

Windows 9 in 2015: Desperation isn't pretty - tanglesome
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9245477/Steven_J._Vaughan_Nichols_Windows_9_in_2015_Desperation_isn_t_pretty

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DanTheManPR
Time between the release of Vista and 7: 996 days

Time between the release of 7 and 8: 1100 days

Time between the release of 8 and 9 (assuming a July 1st, 2015 release): 978
days

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psbp
It's the Star Trek movie curse in reverse.

~~~
GhotiFish
I'd wager this perception is partially self fulfilling. Frankly, So is the
Star Trek movie curse.

~~~
dkuntz2
Come now. The Star Trek movie curse is somewhat true, at least for movies two
through eight. Each odd numbered movie (in the set) has a worse all time
domestic ranking than the following even numbered movie (in the set). There is
at lease some true.

It kinda breaks with nine, because it did so much better than ten, and all of
them did a lot worse than eleven and twelve (but we don't count those, they're
different...)

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GhotiFish
so except all those exceptions, there's definitely a pattern!

By the time 5 came, most people were already speculating, and you _ought_ to
know as well as I do about how nasty an effect framing can have on nebulous
judgements of "good" and "bad".

I'm surprised I got a downvote for the parent post, frankly. You'd think the
majority of the demographic here would be against insane pigeon logic.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstitious_pi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner#Superstitious_pigeons)

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randlet
If current experience with XP is any indicator;

" companies want desktop operating systems they can rely on for three to five
years"

should probably be changed to

"companies want desktop operating systems they can rely on for thirteen to
fifteen years"

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jagermo
"Worse then Vista"? Sorry, let me stop this guy right there - this is just
utter populistic crap.

Personally, I have no problems with Windows 8, I even prefer it to 7 (or
Android) on touch enabled devices. This might be the "Windows Blue Hype" all
over again.

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dragonwriter
> Personally, I have no problems with Windows 8, I even prefer it to 7 (or
> Android) on touch enabled devices.

Even on non-touch devices, the big problems I have with Win 8/8.1 are solved
by readily available third party software that gives you back a Win 7 style
task bar / Start Menu (and, actually, I prefer and use this on my touchscreen
laptop, as well.) AFAICT, Win 8 is an all-around improvement _except_ for
basically one highly-visible but trivially correctable UI decision for
keyboard-centric devices.

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sp332
I don't have Win8 but I have seen people use it. How is the UI different for
keyboards? Don't you still just tap the "Windows" button and then type what
you want?

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sliverstorm
People are upset that they have to tap the "Windows" button instead of
clicking the start menu button. Nevermind that Microsoft added the start
button back in 8.1

IMO it's an almost absurdly trivial issue contrasted against holistic moderate
improvements across the rest of the OS. Maybe a learning case-study on how
narrow, particular elements of user experience & perception can turn against
you...

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sp332
There was always a Start button in Win8.0, which was demonstrated during the
initial welcome screens. Hold your mouse in the upper-right corner to open the
Charms menu, then click the start button there. (Edited for clarity)

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sliverstorm
Now I can't remember if the lower-left-corner-hover was present in Win8.0. I
know there was always the button in the system menu (right edge swipe).

(I'm pretty sure the link you provide has been updated for Win8.1)

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sp332
Here's a better link from late 2012
[http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57534694-285/how-to-
retu...](http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57534694-285/how-to-return-to-
the-windows-8-start-screen/) Seems it was always there.

