Skip to main content

Some time with Windows 8

My fiancé recently got a new laptop, a nice small ASUS with a touch screen and Windows 8 pre-installed. This gave me a chance to actually play with it for more than a couple of minutes and really start to figure it out. I'll admit that my initial impression has not been positive about Windows 8, and although getting to spend more time with it has tempered that quite a bit, I still feel like there are some major issues overall.

First, I think the reason that my experience was more positive this time is that I got to use Windows 8 on a machine that has the intended hardware. Namely, a touchscreen and a touchpad that is set up to deal with all the different gestures that Windows 8 likes you to use when you're in non-desktop mode. Being able to switch between apps with a long flick of the finger across the touchpad or touchscreen is actually quite nice and simple, and I like the metaphor that it's trying to do. Similarly, being able to touch your selections on the screen feels rather natural after working with an iPad, or other touch screen device, for so long.

However, I'm still annoyed that Microsoft decided to implement a whole new set of interactions that don't really seem to make much sense, and I don't even understand their purpose. One of the big ones that annoys me is the need to press Windows-Z or right-click to bring up a contextual menu along the bottom of the screen. This is a completely different location from where most menus display, and needing to learn an esoteric key press is not helpful to Microsoft's users. This is just one example of some of the UI annoyances that plague the "Metro" part of the Microsoft UI. Don't get me wrong, it's not a terrible interface, and with some tweaks to better accommodate user behavior that has been ingrained in us for a few years now, it might be really quite usable.

But then, you have the whole "desktop" mode. This is the mode where frankly, most people end up doing all their work. I found myself simply clicking "Desktop" whenever I wanted to launch an app because I often didn't know if the app had a "Metro" version, or what that version would even behave like. So then the question I asked myself, "What's the point of having a glorified Start Menu that is a completely different UI experience from where most people are going to spend their time?" I've even heard rumors today that Microsoft might even let users boot directly into the Desktop mode, bypassing the Start menu on boot up altogether.

So despite feeling much more comfortable with the new UI, in spite of its quirks, I really felt like I was using an OS that needs a direction. A vision and an end goal for how we should be interacting with Windows. I feel like Windows 8 simply uses its users as a set of lab rats, tossing all kinds of things at them to see if something will stick. If someone handed me a Windows 8 machine to use would I use it? Sure, but I'd feel like I would be waiting for the "next thing" to make the experience feel more finished.

Comments

  1. The more I read about Windows 8, the more I think I'm going to give it a pass. I need to upgrade from XP, and plan to soon, but I think I'm just going to stop at 7 for a while.

    The best argument against Windows 8 I've heard so far was, ironically, an attempted defense of the OS! Gordon Mah Ung, deputy editor of Maximum PC, wrote a column defending Windows 8 where his best point was, essentially, "It's not like it's as bad as WinME or Vista!"

    I appreciate what MS is attempting to do, of course. They want a unified platform across devices, which makes sense if you expect users to be transitioning between devices, working first on a tablet, then on a desktop, and so on.

    I just don't see that, though. Maybe it's just me, but I see a desktop as a fundamentally different experience from a tablet. I don't want a tablet OS on my desktop! I use a desktop in one way, and a tablet or smartphone in another. There may be some cross-over uses, but there are things I wouldn't dream of trying to do on a tablet.

    Then again, I'm a gamer and a developer, so that probably colors my views here. I would not want to attempt an intensive coding session on a tablet, for example. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The beat goes on

Yesterday Apple revealed their long awaited entry into the streaming music field. They were able to do this quickly because of the acquisition of Beats last year, and the systems and intellectual property that came with that purchase. Considering that the music reveal was pretty much the only big news out of a pretty benign developer keynote, I'll take a few moments to talk about what I think about it. Apple was perhaps the defining company in the music revolution of the past 20 years. With the introduction of the iPod that revolutionized portable music, to the creation of the iTunes store and the eventual death of DRM, Apple has been at the forefront of digital music. This leadership comes with high expectations to continue to lead, and so many people have long questioned Apple not getting into the streaming music business quicker. For the past few years new companies have come forth to lead the change in the streaming music evolution. From Pandora and its ability to create un

The NEW Microsoft

Today Microsoft held their Build conference keynote. As with Apple and Google, developer conference keynotes have become a mainstay of announcements for the general public beyond developers. At first it seemed that Microsoft would be bucking that trend today as the first portions of their keynote were very, very developer centric. However, a lot changed when they started talking about Windows 10. Microsoft is betting the future on building a platform that applications will build off of. Much like Apple and Google, they seem to be discovering that the real money isn't in the operating system itself, but in helping bring applications to consumers through validated app stores. In Microsoft's case it's also seeking to converge all of their platforms into a single unified platform. They once again reiterated today that Windows 10 will run on all of the devices that are out there, from phones to tablets to PC's to XBox game consoles. This means that applications can be writ

Welcome do double digits Mr. Windows

This past week was big for Microsoft and it's future with Windows. Windows 10 was given star status at a press reveal, showing off all of the new features that will be coming in this highly anticipated update to many of our desktops. I watched the live blog of the event, and have been reading over a lot of the reviews of the new technology that Microsoft is looking to deploy. My initial reaction is to be impressed. Much of what was wrong with Windows in the past seems to be a focal point for fixing in Windows 10. A few key things stood out to me as areas that I'm anxious to see more. First, I have to applaud Microsoft for being willing to step back from a design decision (Metro) that didn't pan out they way that they wanted it to. They took what they learned from that experience and have incorporated it into the regular desktop experience in a way that is much more seamless and useful. In fact, Microsoft is ahead of the curve in how they are presenting a user interface