[UPDATE:be sure to check out a mini-micro-factoid mentioned at the end of this post in a note ;-)]
So, I decided a VM wouldn’t offer a fair look at the thing and took a spare, relatively small as these things go nowadays, drive and popped the developer preview onto a 64-bit machine with 4GB of RAM–a fair MOR machine.
I’ll tell you up front that I was right: I hate the “You’re too stupid to use a computer” interface on the “Start Page”. Already, recent versions of Windows have dumbed the interface down to the point that it’s a pain to dig into customizing things. Not as bad as Apple makes it with its desktop/notebook OS, but close. THIS interface says, “You are an idiot. Don’t even THINK about doing anything but what we want you to do with your computer,” just like OS X, et al.
*sigh*
OK, so the “desktop” is still–sort of–available, but it seems rather crippled to me. I’ll poke around in it some more later.
Tried some sample apps loaded from the Start page. I guess if I were using a touch-capable device a couple of them might actually seem interesting, but with keyboard and mouse as inputs, they just seem like they’re crappier than can be believed w/o actually trying them. I mean, a “Piano” app that can be “played” with the mouse (or, I assume, touch, provided one has the right device)? Why? I certainly couldn’t see/find anything that would let it be used like a real synth/keyboard combo, IOW, anything that would make it remotely interesting or useful to me.
And so it goes. Shallow, MS.
OTOH, the underpinnings seem strong, so maybe it’ll work out OK for folks who decide to make the move. It’s got its work cut out for it to convince me, though.
Oh, to be a bit clearer, everything that’s available to work with the OS that’s available in Windows 7 is available in this Win8 Preview; it’s just having to dig a few layers deeper to get to it that irks me. For example, Control Panel is still available (not that Control Panel’s all that great for managing resources, but it’s better than nothing), and there’s even a “Control Panel” button (or plaque or whatever) on the Start page, but… it leads to an interface that’s even suckier than the default Win7 CP menu.
See? Another, “You’re too stupid to know exactly what you’re looking for. Here, let me make that mouse click for you, dearie… ” kind of page.
Insulting. And crappy to look at; kind of like a “smart” phone (for dumb users) interface for (stupid) computer users. Oh, right. That is what M$ was aiming for!
The OS seems useful, but I’d need a way to actually turn OFF the stupid “Start” page and tweak (out of existence) the default behaviors that irk me. After all, that’s been one of the major appeals of Windows as against Apple’s OSes over the years, despite its many, many shortcomings: making it do things MY (the user’s) way, no straitjacket.
Taking the training wheels off the OS and not being bound my a really deeply insulting interface is now the province of the various ‘nix distros. M$, if Win8 indeed goes this way, will have lost any even marginal claim to not insulting users and will have placed itself firmly in the Apple, “Users are stupid” camp.
But make no mistake: I will find a way out of this interface’s insults and into a little less insulting paradigm, thus making it possible to keep at least one instance around as a reference platform.
*sigh* I just wrote a few more paragraphs and clicked Update, and… The OS had forgotten I was online. Bugs. Oh, well, “Developer Preview” and all that.
*heh* Found this–“How to get rid of the Metro UI Interface in Windows 8 Dev Preview”. Yipee. *heh* Oh, I’ll play with it a bit more, but why M$ thought that a default to a tablet/”smart” phone interface was a smart way to go when the vast majority of computer users are desktop users, I can’t figure. M$ bought the hype that the desktop/notebook paradigm was a dying breed? Select 100 tablet users–exclusively tablet users, if you can find ’em. Put ’em up against 100 average desktop users doing typical business app stuff, crunching data, whatever. Yeh. That’s what I thought. Even just inputting data: users of physical keyboards will beat the snot out of users of tablet virtual keyboards. Heck, I’d bet that even with my “dinosaur, ‘learned to type by the biblical method1‘ non-skilz could beat the virtual keyboard users on data input, typing emails, text, document creation and editing, etc.
“the biblical method” of typing: “seek and ye shall find” *heh*
Let me guess, you’re not thrilled?…
What was your first clue, Sherlock?
🙂
Oh, I am pleased with some things. MIcrosoft Security Essentials has been renamed (again) to an old name–Windows Defender–updated a tad and apparently included as a built-in feature of the OS. That meant that as soon as the OS started, it was protected, for Very Good values of “protected”. That’s a Very Good Thing. Once I dispensed with the touch screen-oriented thing, it was usable. Again, more obscuring of anything that would allow tweaking, but the command line is still easily available and command line tweaks and utilities, etc., that work in Win7 apparently work in “Win8”–or whatever it will be called.
I guess my aversion all comes down to the *&^% Metro interface (the “Start” page and all its insulting, irritating implications). If I had been loading the thing on a tablet, it might have been minimally appealing, but standalone tablets don’t appeal to me all that much. If THIS had a transflective display (or could be retrofitted to have one), then I’d be seriously drooling and reprioritizing planned expenditures. Seriously. A convertible notebook/tablet with the Metro/Traditional interfaces both available would be a killer for me. Especially if it had a switchable transflective display that sneered at full sunlight like eInk does (but has 64fps capability instead of a mere 5fps display capability).