Opinion: Should Microsoft Risk Windows 8 on Touch?

[dextermat]

i guess microsoft has gone all "touchy feely"

I say enable or disable option is the best deal although I don't want anyone to touch my screen

 

[Guest]

There's currently an air of The Emporor's New Clothes around MS's Win 8 plans in the tech press, so it's good to read an article that asks some questions about it. I tried the preview on a desktop and feel that although it will be great for tablets,it's a real step backwards with respect to mouse and keyboard use. And lets be realistic, the mouse and keyboard are not going away any time soon. They are the antithesis of imprecise poke-your-stubby-finger-in-the-general-direction-of-a-large-target-icon touch input. They are a precise form of input required perfectly suited for creative work on a desktop computer. I really think MS should allow Win 8 to run in two modes, Metro on top, or Win 7 type desktop with a proper Start menu and Metro completely hidden.

 

[someguynamedmatt]

Hello, Windows Millennium Edition.

 

[Wamphryi]

I am surprised to note that there has been very little mention of how games are very dependent on the keyboard and mouse. Personally I have no desire for my PC to be touch capable. I despise having marks on my screen at the best of times for one thing and having to reach up and over to a vertical screen is not my idea of efficient computing practice. However I doubt that MS will make Win 8 incapable of traditional input methods.

I can only assume that the Start Screen we are seeing is actually a means of disguising what the Start Screen will really look like at release. It is without doubt the must ugly interface I have ever seen. I would rather have Win 3.1 on my desktop.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

[citation][nom]belardo[/nom]I think MS is going in the right direction for the future of their BRAND and computers. Windows itself is becoming less and less important. With web-based MS-Office, it means anyone with any computer can use MS-Office. So for consumers... who needs Windows? Games? Nope, get a console. Far more AAA games on consoles than desktops[/citation]

Get a console yourself, troll... "who needs Windows"... haven't seen a more ridiculous claim for quite a while. Where're you gonna get your cloud Office from, huh? Your console? Tablet, maybe?

No IT-literate person will ever switch to cloud based setup for their home willingly.

 

[back_by_demand]

Fotunately Windows 8 is not touch exclusive and is only an added feature
...
The premise of the article is sensationalist tabloidism

Microsoft did not risk the Xbox 360 by giving it DVD playback as it still did what it was intended to do, play games.

So Windows 8 is the same, it will be a full blown operating system and you can use it with a keyboard & mouse and you will be able to navigate via an explorer.

Touch is an ADDED OPTIONAL EXTRA.

 

[jecastej]

My short answer is NO. No as a Windows OS only option. And particularly I don't like the tiles.
My medium to long term answer is YES. MS needs a great or greatest tablet OS and strategy.

 

[TEAMSWITCHER]

Microsoft has gone from dismissing the iPad as a passing fancy to "Re-Imagining" windows as a touch screen OS in only 15 months. My guess is that Windows 8 was supposed to be more like Windows 7, but the iPad and other tablets are poised to destroy Windows hegemony. Microsoft is using it's "Hurry-Up Offense" to get a response out the door ASAP. My only fear is that whenever Microsoft rushes they get sloppy - Vista and XBox 360 are classic and costly examples.

 

[PhoneyVirus]

A simple VBScript or Registry Tweak will take care of that Metro Interface and that Stupid Ribbon for Blind people, just take every command or short cut and put on the desktop.

PhoneyVirus

 

[eojhet]

I am riding on the notion that Microsoft understands their professional audience. Hopefully a Pro version will be released with all of the new bells and whistles (like the new task manager) sans Metro Poo-I. If the dev preview is anything like the full version than count me out. It is buggy and basically useless to me. The worst product I've seen come out of Microsoft in a long time. I have faith in them, however, they usually pull through and always impress.

 

[g-thor]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but Wolfgang seems to have a very narrow vision. First, in the third paragraph he mentions smartphones and tablets, then puts this (iPad). The iPad is not a smart phone, nor is it the only tablet. I understand it is the most popular - so what. And why no specific smartphones named? Very narrow indeed. And please note, I don't hate Apple, I respect them - have to as my wife has a MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad 2 to my Win7 laptop, smartphone (Nexus S) and Asus Transformer 101.

