing science" on Windows 8. Their reviews on Win8's various pieces have been spot on, in my opinion.

Bottom line: Windows 8 is a different approach to an OS with the same capabilities of its previous iteration. It's metro interface is designed with touch in mind and some methods of control aren't as slick as a result. Metro apps are simple, pretty, and responsive. But it's new and developers are still trying to learn the new approach to design. The apps are getting better, but still need improvement. There's no reason to upgrade from Win7 to Win8 on an existing device. You won't go wrong with Win8 on a new device.

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The Dude abides.

Isn't the alternative "Don't get a new device," though? I thought Windows 7 had been discontinued on OEM sales.

If so, your statement isn't saying much.

If not, I'd disagree with your statement for any non-touch device.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Does Windows 8 have some new variant of NTFS they haven't made available to the rest of us? Does it solve the problem with filesystem fragmentation and data decoherence? The only thing Windows 8 does that I'm even remotely interested in is cut down on the ridiculous amounts of TSRs previous iterations of Windows rely on.

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Well, if somebody has to get a new laptop immediately, your alternative may not be an option. My point is, if you buy something with Win8 already on it, it's (my opinion that it's) foolish to wipe and replace with Win7.

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The Dude abides.

You guys find a good way to watch Amazon VOD other than in your browser on win 8.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Not until Amazon makes an application for it. What's wrong with a browser?

It's not as intuitive on my media resolution screen as say metro netflix where you can just hit the app and my media choices are there. You have to go to amazon.com then search for the series i want to watch then get login prompted then i can play

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

So, since i've ordered a new laptop --

Ignoring whether I'll like the interface itself (I resign myself to hating it at first, we'll see if it grows on me), I really dislike the "style" of the new interface -- the flat, 2-dimensional feeling Star Trek: The Next Generation tiles. Ever since Windows 95, Microsoft has been making its buttons and bars and such look more 3D in every iteration, up until now. Windows 7's Aero was the pinnacle, complete with transparencies and shadowing and such. It just felt so smooth and pretty.

Now we're back to completely flat. It feels ugly to me. Are there themes and such that make it feel more three dimensional?

Secondly: FarSky's "Lack of change for the sake of Lack of Change" comment last year is so backwards. Interface change should never happen unless there's a tangible reason for it. Now, I believe there is a tangible reason for Windows8's interface change - with touchscreen computing becoming so common. I accept that. But in general, interfaces should NOT change, without a reason beyond "we wanted a change."

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I don't care for the esthetics of the Metro UI at all...

The 'need' for a touch friendly UI was and still is obvious, I just think they did a terrible job from both an esthetics point of view, and from a usability point of view.

Simple things, like the lack of any ability to manage bookmarks in Metro IE (without the use of a 3rd party app) are huge misses. There are many other 'misses' (like the way the 'search' functionality work -- or doesn't)... Things like this make it seem to me like a huge step backwards.

Additionally, for desktop computer, especially one that doesn't have a touch screen connected, the Metro UI should not be the default. I should be able to check a box that disables Metro completely if I'm using a keyboard, mouse and non-touch display, and have the system revert to something more akin to the Windows 7 UI, which was actually really good.

You have just hit on why I hope Win8 flops.

It's not that it's a bad idea. A fusion of the touch UI with the standard Windows OS is a good thing for the future of computing. The outright replacement of the mouse and keyboard UI with a touch-based UI is not. The idea is good, but the implementation is poor. Unfortunately, this is the implementation we're stuck with unless Microsoft gets the message that the touch UI is not well-suited for all tasks.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Anyone that uses a mouse for the majority of computer interaction outside of specific application uses is Bad at Computers™

Anyone that uses a touchscreen for the majority of computer interaction outside of specific application uses is Bad at Computers™

Do you have any more moronic statements to add to the discussion?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

This... I ...

Not one single application I use on a daily basis is touch friendly, and I have yet to see a touch friendly version of any application I use on a daily basis in my work or in my personal life that I'd prefer over Mouse/Keyboard.

That may change, but until it does, the cart is miles down the road and the horse is still in the barn...

My comment has nothing to do with touch. I'm strictly speaking about using a mouse/keyboard on a desktop with Windows 8 (or 7, or Vista, or XP). If your mouse usage is higher than your keyboard usage, you're not concerned with being efficient anyway, so you forfeit the option of complaining about touch being inefficient.

Keyboard usage in Windows 8 is nearly identical to Windows 7, so while everyone else is busy drooling on themselves trying to figure out which tile to click on, my work and usage in general remains unchanged (or faster, in some instances).



In general I agree. U mad bro?

In a work station/office desk/cubical/etc style environment where you have ample room to use mouse/keyboard, they are the better tool. However it is increasingly touted that the future of computing is by and large going to be done on devices designed to operate outside those environments.

That said there should be an option for "boot to desktop" in Win8 regular/pro. It's probably being held for SP1.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Keyboards are primarily for typing text. Keyboard shortcuts suck for most non-text-typing functions. UI-friendliness is about ease of use, not "efficiency." For the simplest example, I know the CTRL-C, CTRL-V and CTRL-P shortcuts in windows. Most of the time I still use the mouse and right click for those functions. It's more intuitive, and unless I'm typing a large block of text, it's faster to position the mouse and highlighted text with the mouse than it is to do so with the keyboard anyway.

(That especially goes in computer games. Mouse buttons > hot buttons. Typing 1,2,2,4,3,1,2,2,4,3 repeatedly in an attack rotation may be more efficient, but I hate it. I always manually clicked every ability I ever activated in an MMO...)

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Selecting text using the touchscreen is inoffensive enough, but still more cumbersome than either a mouse or a keyboard. Manipulating a spreadsheet is awkward on a touchscreen. Simply put, a touchscreen is a less than ideal mechanism for accomplishing any of these tasks. Since the bulk of computer usage on desktops and laptops revolves around text entry or manipulation of a spreadsheet, designing a UI around an input device that is noticeably subpar for those tasks is a poor choice.

Microsoft was banking on those users being a captive audience, and that they would upgrade because that's just what you do when a new version of Windows comes out. Basically, you're supposed to buy Win8, and then go out and buy a Microsoft tablet because the UI is **** for the computer you already have. The hope, I suspect, was to be more like Apple who are selling hardware to pretty much everyone who buys their OS.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I agree on some levels, but keyboard commands still count toward UI and its friendliness.

Has anyone invented a touchscreen yet that is not perpetually covered in fingerprints?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Here you go:
http://www.wpcentral.com/rain-x-keep-wi ... lay-smudge

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The Dude abides.

That'd be awesome. With a toddler in the house, every screen is a "touch screen."

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

How can I use wallpaper behind the "Start Screen?" My choices to personalize it are all... fugly. I'd love to use actual wallpaper rather than these stupid looking things.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

I'm not sure, but I don't think you can using the normal settings, but there are some apps that allow you to...

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-ti ... und-color/

This is what you want: http://vhanla.deviantart.com/art/Window ... -337308916

Windows 8 Blamed for Biggest PC Shipment Plunge Ever

Ouch.