Opinion: Can Windows 8 Save the PC?

[bystander]

Considering that the PC market is still growing, and not even stalled much less declining, the PC market is not dead.

However, I can foresee a time in the near future that a tablet or laptop can become the computer of choice, but it'll still need a docking station, because the lack of a real keyboard and mouse is not going to fly. Though the touch screen could remove the need for a mouse, the keyboard is non-negotiable.

 

[RaQin]

Nerd baiting?

 

[rohitbaran]

I really don't understand why people are saying that pc is dead. PC can coexist with other platform simply because I have yet to see a tablet or phone that is more powerful than a barebone pc of 5 year ago. No matter what, PC will be the beast in performance it has been so far, simply because of its form factor. Now only if people start to love their phones and tablets and their apps (web pages actually) so much that they don't need more power, then those people probably aren't much of technology users are they?

 

[makrish]

Tom's, really, get a grip on your journalists. Sure, this is an opinion piece, but 3.8% is not virtually no growth.

 

[legacy7955]

So Wolfgang, how much is the "industry" paying you to help kill the PC, so that it will be replaced by expensive toys like the iPad that are never upgradable and must always be replaced anew for increased hardware performance? You sir are a shill.

 

[Guest]

Can someone let this guy go?

...

 

[ojas]

I'm loving the comments on the article!

Since we all know that the PC's not going to die, let's predict when the other Tom's editors/authors tell Wolfgang to...you know...go away...lol...

They've already asked him to change his "articles"/"news" to "opinions" to sound more politically correct...

 

[Guest]

Just want i always wanted to do.....touch interface for a 20"+ monitor while sitting 2-3' away at a desk.....NOT

For desktops, they should focus on performance, more intelligent task scheduling, better backwards comparability. A touch interface is pretty much my least concern for a desktop.

 

[razor512]

I really like that they are trying to bring resource usage under control but the tablet UI needs to go.

Anyone can test it if they don't believe me. A tablet UI does not work well with a mouse and keyboard, it takes more work to get the same task done. It is a waste of resources to even load it and have it sit in the background.

unless it can be completely removed, many people will avoid it.

 

[alfaalex101]

What the fuck am I reading this morning? Save the PC? Really?

 

[alfaalex101]

Just for the record - I own an EP121 and I've had countless of people show real interest in it (and mistaken it for an iPad). I wonder how much more with Windows 8?

 

[Shin-san]

If Windows 8 bombs, Windows 9 might be the answer.

I feel part of it is that there's getting less reason to upgrade your machine. My old Athlon 64 could do word processing and web surfing just fine. Once you get to the dual-cores, HD video works without a problem (my fast single-core could do it, but lots of others had problems doing it)

 

[pepe2907]

"The Win7 GUI is drastically more productive than the XP GUI."
I don't think I agree with that.
But about the Microsoft's UI's - it looks as somebody in MS hardly tries to shine by showing he is doing something new, throwing away everything old, and he chose UI's maybe because they are... well, they are the most "prominent" thing.. First there ware the Ribbon interface, and although most people don't like it /or just hate it/ Microsoft, as well as many other companies after them already, continue to push it. Then it was the Vista Aero and now This...
And it is not because they are in some kind of "crisis", actually if I am not wrong despite the economic downtime now they perform some of their all time best sellings.
It almost looks kind of suspicious with all this push for new interfaces, isn't it?

Something else: Reading some of the comments here and some others - it looks here at THG we, most of the readers don't like very much the sensational journalism . Except ofcourse if it is about Bulldozer , so my advice to all the guys loving to write sensational materials should be - write for the f**king Dozer .

 

[lozz08]

If we liken the PC crowd to a party, we can surmise that there are always those dicks that come to the party just because they think it will make them more popular (apple users) and then leave when there's a new phony party that offers more opportunity to make them more popular (ipads)

The people that are left behind are the ones that actually get along with each other and have common interests. Unfortunately for them, the dicks (apple users) are in the majority and alienate the pc users, making them feel small. The pc users then resort to drugs (high-end hardware) to give them a sense of escape from the world that they now barely recognise and find depressing.

