Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
If don't want to be a Microsoft Guinea Pig stay away from a new Windows 8 operating system
Hello Everybody
Don't you have a strange impression that we are all to Microsoft like laboratory Guinea Pigs or Mice which will be tested by the latest Windows 8 release this coming Friday. And the results of this big experiment will be used in close future to release next operating system called Windows 9.
Microsoft has a serious problem as three years ago they released a very successful Windows 7 and now as they try to expand to tablet's market with something new and revolutionary. Because Windows 7 evolves very well and there is no serious complaints from users there is a question - Do we really need a new OS from Microsoft even if they are offering this for a very small fee or for free. What is the real reason behind the latest release?
Microsoft needs a new tablet system and it will be very difficult for them to repeat a success of Windows 7 for laptop and desktop users. They are going to promote their new baby as much and hard as they can so let us just observe this process away from struggling and complaints.
After at least one year we are going to know better and this will be decision time.
A new tablet users for Windows 8 feel free...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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Marek I reckon Windows 8 marks a new beginning for Microsoft. Possibly, the beginning of the end for the company.
I do wonder if that company would be in a stronger position today, if the original judgement in the big anti-trust trial had been implemented, rather than appealed by MS. Judge Jackson had ruled (in 2000) that the company should be split into two parts: one for the operating system and the other part for applications.
Under the incoming George W Bush Administration the criminally-convicted company then received the mildest of sanctions. It seemed like a victory for MS, but the graph of the MS share price since 2000 tells an unglamorous financial story.
As an unreconstructed monolith, the company was ill-prepared for the Internet and now, seems ill-equipped for computing's mobile future.
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Like you Jessica, I'm an Apple user, but its a sad truth that many still use this kind of operating system. For a discussion on how Microsoft arrived at the peculiar "Windows" 8 situation, see The Register's account, here.
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Permalink Reply by Marek on
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Hi Clive and Jessica
Suprisingly, the Windows applications and operating system still hold 90% of computer market and this situation will not change dramatically even after releasing Windows 8 with many little faults. Apple even the richest computer company holds just 8% of the computer market so these two figures shows the real proportions.
What I have been suggesting is only stay away from Windows 8 for at least one year to see what's going to happened. Knowing their situation and history Microsoft quite quickly will introduce updates and adjustments as they usually do.
I use both system and do not put anybody down. I love and hate Microsoft and Apple products in particular cases and I am not Windows or Apple fanboy for sure. I love my Macbook Pro and enjoy Windows 7 waiting for great and major updates. Especially when you repair hardware and software with both you can come to this conclusion.
In my opinion Apple , the same like Microsoft, also creates some ugly and crappy products and hope that iPad mini is not one of them. There could some applications issues which have been working perfectly on iPad but not particularly well on mini iPad. Somebody said that the biggest issue and competitor for a mini iPad will be iPad. Let's watch the story as a lot of new products just arrived to shops.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Bailey on
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Well I have to say, I was a big fan of Windows 7 and am a bigger fan of Windows 8. It's super fast, very sleek, and has some powerful virtualisation features with the introduction of Hyper-V to a desktop OS (which I'm finding very useful already).
The in-place upgrade from Windows 7 to 8 was a breeze, and performance has only improved in the same machine with no hardware upgrades. This alone can be no bad thing! Yes, the start menu has been replaced for a new start screen - you'll get used to that pretty quickly and it works jolly well!
I even upgraded my wife's 5 year old Vaio to run Windows 8, and all bar one driver issue which was fairly simple to resolve, it too has a new lease of life (far quicker than it ever ran XP or 7)...
There is a misconception that Win 8 has been designed for tablet and shoehorned onto desktop or laptop. Quite simply it's one OS for all forms of Wintel based device. And we even have Windows 8 RT for Arm based devices such as the lower end surface from MS... Although with RT, legacy desktop is a thing of the past, which I'm not so sure I'd embrace ;)
Rather than this spelling the end for the Redmond giant, I see it as a new beginning for them, and will certainly be getting the full fat Intel based surface when it launches in the UK.
That said, this was typed on my iPad, proving that there's a device, and OS, for every occasion. I'm sure my Windows Phone 7.5 or iPhone 4S would both have done an admirable job too!
Marek, Windows 8 was in development before the launch of Windows 7, and was in public beta for over a year. It's been past release candidate and has been released to manufacturers (RTM) for several months now. New adopters will be far from guinea pigs I can assure you!
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Joe you sound like a power-user who understands all the changes made and who will be able to benefit from improvements. Not all Windows users are power users, and some of those changes have been much debated, as you probably know.
Marek's caution accords with the tried-and-tested advice that is, to be leary of a version one of any new piece of software. Eight is not one, but there're so many changes, as you might agree, to an operating system, that it could qualify.
Despite any amount of beta testing, there is no substitute for putting a product in hands of paying customers who will use it for real jobs as opposed to testing.
The criticism of Windows 8 by reviewers - and there is much of it - that I have read, is not so much that it doesn't work, but that it is likely to frustrate the long-time typical user. Also, that it is misconceived, by attempting to be a one-size-fits-all solution (desktop vs laptop). And as a consequence, by compromising, it becomes less usable.
A significant proportion of businesses remain on Windows XP, which continues to work for them. I'm sure that Windows 8 will achieve more sales than the Windows Phone, but the risk for MS is still that they have come out with a fridge-toaster that confuses the average Windows-user.
