IDC: Windows 8 Will Be 'Largely Irrelevant' for PC Users

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intel4eva

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[citation][nom]JimmiG[/nom]If touchscreens are the future, then regular, big monitors have no future. With large screens, touch becomes a hindrance. For example, suppose you want to close a maximuzed window and then open the start menu. With the mouse, you click the close button in the upper-right corner, and then flick the mouse to instantly move the cursor to the lower-left to click the start button (I know it's even more efficient to just hit Alt+F4 and thern the Windows key). With a 24" touch screen, you would have to reach forward (you're usually sitting some distance away from the screen, unlike an iPhone which you press up against your face and squint at), lift your arm, and actually move your finger the full 24" diganoally from the top-right to the lower-left corner before you can tap the start button.It's no coincidence that a typical mouse pad is about the size of a tablet. That's about as far as you want to move your hand to interact with what's on the screen.[/citation]
^
THIS
 

antilycus

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WTH is this "Windows" operating system everyone keeps talking about. I've been using Linux, across the board for a long while now. I remember when I used to run an exchange server... holy lord was that a COSTLY nightmare to manage and pay for. My Linux mail server hasn't been down yet and its 3 years and going. Easiest thing to manage in the world.

Seriously though, MS is their own worst enemy. I JUST upgraded to Vista Business and I I.T. Consult for a living. I have Z E R O customers on WIN7 and the major hospital down the road JUST upgraded to XP last year. (yes they are I.T. in hospitals are seriously that slows to adopt new technology, thank you HIPPA). With how outdated the NT kernel is (which was actually built by IBM because MS couldn't figure out how to do it...but that was back in 1999 and MS has been trying HARD to figure it out still) I don't see the windows brand lasting 15 more years with paid updates.

BTW, If you think that MS runs it's own Server O/S for it's company, you would be GREATLY incorrect.
 

olaf

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Antilycus it's not all that surprising that a hospital should just upgrade to XP, specialized devices tend to focus on getting the job done and not being up to date on the latest OS hype. Having to find a laptop with a Com port for certain security systems is a hassle nowadays and no usb adapters won't cut it. Yes its almost 2012 and they are still using a serial interface.

And i see that the Metro UI is a big deal breaker for a lot of people not just me. Now if u handle the Metro UI via a tablet or a phone i might see merits in that somewhat, but not running all the time.
 

salimbest83

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[citation][nom]BLACKSCI[/nom]Eh ill wait to see what reviews have to say. Id hate to pay another 100 bucks for a O.s. that really doesnt do anything for me....i.e.Vista.[/citation]

no need to ditch 100 buck for it..
just download and try it for free.
love the way Microsoft promoting their latest OS since Win 7..
Dev and continuous beta for public use.
 
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definently not! it seems like a horible "improvement" from windows 7
 

ramon1

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when the time comes I will upgrade to win 9 sp1, if the windows OS hasn't completely moved to cloud. face it, desktop computing is coming to an end and people are just spreading their cheeks and happily taking it in.
 
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it has to be a serious consideration if they fix the jumping windows explorer BUG and go back to some basic windows explorer stability we were used to with Windows XP and before.. also I would only upgrade if I could disable this nasty metro desktop and maintain the Windows 7 start menu experience
 

Combix

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Will be nice for tablets

Still some Ui work to do before it will be a good choice for pc users

IMO.....
 

halcyon

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TBH i don't know the full feature-set of Win 8 but I've not seen anything that looks compelling or heard/read that it will perform better. Why upgrade? Windows 8 is showing me that newer is not always better.
 
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Windows 8 looks ok, but it still too early to say for sure. Many applications and features will be added in before the release no doubt. That may have adverse affects on the responsiveness of the OS, since right now it is a very streamlined pre-beta. Hopefully they will do something like develop DX12, instead of keeping DX11 or just making minor improvements to something like DX11.1.
 
