wtf were Microsoft thinking with Win8?

[julesjones]

Well, yes, I know what they were thinking. They were thinking One OS To Rule Them All, across phone, tablets and desktops. Unfortunately I don't like the Tinkertoy style of interface even on phones and tablets, where it belongs and is being useful. On a serious work machine -- eeeuw.

A lot of my reaction so far is that It's Very Different, and it took me some time to even find the button to Run All The Updates. Which has to happen before the Big Update to Win 8.1, which is apparently somewhat more suited to people who would like to continue doing serious work with their work machine. I left it downloading and installing its 101 updates last night. (The 101 is absolutely literal, not hyperbole.) But I'm not going to like it even when I get used to it.

I haven't yet created the restore drive. This is because I'm a dinosaur, and the last time I had to create restore discs, they were discs. On CD, because DVD writers were an expensive optional extra on laptops, and even in desktops. It hadn't occurred to me that in the last eight years assumptions on what gets used for small writeable media have... changed. I need to go and buy a 16 GB memory stick tonight.

Part of the eeuw is that I do not want flickering, moving, dancing things on my home screen. I don't even want static things cluttering up my home screen trying to get my attention. I do not want a ticker tape of the news, I do not want an instant update of the weather. I do not want live update of the world at large. I have not wanted these things for a long, long time -- I took one look at Google's attempt at this lo these many years ago, and went "What? Why?" My colleagues do not understand how I can possibly have a smartphone without a dataplan, because it means that I can't have live updates of the weather and the news and god knows what else on my phone at every second of the day. They do not understand that as far as I'm concerned this lack is a feature and not a bug.

More of the eeuw is that it assumes a touchscreen. I'm disabled. I use Dragon much of the time, with reason. There's a decent trackpad on the Asus, but with my particular set of musculoskeletal problems I am generally much more comfortable with a mouse and appropriate mouse rest.

Now starting to wish that I'd spent the time and money to get a decent Win7 machine, even if it's on its way out. Unfortunately staying on the XP box wasn't really a practical option, because it really is creaking at the seams now.

Comments

[spacefall]

With a bit of annoying fiddling you can switch 8.1 back to almost-7. Set it to boot straight to desktop not start screen, delete all the stupid animated bollocks out of the start screen and put YOUR shortcuts there, install the non-metro versions of software like skype etc, use the classic control panel, disable swipe edges in the mouse settings. If you have to use the fullscreen gumph, grab next update or buy ModernMix (cheap) to make them run exactly like normal desktop apps or retroUI (less cheap) to bring back the whole win 7 thing.

I don't use a touchscreen, and use 8 with mostly keyboard commands. To start an app, touch start key then type its name and enter etc. It's actually pretty kb friendly to me...but it really tries to force touchiness on you at first :( My first user experience of win 8 was AWFUL but having bludgeoned it for a while it's now stable and well behaved. :P

[pteppic]

I keep being asked how I'm finding Windows 8.1. I live most of my life in a combination of console windows, terminal windows, text editors and remote desktop sessions.

So my answer is "it's *fine*, but I don't think I'm the user you want to be asking."

[julesjones]

:-)

That's actually rather reassuring.

[julesjones]

Thanks for that. I'd been assured it's possible (which is why I was willing to contemplate buying the thing), but useful pointers from those who have gone before are much appreciated.

[green_knight]

You'll be happy to hear that MS is changing its corporate focus so there's a fighting chance that the next change will be... well, probably atrocious in a different dimension, but not candy-coloured boxes.

What struck me about Win 8 was that I was curious when it came out, and I could not do a thing with it. Granted, this was five minutes in a computer shop, but after 20+ years of computing experience (and doing Windows support without ever having owned a Windows box) I stood in front of it and could not find the magic gestures to give me a filesystem or a list of apps or anything useful.

[julesjones]

Well, it's going to be the odd-numbered release, so everyone expects it to be the good one that gets right what they thought they were trying to do in the even-numbered one. One of the reasons I have an XP laptop is that I carefully went out and got one expensive enough to have "downgrade" rights, because Vista had been out long enough by then for me to have heard all the horror stories.

I tried it briefly in the shop, and found that it confused me even more than the Apple desktop OS does, which is saying something. But I really, really need a new machine, and getting Win7 meant paying quite a bit more, or buying a refurb model.

[spacefall]

Same here. I needed a cheap laptop, and the software I use runs better under Win than Linux for the moment.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Fear not! You can get rid of all the stupid clutter. I soon had my Win8 computer working as much like WinXP as possible and I work entirely from the desktop. I only see the Start screen for a moment when the computer boots up, then I click whichever icon I want to work with first (usually email) and from then on, I never see the Start screen again.

There are desktop versions of any "apps" you might need -- I'm afraid I'm still old-fashioned enough to call them "programs". I was also pleasantly surprised at how many of my old programs worked. There were a few where I had to download updates and one or two had new versions, but mostly it was a lot less traumatic than I'd been led to believe.

[julesjones]

The only reason I was willing to buy a Win8 machine was because I had been assured by someone at Eastercon that it's possible to get rid of most of the nonsense. :-) Once I've dealt with the most basic stuff in getting the machine up and running, I may have to pick your brains.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

We manage to ignore most of the 'app' and touch things on our nre Windows 8 laptop - the guy who sold it to us showed us how to :)

Still prefer 7... and would happily go back to XP (which is on my aging and soon to be replaced desktop at work)