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Neowin reviews Windows 8 - Leave your pre-conceived notions at the door

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40hz:
You have to admit that the price for the upgrade is dirt cheap- I wonder if that's what's behind it.
-wraith808 (October 25, 2012, 01:52 PM)
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Maybe we should ask Microsoft? ;D The Win 8 upgrade price is dirt cheap too. Last I checked the Pro upgrade was $40 for XP/Vista/7 users.

I think these two would rather sacrifice some money near term in order to move the bulk of their customers over to their latest and greatest. What better way than to offer a very compelling price for the upgrade. Both companies have plenty of cash so they can afford it. Makes sense to clear out the older versions from a tech support perspective. And it would certainly make life easier for their software developers. Good for PR purposes too.

If Microborg wasn't going in the direction they were going with Win 8, they'd already have my check in hand. But then again, if they weren't, they probably wouldn't be offering W8 (pronounced "wait") at $40 either.
 8)

worstje:
I personally think Microsoft is making a gigantic mistake. The majority of workplaces need real computers, and not tablets. Or rather, they need keyboard and mouse; a tablet is simply too cumbersome to type with, and a touch screen keeps getting dirty, smudgy and is generally hostile to anything that's not a cleanroom.

Tablets may be nice for consumers to read books, view train/bus information or play leisure games. Smartphones are useful for people who need to communicate small things on location (mail men for example). But the bulk still happens on machines that are optimized for receiving input. Tablets are too awkward. Phones are even worse.

If this continues, I see Ubuntu or another Linux platform really taking off in the upcoming years. The big players are shafting the users that need to stuff get done, and once people switch to Linux, they can stay there indefinitely. Microsoft especially is an idiot; they get so many Windows licenses that make them tons of $$$, simply because people need them to do their work. Once people switch to OSS, they'll start losing that, and I can already hear the complaints coming.

Each device needs to be optimized for its own purpose and the input it receives. Don't put stupid tablet UI on a desktop; big screens are for consuming a lot of information quickly, and mice are heavily dependant on the infinite zones that are the corners and edges of the screen (which are now fucked with slide out menus). MS had to learn that lesson once upon a time with the Start button, but apparently they've forgotten it as they are now making the 'Close Window' cross a pain to hit.

If they want to make the interfaces look similar, so everything feels familiar and known to users, that is fine. Traffic authorities do the same thing with traffic lights, sign colours and fonts and all that stuff. But you don't seem them throwing round-abouts on every highway exit because having the same sort of roundabout everywhere makes stuff simpler for drivers.

Form and function, not fluffy and frustrating. Thx.

(Sorry, I needed to get this off my chest.)

40hz:
^Hopefully not Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth seems intent on taking his once "most popular of all distros" down  a path as similar as he can get to the one being taken by Microsoft and Apple.
 8)

superboyac:
I feel like in 10 years, most of us here on dc are going to be using some kind of linux based build your own OS type of thing.  If the big boys, Apple and MS, keep going towards closed ecosystems, and linux continues with all those distros (and more to come probably), then eventually we're just going to be using our own OS's, and hopefully the software will be able to work across all of them.  Or maybe we'll be building our own software also?  Nah...software will have to work with all distros, and users build the distros.

Now I know most of you are thinking this is the way linux works already.  But I'm talking about making it more easy.  Like, I pick the features I want in a distro, click a button, and get an iso file.  Then, all the software i come across will work also with a button or something.  Once we get to that point, you can probably say goodbye to ms and apple for those of us still hanging on to the 90s Windows methods.

TaoPhoenix:
I feel like in 10 years, most of us here on dc are going to be using some kind of linux based build your own OS type of thing.  If the big boys, Apple and MS, keep going towards closed ecosystems, and linux continues with all those distros (and more to come probably), then eventually we're just going to be using our own OS's, and hopefully the software will be able to work across all of them.  Or maybe we'll be building our own software also?  Nah...software will have to work with all distros, and users build the distros.

Now I know most of you are thinking this is the way linux works already.  But I'm talking about making it more easy.  Like, I pick the features I want in a distro, click a button, and get an iso file.  Then, all the software i come across will work also with a button or something.  Once we get to that point, you can probably say goodbye to ms and apple for those of us still hanging on to the 90s Windows methods.
-superboyac (October 25, 2012, 11:43 PM)
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Meanwhile, here it goes out on sale, so we'll go past "early reviews" and wait for the first wave of news stories of the fabled Customers. Any bets on how confused any of them will be?


I wouldn't want "build my own OS" because then it would be even less compatible with anything! Ubuntu is trying to become "The Linux" distro and shove everyone else out. Maybe they deserve to become the MySpace of Linux to learn their lesson.

We keep saying that MS is making mistakes, but are they in fact Too Big To Fail? They did such a good job with the evil lock-in that it's a MS vs The World metagame. So just on the crazy event that they finally make one mistake too many and implode and don't get bailed out, THAT's the marketplace I wanna see thrash it out. Whether for once the Linux community can get it together before Apple picks up all the pieces in a fire sale.

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