Did Microsoft put the nail in the consumer grade desktop coffin?

I Was looking to buy a touch screen desktop for my daughter this christmas, I saved..But what choice am I faced with Windows 8, or Windows 8? What did I buy instead? A nabi 2 tablet. I also bought a odroid u2(android PC). Was I predicting that I wasn't going to buy another PC? nope.

For a little background I really like windows xp, windows 7 and ubuntu "before they screwed up the desktop". I had my 3 year old try out the windows 8 PC's; and she was just as baffled with the interface as I was(so was my other Data Center tech friends/co-workers). Alot of things were moved around and almost nothing was intuitive. Maybe I just miss the start menu? The live tiles reminds me of the app drawer. I like the whole desktop idea, but to have it as an afterthought?

To turn windows 8 into an app machine makes [microsoft] no longer relevant. At first they didn't have to compete with hardy anyone, now they are competeing with everyone. I tend to use my windows PC for multi-monitor/multi-tasking for windows based programs and programing. I will continue to do that until this OS(windows 7) is no longer relevant. Is anyone with me in that windows 7 will be the last foreseeable windows install on the PC?

BTW I am not a linux fanboy, not by a long shot, but I think if someone came out with an OS to beat microsoft(like google), without focusing too much on "the cloud" the king might be de-throned.

 

Yes they did, I have had enough of Microsoft's bullshit. They're just phoning it in at this point

 

x

 

I downloaded Classic Shell and got my Start Bar back, screw the Metro system I don't even notice it now. I hate the new Metro desktop theme more than the Metro Start interface.

 

Over 4 years I went from full Windows, to dual boot with linux, to deleting my Windows Partition because it was taking up SSD space...
I don't foresee installing windows on any of my futur computers, except maybe in virtual machine if an important software for job/school requires it, and if it doesn't works under wine...

 

Nobody uses Linux apart from schools and hackers.

 

Yet it's much more useable than Windows hate...

Also, this is a sophistic generalisation. There's people that use linux because they want to, I even know some non-geek that do! (even girls!!!) (even people over 30 that don't know what POSIX is!!!)

 

I don't think they killed it yet, but it seems they are close.

The basic "problem" that I hear when it comes to Windows 8 is that they have replaced the start menu with the start screen which seems to work well with touch screens and not so well with the traditional mouse/keyboard.

MS's problems are simply that a new ecosystems developed around them (tablet and phone) that they have very little market share of despite having entered a long time before dominate players of Android and iOS did. So obviously MS had to do something and well Windows 8 was the result.

I'm not saying that MS is great or anything or that what they did with with Windows 8 is terrible but the question I have for all of the naysayers out there about Windows 8 is if you were in MS's position what would you do (differently)?

For me MS has an lack of really useful apps problem which spills into ditch the start screen because everything I want to use works without it.

 

No, the basic "problem" is that their usability experts are either idiots or were forced to provide "research" to support whatever idiot was pushing touchscreen interfaces for everything. The whole "unified interface" idea is a fallacy; different hardware devices fundamentally MUST have different interfaces.

 

I would have to say "get" is really old. Microsoft should have had the graphical equivalent a long time ago. The loss of the start menu, and the "gestures" are annoying. You can configure it back to windows 7 like in like a couple of hours. But still when microsoft is offering apps for the "start menu" and essentially killing off full featured programs. What is there motivation?

They could have kept the desktop mode, and had the "start metro" as the afterthought(similar to android). This could mean less "app" sales, but more acceptance(and eventually more app sales). I remember a long time ago they fought with other Linux companies for the 3d desktop being "intellectual property of Microsoft". And they release an even more "2d" desktop. pftt.

 

I've been using linux exclusively for over a year as well, before that, was dualbooting. Both, my laptop and home pc run linux only, and neither contain windows in vm or dualboot. I've been pushing it onto family members pc's too, they've been coming to me with their new windows 8 PC and so far everythings good. I do like Linux Mint, and recommend it to those who liked ubuntu before the new unity interface. I wish my school and work used linux... everyone has dells running windows.

 

Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT. Both only allow software to be purchased as apps through the store (even though Windows RT has a desktop mode). They compete directly with Andriod and iOS devices. Of which both of those types of devices do not run windows or office.

Tablets in particular could be trouble for MS as they can be made into desktop/laptop replacements. On the home user front you could install Linux if you wanted to but in general you stayed away from the Enterprise. Ipad is a different story. Well if you don't need windows or office then MS just lost it's two biggest cash cows. It also means MS can't sell as many copies Windows, Exchange, Sharepoint servers since these products really depend on sales of MS's client products (again office and windows).

 

Many companies get deals with Dell, they supply major companies with bulk loads of PCs. Hell even labs, and governments use Dells

I love Linux though, if only software I use a lot like Photoshop and Sony Vegas worked on it. Other than that, Linux is a very safe OS and prefer over Windows.

 

"Touch screen desktop" seems to be the problem here.

Windows 7 is totally available, just drop the touch trend and you will be fine.

 

not true, i use it as a day to day OS, gaming multimedia, internet, everything.

anyway

windows 8 UI is a huge load of assy tasting suckage. horrible and counter productive restrictive and just yuk.

there are work around but i wont be installing windows 8 on anything.

At Least with linux you have a choice of many desktop enviroments and user interfaces.

im normally anti mac os but even that is better than windows 8's suckyness, its a tablet os designed for single tasking.

 

The new Windows 8 interface is indeed horrible, but Linux is a turd for anything other than web browsing and server duty, especially if you're unlucky enough to own any uncommon hardware, and don't want to spend a very long time with setup bullshit.

 

i take it you've not used linux in a while? or have some kind of crazy whacked out hardware

 

DamnSmallLinux can help a lot if you are using old hardware.It works on computers where even Rhapsody doesn't run like 486. Rhapsody was a beta of OS X server 1.0 also running on PCs but difficult to install (not many drivers, max RAM limits on DR2=198mb,DR1=1GB)almost incompatible to OPENSTEP and data moving is done via packing creating TAR archives on floppies.But you can do nice things on it if you have BSD experience and find compatible software.

 

Wow....
I had no idea people still thought like this any more, though judging from your avatar I'm not surprised, everyone's entitled to their opinion but what you said is nonsense. My mother uses linux mint (57yr old woman) on her computer with no problems, and she knows nothing about computers. It's bullet proof and simple to use (much like OSX except unlocked).

I've also got it installed on all my machines, the only reason I boot into windows nowadays is to play games because Linux support isn't quite there yet.

On topic, windows 8 is AWFUL even with a touch screen interface. I'm sure they'll sort it out a bit more for the next release, but in my opinion they've really bungled this release.

 

I thought I'd never say this but, I would rather use OSX than Windows 8 any day. I've heard good things about Linux Mint is it better than that stupid Ubuntu Unity?