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Windows 8 hasn't been getting the warm reception from the enthusiast desktop PC audience that Microsoft would have hoped. Many people who have tried the consumer preview are very unhappy with the new interface and can see very few benefits to ‘upgrading' from Windows 7.
One of the main sticking points is the Metro UI. When the developer preview was released many people felt that the Metro UI was an ‘option' that could be disabled to let the operating system run in full Desktop mode. The developer preview did give the user some control over this, but the more recent consumer preview didn't allow for this- Metro UI was the focus.
Metro UI is one of the main complaints that desktop users have. Many blog sites and publications feel the same because it has clearly been designed for a tablet. It slows down productivity and isn't ideal for a desktop PC.
We have received emails about the subject from readers. One reader Jeff said “I tried it for a few hours and just deinstalled it. The interface isn't designed for a desktop PC and I found I was slowed down when navigating. It caused me a lot of frustration. I don't mind changes, but the operating system has been designed from the ground up for a tablet. There can be no argument on this topic.”
Forum member Agencyman tried the operating system and deinstalled it too. He said “Won't start right, won't shut down right, too many desktops, too much hard to get rid of garbage on one of them, hard to find a way to shut down, goes to I.E instead of default browser from Thunderbird mail, that I.E. has no controls at the top, [alt f4] doesn't work, F11 doesn't work, this is so bad, it should sell millions of assisted Linux packages the first day it's out to the public.”
Kitguru says: Have you tried Windows 8 yet? do you share the same views as these people, or do you like it? Please tell us why!
I tried it. Glad I did so on a Partition. I erased it and forgot I ever had it there in the first place. Still can’t figure out who’s bright idea this was. All I can guess is that someone looked over at how Apple is redesigning some of their iOS Mobile Features for their OS X Desktop and figured “Oh, let’s cut their curb, go right ahead and merge Desktop and Mobile 100%. Redesign? Na, screw that. Just do Touch on Desktop. We’ll be ahead of the curb!” Big. Epic. Fail. Even worse when you realize they dumped the Start Menu. They basically took Windows Phone 7 (which was already blasted for being a failure) and brought it over to the Desktop, to make another failure. XP was fine, the only competition it had was the terrible early releases of Mac OS X. Then came Leopard + Snow Leopard, Microsoft flipped out and made the failure that was Vista. Then to fix that, they made 7. Now instead of making 7 the new XP, they flipped out when they saw OS X Lion and Mountain Lion integrating iOS features and decided to become total morons. Its Windows Phone 7 on the Desktop with Ribbon and no Start Menu.
This is great for the Users who are afraid of even changing their Account Picture incase they BSoD accidentally, but for everyone else its a sick joke. All these big Corporations year after year are treating us like we’re all total morons. This should give them a wake up call. If we could rate things in the Negatives I’d give this a -10/10. Complete step back. Then again, we’re talking about the people who think their Power Users are the ones fawning over the Ribbon Interface they’re so in love with, and are even adding to non-Office Windows.
Unlike Linux, Windows users cannot customise their UI! MS should have realised that Ubuntu went through a learning exercise with the Unity interface, but users were able to choose from serveral UIs and change it at start-up and the spread of Liinux is accelerating as we move to the Cloud. This choice seems to be unavailable with Windows 8, hence the disappointment.
Clearly Windows 8 doesn’t “get” mouse+keyboard so there is nothing to discuss. It will flop on desktop and prabably on laptops too. On ultra portables (smartphones, tablets) it might gain some traction, after all it was designed for this kind of devices.
Sham on Microsoft for not giving traditional customers the attention they deserve.