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I have been using Win 8 preview for several weeks now on my 7 year old clunker laptop and it has done pretty well in the place of the original XP pro. Even though the DELL Latitude 410 with Pentium M with IDE 4200RPM Hdd rates only a 2 on the performance assessment, it never performed nearly as quick on XP as it does now does on 8. The only feature that I have not been able to activate is the audio service, but I am working on that.
The metro start screen has taken time to get used to but as I am not a power user it gets me where I need to go if I play with it.
I will definitely buy a copy if I can get a pre-order low price as I was able to get when Win 7 came out.
 

Tab54o

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Well I guess if it works for several form factors then its all good. That way people can use multiple devices and not have to dick around with different os's. Would be cool if they would make a sweet android desktop version and get mainstream gaming support.
 

craig_50

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Im in IT and an MCSE, I have the Windows 8 preview installed on a PC and have used it for several days,
Windows 8 with Metro in my opionion is unuseable on a PC or laptop.
Productivity will drop significantly.
In my opionion its an U G L Y OS run by "Child like little kid" colored blocks? Really thats the best they could do? Hidden buttons and settings are a pain my clients will forever bog down my support line.
I have to guess that the ugly colored blocks are an excuse to cover up the fact that touchscreen monitors have lousy resolution.
To truly use it you need a touchscreen, I dont think any of those commenting about how much they love the preview or will purchase to have the newest OS have considered the list of touchreen monitors with resolution above 1280 X 1024 is VERY limited and the price is 3 times or more than a standard monitor if not more.
So to say "Largely Irrelevent" is an understatement.
I had MS sales Reps yelling at me when I said "Vista will not be sold from my store" Im saying the same for Windows 8 unless my clients are able to convince me they need Windows 8 on a new machine.
Allow Metro to be turned off and I would change my mind :)
 

pocketdrummer

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[citation][nom]Anonymous[/nom]For advanced users that know what is going on "under the hood" you gotta love the features and performance of Windows 8. It's been said that we will be able to disable Metro in the final release.[/citation]

What the hell are you talking about? "Advanced" users will hate that everything now takes more steps to reach what you need. They're hate that the control panel has a split personality. They'll hate that they have to click on "Desktop" every single time they start their computer to get back to something familiar. They'll hate that the direction of Windows is veering more towards touch than KB/M. They'll hate that closing an application doesn't actually close it until you end the process manually!

There are an endless list of things an "advanced" user will hate. The list of things they'll love is quite a bit shorter. They'll love the graphic analysis when copying several large files... and that's about the only good thing I can think of at the moment...

Also, Microsoft has killed the Start menu. They intend to go "full retard" on this one, so unless sales and reviews go the way of ME edition, we can kiss the days of function over form goodbye.
 

onyx_64

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[citation][nom]dickcheney[/nom]Ill upgrade if I can COMPLETELY disable Metro.[/citation]
that wud make it win 7 again :-/
 

hannibal

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Well, not exactly. There are improvements under the hood... But not too many. The most propable situation is that win 9 and win 10 and so on will allso use metro, or "upgraded" metro... It is somewhat silly, because desktop usage and laptop, pad, phone usages are not same. And it is technically guite easy to make different kind of UI to the same OS. Gnome KDE etc in Linux and even those older versions in past windows.

Hard to say why they are forsing the same UI in all wondows platforms, but they are in situation where they can do it if they want. Win 7 support ends 2010 and if there are only Metro UI windows around after this... well we all are using some alternative of Metro after that... I am not convinced that people move to grome os or Linux.
But interesting and a little bit annoying situation in anyway. Win 8 seems to be guite good os all in all, if metro is not "too much" to swallow. Have to test my self untill I can say if it is a game broker.
 

garrick

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Installed win 8 on the desktop but I hardly ever use the Metro UI sticking mainly with the desktop.
I'll probably buy another copy of win 8 for the laptop because of the faster boot time and other improvements with the power management.
 
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