Discussion on:

Five reasons businesses should adopt Windows 8

The vast majority of business users need outlook, word and excel, that's it. In many businesses, even internet is restricted.

Don't forget about the block level De-Dup that Windows Server 8 will offer out of the box.

This product will fall under microsoft's "ever other OS" syndrom, it will be skipped. The learning curve for users is too great and windows 7 does everything major corporations NEED it to do. Companies are not as mobile as you think, yes they have mobile users but security wise there are many products out there that are domain friendly that cost less than a new OS. I love new technology and will be testing windows 8 today but I am looking at this from a real business world and not an IT playland.

8 sec bootup time is great however, most computers get started once a week... Many users hibernate so they can keep their place or they are running a desktop that gets window locked.

Windows to go is nice for IT but I don't see it as a practical use for the end user, the features are there but the consumers will be the lab rats for this experiment.

Seems most business centric websites are panning Windows 8. I don't think it's a horrible idea to have Windows 8 on a business desktop. After all, if most user's use only Outlook, Word and Excel well then, those are the only tiles that need to be on the Metro start menu and then there's 0 user confusion. I do like the live tile notifications with the alternating messages. It might be nice if you could sidebar certain applications tiles on the left side of the screen so you can see at a glance what email is waiting, what users are messaging you (internal business IM is on the rise), etc but that's probably too minor of a thing. Most people would probably say, just leave the window open! but I'm one of those users that tends to maximize what I'm working on to push everything else out of view so I can focus. That's not to say I don't like multiple windows or the desktop (having multiple windows open side by side or cascaded has advantages), it's just that I like to focus on one thing at a time and only use multiple windows when I have to so...I can see having windows 8 on a desktop computer. I just dont think it's going to happen widescale. That being said, it's pretty damn sweet on my Series 7 slate!

Common user experience - uh, Windows 8 doesn't provide that, and won't until it gets all apps on the same GUI. There's no common user experience as long as we're switching between Metro and psuedo-Aero, depending on what each app needs.

I don't get the point of Windows To Go in a corporate environment. If a user needs W8 on a system, why not just install it? I'm missing something here.

I could see some advantages to the reset option for consumers. For the workplace, I wouldn't bother with the Reset when I can re-image the drive; that will put all my apps back. I wouldn't try the Refresh until I tried System Restore first (assuming it exists in W8) because Restore doesn't wipe any apps.

I'll bet that eight second boot requires a solid state drive. I don't know about the value of increase boot times on desktops and laptops is worth replacing the mechanical drives in those systems. Mostly, I wish I could get my users to shut down in the first place.

Ditto the hardware costs of implementing those new login methods. I can't see us paying for touch screens for desktops just to log on. Our laptops already have fingerprint sensors.

3G/4G is only of value to mobile users. Pointing out advantages like this one help drive the belief that MS doesn't really care about running W8 on traditional desktops and non-cellular laptops.

Does anybody remember a version of windows that wasn't supposed to "revolutionize" computer use and be the "best and easiest windows yet"? Since the last three releases I have had the feeling that MS just tosses all the old functions in a hat, shakes it for a while, and then pulls the old user interface together in a completely new and unfamiliar way. All the things that You had learned where they were, You have to search for again, and find in the most unexpected places. The only real surprise with windows7 for me was: no email program. It was probably MS's answer to viruses and malware. They must have thought, if You can't fix it them remove the service, no one will notice.

I'm still quite happy with XP3, and our company sees no reason to upgrade even after 2014. MS has to invent (ste@l) some pretty awsome technology before it will be worth the effort to upgrade.

'But the security, and the support', I hear You say. Does anybody rely on window's own security systems? I thought not. And when was the last time You contacted MS's support and got.... support? Same here. Never.

But what about the stock level interleaved De-Dup-Flip-Flop that Windows Premium Hyperlinium Sanitarium Server 8 offers right under the box? Well, You got me there. What was I thinking about.

Our business (115 users) do NOT have now have touch devices, nor will have in the future.
Try typing a business or legal letter via touch what a laugh
Our main business as slayer states require (WP, SS, and DB facilities) which are NOT touch.
We had enough trouble when Office introduced the RIBBON slowed productivity by 20% initially, and after we spent more money training is now back up to par.

These 5 points aren't the greatest reasons to switch. Ifd they are, then Windows 8 [client] will fail.
I can not see domain users logging into their computer the same way as the consumper preview does.
I also can't see businesses using the [what will become the] dreaded Metro interface in business computers. Fine and dandy on a smartphone and tablets that support a touch screen - otherwise useless.
Some of it also looked dumbed down to the level that Apple's OS X is like. As an example, what's with the fish on the screen at boot up [or is it a bird smoking something]?
This will cost a fortune in training if it's like this.