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Clive,
You rightly deduce that I am a fairly advanced user. I've been working in the managed services industry for a number of years, so of course like to get in early with any new tech.
What I would say, with no offence to the good Mrs B, is that she's very far from being an advanced user, and took to Windows 8 on her laptop very quickly. A number of my colleagues, from the techs to the less computer savvy sales and admin folk have dived in to 8, they get along with it very well and all I hear from other early adopters is good news.
There are some great new features which leave apple standing, and the OS is very slick indeed. These are far from "power user" wants - there are great new social networking features and the start screen is awesome although is the biggest culture shock, I concede; it's far from a "fridge-toaster" as you infer as it works very well on laptop, desktop, or tablet. I've not seen the Windows Phone 8 release yet but I think that will tie in jolly well too, from the industry reports I've read.
Indeed some may prefer to see it before they dive in themselves, it's fair enough. That applies to many things in life. New cars often have faults which later releases of the same model do not have. I am merely saying that after using Windows 8 in release form for 2-3 months, I've not had a single problem, and it has increased the speed of the machines that I use for work or play, which is good news all around! It is far from being a test platform as the subject of this post suggests.
The suggestion that you shouldn't adopt early equally applies to Apple products as it does to cars, new houses, or Microsoft products. I'm firmly keeping my iPad and iPhone on iOS 5.1.1, because 6 has removed basic functionality and replaced it with what can only be described as heavily flawed beta versions, which Apple have had to publicly apologise for!
Apple are just as flawed as Microsoft, in different ways. However, Windows 8 is something which many will enjoy, and after real-life experience, I would suggest that there are few reasons to shy away, especially with the offer of £40 or free upgrades from Windows 7. That really is great value!
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Joe not all change is for the better and I'm surprised you don't comment on the legions of criticism of Windows 8 that you surely know is on the web. This comes from long-time Windows users, not Apple users.
My allegiance to Apple is less strong than it was, following their 2006 switch to the Intel chip set and their over-concentration on mobile platforms.
And its change that's the risk for MS as a company: (a) by getting into manufacturing, they're risking alienating their hardware "partners" and (b) by adding in ARM chips to the mix, MS risk alienating Intel. And (c) by coming out with a hybrid machine (that may yet be seen as a peculiar contraption), they risk alienating the average user. There is quite a bit of risk here and so far, investors at least are not impressed.
Computing hasn't looked so interesting for quite a while.
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Windows 8 is definitely a quite big step into new future of computers of Microsoft and there is no doubt about it. For power and advanced users with geeks there will be no bigger issue at all and for average consumers a bit bigger problem with feeling lost. This is a big step not only for Microsoft but also a challenge for users which will need some time to adopt.
Future of Microsoft belongs to Windows 8 so let's wish everybody a lot of positive feelings what you have right now Joe. Some patience and cold calculation would be also very welcome to enthusiasts of every latest piece of technology this is why I was appealing for this in first text. Windows 8 yes but no yet, not yet.
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Marek,
Have you used Windows 8 in RTM form at all?
From my experience, Windows 8 is more of an evolution of Windows, than a big step into the unknown.
As there is a full legacy desktop which is just a button, key press or swipe away from the start screen, it's really not particularly confusing. There's even a short navigation tutorial when you first logon after install or upgrade.
Those who wish to find the new features will do so, and those who don't want too much change need not worry as the desktop and taskbar of Windows 7 are both still very much there!
My wife is not a tech-evangelist, and neither are many of the other people I work with who have been running on Windows 8 for a number of months now (since it went RTM prior to release to the public). Simply put, they found little to no problems with the new operating system - it's as big or small a leap as people took when moving from XP to 7...
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Clive,
Change is of course a risk. We risk not liking many new things. However failing to evolve is not an option, and that stance would prove to be a far worse place for MS to be!
Why not try it, before you knock it? I'm sure you can even get your Mac to run Windows 8 ;)
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Well Joe, its true that many modern Mac users can also install "Windows" on their machines. But given that my own (pre-Intel) Mac is PowerPC (IBM) chipped, it wouldn't be straightfoward.
But there are other versions of Windows 8 for Microsoft's customers to consider too, aren't there? There's Windows SOC and Windows RT. Windows experts like yourself well know what these variants mean; but I'm not sure that it won't be confusing for the average PC user.
Change can be risky, but not all change is successful (e.g. the Kin phone and the Zune MP3 player), only time will tell.
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Clive,
I think you over egg the areas for confusion with the differ architectures available... Simply put, when most people buy a device of any type running Windows 8, it will come with the appropriate architecture of the operating system pre-loaded. So there will be no chance of people buying ARM versions for an x86 or x64 Intel based processor etc., and people won't even need to understand the difference as their hardware vendor will have made the decision for them!
In effect what Microsoft have done is evolved windows for the PC, and have developed versions of the same OS for phone and tablet, all of which will tie together very well. Even user settings and data will sync between devices without any need for degrees in IT by the end user, if you so desire.
I really can't see what the fuss is about here, or what the nay-sayers are actually basing their scaremongering on. It's absolutely not change for the sake of it, or using the general populous as test users, it's change that brings a unified platform for a multitude of device types, which can only help the less tech savvy rather than hinder them!
I didn't realise that you had a PowerPC based Mac, and yes, you'll likely have issues installing Windows of any flavour on to that. Likewise I'll have issues installing the said same modern OS onto my Falcon, STe, A3000, or BBC Micro B, which is why they are all in the attic ;)
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