The supply of drugs (high-end hardware)eventually runs out when the suppliers stop seeing enough of a profitable market for them. The PC users eventually become bitter old men and complain to their bionic igrandchildren that things were better when the individual had choice and pride in what they owned.

And the moral of the story is:

you can't trust the system.

maaaaan.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]amk-aka-phantom[/nom]The funny thing is that a LOT of people own consoles. If MS would get their (MS's) heads out of their a$$es, they could easily convince those people to shift to PC gaming - all it takes is some good marketing. But MS doesn't realize that no one but enthusiasts will get the new OS. Less enthusiasts, less profit...[/citation]


you obviously never argued with a die hard console fanboy ???

seriously , i play consoles and pc games both , but i have friends that play only console and i arguewith them endlessly about the differences between the two.

 

[11796pcs]

It's not saving anything - THE PC ISN'T DEAD!

 

[razor512]

they really ruined the UI, they removed windows classic UP meaning you get the task bar that is taller than the windows classic taskbar but shows the same info (less efficient)

Without using the tablet UI it is extremely hard to get to any control panel options

they got rid of the start menu, this forces you to move all programs either to the desktop as icons or to the tablet UI as tiles

it also relies on horizontal scrolling making it very hard to find any program. (imagine if you had as many programs on your tablet or smartphone as you did on your desktop PC. then imagine finding a program that you want to run)

while it has a search feature, they moved it from the start/ tablet area, and instead made it into it's own search tool that you launch separately then search for the app you want. which is a issue because that implies you know the exact name of the program. (not everyone knows the exact spelling or name of all of their programs, they just recognize the program when they see it and windows 8 removes your ability to do that)

Basically what Microsoft did was take the windows phone 7 UI and made the standard windows desktop UI into a app that you launch.

They also got rid of the back buttons so if you use their poor excuse of a start menu, you cant go back so suppose you are trying to get to a certain setting and you don't know exactly where it is. if you mistakenly click where it isn't and you are 4-5 menus deep, you cant click back, you have to instead close it then head back to where you were before clicking on the wrong option.



a fresh install uses around 600+MB RAM on a system (virtual machine) with 2GB ram

If you set the VM to 1GB, it uses 400-500MB RAM

While windows xp only uses around 30-40MB (when you disable the extra crap)

I urge everyone to test windows 8 in a virtual machine and see for them self how difficult it is to navigate.

and it has nothing to do with a learning curve, it takes more steps to get too virtually all OS related settings compared to windows 7, and even more compared to windows xp

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

you obviously never argued with a die hard console fanboy ???

seriously , i play consoles and pc games both , but i have friends that play only console and i arguewith them endlessly about the differences between the two.

I did. I have friends like that, too. Point is, they're simply brainwashed clueless fools... brainwash them differently, and they'll follow.

 

[bustapr]

Gruener is paranoia at its worst. "Oh Nooo, Apple is growing so fast, and more people want tablets, PCs are SCREWED!" Grow a pair and realize that nearly everyone in the world has 1 or 2 PCs in theyre home.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

they really ruined the UI, they removed windows classic UP meaning you get the task bar that is taller than the windows classic taskbar but shows the same info (less efficient)

Without using the tablet UI it is extremely hard to get to any control panel options

they got rid of the start menu, this forces you to move all programs either to the desktop as icons or to the tablet UI as tiles

it also relies on horizontal scrolling making it very hard to find any program. (imagine if you had as many programs on your tablet or smartphone as you did on your desktop PC. then imagine finding a program that you want to run)

while it has a search feature, they moved it from the start/ tablet area, and instead made it into it's own search tool that you launch separately then search for the app you want. which is a issue because that implies you know the exact name of the program. (not everyone knows the exact spelling or name of all of their programs, they just recognize the program when they see it and windows 8 removes your ability to do that)

Basically what Microsoft did was take the windows phone 7 UI and made the standard windows desktop UI into a app that you launch.

