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Get the true story behind Windows 8

Also I am not seeing a great response from the home market either, my residential clients have not been happy. The interface that is suppose to be so easy for them is just confusing them. Also the fact that the windows mail app does not support pop servers has not helped, and to use many of the apps it requires an MS account. Another user-name and password for them to remember.

I have to do everything from that hack to let it boot directly to the desktop to full formats and re-installs of Win 7.

It just comes down to this, the OS is a turkey. It is MS Bob all over again.

And an additional note to Microsoft, quoting Deadly Ernest:

"...makes it clear that Win 8 is aimed solely at the mobile user personal entertainment market and totally ignores the real needs of business, the enterprise, and workplace productivity..."

Every television advertisment I've seen for Surface has been a loud, heavy beat on the music display of a group of 15 or so very young people, some dressed in 'hip' attire, and all with multi-colored Surfaces. They're either hip-hop dancing around waving their tablets or sitting at what looks like a picnic table playing 'musical tablets' - pushing them all around the table to each other.

Professional? No. Demonstrating any productive use? No. Showing the Surface in the best way possible of being a consumer toy? Yes.

The other ads are children in the 3 - ~8 yr old range just poking their finger at things on the screen and swiping back and forth. The target market?

I have seen very few ads of two 'business' men looking at a PowerPoint presentation, but that by itself is an extremely limited tool.

I get the impression, Microsoft, that you had a mandate to release the Surface RT prior to 'Black Friday.' Part of that impression is that you feel you would have totally lost the market if you couldn't have done that .. so release a limited entertainment product. Now, you're trying to garner enthusiasm for a 'real computer' Surface for the rest of your market that doesn't seem to exist. And at considerable, and often duplicate, expense.

There are possibilities to make this work - including a non-tile, fully functional desktop as primary and have the 'formerly Metro' interface as a secondary option. Play there. Synch there (tablet/phone). But still be able to work.

Think about the market. MS doesn't have to sell Windows to business; it's already well-entrenched. Where it has problems is competing with operating systems already established in the tablet market. Hence the consumer-oriented ads.

It's the same as the smart phone market. When was the last time you saw a phone ad that demonstrated the product being used as anything other than an entertainment device? Anybody that NEEDS one is going to buy one (or have the company buy it). The slice of market up for grabs are those people who WANT one. They're the ones who need convincing.

Is directly aimed at the Entrainment Market and not the Business Market which will be serviced by the yet unreleased Surface Pro could very well have something to do with the way that the adds are constructed.

You can not add a Surface RT to a Domain or otherwise use it in a Business Environment as it simply lacks the Processing Power the ability to Multi Task and so on as well as the other things that a Business System is required to do.

The Surface RT is purely and Simply a Play Toy that is a Sprat to catch a Mackerel and interest the Business Types onto a platform of Tablets running Windows 8.

With companies other than RIM is is quite common to release the Play Toy first and then the Professional Item latter after there is a ready made market for that type of Platform.

The only company who fails to do this is Apple who simply doesn't make a Business Tablet or Phone Platform and the people who buy those products then expect the IT Department to find a way to make them work in the existing infrastructure.

Personally I would be very surprised to see any Advertising for the RT showing anything but it being used by Domestic Users as a Play Toy as that is exactly what is was designed as.

Col

was a recent one showing a couple stranded in an airport. They sit down and begin using their phone to ... watch what their home DVR had recorded. Why aren't these idiots trying to book another flight, or get a rental car, or find a nearby hotel room?

They know that they left dirty dishes in the sink.

"There's an app for that."

If MS feels it does not have to sell to business, then what does MS plan to do in the post-Windows-7 age? If MS had/has a problem with businesses giving up XP, it will be much harder for businesses to give up Windows-7.

