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10 MORE technologies that are just plain broken

You say its an inefficient use of space and lame. Really? Have you actually used a windows phone? I would say that the design is actually very efficient and far better than the mess that you can create on an android phone. Windows 8 on a touch device is fantastically easy to use as well. Whether it is suited to mouse and keyboard is another matter...

nice one, but for me a phone (no matter if it has Android or Windows Mobile installed) is designed to....ringing and answering calls

Yes yes, your new shiny phone is very pretty. The issue is being forced to use the Windows 8 touch interface on Desktop devices which may or may not include touch screens. On touch devices or even touch laptops, sure. On upright displays and work production systems.. we'll have to see how that plays out in practice still.

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No, I've used a Windows phone and gave it back for exactly the reasons he suggests. I've done the same with Windows 8 on my laptop - installed, then uninstalled. The author of the article is correct. Windows 8 UI is broken by design. That's the reason that Windows 8 isn't selling and Windows Phone is still lagging behind Android and iPhone.

I've been using the "Modern UI" on my WP7.5 for just about two years now and like it better than both the iPhone and the Andriod. It's different and everyone I show it to remarks how fast it is compared to their phones.
As far as Windows 8 goes, it's different, but it has not caused me any issues yet. If you are running it on a desktop or laptop, then it will be easier to use with a scroll mouse. You can navigate the start screen and all list simply by rolling the wheel on you mouse, it's that easy.

What's more important? the data, or the interface that presents it?

Seems microsoft learnt nothing with their Windows XP MCE offering - where the UI would consume 75% of available real estate, leaving a corner for the actual media; to me, the Win 8 start "panel" feels the same way - and intrusive.

I've been using W8 since the first preview on both touch and desktop. So have my wife and daughter. It's different but it works very well and we all like it. I would like to see Office in the new interface; everything I've used in it has been an improvement once you get used to the various touch gestures. Remember W95 and getting the hang of that? It was far worse than W8.
Luddites beware.

It was easy to get the hang of, since I had already been using a Mac for years. (Of course, I had to break the habit of trying to use features that M$ didn't copy from A$$le...)

I installed the Win8 preview in a virtual machine, and I didn't care for it very much. But considering that I still customize my XP installs to classic, and Win7 installs to be as classic like as possible, I admit I am probably not the target consumer for M$. I use many different computers and I try to make my profiles on them as similar as possible. I am a creature of habit, and when I click the start button and see the "new XP" style start menu, I lose my train of thought. I put that puppy right back to classic!

Something I really liked with the classic Mac OS is that updates didn't remove features and functions, only added to them. I could integrate the new features and new shortcuts to make my computer more functional for me. They didn't just change the UI and say, "Use this! It's better!" (Well, now they do, but I don't buy A$$le anything any more. [cough] Galaxy Note running Android [cough])

My work computer is Windows7, and I like many of the UI features in 7, especially the windows snapping to the sides and top. I love that and use it constantly! I want to take the parts of the new UI and add them to the parts of the old UI I like, and have a custom UI that works for me. By eliminating the classic start menu in Win7, and eliminating the start menu completely in Win8, (and removing menus in Office,) M$ is annoying me to no end by taking my choices away and trying to make me do the same old thing in new and unfamiliar ways.

My computer! My choice! Do not dictate how I should set up my work environment. Give me all the options and let me decide what works best for me.

PS I would love to try a Surface or Windows Phone, but no one I know owns one, or has even seen one. Metro might work great on them, but at this rate, I will never know. M$ might as well be selling unicorns.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates both copied their "windows paradigm" from Xerox PARC - it was part of the Star System there. The same paradigm was copied by MIT for Xwindows in UNIX.

design for Windows from Apple while doing some contract work for them way back when in the 1980s.

... MS, Atari, Commodore, PS (Personal System from IBM), Amiga 1000, all copied Apple (first Lisa and later Macintosh). (If you are old enough to remember). In fact the first usable OS MS sold was Windows 3.0 and 3.1 in 1993.
When the Lisa hitted the market in 1984 and Macintosh in the begining of 1985 there were not any Windows.
MS made at the last part of 1985 a graphical shell almost like the DOS-shell but resembling MACintosh that was called Windows 1.0, but only to apear in the scene like Commodore GEOs, Amiga 1000, Atari 520, etc.
In fact Amiga 1000 hitted the market before Windows 1.0 even when in Commodore they had to develop the hardware and the software.

