"Well below expectations" Windows 8 sales

Borg 386 said:

As I saw in article earlier, the Metro interface is to blame. Most businesses don't want to have to retrain their employees to use it.

That sounds like a readily available excuse. The bottom line is no matter what it looked like, they weren't going to jump on it right away anyway. Most businesses won't jump on any newly released OS. It's not good business practice.

That said, I can see all sorts of people, and businesses skipping 8. It could turn out to be ME (Millennium) all over again

sygnus21 said:

Indianatone said:

sygnus21 said:

Thanks. BTW the only virtual software I've used was Microsoft's Virtual PC. I may give that a try and see if 8 will install on it, if not Virtual Box.

Thanks.

Before you throw $40 at windows 8 try it for free....
Works on VM Ware Player 5 and Workstation 8 and 9. I tried the Betas and the Enterprise version to test drive the OS.
Download Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/fre...are_player/5_0

Registration is required

I'll try it out after I pay the 40 bucks for it. I already know I'm going to get it, even if I do try it out. Might as well get it for 40 now than pay 150+ later :)

Plus I already have the preview version, I just never installed it.

I'm also in a position to get it for free, if I could ever get the site (DreamSpark) to recognize my school credentials.

Free is always good. If I got it for free I would install it on a virtual machine. I would not put it directly on a machine as a main OS. I don't like it enough for that.

Running it on a virtual machine is the plan. I need a copy in case I have to help someone with it.

I need it installed to see how it functions at boot and in a multi-boot.

I'm looking for a Win8 PC that needs upgrade to 7 right now to try to sort out the Secure Boot BIOS lock and whether key-less reinstall works without Secure Boot or even EFI BIOS.

Any volunteers?

Layback Bear said:

Making Windows 7 nicer, sweeter, smother, is not Microsoft's intension's. It might slow down sales of Windows 8. SP-2 for Windows 7 cost Microsoft money. Selling Windows 8 makes Microsoft money.

Selling 7 makes money as well (even moreso), selling 8 saves face.

Borg 386 said:

As I saw in article earlier, the Metro interface is to blame. Most businesses don't want to have to retrain their employees to use it.

That's a part of the reason not to move to 8, but that makes it a double-whammy. Large businesses don't upgrade until they've had a year+ of testing, so 8's out of the picture for a while just based on that. And if 8 doesn't go mainstream with the general public that'll push it out even further due to those increased training costs.

whs said:

But that may be a faulty implementation in Avast. When OEM programs cause BSODs, you never know who is at fault.

Avast might be thinking that win8 is a virus

Something to do with the "cloud" and the "store rip-off" ???

Hi everyone
I get a sense that people are enjoying a bit of "Schadenfreude" here - hoping that W8 turns out to be a disaster.

W8 actually does have some quite decent features in it although Metro applications do seem to be a waste of time for classic desktop users especially when using multiple or large monitors.

I rather like the poster who said Windows should be renamed to Walls since you can't Window anything in Metro.

so here's to WALLS release 1.0 !!!!

(BTW I'm still using daily W2003 server and XP Virtual machines -- I've got some pieces of kit that won't run on W7 and this is EXPENSIVE good quality specialized hardware so I'm not replacing it - maybe for a few years yet).

I still like XP's Royale theme better than a lot of the W7 / W8 themes --especially the semi official "Luna Black" theme

http://en.softonic.com/s/black-luna-xp-theme

Incidentally of course people like AVAST will try and rubbish W8 (we should now all call it WALLS rel 1.0) becuase with the enhanced security built into the kernel itself products like AVAST are totally redundant.

Cheers
jimbo

Wall of Big Buttons.

Good reminder that Defender is now actually MSE in 8.

I have a Dual Boot which I switch between to try to determine the difference now that I have Windows 7 Start Menu for Windows 8 and 8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 8

The only difference I can nail (faster? still not sure) is the wall-like effect without aero. This is progress? Not on desktop experience.