Common user experience across devices -
- too bad Metro has very little in common with previous versions of Windows.
- I spent an hour trying to get out of the calendar applet. I couldn't find any way out. I had to reboot.
- great, I want a touch UI on my touchless desktop ...
- using the vertical scroll wheel on the mouse to HORIZONTALLY scroll the metro desktop? Yup, that is intuitive!

Windows To Go
Ok, I can see it would be easier than providing laptops or home computers for home use. But only after you do all the work to provide the secure connection.

Push Button Reset
Great, a (l)user tries to install something they shouldn't, or messes up some other way to they hit the "reset" quote "Reset your PC to its factory state" Oops, there goes our corporate image, AND all of the users personal files and personal settings Or the just use "Refresh", quote "Traditional Windows programs aren???t included", Oops, there goes Office 2010.
Either way, corporate IT is getting a panicked phone call from the user, and the situation is much worse than the original problem ...

Faster boot time
Great, how often do you boot your desktop? Once a day, maybe. Sure it is nice for portable devices, but they dont' shutdown, they sleep ...

New login options
This article does not have a high opinion of the value of these new options: https://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/122211-windows8-authentication-254372.html?source=nww_rss

3G/4G support
Great for portable devices, not that we have many. Does nothing for desktops, which we have LOTS of!


How about useful stuff like "Bitlocker" and "Applocker"? Are they available in more accessible Windows releases than Enterprise and Ultimate? Speaking of releases, what is the lineup of Bundles for Win 8? I haven't seen any official mention yet. Just one spot that speculated it MAY have been reduced to 3 versions of Win8 (but I doubt that).

I spent 5 hours playing with the consumer preview. I really do wish they had made more applications available for the trial. One I tried to download said it was no longer available. The other didn't work ... Just looking at the OS doesn't do me much good (I HATE METRO). At least I was able to install Office 2010 with only a minor issue that was resolved.

You seem to have forgotten the part where one has to sit in front of the system and work for hours. Windows 8 is frustrating to use on a non touchscreen desktop. Microsoft should really do something about it to make it suck a little less. Like allowing arrow buttons to navigate or work with manufacturers to create capacitative multitouch desktop monitors.

There are people who use computers this way ...

http://www.officemuseum.com/IMagesWWW/Early_1920s_Veterans_Bureau_Calculating_WWI_Vet_Bonuses_LOC.JPG

... and there are people who use computers this way ...

http://www.profimedia.si/photo/man-with-clipboard-talking-to-woman-in/profimedia-0081805909.jpg

... but seldomly both ways at once.

Metro is an abortion in my opinion. How cool to touch huge, squarish buttons... then what????

Who would pay you to srf the net, or open apps? Real world activities require interacting - and I mean, really interacting with the interface. So, your chubby finger opens up Excel. Or the ERP of your choice. Then what? Sure, you need a mouse a KB and lots and lots of resolution to get work done.

When I look at Metro's interface, it looks either like a child's toy or an abstract painting. By no stretch of immagination is that a day to day interface. So what if it runs on 10 flavors of hardware (that I'd never get to use) or off a mem stick - IT would drop dead before users are allowed to boot the OS off a stick.

Really - this is an attempt to have something that works off a slate or smartphone... but I would not run that off a laptop.

Windows 8 may engage enterprises limited to when and where for presentation puposes only. It has nothing special to get inpiration for huge part of coporate sector that enhace efficiency and anticipate orgs to move on this new look.
Perhaps, in my opinion, business's involved in graphics may get some thing better from it.

Most businesses use intranet apps that are generally platform independent and only some are browser dependent. So why bother? If it has a browser, it's ok. We don't yet see the reason for upgrading to Win7. All the machines in our company are XP's and will remain that way for as long as it is technically and humanly possible. The investment priorities are very different from IT. and since IT is not CORE business but only SUPPORT.... need I detail further?
Let IT "pros" play with toys such as tablets and Win8. We're using computers to make bucks, not for the fun of it. Learning a different OS and adapting all applications and users to it is tricky and complicated. Costly too. We don't want to have to pay for all that. Nobody does.

... that most of these papers are plain advertising or promotional materials. Are they? How can anyone in their right mind promote something like Win 8 for businesses?!? I'd rather shift to Linux than put that....hmm.... thing on my computer.
And that's that.