For the first time since the worse Windows ever (Windows ME) was released, I am using an older version of Windows than the current version. I have both Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers, but I use my Windows 7 computer almost all of the time. Windows 8 was a Microsoft blunder that could very well create a gap which Android laptops and Apple will be more than happy to fill. And it’s too bad.
Microsoft’s arrogance may well be the downfall of its iconic Windows operating system. Microsoft, in recent years, has introduced products without regard to what users want – but rather giving users what Microsoft wants them to have. They’ve done it with MS Office and now they’ve done it to their flagship operating system Windows 8. And it’s sad for me to watch them try to make consumers want what they offer, instead of giving consumers what they want.
Windows 8.1 is a good case in point. Users, especially those without touchscreen devices wanted a start button with a start menu. So Microsoft, in its arrogance puts a start button on Windows 8.1 which, when clicked, takes users back to the Start Screens, and all its garish tiles, which is the very thing most people wanted to avoid. And while right-clicking the start button does bring up some useful items (Control Panel, Search, Shutdown options) there is no start menu which is what most users want. It was as if Microsoft is saying — “let them eat cake”. It’s not going to fly, and Windows 8 is bordering on becoming the biggest Windows disaster since Windows ME (or some would include Vista).
It says a lot when I continue to use Windows 7 instead of Windows 8. I’ve always wanted to ensure I was using the latest version of Windows because of my work. I even subjugated myself to using Windows Vista, which was a pretty lousy operating system. But I can’t bring myself to using Windows 8 on a non-touchscreen device. It’s clumsy and takes longer to navigate. And all they’d have to do to fix it is to add a real start button with a real start menu and give users a choice between using its touchscreen features or using it as mouse/keyboard version of Windows.
That being said, under the hood, it’s just Windows 7 with a new face (not even a prettier face) with a few new features, that I can live without. It doesn’t run better than Windows 7. It doesn’t work better than Windows 7. The new features like System Refresh are nice and certainly worth praise, but I can live without it – and apparently many others can too.
Here’s an article from CBS, some of you will find interesting:
“Windows 8.1 fall release won’t save Microsoft
Microsoft will release Windows 8.1 in the U.S. on October 18. The free update of the company’s flagship operating system is aimed at placating the many customers who are unhappy with the new platform.
Yet while Microsoft is making changes to its latest version of Windows in response to widespread consumer and business dissatisfaction, the software will remain fundamentally the same. For Microsoft, the question is whether it can effectively drive adoption of Windows 8.1 by ending sales of Windows 7-based machines and by patching up its latest OS.
Microsoft Surface: Mobile strategy looks shattered
Can Microsoft change? Or should it split up?
Microsoft earnings fall well short as Surface flops
Microsoft slashes Surface prices to lure buyers
Is Microsoft’s Windows 8 U-turn a spinout?
Although Microsoft has expressed satisfaction with Windows sales, it has withheld more specific results. According to a new company website, it has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses to date. But the site doesn’t explain what is included.
In January, Microsoft said that it had sold 60 million licenses, including both licenses sold to PC manufacturers and upgrades. To be clear, that likely doesn’t mean that 60 million end users had purchased licenses, either as upgrades or with new machines.
The 100 million figure was also what Microsoft used in May when it was trying to show that Windows 8 was selling as well as Windows 7. Would Microsoft had crowed if it had hit, say, 150 million licenses? You might think so, as that could help disperse the negative publicity the company has gained.
In conversations with Microsoft analysts and companies selling to large and small corporations, people have largely told me that Windows 8 has been a big market disappointment for two reasons. The first is the interface. Windows 8 isn’t all that difficult to get used to if you’re using a touch device — but most people aren’t. “Painful” is what one person who deals with corporations of all sizes said of using Windows 8 on a non-touch computer…”
If you’d like to read more please click here.
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All I know about computers is PCs and Windows (since Windows 95); but as soon as I get an extra $2000, me and MacIntosh will become best friends.
I totally agree with Robert Fricks. I also started with Windows95 and moved over time, to my present Windows7 ultimate. I find it lives up to my expectations for what I want from an operating system. If Microsoft continue down their merry path without due consideration to the vast number of people who use early Microsoft software like XP, they will find the pitter, patter, of tiny feet to some other system, will become a deafening roar which they may never reverse. Oh, how the Mighty can fall in an instant.
