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Comment by recoiledsnake | Hacker News Reader

Too late? Windows 8 already sold 100 million licenses despite the slowdown in PC sales because of tablets, on par with Windows 7 at release.

Meanwhile, Google does not release Chromebook numbers and web share stats show sales are much worse than even WindowsRT, yet we don't seem to hear how ChromeOS is a total failure.

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Yes, too late for Windows 8. I worked at Microsoft, i know something about release cycles and sales cycles and basically, i can spot the BS and back peddling in the MS press releases because i sat in on enough meetings that drafted that nonsense. And actually, if Google Chromebook is a failure, that fact (i have no idea if it is or isn't a failure) does nothing to support your red herring comment. In case you can't follow that, I'll spell it out for you, accepting your alleged claim that a competing OS is failing (in this case, Chromebook) should, in fact, help sell more units of competing offers, including Windows 8. Yet, the Windows 8 numbers are still way, way off. Windows 8 is a complete and total mess on the desktop. Yes, i bought the upgrade (MS alumni discount), installed it, fought it for 2 frustrating weeks, and eventually flattened my drive back to Windows 7. You think i'm jumping to 8.1 anytime soon? Uh, no. I'm a developer and overall power user, so please spare me the "you were using it wrong" comments.

Also, selling 100 million units of Windows 8 is considered a failure at MS.

>can spot the BS and back peddling in the MS press releases

Perhaps you mean backpedaling?

>Uh, no. I'm a developer and overall power user, so please spare me the "you were using it wrong" comments.

Speak for yourself, I am a power user too and it took all of ten minutes to get used to Windows 8.

Even a 3 year old kid doesn't seem to have trouble. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d...

For me it is not that difficult, but I am not saying that it is a better desktop interface than in Win7, and I can see how people with large monitors may find it a bit jarring.

yes, that's just part of the problem, and it is a big issue seeing as i have a 24" monitor. The crux of the problem is that there is no way to fully disengage from Metro. Yes, you can get to your old desktop and fine, there is no Start button (not ideal, but not the end of the world). This is fine until you use some of the built-in Windows apps/features that jolt you back into Metro mode. If i can run Windows 8 -exactly- like Windows 7, then there would be no issues. Side note, i actually like the Metro UI, it looks refreshing and interesting. However, it's simply unusable to people that are used to having 3-7 windows open/apps running at any given time. Power users, developers, designers, engineers, etc. ... people that use various apps to "produce" content will struggle with Windows 8. Now, if you're primarily a consumer of content, that's a different story and i can't speak to that on a desktop. Personally, I use my iPad to consume content and that's been a pleasant surprise.

Thanks for correcting my grammar. As for a 3 year old using Windows 8, well, thanks for giving me yet another reason not to use Windows 8. Good to hear that you and the 3 year old are having success with it.

"As for a 3 year old using Windows 8, well, thanks for giving me yet another reason not to use Windows 8."

This doesn't make the rest of your opinions sound more sincere.

unfortunately yes, when i have to interact with someone posting nonsense, the result is sometimes ugly. On another note, it would be good to see the same level of scrutiny shown towards my rebuttal, be applied to the original reply of my post about "Google Chromebook", which is right up there with the price of tea in China.

While Windows 8 total sales might be on-par with Windows 7 sales, the total number of devices is not. This essentially suggests a decline in overall (total) market share for Windows.

Do you have industry data that shows the difference between sales and total number of devices? Would like to see it if you have it.

Reference? StatCounter data seems to show the opposite of what you're stating.

"While Windows 8 total sales might be on-par with Windows 7 sales, the total number of devices is not. This essentially suggests a decline in overall (total) market share for Windows."

Or a shift away from desktop PCs, perhaps?

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