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Comment by pcunite | Hacker News Reader

I want Windows to do well, I wish them no harm. But I feel that sadly, "8" has become another "Vista" (perception). I'm bored with any news about it and barring some really big changes there is not going to be anything left to woo me to it.

I hope the next CEO of Microsoft has some empathy for people who use their products. A little bit more care should be considered before forcing broad sweeping changes. As big and as profitable as they are, would it have killed them to have different GUI options available (classic 7 mode)?

I skipped Vista initially because there was no "UP" button for folder navigation. I had to install FileSearchEX for Windows 7. Maybe I'm in the 5% eccentric crowd.

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Another Vista? Hardly.

As someone who has used Windows 8, and recently moved back to a PC with Windows 7. I think 8 is actually an improvement. Lots of little UI things that I really like (the copy dialog is much improved).

Sure, there are things that need improving. I sincerely hope I can turn off the start button in Win 8.1 rtm.

I want the underlying improvements too. I just wish the GUI changes weren't so jarring. When I say "Vista", I mean the perception, not the quality.

What GUI changes are jarring? I've been using it for 6 months and I would not go back to 7 because of the GUI changes alone. I'm starting to think I'm the only one that actually likes 8.

You aren't. I really like it but the disconnect between old style apps and the new style is jarring. The new apps and interface would be great on a tablet but feels clunky on my old laptop with a bad track pad. Also searching has been compartmentalized so to do some searches you need to type Win+w and know why you search is blank. Of course Win+r is still there so in practice its pretty easy to avoid.

FYI, Win 8.1 fixes the search thing.

Launching apps is jarring. I'd rather an on screen launcher. I wasn't the biggest fan of the start menu, but I hate flipping between the start screen and the desktop.

That was the most jarring bit for me too. I read that 8.1 allows using the desktop background for the Start Screen background so I'm hoping it'll be less jarring.

I like everything about Windows 8 except Metro.

Personally, I think MS should have kept Metro to touch devices and the regular Windows UI for desktops/laptops. There was no need to have to two merged.

I agree. Windows 8 feels much better than Windows 7. You have to keep in mind I am a Ubuntu user who loves Unity. Many people resist changes like this. The same kind of resistance is to be expected from users who actually like Windows 7.

I must add, however, I switched back to Ubuntu on the first opportunity.

I've gotten used to 8 despite the jarring issues I had with it at first. 8.1 addresses most, if not all of those issues.

Also, Alt+Up Arrow is your friend for navigating up a directory. ;-) (I find it much easier to use the keyboard shortcut than hunt for the toolbar button anyway)

Only most for me as I think there are still some metro-mode "features" that I'll encounter during use. But overall Windows 8 was awesome and only got f*cked over by the forced GUI changes that made everyone (including me) get really defensive even though you could work around them.

I have used W8 slightly less than 2 weeks on the laptof of my wife (she asked me to install linux instead). Like many, I have not liked the general UX, but what surprised me a lot is that to work around the bad UX, I have naturally started to learn the keyboard shortcuts. Many are identical in W7, but I did not need them before.

I think that W8 could be usable if we first learn all the important keyboard shortcuts.

This... I am an earlier adopter of Windows 8 and I actually love it. It feels to me like it's the first version of windows that is truly keyboard centric. Stuff like winkey +x can make you wonder how do you survived without that before.

Me too, I was pleasantly surprised that I could actually drive this version of windows with the keyboard. Which for me makes it the only version of Windows that I can bare. Energy use is better, and kernel hibernation feels good. Partitions as file system mounts finally. Better keyboard layout switching. And it feels faster.

I hate all the old Windows cruft that is still there, the split control panel between UIs (like user management), crappy add/remove programs, the fact that there don't seem to be many 64bit programs, not being able to find the network preferences easily - and that I can't get windows to play with my netgear router over DHCP (but that could be netgears fault). Huge updates that use up my allowance. And the horrible start screen etc.

Love the win+X - but detest the tiles. There's no logic or structure or hierarchy to them. Almost impossible to manage. It's obvious the GUI was NOT designed for a desktop - it's terrible.

Thank goodness for Start8 and similar products. If I could uninstall tiles to save memory, I would.

Hold ctrl and zoom out. Then right click on any group to name it. Drag tiles out of groups to make your own, drag groups around when zoomed out to organize.

There's no hierarchy but it's actually extremely usable.

Nice. Thanks for that! :)

Just for edification, the "up" functionality was to click on the folder in the navigation breadcrumb.

The breadcrumb's a lot more useful as it not only allows navigating up, but also further upwards as well as to siblings via the dropdown arrows.

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