We 115 Users have ........
Moved our users (115) to a flavour of Linux "Zorin 6" which has a UI that looks and works like WIN7.
We purchased Zorin 6 Ultimate with DVD media for NZ$30.00 and it has applications also When we can move to Linux flavor Zorin 6 Ultimate, "http://zorin-os.com/premium.html" for NZ$30.00 with DVD and Support per seat.
This includes Libra Office and a full range of Applications Business, Multimedia, Gaming, you don't need to purchase anything else.
And we will also be purchasing Ubuntu Server Advanced loaded or Zental Server "https://store.zentyal.com/" with all options.
The cost saving per user is around NZ$800.00 per user, and the server well we were very surprised, and our accountant loved the savings to the balance sheet.

"Moved our users (115) to a flavour of Linux "Zorin 6" which has a UI that looks and works like WIN7."
Doesn't look like W7, closer to OSX.
Why pay for a distro when so many of them are free?

the 'Support per seat' is why they're spending money.

but the basic one is like Gnome and what comes up when you first install it.

You can download the Basic Zorin 6 for free or pay a few pounds for an ISO of the system with a lot of extra software pre-set on the ISO instead of having to choose it and install it after setting the system up. They also have a support option where you can pay for extra special support by their techs, just like Red Hat does.

Shouldn't MS have given this explanation quite some time ago? Why wait til now?

nt

UX week 2012 was last August, before the release of Windows 8.

nt

more than 5 months before the final release of Windows 8. How much more advanced notice do you recommend?

MS was finally forced in a vain attempt to "come clean" or rationalize Windows-8. When the much-touted hyperbole was and is such a disconnect with the "real world" needs of the business setting, and Windows-8 wasn't the "savior" it was expected to be, MS had to do something. The opportunity to repair the damage and do something for the business community is not that long. What will be MS's response?

a pure piece of crap... as usual... when third parties will have delivered nice solutions to work arround their crazy choice to bash the enterprise users with their so called metro, thrid parties solutions that will help MSFT to try to look "inovative" as if they ever were!

I see W8 as a mobile oriented OS, just like Ernest, and as long as my company doesn't have a BYOD policy, we don't need it, we won't switch to W8 no matter how nice some people say it is.

I'm part of the W8 EAP in our company and after a week or so I could do anything at better speed compared to W7 on the same system. Actually there are a lot of things under the hood plus the option of adding some 'mobile' apps and gadgets.

"I'm part of the W8 EAP in our company and after a week or so I could do anything at better speed compared to W7 on the same system. Actually there are a lot of things under the hood plus the option of adding some 'mobile' apps and gadgets."

And it only took you a week to "adapt" to Win8, to basically train yourself how to use this application. What if all the major Fortune 500 corporations only invested a week for all employees in training for Windows 8? Can you imagine the amount of lost profit and productivity that would occur? Windows 7 works. It's stable, a very good platform for maximum productivity and minimum downtime. I would be interested to hear your input from the perspective of ROI why anyone in their right mind would want to convert to Windows 8. Happy New Year!

It's not a week of doing nothing other than learning. It's a week of slightly reduced productivity while you adapt your processes to make use of the new system. In almost every case it is my experience that
you end up more productive, so the investment sees a return very quickly.

It's a little like a colleague of mine some years ago who complained that every time he used his new printer, he had to print things a couple of times to get the result he was after. He had time to do things the slow way, but no time to learn the fast way. Pretty short-sighted.

it takes about 2 days to replace your computer system with another even it has the same OS, let say Windows 7. Plus to be honest it is fun. More people love to learn new things and if this is managed in the proper way the employees will feel better evaluated and trusted. And our company is among the first 10 in the Fortune 500 for the last year

Harris is trying hard to make change for the sake of change a good thing. Well it is if you want to fleece the consumer, but otherwise it is rubbish. Who really needs Windows 8?

Those of us who were around to see Windows 286 released (or Win95 - fill in your own favorite) felt the same way. It was buggy, barely functional, required additional and often expensive hardware, etc, etc. But... unless you were running Concurrent Dos, it was rather nice to be able to do more than one thing at a time, and it was just the tip of the icebug for what was to come. For many of us, W8's time has not come yet. We just don't need what it offers. But I'm betting one of these days, we will.

If you like W7 there is nothing stopping you from continuing to use it. I personally am not using W8 right now and most likely will not till I get a touch enabled device.

