Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Someone1234 | Hacker News Reader

Windows 8 was actually a very brave move by Microsoft, and even if looked upon as a misstep, was really what brought the company to where it is today.

Before Windows 8 we just had years and years of incremental "sameness." Vista was meant to be a big shake-up but instead that got shelved and we got a very modest improvement over XP (driver issues and memory consumption not withstanding), the same with 7, it was a very incremental improvement over Vista (even if coming from XP directly made it look bigger).

Windows 8 was where the company decided to really try something new. It was the largest UI shakeup since Windows 95/NT 4.0. And I think that shakeup helped shake some cobwebs loose because since then Microsoft are continuing to take bigger (welcome) risks.

Even just looking at the Windows 10 technical preview feedback program should tell you this is a new Microsoft. In previous Windows pre-releases, they would fix bugs in alpha/beta releases, but never made UI or functionality changes just based on feedback. They ARE with Windows 10.

If you go look at the feedback Windows 10 has received, several major pieces have been actioned.

Seems like the company has a fire lit under it again. It is welcome.

I'd seriously contest your assertion about Vista being a "modest improvement" over XP. Although from the perspective of the UI you could argue that Aero was just a glossier version of the basic 95-era desktop theme, the core OS modifications were massive.

Just take a look at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_new_to_Wind...

Meh. Windows 8 was the last straw for me. I was on every Windows release since 3.1. With 8, I finally decided to move to the Mac for my desktop, at work and home. At home, I need Lightroom, which precluded Linux.

I agree that Windows 8 was bold, but it was still a mis-step in that it assumed a touch screen. Using a mouse with that UI was an exercise in frustration.

I agree, it was a mis-step. But they realized their mistake and fixed it. Windows 10 has no such problems.

Windows 8 was more of marketing and positioning failure than a technical one. It should have just been a mobile-only fork of the OS with a completely different name (Surface OS would have been fine). By muddling the waters and wasting effort on the desktop, Microsoft confused users and produced a product not completely up to par.

I know, I hate MS...

But windows 8 was SOOOOO bad, and destroyed any credibility MS has to make any competent usability decision and showed a complete lack of understanding of the user...

Do they have any choice but to do UI changes in-beta for Win10?

See, I do not understand people who say Windows 8 was "sooooooooo bad". It was not bad in the slightest. It ran extremely well. It had a different UI. That's it. And even with that, the 8.1 update brought back much of the old UI stuff.

>It had a different UI.

That's your answer. Users hate drastic UI changes, especially ones that optimized for a specific experience (touchscreen) different from what they're using it for.

W8 is a beast of a performer, but the Metro UI killed it for many users.

I went laptop shopping last year. Tried out a bunch of different Windows 8 machines, and they confused and frustrated me. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the weather app I accidentally tapped, for instance. (Which is something I have no need for. Also: what the hell would I use a touch-screen for when I have a keyboard and mouse? EVERY windows machine I looked at had a touch-screen -- a feature I absolutely did not want.)

Long story short: I bought a MacBook. I would never have considered using an Apple product if Windows 8 hadn't been so frustrating to try to use.

Yes, I could have learned to use Windows 8. But if I am going to learn something new, I'm going to try to select smartly from all the systems available, and Windows is only a small part of that. In other words, Windows 8 forced me to make a decision that I wouldn't have even made if those computers had Windows 7 on them. If they had Windows 7, I would have just bought one and got to work.

I suppose I can thank MS for my newfound love of Linux. If they hadn't forced me to learn something new, I might have stuck with what I knew: Windows.

It wasn't something new, it was their same tired old strategy of copying Apple without any understanding of what they were copying and with level after level of managerial air-brakes on doing anything right.

The user experience of 8 is hated by long-term Windows users. Microsoft have never been a consumer software company, their customers were OEMs and corporations. They shouldn't be giving away Windows 10 for free, they should give Windows 8 users a refund.

Desperation doesn't make a company inspiring or trustworthy.

What about Windows 8 do you feel is copying Apple? The big changes are utterly unlike anything I see in OS X but maybe I'm missing something.

Personally, I like Windows 8. I don't use the Metro apps (or whatever they are called now) but it's basically Windows with a lot of incremental improvements. It seems like most people complain about the new Start Screen replacing the Start Menu. I've long used the Windows button as search rather than as a drawer for apps that I wade through* so the Start Screen is just a bit nicer looking with no functional difference from Windows 7.

* If you aren't doing this you need to try it. Hit the Windows key, type what you want, hit Enter. It's a huge improvement over hunting through the Start Menu.

> What about Windows 8 do you feel is copying Apple?

Well, they made it more touch friendly, so they were obviously copying Apple... /s

Win+X is glorious. Other than that, I agree.

> Microsoft have never been a consumer software company

I guess you've forgotten that people lined up to purchase Windows 95 the way that people used to line up to by the early iPhones.

Microsoft has always been a consumer company; they just haven't always been good at it.

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