They also got rid of the back buttons so if you use their poor excuse of a start menu, you cant go back so suppose you are trying to get to a certain setting and you don't know exactly where it is. if you mistakenly click where it isn't and you are 4-5 menus deep, you cant click back, you have to instead close it then head back to where you were before clicking on the wrong option.



a fresh install uses around 600+MB RAM on a system (virtual machine) with 2GB ram

If you set the VM to 1GB, it uses 400-500MB RAM

While windows xp only uses around 30-40MB (when you disable the extra crap)

I urge everyone to test windows 8 in a virtual machine and see for them self how difficult it is to navigate.

and it has nothing to do with a learning curve, it takes more steps to get too virtually all OS related settings compared to windows 7, and even more compared to windows xp

Wow. Relax. The point is that Gruener is an epic troll. Everybody dislikes Metro.

Look, MS is notorious for showing off and trying to popularize concepts that everyone hates. I remember how they were showing off with the fact that "keyboard and mouse will become secondary in Windows Vista" - they were hoping to get everyone on... I don't know what. After 7's success, MS forgot that it was only successful because it fixed Vista's mistakes and is again ready to force un-needed changes on everyone. It's fine; after everyone will hate on 8, they'll sober up and remove the BS in Win9 or whatever will be after 8. We've already been through this. MS doesn't understand that OS's attractiveness is not based on a GUI that is the most outrageous, different and pseudo-innovative. They'll learn sooner or later.

 

[jimslaid2]

[citation][nom]amdfangirl[/nom]Call me outdated but my Athlon XP (2002) computer is still running as a family print server/basic productivity computer. It does what it needs to do and does it quickly enough that I am the only person who ever complains about the computer being slow. And I have an SSD...In my own household, I'm switching from Windows XP to Linux for my end-users with low requirements. Linux has gone far enough so that buying Windows for casual users is a dumb idea. The rest of my computers run Windows 7, not out of want but of need to support the ever increasing memory requirements of Adobe's Creative Suite and AHCI support for SSDs...Buying a new version of Windows just doesn't make sense anymore. Between Linux and Windows 7, I don't have room for a giant smartphone OS.[/citation]

My kids already smear crap all over the 24" monitor I have. Windows 8 is the evolution of the PC. I am personally glad Microsoft is doing something about it before Apple steals more people away from what a computer should be.
Trust me on this one: You will all love windows 8, albeit you will not be easy to win over and you'll be kicking and screaming all the way. And Win8 will ensure the PC's market share domination remains so we don't have to live in a world of iOS loving hipsters.

 

[beenthere]

Correct, the PC is NOT going to die for a long, long, long, long time.

 

[JimmiG]

If the PC market crashes, it's because of Windows 8, not in spite of it. The fact is that nearly all consumer PCs come with Windows, so Microsoft decides what direction the evolution of the PC should take.

Switching to touch as the primary interface means anything with a screen larger than 13" is completely unpractical to use. With a bigger screen, you get huge icons several inches across, and you have to flail your arms at the screen like an idiot because the surface is so large. The mouse is far more efficient when you're working with large screens, because it allows you to reach anywhere on a 27" screen with just a few inches of movement. This problem was already apparent when Android moved from 4" smartphones to 9" tablets, and it's going to be much, much worse when you try to use a smartphone OS on a 27" display.

 

[wooodoggies]

the only thing that will "save" PC is user requirements. Until your average person get to where their smartphone/pad isnt powerful enough, then they will turn to PC's to get the work done. Then again your average person will spend 1K on a PC just to check email and facebook. It has nothing to do with PC's, it all has to do with what the user wants to do with it.

 

[Novulux]

The last sentence and title contradict?