

Even Windows 8 early adopters prefer Windows 7 by two to one - CrankyBear
http://www.zdnet.com/even-windows-8-early-adopters-prefer-windows-7-by-two-to-one-7000004927/

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lini
I have been using Win8 as a main OS for the past 4 months. I can't seem to
find anything I need that was there in Win7 and missing in the new version. I
love the new keyboard shortcuts (esp. Win+X, A). Metro is by no means a
requirement - the old desktop is still there and all programs (even games) run
the same.

I guess it's just easier to bash MS than to really see that Win8 is not just
Metro/Modern, at least on the desktop. I haven't used it on an ARM device yet
so I cannot comment on that.

~~~
pixie_
How do you open an application quickly? For instance, in windows 7 I click
start, start typing the name of the app I want, press return, and it opens. I
thought the start menu in Windows 8 loaded the Metro UI. How do I use that to
launch my app quickly?

All the time it takes for the full screen metro UI to animate into and out of
view, is time I could be searching for something.

~~~
dpark
1\. Click start

2\. Start typing the name of the app you want

3\. Press return

4\. It opens

Same exact flow as Windows 7. Typing while on the Start Screen will perform an
app search.

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bitdiffusion
Has there ever been an OS release where (at first) people prefer the new one?
Windows 7 might be the exception only because the previous incarnation was so
awful.

Ubuntu with Unity? we want the old desktop! IOS6? we want IOS5 and our maps!
OSX Mountain Lion? We want Lion!

Change is always hard and almost never goes down well - this is not a new
phenomenon and occurs naturally at the beginning of most major software
versions. People will get used to it and move on with their lives...

~~~
pragmatic
Yes. Windows XP and Windows 7.

If you don't recall the abortion that was Windows ME, then you are lucky.
Windows 98 was so clunky compared to Windows XP. All the little improvements
and features were fantastic.

Then came Vista and that was another train wreck. But Windows 7 was a dream.
It magically found drivers, everything "just worked."

~~~
pragmatic
I think you can gauge the success of future OS by the enthusiasts (early
adopter) reaction.

Windows XP and Windows 7 had lots of love pre-release. The Windows 8 reception
is mixed (as was that for Vista).

Some people are going to love it. I am using it on two machines (a dekstop and
an HTPC).

Here's they point though. I _won't_ be installing it on the computers of
family/friends (I'm the family tech support).

Watching my wife use it (and the issues with slow user switching, multiple
versions of browsers, etc) means its just not worth it. I don't need the extra
support calls.

Windows 7 is just fine, especially for legacy hardware (those without touch
screens and tablets).

~~~
bitdiffusion
I'm not sure early adopters are the easiest people to please... thinking of
"antennagate" from iphone4 and now "scuffgate" from iphone5 I would say early
adopters (who I suppose are generally experts - or at least technology-
orientated) are more likely to pick up and report on things that

a) get viewership (i.e. complaining) and b) are so subtle the eventual
mainstream user wouldn't even notice without it being pointed out to them.

I don't have any hard science to back my claim either way ;-)

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markshepard
Poor windows. It is damned if you do and damned if you don't. First they
aren't radical enough. Now they are too radical. sigh.

~~~
pyre
Apple didn't remove core features from OSX to create iOS on the iPad. I think
that is one of the issues here. The idea that Microsoft's tablet OS will run
the same "Windows" that the PCs run. If anything, Microsoft probably should
have left the regular mode alone, and done all of the radical stuff in 'Metro-
mode' so that people on a desktop PC could ignore it if it got in the way of
their workflow.

If Microsoft thought that they could remove some of these things without any
blow-back, then they are idiots. If understood the risks, and assume that
things will work out for the better in the end? Then good on them, and good
luck.

~~~
corporalagumbo
I'd take Microsoft's approach with Windows 8 over Apple's tack any day. 10.8
is the most convoluted, user-unfriendly OS X yet. Microsoft is right to strip
things down so radically and get the basics of the post-WIMP PC right.

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Metrop0218
Everyone cries and whines and moans about UI changes. It's like facebook
changing their UI. It'll keep happening for a while, until eventually people
will accept it and realize that they're being stingy.

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JimmaDaRustla
My take on Windows 8 is simple, as a desktop OS - you can't take core features
and remove them without a viable alternative.

My biggest beef is the removal of the start menu and the search bar on it - I
could do/find anything from there.

My other beef is that the Metro UI gives you all these "fullscreen"
applications, but no way to window them. Windows provided me with a train of
thought, but when you make everything fullscreen, it becomes distracting when
using multiple applications routinely.

~~~
josteink
Search is still there.

Just press the windows key and start typing. It's all there, sans the textbox
which tells you it's there.

Probably not the pinnacle of intuitive design, but it _is_ there ;)

~~~
pragmatic
The search is broken, unless you remember to do Windows + W, the search by
default won't search files or system settings, just apps.

I don't get that, even though there is room on that full paged search screen,
they only show a couple of apps.

You have to click on options at the right to have it search settings or files.
What a stupid, stupid oversight.

~~~
Metrop0218
It really doesn't matter. The reason this was done is because it fits in
better with each application being searchable (you see how this is more
consistent?). Once the user realizes this once, the problem is gone. It's
really not much harder to search 'settings' if you're looking for a setting
than to search apps if you're looking for an app now is it? I don't understand
how people make a big deal out of things like this.

~~~
josteink
When you dont have immense amounts of data to search, having to put in effort
to pre-filter your search results feels like unnecessary work.

Filtering should only be needed/useful when the result-set is bigger than the
user can handle.

There is a fine line here, but I feel Microsoft missed it and stepped on the
wrong side.

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nahname
Says a group of people, 20% of which, are on a 12 year old operating system.
Is the problem that Windows 8 sucks or that these users are extremely adverse
to change?

~~~
marshray
Are you trying to say this is not representative of Windows users?

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nahname
Not at all. I would expect these kinds of numbers and I thought that it was
worth pointing out another possible reason for the surmised "conclusion".

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pragmatic
While I happen to agree...a poll on an intranet forum is less than scientific.

Also, I don't think Windows 8 is going to work in a corporate environment. The
training, etc is just going to be too costly.

Windows 7 is the next Windows XP, and that's a compliment to Windows 7.

Underneath the UI cruft of Windows 8 is a great, solid desktop just waiting to
get out.

~~~
taude
I agree on on the corporate envirnoment. I wonder if MSFT is even expecting
Win8 to penetrate that market. I welcome them taking the big changes and
moving forward with Win8. I'll have to wait and see how the hybrid tablet
thing works out, but i'm going to give it a go.

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iNate2000
I installed Windows 8 last week. After hearing all the noise, I was excited to
try something so radical. I ended up a little bit disappointed that things
were so similar to Windows 7. But it sounds like there are lots of ways to do
things. (10 years ago, that was my primary complaint about Windows.)

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jtreminio
What I really want is to make my Win7 install look like Win8. Not the
touchscreen-friendly big buttons, but the flat color style, ala outlook.com

Does anyone have any pointers on this?

~~~
Encosia
Install Windows 8 and stay in desktop mode. It's faster and has nice
improvements to things like task manager, file copies, etc. There's no need to
spend significant time in the "metro" part of Windows 8 if you don't want to.

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recoiledsnake
The poll is confusing. Only 26% of the respondents report actually using
Windows 8.

So all the others just voted based on what they heard about Windows 8? If
that's the case, it's easy to see why the response is the way it is.

