Now this is a Windows 8 review I heartily applaud

[tranglos]

From the Make Use Of blog. Warning: dripping sarcasm ahead!

Get Great Windows 8 Features Without the Upgrade [Opinion]

[mouser]

I think that article makes some good points using a hefty dose of sarcasm.

[TaoPhoenix]

It's not even dripping sarcasm, it's kinda fairly asking what was the whole eye-candy movement of Windows Vista about.

MS has really struggled lately to find a consistent tone and slam it home. They keep coming through with half baked partial answers to 2-years-ago.

[mouser]

The thing is, from a programmer's perspective I actually think the generic "Tiling" approach is actually a smart improvement upon the ad hoc gadget approach to putting things on the desktop.

It seems to me it's much more maintainable and sustainable in the sense that it offers a clean way to put stuff on the screen in a way that trying to support arbitrarily shaped and sized gadgets is not.  It's a good example of choosing a simpler more reliable and maintainable solution over allowing everything under the sun.  And those simple-looking solid color tiles, again it's just a cleaner solution that suggest easier programming and UI consistency.

My major complaint against what Microsoft is doing is about their decision to make it so hard and confusing to switch between this tiled stuff and desktop view without these gadgets, and how ill-suited this approach is for a large start menu hierarchy, etc.

I think a much smarter approach would have been to leave the original taskbar, startmenu, system tray -- which to my way of thinking are excellent, and simply replace desktop icons with the tiling system, with a simple way to toggle tiles off to yield a blank desktop (or switch between tile sets); to me this would have been so much better than the confusing approach they have come up.

I can only hope they will realize that this tile/gadget/ipad/touch layout is only suitable for certain workflows, and make it more natural and intuitive to switch modes of operation.

[Josh]

I think a much smarter approach would have been to leave the original taskbar, startmenu, system tray -- which to my way of thinking are excellent, and simply replace desktop icons with the tiling system, with a simple way to toggle tiles off to yield a blank desktop (or switch between tile sets); to me this would have been so much better than the confusing approach they have come up.

Don't you use FARR, though? So isn't the foldering system of the start menu irrelevant to you ;-)

[mouser]

I use FARR and LBC for common stuff but i still have a deep start menu of EVERYTHING installed on the PC so that i can find things by category.

I think one of the problems is that most people dont know how to organize their start menu.  When organized it's a wonderful tool.
Instead of making it easier to organize, MS is trying to kill and hide it.  Very bad choice.

There is a real benefit to having a hierarchical organization of everything installed on the computer.

[Josh]

Is it really a bad choice? I can't say that I've had the desire, over the past month+ to use my old start menu. Even when it was available, I did not use it often. I find myself using the start menu on Win8 in conjunction with FARR, both operate in basically the same manner. Both search existing entries although the win8 menu has a noticable speed advantage over FARR.

I used to be a very big fan of developing a set of 6-7 core folders, and grouping programs based on those core folders. Now, I don't even have to worry about it. I can just hit WINKEY (or WINKEY+A for farr), type a few letters and launch all using the keyboard. No mouse involvement, no wasted time sorting through menus (even if only 2-3 deep).

[superboyac]

Yeah, I feel the same way about most everything mouser said.

[wraith808]

I used to be a very big fan of developing a set of 6-7 core folders, and grouping programs based on those core folders. Now, I don't even have to worry about it. I can just hit WINKEY (or WINKEY+A for farr), type a few letters and launch all using the keyboard. No mouse involvement, no wasted time sorting through menus (even if only 2-3 deep).

This sounds like I could have said it.  I'm not even on Windows 8, and I don't use my start menu.  I use a combination of Tiles, Nexus, FARR and Direct Access (phrase expander now, but I haven't upgraded in forever)

[superboyac]

I used to be a very big fan of developing a set of 6-7 core folders, and grouping programs based on those core folders. Now, I don't even have to worry about it. I can just hit WINKEY (or WINKEY+A for farr), type a few letters and launch all using the keyboard. No mouse involvement, no wasted time sorting through menus (even if only 2-3 deep).

This sounds like I could have said it.  I'm not even on Windows 8, and I don't use my start menu.  I use a combination of Tiles, Nexus, FARR and Direct Access (phrase expander now, but I haven't upgraded in forever)

Right!  That's why I'm not that worried about anything Windows 8 is doing with interfaces and stuff.  Let them do whatever, someone like mouser will fix it later.

[Tinman57]

I use FARR and LBC for common stuff but i still have a deep start menu of EVERYTHING installed on the PC so that i can find things by category.

I think one of the problems is that most people dont know how to organize their start menu.  When organized it's a wonderful tool.
Instead of making it easier to organize, MS is trying to kill and hide it.  Very bad choice.

There is a real benefit to having a hierarchical organization of everything installed on the computer.

Exactly!  I see people just dumping shortcuts all in one place instead of organizing.  I have mine set up in categories; Games, Accessories, Multimedia, Communications and System Tools, with sub-categories to break things down even more.  Much more simple, easy to navigate, just the way I like it.....

[rgdot]

Got to say that in these days of 8 and 16 GB of RAM, 90% of what I would need is open and stays open, much less need for shortcuts of any kind - bars, launchers, start menu, etc. My main PC is still an old XP but I am making a kind of generalization.

[iphigenie]

I do need some form of browsing of things installed because for things I don't use very often, I have this terrible tendency to forget, or worse, misremember, the name of the applications  

like docfetcher, for example, always search for docfinder... browsing fixes that. Of course if things installed in tiles I can browse or menus I can browse or if they installed with a 1 line description that one can search for too... all of it would work for me

[Renegade]

Got to say that in these days of 8 and 16 GB of RAM, 90% of what I would need is open and stays open, much less need for shortcuts of any kind - bars, launchers, start menu, etc. My main PC is still an old XP but I am making a kind of generalization.

+1

You are not alone there.

I have quite a few applications (not "apps" - they are "application software") pinned in Windows 7. Now, I do have many others open, but they are usually in my Start menu applications (the frequently used ones when you first click Start). So, between those two places, 90% of everything I need is within 1 or 2 clicks. And I rarely even need to use them because they're always open.

Would I want everything tiled? I doubt it. I certainly like the taskbar as it lets me switch between applications very easily.

At the moment, I have 23 different applications running and visible in the taskbar. It's just really easy to use.

I've not tried Windows 8 yet, so I'm not qualified to comment on it. But I'm a bit skeptical that it will actually make my life easier.

The article above though was quite fun! I did enjoy that.