I have used Windows phone, iPhone and Android. I really do not care for a Windows phone at all, and considering their market share, most feel the same way.

Sure you can make an iPhone or Android horrible too, but by in large that does not happen from the manufacturer.

Windows 8 on the desktop (no touch screen) is horrid! You can't treat a 23" screen the same way you treat a 4" screen, you just can't! And you certainly shouldn't!!!

The Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 UIs are a superb exercise in UI design. I find them fast and productive, which is why I have installed W8 on all four of my machines, have a Surface and a WP8. Most of the complaints I've heard from people appear to be repeats of other opinions from people who haven't actually used it in anger.

Productivity is what W8 is all about.

In my experience, and according to everyone I have talked to productivity suffers with Windows 8. If you like Windows 8 on a phone and tablet, I can understand that (I don't, but that is personal preference). But Windows 8 on a desktop is a horrid experience. You can't treat a 23" monitor and full keyboard / mouse like you treat a small mobile device like a 4"phone (with no keyboard / mouse) or a 10" tablet (that may have a keyboard). They are different, have different uses, and require different interfaces.

When I am on a desktop I don't want to have to move my hands from the keyboard to the mouse, let alone to a screen. Maybe if the screen were embedded in my desk (and I got rid of the keyboard and mouse) it would be ok. But Windows 8 on the desktop causes all kinds of productivity problems. Testing in one environment I consult for has definitively proved that.

I agree that it would be horrible as a desktop and server (but great for anything with a touch screen)... but I guess we will see how popular windows 8 server will actually be

of a Windows operating system as Win 8 now, even when it gets wiped off a Dell etc to install Linux or Win 7.

...are that the screen should be about one metre from the eyes, when your job mainly involves computer use, to prevent eye strain.

Touch screens are not very helpful, even if your arms are a metre long.

I can't imagine using a computer with my screen one meter (approx. 39 inches) away from me. Maybe 24 to 28 inches (.6 to .7 meter) -- that is a more normal distance from a desktop screen. Of course your tablet and smartphone users are even closer to the screen! Talk about hard on the eyes ...

If you don't want to use "touch" on Windows 8, use your mouse. It works just as well. (Sometimes better.)

Further, just because metro interface is there doesn't mean you have to use it. I login in the mornings and spend my entire workday on the desktop. When I go home, I use "Metro" for non-work related stuff.

Windows 8 gives you the best of both worlds and you use the tools you want.

I agree that metro icons are too big on a 24"+ 1920x1080 screen but on a 11" to 14" notebook / tablet screen, it is perfect.

the Classic look and one with the touch-screen look and capability, and let the people decide which they want when they buy or install.

just beyond arm's length with the middle of the monitor set at the same level as your eyes - - to use a Win 8 screen you have to be a hand's width under arms length, and have to reach up all the time to use it as a touch screen device.

man oh man, Win 8 on desktop monitors is going to cause shoulder and sore arms issues that will make the old carpal tunnel and RSI issues seem like nothing.

Win 8 on phone or a tablet, OK, maybe on a notebook, but NEVER on a desktop monitor, it's asking for health issues and is no where as efficient as a mouse and keyboard on a menu driven system for general business work.

is with elderly newbies or visual impaired. One of my buddies that isn't able to see very well, can't wait to order his Samsung series 7 all-in-one with a 27" touch screen with Win8. My dearly departed mother was never able to master a mouse at all. I see where this is actually pretty common - we were TV and video game babies - we have brains wired differently than the previous generation.

Also, when I was working with children in the non-profit arena, we had great success using full sized desktop monitors with touch capability. This is a very narrow market of course.

I can see the advantage of that specific use and he should consider, very hard, to have a special desk or desk add on made with it installed at a30 to 45 degree angle from horizontal so he can work on it with the screen at or below his sternum so he doesn't get arm and shoulder issues lifting his arms to work the screen.