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Comment by aggronn | Hacker News Reader

It sounds to me like he loves windows 8, but doesn't like the metro UI. Literally, despite how he repeatedly said "Windows 8 is a totally failure", his only complaint was with the ribbons. Everything else was about metro.

What does he even do in metro? Why does he keep returning to it? I've been working in windows 8 for months, and I'm only on the start screen after my computer boots up.

I can't help but wonder if he actually hates windows 8 as much as he sounds like he does, or if he's using link bait for page views.

The only noteworthy comment he made was this one:

> The biggest problem with Windows 8 is that it wasn’t born out of a need or demand.

Too bad that has little to do with what the rest of the article is actually about.

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Exactly. I don't understand what everyone is moaning about. How often do people sit on their computers, open the start menu and just stay there?

Never. That means you don't have to do so in Windows 8 with the start screen either. Except the Start Screen does provide more functionality than the start menu but that's a discussion for another day.

In Windows 8 your work flow is all in all almost identical to your work flow in Windows 7. You can still pin your most used programs to the taskbar meaning you can largely avoid even opening the start screen for launching apps since 99% of the time you can just click the ones you've pinned to the taskbar.

Also, multi-monitor support in win8 is so much better than on win7. There are plenty of non-metro feature additions or improvements in win8 that make using it a better experience.

If you're not using the start screen / Metro then isn't Windows 8 basically just Windows 7? Is there any compelling reason to upgrade at all?

One thing that is pretty useful is the multi-monitor support. You get a taskbar for every monitor. Apart from that, though, Windows 8 has added absolutely nothing to my experience.

I already use DisplayFusion for multi-monitor taskbars in Windows 7.

Under the hood improvements: security, UI responsiveness, etc.

I'm glad to hear this.

I felt like I was using Windows 8 "wrong" because I was throwing away the start screen after boot and not coming back to it.

I think the power of windows 8 comes from the new form factors that will become common place. Imagine having a laptop where the screen detaches and becomes a tablet. Imagine carrying that around with you to do "tablet-y" things. You'll obviously use the start screen and metro apps. You can still use "classic Windows" but the majority of your time will likely be in metro since it is so much more convenient.

But then, you get home and decide you need to get some real work done so you plop that "tablet" back into the laptop and you have a full fledged laptop again. You can even hook it up into a multi monitor setup or whatever you want. Now get to work!

I think that will be really cool. One computer for both fun and work.

There's the problem: I don't want to buy this new hardware. My hardware is quite good enough with Windows 7 already. And how many folks really have a docking station at home? Laptops that split the screen from the laptop? Hardly anyone has one of these.

If that's what Microsoft is betting on, I'd be concerned for their overall strategy.

No-one will build it unless the software is there to support it. Microsoft has to jump first.

Laptops that split the screen from the laptop? Hardly anyone has one of these.

"Screens that support color? Hardly anyone has one of those."

You miss the point. If Microsoft want to make a lot of money in the mass market, then they will need to support the current generation of laptops, not the bleeding edge.

I'm not saying that splitting the screen from the laptop is not cool, as I'm no Luddite! I'm merely remarking on the fact that Windows 8 seems to have been designed for the next generation of hardware, but there is no guarantees that this sort of hardware will be adopted by a large proportion of the market any time soon.

It's usable by both. Windows 7 was not. There were many times on my touch screen laptop I wished buttons were better for touch. People act like Windows 8 is only usable on a tablet, when it's not. It will install and work fine on your desktop.

Something like 300 million PCs are predicted to be sold in 2013 I think? Most of these will have this new hardware.

Just like someone above mentioned, Microsoft needs to jump first. Windows 8 is more extreme, but a similar example is that the release of Vista made 4GB of RAM become the defacto standard for laptops without raising price.

I'm sure this new hardware will be more expensive, but I would predict that less than a year after it's out, the prices will stabilize such that a split-screen laptop will cost the same as a normal one with the same specs would have a year or 2 ago.

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