That is where it starts to make some sense and that my friends is where things are heading in the longer term like it or not.

valid reason to have to pay twice to be able to get and use Win 7 on a new system.

but you can still order it online through 3rd party resellers even in Australia.
We already established this Deadly.

especially those wanting a new PC for home. But, please explain why it should be available with a system from Dell etc on-line but not via the retail stores!

and I recently bought two Asus laptops online with Win 7. I purposely bought when I did in order to get Win 7, not 8. I may take advantage of the $15.00 upgrade offer later though as it's not a lot of money if I decide I don't want 8.

As for your Dell question, it's probably a marketing decision (ugh!). They should make all their options available online and at retail.

who do NOT like buying without trying going from shop to shop looking for PCs. One local shop is putting together an inexpensive but OK system with the option of Ubuntu or Zorin OS 6 with the Win 7 interface set up. He says he's using Linux to keep the costs down. He's selling a lot of them to people who walk out of the retails stores with only Win 8 systems and don't want Win 8. The hardware and prices are comparable.

getting software in a retail store has no advantage over downloading it online.
I see your point about hardware but software is a very different story.

over the last few versions, people do want to see what it's like and how it works before they buy it. Most people like to know the software they're buying is fit for what they want first, especially farmers and the like.

That's what the free demos were for.
They can still go to Microsoft and run the tutorials before they buy it.
http://windows.microsoft. com/en-US/windows-8/settings-search-shutdown-basics#1TC=t1

You are grasping at straws my friend.

the reason they were looking at new computers was because their old ones were almost dead or dying, usually six years or more old. The problem you mention with the download and try is that the latest MS OS does NOT work on the older hardware that's a more than a few years ago, so they can't do that at all until after they bought a new computer and it's almost impossible to buy a new computer now days that's NOT via one of the vendors and preloaded with Win 8. If you don't want a Win 8 vendor system you have to find an old style 'we build 'em' shop and order one or go on-line - few of the first option in operation today, and many don't trust the second.

edit to add - the last three private individuals I was helping to upgrade to a new computer were upgrading from a system they bought brand new systems with Windows 9x (s x 95 and 1 x 98). The last two businesses I held sort out computer upgrades for their systems had bought systems with Windows XP when it was brand new - not yet SP1. Hardware that old don't run Win 7 or Win 8.

The average user isn't going to sacrifice a working system to test drive a beta, assuming the system meets the minimum specs in the first place.

and that's what free tutorials are all about.

in the way of new laptops w W7 was the display unit of an ASUS 'gaming laptop'. Staples, Wally, BestBuy had nothing but 8, and a *look* they all gave at the mention that no, I was not impressed with the Metro Interface. I suspect they had to all practice the look (it was identical in all stores I visited). I'm sure they've been noticing the growing lack of interest in the 'next new thing you need', though.
I may have found the last new Win7 laptop in the Augusta area.....(whew!).

way of Win 7 computers in the USA on line from any on0line store or vendor.

I thought the MS fanboys maintain that if Win7 has outlived your machine, then you "owe it to yourself to *upgrade* to the new Windows Experience". I'm a dinosaur for whom W7 works fine....I prefer an OS that in no way implores users to touch the screen. Three different people in Best Buy tried to explain how it was my fault that I didn't care for Windows 8, though. I'm personally reluctant to buy anything online these days, given my current transient life; I'm lucky to get to my mailbox once a month lately. When my laptop kicked off, I needed to be back online the next day---I consider myself lucky to have found the (apparently) last new W7 laptop in B&M retail around here.

I just checked their site (www.xoticpc.com). They are now selling them with Win 8. You can still get 7 but it will cost extra. Fortunately, I still have my Win 7 Ultimate .ISO if I need it.

If you are looking for Win 7 computers / software, I recommend MicroCenter. If you are in Maine, the closest one is in Cambridge, MA. If you are in Georgia, there are two in the Atlanta area. - you can also order from them online.
These are serious computer stores. - at least the one in Cambridge is.
I would avoid Walmart and Best Buy for computer stuff.

hippiekarl posted in a Water Cooler discussion that he's been hanging out in my neck of the woods lately. i assume he meant GA, not ME.