bbchien
Touchdown! Greaser!
Mech's XP computer went down today. Replaced it with a big box store win Win 8.
OMG.
OMG.
It's easy to trivialize the concerns of others.
It might not be the best business model though.
I just wish I could turn off my touchpad in Solaris 11 when I have my USB mouse plugged in... but while I could find a linux control app for the Synaptics touchpad, no such luck.Price of progress in my book. Technologies change. Paradigms come and go. Buttons move around. It's the surest bet that more stuff will change in Windows in the coming years even if it is to go backwards (I hope not).
But more, what I was originally getting at is all the people loudly proclaiming they'll never switch off Win 7 and how Win 8 is the devil incarnate when they don't have to do so. Ok I get it. You (not targeted at you per se - just in general) don't like it. Am I suppose to abandon what I'm enjoying to suit naysayers?
There's plenty of OSes out there for everyone!
Show me one area where it is lacking.. seriously.
Yes, the gestures work on trackpad too.
So has windows, just not adopted by force.. search was always in task bar since what, windows vista?
Metro is:
5 new gestures.
Swiped down - menu
Swipe Up - menu
swipe from left - multi tasking
swipe from right - charms
Drag down - close app
Once you learn those gestures, then you can half-swipe from left to snap to left or to task switch apps and do other things as well.
Yes Vista had search but it was so poor I mostly used it to open a command window. When I first used a Mac I was shocked at some of the nice Win7 functionality that was missing but I loved the search. I had to be told to use it because my Win7 experience was so poor but when I did the responsiveness was great. It was a very different user experience compared to Windows. On the other hand resizing screens per Mt. Lion was a joke.
Apple doesn't come up with stuff that's barely to not at all compatible with *recent* offerings, though, and that's the big difference. The Apple stuff is just always in a slow state of transition, and they manage transitions well.
But more, what I was originally getting at is all the people loudly proclaiming they'll never switch off Win 7 and how Win 8 is the devil incarnate when they don't have to do so. Ok I get it. You (not targeted at you per se - just in general) don't like it. Am I suppose to abandon what I'm enjoying to suit naysayers?
There's plenty of OSes out there for everyone!
What Win7 functionality was missing from the Mac? (Or had you simply not found it yet?)
And I don't understand your screen resizing comment either... What do you mean by resizing the screen? Or do you mean resizing windows?
Ok, please address a large screen monitor and mouse. Do you really think having an app go full screen and swiping all the way from top to bottom to kill it is better than clicking an X? I love this for a tablet. It addresses some of my many gripes with iOS. My complaint is 8 on the desktop.
Ok, please address a large screen monitor and mouse. Do you really think having an app go full screen and swiping all the way from top to bottom to kill it is better than clicking an X? I love this for a tablet. It addresses some of my many gripes with iOS. My complaint is 8 on the desktop.
But let me ask you this: why insist on using apps if this bothers you? Why not just keep using your desktop applications and ignore this part? As far as I know there's no "app" that is necessarily superior to a windows desktop application at this time anyway if you're doing real work. Maybe a game being an exception, but those have never strictly followed OS level interaction patterns in most cases anyway.
I'm not trying to be jerk about this. I'm really curious.
I do use the desktop but it isn't a FULL version of the old desktop. Also, while I may eventually customize things it would be nice if I actually liked the built in capability. Without customizing things you run into using apps even if you are on the desktop. Just click a RAR file and see what happens. I'm getting used to it but I don't like it. When you click a RAR file you get a supreme example of dorm over function. I get a 24" monitor screen filled with one limited function app that deserves only a small window. Not only does it lack basic capability but I can't circumvent that without exiting the screen. If I need to make a new folder and a program in Win 7 doesn't support it I just use File Explorer which is usually open anyway. I don't understand why, if you keep the "-" to minimize on the desktop view you couldn't keep the "X". The arguments remind me of, shudder, Mac fanboys explaining why I shouldn't ever want to download to someplace other than the downloads directory or an iOS fanboy explaining why my huge desire for access to a directory structure so I can share files among apps is misguided. In Windows 8 I like on the desktop but it is a more limited experience than Win 7 and constantly jerks me to someplace else or thinks because I moved the window a little that I want to minimize everything else. I love the idea of Win 8 on a tablet since I want to run my desktop apps and get rid of the painful distinction between laptop and tablet. I just want more user friendliness when on a conventional desktop.
The arguments remind me of, shudder, Mac fanboys explaining why I shouldn't ever want to download to someplace other than the downloads directory
Who says you can't do that? Download wherever you want, unless your browser doesn't support it.
Apparently, it's not just old-timers, sophisticated users, businesses, and curmudgeonly old farts like me who are balking.
I went to Wally World last night -- not exactly the technology supplier of choice for bleeding-edge techies. I went there to buy a television with the native ability to stream Hulu Plus, mainly to give my guests something to watch besides Netflix because I'm too cheap to get cable TV, and OTA TV here is non-existent. So I wanted a TV that was both Netflix and Hulu Plus ready.
Turns out that's not as easy as I thought. Pretty much all TVs are Netflix-ready these days, but Hulu Plus, not so much except on the stadium-sized ones. I was looking for something mid-sized, and all the mid-sized TVs that support Hulu Plus sell out like hotcakes. Apparently, for whatever reason, it's a very popular service. (I must admit, I only tried it out last night, but it does seem to offer a phenomenal variety of programming for the money.)
Consequently, TVs that can stream Hulu Plus sell like hotcakes. They can't keep enough of them in stock. People want both services: Netflix and Hulu Plus. That's what the young girl at Wally World told me. They like both services and they want TVs that can stream both. They want choice. Choice sells.
The young girl at Wally World had nothing else to do (the weather was bad, so it was a slow night), so we talked for a while. She recommended that I either buy a streaming box, or else order the TV online and select the "Ship-to-Store" option, which would effectively reserve it for me. I chose the streaming box rather than make the 90-mile round trip again.
So we walked over to the streaming box section. There were several shelves, some full, some nearly empty. The nearly-empty shelf had four Hulu Plus-capable streaming boxes. Not four models. Four units. The full shelves had hundreds on streaming boxes that were not capable of streaming Hulu Plus. As with the TVs, they have a hard time keeping the Hulu Plus-capable devices in stock.
People like choice. Choice sells.
I selected a Roku box, and she offered to ring it there along with the five large bottles of Valentina's Picante Sauce - Extra Hot (only $1.97 per HUGE bottle -- woo hoo!) and the two bags of lettuce I had in the basket.
As we walked past the computer aisle, I noticed that they had only three laptops on display. I asked her why that was, and she said that no one was buying them. I pressed her for more details, and she said that people hate Windows 8. They try it out, get flustered, and ask how to get the old desktop and start menu back. When they're told they can't, they decide to stick with what they already have. (They also toss in some very colorful barnyard adjectives, which the young lady shared with me, to my surprise and amusement. I'll leave them to your imagination, but they reference mainly bovine and equine species.)
So... MS is alienating sophisticated users, professionals, and businesses; and they're also scaring away average folks who buy their computers at Wally World.
That begs the question: Who, exactly, are their target market for this wonderful new interface?
Choice sells. Taking it away and forcing unwanted change, not so much.
-Rich
I notice that all the Win8 laptops at Costco and Walmart are also more expensive than the Win7 machines 6 months ago.
But then, I couldn't find any .22LRs either.