I agree with Ken
I beg to differ. Personally I used all the previous versions of operating systems to my entire satisfaction. I applaud changes, and consequently I did not hesitate changing over to Windows 8 from my last OS (Windows 7) and I am impressed. Among many other new features, I like the access to Store, which enables me to download as many apps I want. Having grasped many of the shortcuts available on my new keyboard, I can switch over immediately to many of the regular apps (programs) when I need to use them. I do not bother with the lockscreen, which I have deactivated. I own a desktop computer as well as a laptop, the latter which does feature the traditional start button as recommended by Cloudeight, whereas my desktop on my PC merely shows a few icons, with the remainder (12 icons) being listed in my taskbar, providing quick and immediate access to my regular programs. Admittedly my 27″ monitor gives me plenty of space (real estate) to move around. At any time I can look at my desktop by merely hovering with my mouse pointer in the bottom right corner of my screen and with one left click return to my desktop permanently. Apart from a few cosmetic changes it is not that much different from Windows 7; consequently it should not take very long to become accustomed to the new Windows 8 OS. Having spoken to many of my family members and friends they wholeheartedly agree with me. If it were not for Microsoft endeavors and trials in the 1st place people generally would not have access to a computer on such a large scale as they do today!
It’s true, what you say. WIndows 8’s changes are cosmetic — it’s not an entirely new operating system. It’s basically Windows 7 with garish tiles on a start screen. For those of us who tried hard to keep their desktop free of icons, the start screen of Windows 8 is anathema. Sure you can navigate around with keyboard shortcuts. Most of what you say is true — but most people don’t agree, and Windows 8 is never going to be adopted by businesses – no business wants a smartphone interface on a desktop computer — they want to get work done, not download apps from the Windows Store. Facts are facts – PC sales are terrible and a lot of it due to Windows 8. And Windows 8 is a disaster sales-wise for Microsoft. So instead of giving people what Microsoft wants people to have, why not give people what people want to have — why not give them the choice of using Windows 8 as they did other version of Windows? Give them a real start button with start menu and then give them a choice of using it that way or using the start screen? They put a start button on Windows 8.1 but it doesn’t do anything but take people back to the start screen – which they were trying to avoid in the first place. This is just Microsoft thumbing its nose at users, still thinking Microsoft has a cool image with younger folks. But it doesn’t. Microsoft is another General Motors who continued to give people what GM wanted people to have right to the edge of bankruptcy. If it can happen to GM, it can happen to Microsoft. And if you want to see a real app store, try Apple or Android. They have each half million apps (plus). And by 2014, Android laptops will be produced by Dell, Acer, HP and others. Android gives people what they want not what Android wants people to have. Both Android and Apple have graphical user interfaces and so, are easy to use. And Android is open-source and free so unlike Apple who keeps prices artificially high, Android computers will be the same cost or lower than Windows.
You’re very wrong about one thing: Microsoft wasn’t even close to being the first to make computers easy to use. Microsoft didn’t invent the graphical user interface where people click and icon and a program opens. Apple IIe was out 7 years before Microsoft took Apple’s GUI and put it on an IBM-based DOS computer. So, it it hadn’t been for Apple computers would have been much harder for the average person to use. And had it not been for Steve Jobs’ bullheadedness and hatred for all things IBM, Bill Gates would have been running his own computer repair business in Redmond or working for Apple. No one will ever know why Steve Jobs did what he did — but Steve Jobs “borrowed” the idea of a graphical user interface from IBM – who he hated – read the biography of Jobs. Jobs borrowed (stole?) the GUI idea from IBM’s test labs and Gates borrowed it from Jobs.
All I can say is that I am not a “computer geek” and I do believe programs should be made as easy to use as possible. I am very lucky to have a “computer geek” as a grandson and he keeps me up and running.
So what to do in April 2014 when XP goes belly-up? Should I get a Windows 7 or 8 or 8.1? I am not so sure what to do now. 8 sounds awful and 8.1 worse than awful. Does anyone have any real good advice? Thanks for any help.
Well Said (as usual), Infoave. Love you guys!
I am finding a few issues with windows 8, no e-mail program (uses gmail, Hotmail, yahoo, etc) and give you something you cannot navigate in. Also not happy that when you open a file you can’t close it easily, I tend to use the alt+F4 a lot, but find it a real inconvenience. Windows 8 is definitely not the best move Microsoft ever made!
all I know is that ever since I installed windows 7 I can no longer play my favorite game.(Diablo)as form windows 8,i don’t think I willever use it.I can do without finger prints all over my screen besides the point that it is hard to reach the screen.I have a desk top pc.