Thursday, June 07, 2012

Windows 8 Will Fail (At Least for Desktops)

After trying the Release Preview for a day, I am almost convinced that very few desktop users will adopt Windows 8.

Metro UI Sucks

Admit that it failed. You (Microsoft) introduced it with Zune HD, and Zune HD failed. You crammed it into Windows Phone 7.X, and Windows Phones failed (so far). Most people do not like Metro. And now you are forcing it into Windows, the de facto standard desktop OS. The Metro UI is inefficient, it is ugly (at least not attractive) and it is confusing.

You removed the start button and the start menu, which had been the symbol of Windows. Now when I want to open a program, I have to press Windows key and scroll through the big inefficient tiles. There are some other gestures to go to the tiles, but they are not as easy as pressing the Windows key.

It is wasting space. Look at the screen almost 40% of the screen real estate is wasted for useless green background and another 50% is wasted on the padding of the tiles.
Captured from Microsoft's Windows 8 promotion site
When new programs are installed, I have to scroll through the last page by mouse (yeah, very few  Desktops have touchscreen or trackpad!). As many programs are getting installed, it will surely get more annoying.

Metro Applications Are Not For Desktops

How many people would like to use a full-screen application on a desktop monitor? And using mouse and keyboard? We already have smartphones and tablets that can show one application at a time. We use desktop PCs because they lets us do multiple things at the same time, on one screen. Switching between full-screen applications on a desktop PC is pain in the lower back. With a mouse? Microsoft, do you think we are 8-year children?

The Good Things...

Other than Metro, there are not so many differences that I could notice from Windows 7.

  • Enhanced Windows Explorer with Ribbon UI.
    • This is good, I like it.
  • Enhanced file copy dialogue
    • Finally! I definitely like this.
  • Slightly different Aero
    • Well... No objection to this.
But all these small enhancements are ruined by the big drawback, the Metro UI. Please give us an option to remove Metro UI, for desktop PCs. Or else.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you only hate it because you don't love bold innovative beauty.
solid color says "look a me, I so bold now look away before my beauty rips your heart to pieces".
do you also hate the touch my friend.
now windows can do everything you can think of.so better than all else.
you should have alot of shame on you.

Anonymous said...

Windows 8 look is very bold beautiful and fluid.
im so happy for codename:Windows 8 and i think Windows 95 was a big deal for users and developers alike.
Overall, this release feels smoother, faster, snappier, and more stable.
with this your luck can be perfect.
now with touch you can have all your requirements plus even more.

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous(es). Are you two or one person?

Anyways, whether you like Metro or not, it is a personal choice. I am just telling that there are more people who do not like Metro than who do statistically, backed up by market share. I recently read that WP's market share was dropped from 4.4% to 4.0%, while Android/iOS' market share increased.

I like touch, I have a GT 10.1, an iPad 3 and an Atrix right now. I am also enjoying the multitouch of my MacBook. I just said that most desktop is not touch-based, and it is hardly like that PC monitors become touch-screen monitors any time soon.

When Windows 7 first came out with multitouch support, I had been looking for multitouch 27-inch monitor, but there wasn't any. A few years has passed and still there are very few multitouch monitors.