More Than 3 Out of 4 Enthusiasts Reject Windows 8

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Hi there
Whether some people like the idea or not TOUCH screens are here to stay - and for SOME applications they are quite worth while.

I don't argue the value of touch and I use it all the time on my Android tablet. But I don't want to wrestle with a touchscreen UI on my desktops that have no touch enabled devices.

Touch is pretty much the only practical input for tablets and phones (other than phone key pads) but, for desktop screens (and even laptops), touch input would be tiring and may even cause repetitive motion injury. I've worked on cash registers that used touch screens and my arm would get sore if I was on the register for more than thirty minutes straight. With my bad shoulders, desktop touch screens just aren't an option for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

unless they make a stick-sized touch pen so I can operate it from a decent distance, touchscreen is epic fail outside very-portable devices.

Heck, I'd buy a kinect-like device anytime if it could take the place of mouse and keyboard. And it's not impossible. Just that someone needs to ask Apple to "invent" it.

 

[Lone Browncoat]

This thread still kickin'?

.....Heck, I'd buy a kinect-like device anytime if it could take the place of mouse and keyboard. And it's not impossible. Just that someone needs to ask Apple to "invent" it.

Apple (bleh)

Way back when I had my Atari TT I had a two fisted approach, trackball at my left hand, the Atari two-button mouse plugged into it, at my right and I could do every thing on that old machine faster than I do now, lasso, cut & paste and insert etc. I wish the trackball, like the current aftermarket Logitech series
were the standard, rather than the mouse but then, I'm an old fart.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

This thread still kickin'?

.....Heck, I'd buy a kinect-like device anytime if it could take the place of mouse and keyboard. And it's not impossible. Just that someone needs to ask Apple to "invent" it.

Apple (bleh)

Way back when I had my Atari TT I had a two fisted approach, trackball at my left hand, the Atari two-button mouse plugged into it, at my right and I could do every thing on that old machine faster than I do now, lasso, cut & paste and insert etc. I wish the trackball, like the current aftermarket Logitech series
were the standard, rather than the mouse but then, I'm an old fart.

I never could catch on to using a trackball but then, I'm another flatulent geriatric.

 

[Dallas 7]

Hi there
Whether some people like the idea or not TOUCH screens are here to stay - and for SOME applications they are quite worth while.

I don't argue the value of touch and I use it all the time on my Android tablet. But I don't want to wrestle with a touchscreen UI on my desktops that have no touch enabled devices.

Touch is pretty much the only practical input for tablets and phones (other than phone key pads) but, for desktop screens (and even laptops), touch input would be tiring and may even cause repetitive motion injury. I've worked on cash registers that used touch screens and my arm would get sore if I was on the register for more than thirty minutes straight. With my bad shoulders, desktop touch screens just aren't an option for more than a few minutes at a time.

That's one big strike against the touchscreen for desktops, another is, ever notice how grungy, filthy, and oily finger printed smart phone screens get? Picture that on your nice big beautiful LED monitor! YUCK!
You'd have to clean your monitor every day, not to mention all the ibuprofin for your shoulders!
Touchscreens for desktops would be totally worthless. Major FAIL.

 

[Night Hawk]

As Windows 8's defenders point out, the OS is usable -- as long as you endure a short learning curve. The problem is, many users gave Metro only a brief look and dismissed Win8 without a second thought

That is a lot of BS. I have used Windows 8 for more than a year and wrote made more than a dozen Windows 8 tutorials - but I still don't like it.

As long as they keep that touchscreen UI in it, I am not going to use it on my desktop. I use Linux Mint instead.

I like a man who speaks his mind in our current "precious" world.

A friend had touchscreen enabled on his 7 premade and soon disabled it. He couldn't stand reaching out to the screen for every little thing. For smaller hand held type devices tablet and other you generally don't mind it there for the basics like checking mail or looking up a price for something at a shopping site. But for constant use in everyday multitasking on a desktop it's a dead end alley! For point and click with the mouse the Metro or Modern doesn't cut it to begin with on the desktop with large cumbersome tiles over the traditional type guis found with just about every OS except for the Andriod and other portable guis. The lack of the windowed mode option as you would see with every previous version as well as seen with each of the other main players is another "time consuming waste" employed in 8. That became another common option removed from 8 along with removing MC and dvd/video playback support to cheapen the OS down explaining the initial $40 price tag. Eventually what would interest most would be someone coming up with a totally new OS that runs MS apps without actually being Windows but not simply another distro using Wine either. Someone open source or other could see a desktop platform retained while then offering a more viable alternative to what would be generally Windows users without swapping out for a fast substitute that generally wouldn't offer any native support for the market full of Windows softwares. Now for Steam they could smell the foul scent of what was coming when deciding to push into the Linux side of life for game players to see be able to run all of their favorite titles on the other OS knowing the trend MS was pursuing. If MS continues to venture away from the desktop to cloud or pushing Metro type online subscription people will be looking for a new alternative rather fast to replace one former desktop OS for another where they can still run what they want on a desktop they can set up the way they want it!

 

[PaulGo]

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7

Almost nobody using Windows Store apps, survey finds



For all Microsoft's hype about The Interface Formerly Known As Metro (TIFKAM), more than half of all Windows 8 users ignore the new Start Screen and treat the OS as if it were Windows 7, according to a study by PC management firm Soluto.


Soluto surveyed 10,848 Windows 8 PCs for an average of 27.4 days per device and found that 61 per cent of desktop PC users launched a TIFKAM app less than once per day. The same was true for 60 per cent of laptop users. You might think those numbers would be dramatically different for touchscreen devices, but no. Tablet and touchscreen laptop users did launch TIFKAM apps more often, but 58 per cent of touchscreen laptop owners still did so less than once per day. Same for 44 per cent of tablet owners.

