Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:17 pm
There are a lot of good things with Windows 8 and I am planning to transition to it.
But I also have serious complaints with Windows 8, and I flat out REFUSE to try to sell anybody on it. You see, I have to stick up for what I think is right and speak my mind on the things I think are wrong. And there's LOTS that is wrong with Windows 8, therefore, I would actually RECOMMEND AGAINST IT to the OP. Yes, it goes against the grain for this thread, but I feel very strongly that I must speak up.
So here are just a few of my reasons for suggesting that Win 8 should be a NO SALE (or at least a "not yet") for the OP:
1. Start Screen forces me to scroll sideways. This is lunacy! It's not intuitive on a desktop, nor is it convenient. My keyboard has "pg up" and "pg down", but not "pg left" or "pg right". The Start Screen was giving me repetitive motion PAIN after just two days of using it, even with an ergonomic keyboard and trackball. That's not right and it cannot be ignored. By the way, one of the most annoying things about my Android phone and my iPad is the swipe left/swipe right I have to do when looking for something not on my screen. It's slower, it's more awkward. There HAS to be a better way!
2. Hotspots and other invisible elements on the Start Screen. This is just dumb. Up until now, every function had a visible element on the screen. What the hell..."float" cursor to this corner or that corner? That's messed up, and it doesn't work for people with multiple monitors like me.
3. Okay, I'll say it: The mono-colored Start Screen icons have successfully CHEAPENED my Windows/RT experience. I don't like it, they are difficult to distinguish from each other when so many of them don't make use of COLORS. At least the old desktop still allows the use of colorful icons.
4. Aero. Here we go, this is a HUGE one for me. Aero features and glass actually HELPED me see the various screen elements. Windows 8's flat light-grey scroll bars on white backgrounds are VERY difficult to see and utilize and they constitute a serious step BACKWARDS in functionality and user experience. Really, what was wrong with the old 3D-looking scroll bars and buttons? If you didn't like Aero, I'm okay with that! But please try to be okay with me for needing it; please try to understand that for some of us, Aero was not just useless eye-candy. It helped some users to be more efficient.
5. IE 10 STILL does not allow me to post to articles in TR. Something is wrong here and it ain't my system which has no plugins! There's more, but let's just leave it at this: I've switched to Firefox on Windows 8 because it feels like IE 10 is just not ready for prime-time.
6. WinRT applications and their limited "sandboxes" are awkward and are screwing up the user experience. There, I said it. Yeah, I "get" the concept of the sandbox and for security I support it. But Windows 8's implementation of it is way too limiting to people who have been using sizable and spawnable windows applications for decades. A one-window IE browser that's forced into full-screen mode? Oh please stop the madness already, my desktop is NOT A PHONE!
7. No Start Button and no Start Menu. Dammit, this is important to me and to others too! Some people learn faster than others. Some people don't. It's insulting to force the user to go find an external solution to something that was there for YEARS, without offering some sort of transition mode or period. Microsoft should have left in a "classic mode" for Windows 8 and my fellow techies who have adapted to a non-button/non-menu environment should count their fortunes and then please stop dismissing us as complainers on this one. Some of us just have a text-based way of finding things. Please try to understand that!
8. Being forced to put my stuff on the cloud. Being forced into the "Microsoft Store" just because it worked for Apple and Android. Being convinced/forced to use an internet/Microsoft Live userid and password just to log onto my personal desktop system. Some of us still live perfectly useful lives with all our data and apps LOCALLY managed! Trying to shove us all into the cloud just smacks us with a bad stench and many people and businesses won't like the potential for security flaws here. I am hoping to implement LOCAL logins for my production Windows 8 machines.
I have workarounds for some of the above items, and contrary to the tone of my words above, I am indeed excited about Windows 8. However, there are some very REAL issues with it too.
And it's becoming hurtful when people gloss over or outright ignore points like those above or other good ones made by other people. I too have been sensing condescension coming from people whom I would NEVER expect it! I've even gotten the feeling that some otherwise well-respected people in the TR community might be feigning an almost "faux innocent I-don't-get-it-what's-the-problem" attitude, and then saying that we with complaints have no valid complaints, just passing us off as though we're irrelevant newbies. This is dismaying to me, and I hope that my EASY 8 reasons above will help people understand some of the TRULY TROUBLING issues that some of us are having with Windows 8.
I "get" the pro-8 arguments, but that's because I'm actually trying to see other points of view. Now it's time for "pro-8" people to please try to understand us! Please stop passing us and our issues off as irrelevant, and maybe we can lighten the tone a bit.