Then the article states,

Those of us who are 30+ years old will have to rethink the way we interact with computers.

Speak for yourself, and please don't brand me with your vague accusation that people over 30 have inflexible minds. I am way past 30, have worked with computers since the days of loading programs from cassette, using 8" floppies under CPM and have seen the changes first hand. I take these things in stride at worst, and when there is useful innovation I embrace it. As noted, I have a tablet and touch works beautifully for some things, but, as you suggest, it won't be the end all for user interface. I do a fair amount of video editing, and at this time, touch is too clunky to be really useful.

Then the article goes on a rant about germs, etc. Interesting, but it comes across as a bit obsessive compulsive. And as it notes, keyboards are already bad, but we manage to live with it.

Back to the narrow vision, yes, IF Win 8 forced everyone to use touch, it would die a necessary death. However, it will have room for both touch and keyboard/mouse. Will touch ever get so refined as to replace them? I don't know. I wouldn't mind if it did. But we need to read articles that see both the forest and the trees. Widen the vision a bit first, then the specific can be dealt with in a more informed and rational fashion.

 

[suture]

Windows is always a very configurable OS.
The on/Off buttons are always usefull

I really dont see the problem, ppl is getting scared for a new look? Meh get real.

 

[SteelCity1981]

i'm just wondering what the hell is so wrong with Windows 7 ui that they couldnt' leave well enough alone i mean the vast majority of people are happy with Windows 7 so instead of trying to reinvent something that already works why not leave it as is....

 

[Blessedman]

This will end up dominating the industry across all computing platforms

 

[dpeter45]

MS is making the same mistake they did with Vista. They're trying to copy Apple, which is really only a tiny niche market, and not listening to what the majority of people want. This is going to flop hard and most people will stay with XP and 7. Just watch.

 

[husker]

The touch interface has a big drawback in that there is no equivalent to the "Mouse Over" event. Some websites, for example, require you to hold your mouse pointer over a menu (without clicking) and then it automatically expands into a list where you can then click on a selection. Since the touch interface has already standardized that a "quick tap" = "left click" of the mouse, and the "touch and hold" = "right click", then what will users do to simulate hovering the mouse over an element?

 

[f-gomes]

"Fact: You will write three emails on a traditional keyboard in the time you write one on a touchscreen today."

Correction: I will write 10 emails on a keyb in the time anyone wrotes 1 on a touchscreen today.

Touch is useless on any production PC. Leave it to toys (iPad) and POS, not desktop/notebook PC's.

 

[Guest]

Within a couple years, virtually all screens will be touch sensitive. Get used to it. Nothing says that a Desktop PC or laptop needs to be exclusively mouse/keyboard or exclusively touch. Users will be free to use whichever input mode is most convenient for a particular task. Even on a vertical screen, the touch interface will be the most convenient way to position windows and shrink or expand the contents, for example, whereas text entry, cut and paste, etc. will be done most conveniently with mouse and hardware keyboard.

 

[livebriand]

Touchscreens are a useless gimick. The old mouse, keyboard, and Windows 7 interface are much easier to use. By the way, I'm 14. I just used that rfenabled registry hack on my Windows 8 VM, so now it looks just like Windows 7. The best registry hack I've ever used...

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]f-gomes[/nom]""Correction: I will write 10 emails on a keyb in the time anyone wrotes 1 on a touchscreen today.[/citation]

Just wow! Did you use a keyboard to type that out?

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]markbothwell[/nom]Within a couple years, virtually all screens will be touch sensitive. Get used to it. Nothing says that a Desktop PC or laptop needs to be exclusively mouse/keyboard or exclusively touch. Users will be free to use whichever input mode is most convenient for a particular task. Even on a vertical screen, the touch interface will be the most convenient way to position windows and shrink or expand the contents, for example, whereas text entry, cut and paste, etc. will be done most conveniently with mouse and hardware keyboard.[/citation]
But will people use it? A friend of mine has a new HP Touchsmart, touchscreen. I tried it at first, cool, but soon forgot about it and went back to the keyboard and mouse. Sorta like the webcam on my laptop - I've never used it and completely forgot about it. It's there, but not particularly useful for me.