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7 ? The Register

 

[whs]

The only app I ever launch is the weather app because that one is really nice.

 

[mjf]

I think many prefer the I/O type capability of Windows 7 and for many desktop users it makes Windows 8 look like a big mistake. I think it could have been overcome if MS made W7 type features a setting option.
They may be some breed of new users who could like the touch and swipe I/O depending on what they us their desktop/laptop for. Put having to reach your arm out to the screen is a physiotherapist/orthopedic surgeons dream for new clients.
I mentioned it once before but touch pads could change the scene for "swipe" users.
Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650 Review - Watch CNET's Video Review

Still it's not for me. Maybe MS watched too many Ironman movies - you know his holographic touch and swipe interface.

 

[Layback Bear]

Moving your hand, arm, and shoulder to do things on a desktop or laptop touch screen compared to a small movement of a mouse and pushing a button just don't add up. I can see Workers Comp going sky hight with carpel tunnel syndrome of the upper body.
I can see a room full of touch screen users. It would look like a bunch of people doing touch screen Kata's while sitting.
How would one eat finger food and work let alone a pizza.

 

[gregrocker]

Face it: an over-reaction to the Ipad, rewriting the Windows business model to monetize apps and OS subscriptions has failed. What now must be done is put WIn7 back on new PC's so the whacked idea that the desktop is dying off isn't made a self-fulfilling prophesy by some phone app that doesn't come close to being a worthy successor to the best OS and desktop experience ever.

If consumer disdain is not enough, this New Coke taste test was decided by world business (53% market-share) who after months of a scare campaign to embrace Secure Boot or face risk of BIOS infections, decided almost unanimously to migrate off of XPired into Win7. This completely flummoxes any plans to rush WIn7 into an early grave after smothering it in its crib.

Put Win7 back on new PC's so they start selling again, give UPgrade rights to Win7 to everyone who got stuck with the phone app and doesn't want it (almost everyone), put the 8 explorer improvements into SP2 for Win7 which is overdue. We will continue to provide the quality leading-edge tech support and carry on it's good name until there's a worthy successor.

 

[Night Hawk]

"phonie apps run amuck! Read all about it in the Tabletoid journals! Touch&Swipe now!" daaaa.... Who uses any weather Metro when you can simply go right to the National Weather Service web site for a lot more detailed info?! Reminds me of the problems people have getting rid of the Weather bug app!

 

[gregrocker]

I like my Windows 7 weather gadget, and so does everyone I've ever installed for.

So of course it was dumped in the attempt to kill off the desktop. Who wanted to do that again? :huh:

 

[Night Hawk]

The weather gadget and Weather Bug are two different things entirely. The Metro apps remind me more of the later there! It seems more like a manipulation to get people hooked on subscription services with some enticers.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7 ? The Register

I saw this whilst I was reading PaulGo's link:

Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims
Don't even mention the XP/Vista sales comparisons

Microsoft claimed last week that it's made '100 million' Windows 8 sales and the claim has been widely repeated. But channel feedback and the experience on the ground point to a very different picture.

The Guardian's Charles Arthur has made a stab at estimating the true figure, and suggests it's much less, at between 57 million and 59 million machines running Redmond's latest OS.

Arthur looks at two metrics of browser usage: StatCounter and Net Applications' NetMarketShare, and extrapolates a usage figure from the number of PCs actually shipped. The logic here is that browser usage is a reliable proxy for real-world usage.

Which is solid, unless we are to believe that many Windows 8 machines are in use but do not access the internet. Perhaps they're pushed into use as departmental servers? Or perhaps they're used by determined accountants who are so busy with Excel that they never check Facebook. But how likely is that?

The Register - Andrew Orlowski
Windows 8 'sales' barely half as good as Microsoft claims ? The Register

I've been perplexed by the "sold vs used" figures for a few months now.

 

[Night Hawk]

I think they may want to rewrite all that as "sold and failed". Or they could ask: "How many new pcs returned or swapped in for 7 systems?"! No matter how you sum it up 8 is flopping around like a walrus on an ice pack! The tabletized Windows simply isn't going to work out for most and the continual reports only continue to show the same.

 

[mjf]

We are all in blissful agreement on the like for Windows 7 and the dislike for Windows 8. But if a non tech person buys a PC off the shelf then they we probably get Windows 8.
Does anyone care to comment on the utility of using it if you must with a Touchpad like the one I referred to earlier:
Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650 Review - Watch CNET's Video Review
Has anyone tried it?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

We are all in blissful agreement on the like for Windows 7 and the dislike for Windows 8. But if a non tech person buys a PC off the shelf then they we probably get Windows 8.
Does anyone care to comment on the utility of using it if you must with a Touchpad like the one I referred to earlier:
Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650 Review - Watch CNET's Video Review
Has anyone tried it?

After using, cursing, and abandoning laptop touchpads, I have no desire to try it. I'd rather go back to a joystick (yeah, I'm that old).

 

[Layback Bear]

A orange is a orange and a pear is a pear; don't get the two confused.
A desktop is a desktop and a tablet is a tablet; don't get the two confused.

 

[whs]

We are all in blissful agreement on the like for Windows 7 and the dislike for Windows 8. But if a non tech person buys a PC off the shelf then they we probably get Windows 8.
Does anyone care to comment on the utility of using it if you must with a Touchpad like the one I referred to earlier:
Logitech Wireless Rechargeable Touchpad T650 Review - Watch CNET's Video Review
Has anyone tried it?

There were a couple of guys on the eightforums that commented on it (or a similar one) but did not give any details. Too bad the guy in the video did not really demo the thing. For 80 bucks I would first like to see how the thing really works.