You know, I would like to *not* turn this blog into an anti-Windows 8 hatefest.

So I won’t; but for one parting shot… I liked playing those mindless little free games like Spider Solitaire or Freecell while I was listening to an interview or playing music in the background.  There’s a reason for having a desktop, instead of this tile crap: it’s called multitasking.  I want to be able to do it on my computer, thanks; I already have an iPad for the single-item consumption stuff.

18 thoughts on “You know, I would like to *not* turn this blog into an anti-Windows 8 hatefest.”

  1. I have, currently, over 30 programs sitting in my taskbar, all happily running at the same time.
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    I *never* have, even right after a (weekly) reboot, less than 5 things going on.. web browser, e-mail client, chat client, and a combination of documents and server windows… 15 is about optimal.
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    If Windows 8 cannot do this … then I cannot do *my job* with Windows 8. It is a block to productivity, and I must and shall work around it… likely by talking to one of my co-workers about how to get a Mac onto the corporate network.
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    Microsoft UI designers should be first against the wall when the revolution comes.*
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    Mew
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    * Classical reference.

    1. I have windows 8 ( because I ran over my old computer with my truck)It has a Windows compatibility mode that takes you to a Windows 7esque browser, which lets you run multiple tasks, I think.

  2. I hate the tile system as well. Its designed to look cool, but works like total bullcrap. I guess I’ll get used to it over the next couple decades, until Windows comes out with something even worse.

    1. The thing with the tile system is, if all those tiles are *really* live, then .. they’re all sucking down data *all the time*.
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      I predict a lot of folks using MS tablets or MS-powered smartphones are encountering massive data overage charges.
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      The story is that Microsoft gets the product right about version 3. I .. don’t think this is still true as WinCE powered phones and then the Kin ONE and TWO, and now this crap..
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      Mew

      1. I’ve always thought that they leapfrog operating systems with fillers. Kind of like in the movie Brain Candy, “We still haven’t come out with a Labor Day drug”. From Windows 98 you get M.E., Then the real operating system (XP) comes out. Then there’s Vista holding a spot until 7 comes out. It’s like they are actively working on one system while throwing out the other until the real op system is ready.

      2. A tile isn’t active until you activate it, then it stays active until you disable it or reboot.
        (Move the cursor to the upper left corner for the equivalent of Alt-Tab, then move the cursor down for the full list, right-click individual apps on the list, and choose “close” from the menu. And yes, a small “x” in the upper right-hand corner of the program would have been much easier.)

        1. Yes, but once it’s activated.. on a cellular-capable tablet or phone .. it’s *gonna stay active*, yes?
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          Is there a switch buried in the settings that says “active only on wifi” ?
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          If not .. and depending on how much data the tile needs .. bam. Data plan overage bills.
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          Mew

  3. You’re going to have a lot of company on this one Moe. If I wanted a freaking cellphone I would have bought a cellphone! Still running on windows 7 but wanted to get that in in advance.
    It gets better Acat to run a game or other software in windows 8 you have to run a windows 7 emulator so if there’s a problem you have to determine if it’s in windows 8 or the emulator, that thing is all messed up even worse than normal for Microsoft and that’s saying something. Lining the bastards up against the wall is to freaking good for them, To paraphrase the movie “Heavy Metal” “they should be torn into itsy bitsy pieces and buried alive”.

    1. Even on my not-current iPhone, I have at least 8 things running at once .. tap-tap the button to get a list, slide to the one I want, tap it and .. bam.
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      When waiting in line at the grocery or otherwise, I rotate between e-mail, twitter, web browser, and Kindle emulator…
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      If Microsoft can’t figure this out .. wow.
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      Mew

  4. After dealing with Windows 8 for several months, I’ve decided that I don’t hate it.
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    That said, having two modes that you interact with using different rules, is still asinine.

  5. I bought a new laptop several months ago. No touch screen but Win 8. What a giant pain in the Arss. I truly believe the MS team gets off making commercials of underage girls in plaid short skirts jumping around on a picnic table in the middle of a college quad clicking and clacking their tablets with Win 8 screens.

  6. I’m in the PC field service industry and HATE W8, but there is a ‘desktop’ tile that lets you have a close-to-classic windows experience.

    Windows 8.1 (aka Windows Blue)will be out before Christmas as a free service pack upgrade and it has promised ‘Start’ buttons and default-desktop features as well as other fixes to bend the learning-curve back down for the 20 year M$/Win users.

  7. Once upon a time, Microsoft preached a “standardized User Experience”.
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    Programs were started by clicking the icon in the program list or by double-clicking the icon on the desktop.
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    Double-clicking a data file (document or whatever) would start the appropriate program, if known.
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    This wasn’t always the way things worked, of course. I’ve been around long enough to remember Windows 2.0 and some funky third-party implementations of a GUI that ran on DOS.. but if Microsoft is giving up this very basic concept – even for a short time – they’ve had yet another “New Coke” moment.
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    I was thinking of buying a cheap MS laptop to ease the load on the rather beat-up and making-dying-noises MacBook .. now? No way in hell.
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    Mew

    1. I was thinking of buying a cheap MS laptop to ease the load on the rather beat-up and making-dying-noises MacBook .. now? No way in hell.
       
      Suggestion: Buy an el cheapo Windows laptop, install Ubuntu Linux alongside it (I prefer 10.04, YMMV), use Linux for the usual stuff (Firefox, mail, Office, image manipulation), and use Windows only for the stuff you can’t run under Linux.

      1. Umm… there’s nothing I couldn’t do under Linux .. but I’d still have to pay the microsoft licensing fee. Because nobody *sells* an el cheapo laptop *without* an OS .. and it’s always Windows.
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        Mew

        1. Because nobody *sells* an el cheapo laptop *without* an OS .. and it’s always Windows.
           
          Actually, people do … they just don’t sell them new. Try buying a used one.
           
          Are you near a university that puts surplus equipment up for sale? When professors get new laptops they turn the “old” machines in for surplus. They’re sold for pennies on the dollar. Some of the surplus machines work just fine, and some are dead … but when they die the problem usually is the disk drive. If you’re used to MacBooks, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to replace the hard drive on most Windows laptops. (Avoid Sony!)
           
          I’m typing this on a ThinkPad laptop that was three years old when I bought it for $50 … and all I did was replace the dead hard drive and install Linux.

    1. Think this one through for a sec, BJM.
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      MS just added a step to every tech support diagnostic tree… even the ones provided by your cousin who’s “good with computers”, eh?
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      Every document that starts with “If running Windows 8” now needs to add “If running Windows 8.1”.
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      The existence of 8.1 is an admission that MS effed up. The tablet guys overruled the desktop guys, not understanding that while tablets are “sexy” and MS had better figure out how to out-tablet Apple and Droid .. they can’t eff up the insanely large *business* installed base.
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      Mew

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