 

[CaedenV]

What is with all the whining? I had no problems using a keyboard and mouse. I found the start/stop times to be much improved over win7, and all of my programs worked (even the super old copies of Premere Pro and Photoshop).

Am I going to buy Win8 for it's MetroUI? Absolutely not. Is it going to keep me from buying win8? Also absolutely not. The improvements on the desktop side are awesome, and MetroUI is a fine replacement for the oft unused start menu. Sure it needs work (like the scroll wheel working on more screens than just the start screen, or the ability to modify the grouping titles, or change the ugly defacto-green background), but it is in Dev (i.e. pre Alpha; much less Beta or public testing). I am sure it will be better by release time.

Also, I noticed that Metro apps refused to run on my netbook (acer aspire one) in either the 32 or 64bit flavors. Anyone else find this problem?

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]g-thor[/nom]Maybe I'm in the minority here, but Wolfgang seems to have a very narrow vision. First, in the third paragraph he mentions smartphones and tablets, then puts this (iPad). The iPad is not a smart phone, nor is it the only tablet. I understand it is the most popular - so what. And why no specific smartphones named? Very narrow indeed. And please note, I don't hate Apple, I respect them - have to as my wife has a MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad 2 to my Win7 laptop, smartphone (Nexus S) and Asus Transformer 101.Then the article states, Speak for yourself, and please don't brand me with your vague accusation that people over 30 have inflexible minds. I am way past 30, have worked with computers since the days of loading programs from cassette, using 8" floppies under CPM and have seen the changes first hand. I take these things in stride at worst, and when there is useful innovation I embrace it. As noted, I have a tablet and touch works beautifully for some things, but, as you suggest, it won't be the end all for user interface. I do a fair amount of video editing, and at this time, touch is too clunky to be really useful.Then the article goes on a rant about germs, etc. Interesting, but it comes across as a bit obsessive compulsive. And as it notes, keyboards are already bad, but we manage to live with it.Back to the narrow vision, yes, IF Win 8 forced everyone to use touch, it would die a necessary death. However, it will have room for both touch and keyboard/mouse. Will touch ever get so refined as to replace them? I don't know. I wouldn't mind if it did. But we need to read articles that see both the forest and the trees. Widen the vision a bit first, then the specific can be dealt with in a more informed and rational fashion.[/citation]

Welcome to Toms Hardware, Dont worry about Wolfie, he is crazy and most of us dont really read his articles because once you have read one then you have pretty much read them all. They are as follows; "The PC is dead/dying" "Anything about the next iPhone/pad is amazing groundbreaking news" and let us not forget "The PC is dead and dying because of the iPad". You get use to it after a while and still come back for the real hardware news published by others here.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]What is with all the whining? I had no problems using a keyboard and mouse. I found the start/stop times to be much improved over win7, and all of my programs worked (even the super old copies of Premere Pro and Photoshop).Am I going to buy Win8 for it's MetroUI? Absolutely not. Is it going to keep me from buying win8? Also absolutely not. The improvements on the desktop side are awesome, and MetroUI is a fine replacement for the oft unused start menu. Sure it needs work (like the scroll wheel working on more screens than just the start screen, or the ability to modify the grouping titles, or change the ugly defacto-green background), but it is in Dev (i.e. pre Alpha; much less Beta or public testing). I am sure it will be better by release time.Also, I noticed that Metro apps refused to run on my netbook (acer aspire one) in either the 32 or 64bit flavors. Anyone else find this problem?[/citation]
Microsoft says that you need at least a 1024x768 screen res for metro apps, and I'm assuming you only have 1024x576 or 1024x600. I didn't have issues on my netbook, but that's 1366x768 (an AMD Zacate E350 thing).

 

[pepe2907]

Microsoft should be idiots, if they believe I will touch-interact with a 24" monitor. And how much will cost a 24" touchscreen with enough quality and speed for effective let's say engineering work? Is such device even exist?