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sosuke
Release too slow you get criticized, speed up releases you get criticized.

~~~
jfoutz
I never understood the decision to stop shipping an os every 2 years between
xp and 7. hindsight is 20/20 and all, but i was critical back then as well.
Service pack 1 should have been a (cheap) paid release with whatever features
they could scrape together.

The net effect seems to be, a big fraction of customers are just completely
entrenched in XP and have lost the ability to upgrade. If they can't pay to
get up to date, what would they be willing to pay for? Are those customers MS
wants? There's a market there, but it's a tight fisted one.

Not releasing often enough seems like healthy for business criticism. At least
some of those upgrades can be paid. It keeps customers in the upgrade habit.
It keeps infrastructure nimble.

Releasing to slow means fossilization. That might be good for some aspects of
business, it's cheaper. But again, less money to be had there.

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venomsnake
There was never such decision. Just MS could not ship anything for 4 years.
Then after vista reboot in 2005, Sinofski put Windows back on track.

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michaelwww
The desktop market may be shrinking but it is still huge, but Microsoft keeps
throwing it's loyal Windows desktop users under the bus. Case in point: The
Windows 8.1 fix to the start button is no more than an icon that takes you to
the tablet view. Right clicking the icon brings you a plain menu with a few
system type options on it. I hope someone tells me I'm doing it wrong, because
I've lost patience with it. I use it, but I don't feel Microsoft cares about
me. I'll jump ship in a heartbeat if I see something that meets my needs even
a little better.

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hkmurakami
_As it is, an alarming number are still hanging on to Windows XP or Windows 7
tooth and nail. When those folks do move, they seem more likely to move to
smartphones, tablets or Chromebooks._

I wonder how we can make the transition be towards Linux for the average user.
We moved my retired parents from Win7 to Ubuntu, and they're doing just fine
(other than printer drivers). For most people's uses, Linux is a perfectly
reasonable and functionally complete alternative to Win7 or XP.

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ForHackernews
> For most people's uses, Linux is a perfectly reasonable and functionally
> complete alternative to Win7 or XP.

As long as they don't watch Netflix.

Or play games.

Or have any unsupported peripherals.

Or want to use any commercial consumer software.

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thomholwerda
> As long as they don't watch Netflix.

Netflix works just fine on Linux, right? Or am I mistaken?

> Or play games.

Most people actually do NOT play the big Windows games you are referring to.
They play browser-based games. Work just fine.

> Or have any unsupported peripherals.

Linux' hardware support is actually far superior to that of Windows. Trotting
out the 'unsupported hardware'-argument made sense ten years ago. It does not
make sense today.

On top of that, it's a bit of a silly point to make. If they don't have a
monitor, they can't use it either.

> Or want to use any commercial consumer software.

Your only valid point.

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nemothekid
>Netflix works just fine on Linux, right? Or am I mistaken?

Desktop Netflix is built with microsoft silverlight for which there is no
official linux distribution. It can be made to work with a WINE hack, but even
something like that may be too much for the acerage users.

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nycticorax
The central claim of this article, that releasing Windows 9 too soon will
alienate customers, seems very weak. The author acknowledges that Windows 8
uptake has been slow, so there just aren't that many people out there that are
running Windows 8. And it's not like enterprise customers feel strongly
obligated to switch to a new version just because one is available.

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blueicelt2004
About 6 months ago I built a really sweet computer, put Windows 8 on it, and I
barely touch it. Since I do iOS dev I also have a mac, and I find myself
always using that even when I am not developing. I am even doing my Android
dev on it. I liked Windows 7, but 8 I have not liked.

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CmonDev
Developers tend to like OS-s they are developing for.

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circa
My biggest gripe with 8.1 or 2012 R2 is using the corners or charms on a VM or
a smaller sized RDP session. Its awful. The right-click on the start menu is
also a much needed improvement in 8.1 and especially for Server 2012 R2!

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avenger123
Another alarmist article. There are threats to Windows dominance but Microsoft
has always been fighting against their own market share with older releases
when it comes to OS releases.

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CmonDev
It's easy to make a mistake when you are being so radical. I hope innovation
(consistent modern cross-product GUI experience in this case) will pay off for
Microsoft eventually.

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nycticorax
I'd argue that the central mistake was the decision to radically change the
desktop experience to conform with the touch experience. I.e. the radicalism
was itself the mistake. My feeling is that Apple made the right call here:
Desktop and touch interfaces are different enough that you just have to write
different code for each.

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b0rsuk
Die-hard windows users will stay with Windows. Not because they like Windows
so much, but because they believe in crap "every second Windows version is
good", "I can just wait for another version", "what I have just works".

