jawtheshark's Journal: Windows 8 might become a success

I'm not a Windows fanboi... Far from it. Yet, Windows 8 might not deserve the bad rap it gets in the tech world.

I think this because I remember how the tech community reacted to Unity on Ubuntu. Hey, I did react violently too, because Unity in 10.10 to 11.10 definitely sucked. I continued to use it and I have to admit that in 12.04 it has become good. Sure, perhaps a bit dumbed down for the average power-user, but I can live with that.

If you read here more often, you might think "why for hells sake did you continue to use it if you didn't like it". The reply to this is that I use Ubuntu (LTS) for a "drop and forget" for non tech users. I was utterly dreading giving them Unity.

My worries were unfounded. When my dad had to go to the hospital (twice) earlier this year (He has COPD as we've now been told and has been on the brink of death twice), I provided him with a low-weight dumpster-diven laptop (CoreDuo/4GB RAM, if you must know) on which I quickly installed Ubuntu so he could surf and email. Not a single question was asked... None. Sure, my dad is Windows power user, but really, no question at all.

I upgraded my Mom's computer to 12.04 LTS in May.. Not a single question either... My mom is no tech...

I will say it how it is: Mark Shuttleworth was right, and the tech community wasn't.

What has this got to do with Windows 8? Simple: the interface is radically different, just like Unity. It's radically simplified, just like Unity... We techs all hate it, just like Unity. However, has anyone ever bothered to sit down a real non-tech user in front of it? That will tell us the success of failing of it. Normal, non-tech users, will probably like the simplicity.

I predict that, if Windows 8 doesn't have other problems, it might not be the disaster we techs think it will be.

You Forget

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

This is leveraging the people who brought us KIN, with the process that created 7 options to shut down your machine, from the "Start" menu.

Honestly, if MS wanted a great phone OS? They could have kept the great UI from the 2nd Gen Zune. But they saw what Apple was doing with apps and iOS - and got confused about which part of Cupertino they were supposed to copy.

The every other Windows version sucks theory says

[johndiii]

That Windows 7 was pretty good, so Windows 8 will suck, in the tradition of Vista and ME.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

My thoughts exactly.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

Except, I really dislike 7. It's only 'good' because Vistb sucked bad. 7 is Vista with bugfixes. It truly feels like that to me.

Re:

[Captain Splendid]

Oh yeah, Windows 7 sucks hard, no doubt about that. Aas much as I call it 'good', it has not dampened my drive to turn all my non-gaming machines over to Linux. And even then, since I'm mostly a Steam gamer, that won't be much of an issue eventually.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

The problem with that line of thinking, is that the predecessor of XP was Windows 2000, which was awesome and would still be useable today if it didn't lack good Wireless support. Windows 7 is only percieved as 'good' due to Vista being such a turd. I truly dislike 7. To me it feels like Vista with bugfixes.

Re:

[johndiii]

You're right about 2000. But it was never positioned as a consumer OS, and that's the line of reasoning. 98 -> ME -> XP -> Vista -> 7 -> 8. It breaks down if you include 95 or 98 SE, because neither of those truly sucked.

And yes, 7 is only decent compared to Vista. Not that I've used it much; I no longer own a Windows box (and my intention is never to have another one), and at work we use Server 2008. It is possible to turn off a lot of the nasty UI stuff, at least in the server OS.

Re:

[jawtheshark]

ou're right about 2000. But it was never positioned as a consumer OS,

True, but then I do remember that the higher end machines often had it, even those for consumers. At least at my side of the globe. Back then, I often heard people as "should I get a ME machine or a 2000" machine because they were available in the stores (try finding a "Pro"/"Business" version now in the store, preinstalled). My reply always was 2000.

The times were different back then. Many people who bought computer, were more tech sa