Workers can't escape Windows 8 Metro - Microsoft COO Windows 8 will help people work harder and faster, argues Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, because the "immersive" Metro user interface removes all their distractions. Highlighting business-centric features in the new OS, Turner insists Windows 8's fondness for fondleslabs will boost office productivity. The …
Oh god no!
I've spent years training people not to maximize every application (Looks particularly stupid on 30" wide screens with small fonts ...) and now they're taking it away?
I'd remove all Windows boxes from our building if I could get away with it, just for this error, but I guess I'm gonna be stuck supporting this new POS for years to come ...
Anyone know how Mass Spectrometer software will work of in (click start and 3 apps come up ...)
I NEED the ability to window, when I as dragging files between different File Manager Windows Explorers, or updating live, development or beta test repositories. Or running up a live application and the development to see if I have broken anything.
The more I read about Windows 8 the worse it sounds, in fact it is scarier than Vista.
Vista wasn't that big of a deal really. Don't get me wrong, it was a steaming pile, but the root cause was just too many changes at one time which caused the overall failure. A reversion to NT3.51 driver model with the new Aero UI and some bad decisions on display handling resulted in bad performance. A combination of Win7 (which heavily reduced memory requirements) and better hardware fixed the Vista debacle.
Win8 is a reversion to the Win2 UI. 25 years of UI progress now thrown down the drain.
It would work the same way it always has works, dispite what others want you to believe, windows are still there, they will work the same as they have always done and assuming your program works on Win vista/7 it will run on Win 8 as well So unless your software is converted to a metro app, windowed programs will work, if it is converted to a metro app then i dare say someone could probably program a work around for it
I don't know why you got down voted. I'm playing with Windows 8 right now and it feels like they slapped Metro on top of Windows 7 sans a start button. The only applications that open full screen are the ones designed specifically for Win8's Metro interface. I've been using WP7 for a year and I'm already used to Metro so I like the live tiles and the information they can provide at a quick glance. All other applications open up the familiar Win7 interface and you can drag and tile to your heart's content.
As per usual this is just some PR / Dev blowhard who has a 'vision' about how the industry should be. The metro UI is actually quite distracting, considering all the live tiles deliver a ton of information. And multitasking is highly dependent on your job and your setup. Sometimes having multiple windows open is counter intuitive and sometimes it's not.
Sad to see the voice of reason on this thread is down voted. But then I gather this a sensationalist website. Winning internet. Winning.
I dont know either, its not like im talking out of my arse, its fact.
No whats more likely is that people are downvoting posts, and not just mine but any post that even hints at positive comment, rather than the merit of the comment its self.
To all you downvoters, since you cant be arsed participating in the beta test you signed up to do, you dont want to like anything about it and you make sure anyone who disagrees with you is ridiculed, why are you even here? can you not even try to be open minded and objective an provide with sensible feedback?
To the rest of us, lets just not bother coming to these kind of stories theres obviously a hard core of people here that will not look at anything with an open mind and a objective attitude, lets carry on testing and reporting on the OS like we asked to do and see what MS can do with that data, that is how things get done an things may get fixed
Don't call it Slabs or Bricks...
Call it "Pains" and not "Panes", for what it will entail...
As for "because the "immersive" Metro user interface removes all their distractions.
Highlighting business-centric features in the new OS, Turner insists Windows 8's fondness for fondleslabs will boost office productivity. The controversial handheld gadget-friendly Metro UI (described by our Andrew Orlowski as "a huge negative") will be an asset for businesses, Turner reckons, because full-screen apps will immerse workers in their spreadsheets, pushing distractions out of sight and ramping up output."
Hell, I call it OBFUSCATORY... How about calling it "Microsoft Obfuscations"?
They don't have to run full screen. Windows 8 still has a desktop with draggable windows. The main worry is the start menu is gone and what replaces it is wholly inadequate. If users could dial down metro on the desktop it would be just an incremental update really. If Microsoft forces metro down user's throats then they're going to have a riot on their hands.
On the up side, if metro is Microsoft's only vision of the future, then it could be a chance for some smart programmers to develop an alternative shell/ecosystem to replace metro and give folks a choice. Maybe the Classic Shell project will start getting more traction outside of nerd circles. God knows that's the only thing that makes Win7/2008 the slightest bit palatable.
@Pirate Dave
KDE already runs on Windows8, and I'm running it on Win8. Still needs a systray, but looks like most of the rest of it is now stable on Windows, which is a huge leap from a couple of years ago.
My current plan is to investigate the systray issue a little further to see if I can do something about it, and when Win8 starts the early process of evaluation in the company, I'll stick KDE/Win on top of it for business continuity and see how it fares versus Metro during the early testing phase.
There was a time when there were a lot of alternative shells for Windows prior to Win95. The hooks are still there, so no reason why they won't come back if Win8 releases with a borked UI like Win2.x/3.x had.
In the Win3.x days, I used something called Dashboard as a replacement for Program Manager. It was cool because it could shrink down to a small little box with tiny icons in it, and it sat at the lower-right corner of the screen, and left the rest of the screen free (important in the 640x480 days). I can't remember if it came from HP or Borland, but it was one of my favorite utilities back in the day.
I just last year finally left Win2000 behind and upgraded to 2k3 on my primary desktops. Have production servers now that run 2008, and I hate it completely. So many things have changed so drastically, and I wonder if all changes ( *cough*Task Scheduler*cough*, IIS Manager*cough*) are really for the better. Hardware support seems better and I've had no crashes so stability seems good, but overall, god, the UI sucks donkey balls.
Agreed. Microsoft need to keep sight of what works for consumers, what works for Doris the secretary who only knows Word/Excel/Outlook/point-and-clickly-type-things and what the crossover is for tech savvy employees (i.e. the people who have successfully imported the ipad into their way of working).
Best tell my customer that all of those multimonitor setups they insisted on are now a waste of space. WHile we are at it I'll can our current Veichle platform too, as that kinda relies on multiple views.
Lossley translated he means 'We are doing what the hell we want and you cant stop us. You thought the ribbon was bad.... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHahahahahaha.'
Least Balmer actually looks and apears to be insane...
Mate, if you were really "full of the flu" then you wouldn't be here posting, much less (as you imply) actually at work. You'd be wracked with pain, hallucinating in a darkened room, and in your more lucid moments would be wondering who replaced your duvet with one made entirely from red hot sharpened bricks.
I'm also sick with the flu (spend most time of the day in bed during the past 4 days mind you) and simply sitting a while behind the PC in the evening, also skimming El Reg during that time, is simply very relaxing.
It also helps you to keep up with incoming e-mails and such. Maybe even picking up some work from home if you feel up to it!
Just because people people spend time here doesn't mean they can't be sick.
I run my own business, sickness isnt an option :) And flu is easier to say than some strane mutant cold/viral/flu mashup that just makes me wish I really were dead.
I've kinda accepted that the ribbon isnt going to go away, evidenced by the fact something very similar is popping up in other apps now too. Its just messy, horrible and I suspect, easier to code. Same with Metro I suspect too. Still it's not going to end well and I really still cant be bothered to get that worked up, every person that gets fed up/cant work it out, throws the computer is potentially more money for me. Utterly the wrong atitude but that could be the whole jaded techie thing starting to happen at last.
Perhaps they are looking at feedback and think Windows 8 is going to tank like the new Microsoft Bob.
I absolutely fucking hated the Win8PP and MetroUI on the PC is a disaster.
If I were a Microsoft shareholder, I would be ****REALLY*** worried right now, with Windows Phone tanking spectacularly, Office looking stagnet, and the Gaming division not making enough money in the products lifetime to cover the initial development costs.
You really like that "New Microsoft Bob" thing, don't you Barry? That's the fourth time you've posted it. And about the thirty fifth time you've told us that you hate metro and the billionth time you've told us that everything Microsoft has ever done has been actively child-molestingly evil.
We get it. You told us. Now stop telling us and fuck off.
I'm having a proper play with it right now. To be fair it's not as bad as I thought it might be. The integration of desktop and metro isn't that tricky. I've found everything (even the command prompt) within half an hour. One thing I liked was being able to tie a user into my MS Live ID and I can see potential. I'm going to try installing a few applications now but so far much to my surprise I actually can see myself using it.
"Pillock, most of us are IT pros here, we can do useful stuff, having installed a beta, in microseconds. Looking at a veritable turkey takes hours.."
Perhaps if he had said "hours" this may hold water (bearing in mind your extreme hyperbole - I've never seen a hard drive spin up in microseconds, so installing an OS that fast seems slightly unlikely). I believe he said "half an hour," which to try out a new OS is perfectly reasonable in my book.
Pillock.
-d
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