Windows Blue Public Preview By The End Of June

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According to BetaNews, the Windows Blue public preview will be out by the end of June.

"While some consumers appreciate the new form factors and touch capabilities of Windows 8, the radical changes to the UI, removal of the familiar Start button, and the costs associated with touch have made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices", he says. "Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market".
 
Microsoft should have native the classic windows 7 start menu. You can install classic shell but why must someone use a third party program to have a functional desktop ?
 
Microsoft should have native the classic windows 7 start menu. You can install classic shell but why must someone use a third party program to have a functional desktop ?

I'm pretty confident that the desktop in Windows 8 is quite functional.
 
The best analogy I've read in a while was that this is Microsoft's New Coke moment. They either need to go back to Classic Coke, or just live with an ever shrinking market share. They keep ignoring public opinion and marketing, when those matter by far the most for any product in this day and age.
 
The start screen wouldn't of been so bad. But when you have 40+ programs. The start screen becomes a sea of tiles. Sure you can use search but you have to know the name. So the start menu comes in handy when you want to access that one program you dont use often quickly.

Start screen would of been awesome if it had a folder structure of some sort. For now sticking with windows 7 for the PC is the best thing. I don't even care about win8. Least with win7 I have more desktop theme choices.
 
I'm pretty confident that the desktop in Windows 8 is quite functional.

You're right, it is! Perhaps more so once you get over the initial learning curve.

But the problem is not functionality, but perception of functionality. Most people still have not used Windows 8 to any real extent, but they already have heard to avoid Windows 8. Vista was pretty good after SP1, but the damage was already done and people avoided it for its entire lifespan. New Coke was preferred to Classic Coke and Pepsi in blind taste tests by a wide margin, but it failed miserably on the market because people had a bad perception of it. Unfortunately when you make this kind of a misstep in marketing a new product, you're often left with the choice of backpeddling or giving up market share. In all reality Microsoft won't lose much market share; people will just stop upgrading their PC's because they're content with Windows 7, hurting the OEM's more than anything. If I was an OEM I would be screaming at Microsoft to let them keep selling consumer computers with Windows 7, even if it cost more than Windows 8.
 
Now you just have to hope that this whole "Windows Blue" thing isn't just a back-handed way of charging for what were previously free service packs.

Windows 8 value proposition for most users is tenuous enough at it is.
 
You're right, it is! Perhaps more so once you get over the initial learning curve.

But the problem is not functionality, but perception of functionality. Most people still have not used Windows 8 to any real extent, but they already have heard to avoid Windows 8. Vista was pretty good after SP1, but the damage was already done and people avoided it for its entire lifespan. New Coke was preferred to Classic Coke and Pepsi in blind taste tests by a wide margin, but it failed miserably on the market because people had a bad perception of it. Unfortunately when you make this kind of a misstep in marketing a new product, you're often left with the choice of backpeddling or giving up market share. In all reality Microsoft won't lose much market share; people will just stop upgrading their PC's because they're content with Windows 7, hurting the OEM's more than anything. If I was an OEM I would be screaming at Microsoft to let them keep selling consumer computers with Windows 7, even if it cost more than Windows 8.

I was a huge proponent of Vista. It was perfectly fine pre-SP1, the only big problem was the network stack bug. It did take a few companies (Creative, Nvidia) about 6 months to push good drivers and I can understand people being upset about old printers and scanners not working, but the Vista hate was mostly perceptual.

I can't say the same about 8. I really tried to like it, but I don't. Even on my tablet I don't bother with Metro. You can make the argument that the UI isn't less functional (I disagree), but that doesn't mean its a worthwhile change.
 
I thought Vista was usable pre-SP1, but it had many rough edges and was often very annoying. (I don't blame MS for driver problems or bad 3rd party programming practices that led to many application UAC escalations.) After using Windows 7 for so long, there's no way I would want to go back to even an up to date version of Vista.

I think Metro is fine for real tablets (finger/stylus touch screen input and no keyboard/mouse) when used for content consumption. It just gets in the way otherwise. Blue doesn't fix this.
 
Hopefully they add an option that makes it a functional workstation/desktop operating system again. That way you can do thing called multitasking.
 
* Blue doesn't fix this for regular PCs.

Been playing with the 9385 leak and actually Metro apps are much more desktop friendly. Not enough to make a full judgment but it looks like what's there will appease some folks, maybe not most. The main outstanding issue is the deal with the Start Button/Menu. I have a feeling that there's going to be some kind of mini-Start Screen view app launcher that's not full screen like the default search. Just a guess but there's no point in just putting in the Start Button to bring up a full screen Start Screen. We shall see.
 
Hopefully they add an option that makes it a functional workstation/desktop operating system again. That way you can do thing called multitasking.

Bizarre.

Microsoft can die in a fire for all I care, but this has to just be trolling. Have you even used Windows 8? If you don't like it, you don't like it, but what exactly is stopping you from multitasking?

I've looked at a few Metro applications ... they've all royally sucked (even Netflix, which would be fine full-screen on my 3rd monitor, won't launch without crashing reliably). But these haven't prevented me from doing the same things as I did in earlier versions of Windows. I just don't use the Metro crap.

I think the Start Screen is somewhat stupid, but I'm no less able to multitask than I was with Windows 7; I already had my commonly used applications on the task bar. Same damn way I did with Vista and XP.
 
I've looked at a few Metro applications ... they've all royally sucked (even Netflix, which would be fine full-screen on my 3rd monitor, won't launch without crashing reliably). But these haven't prevented me from doing the same things as I did in earlier versions of Windows. I just don't use the Metro crap.

Used to have a lot of issues with the Netflix app however its been about the most updated of all Metro apps that I use, now it rock solid across every Windows 8 device I use, I never touch the web site anymore.
 
Now you just have to hope that this whole "Windows Blue" thing isn't just a back-handed way of charging for what were previously free service packs.

Windows 8 value proposition for most users is tenuous enough at it is.

God I hope they try to charge for the 8.1 update. Certainly a possibility since the new woman in charge of the windows division mentioned "First up soon will be details about pricing, packaging and an official name" when speaking to the NYT about the update recently.

If its not free, the comedy will know no bounds on the internet for the months to follow, since the update is supposed to be an apology.
 
I'm not a Win8 user, but I was thinking that it would be very helpful if the Start screen caould be organized using a method similar to Stardock Fences to group apps into named group. A quick search revealed that Win8 has a similar function built in (Stardock Fences only works on the desktop in Win8):

http://www.askvg.com/tip-organize-windows-8-start-screen-tiles-in-groups-and-name-these-groups/

I use Fences in Win7, and think that this ability could help make the Win8 Start screen make a LOT more sense for many, and also easier to find what you're looking for without having to remember the name of the app to use search, just remember how you would have grouped it.
 
I thought Vista was usable pre-SP1, but it had many rough edges and was often very annoying. (I don't blame MS for driver problems or bad 3rd party programming practices that led to many application UAC escalations.) After using Windows 7 for so long, there's no way I would want to go back to even an up to date version of Vista.

I think Metro is fine for real tablets (finger/stylus touch screen input and no keyboard/mouse) when used for content consumption. It just gets in the way otherwise. Blue doesn't fix this.

Vista was not unusable, it simply was not worth the cost to upgrade to...Basically poor performance compared to previous products with very little to show for it. Windows 7 was basically vista done right. Windows 8 would be a further improvement, if they did not force users to use metro. I might not buy windows 8 for old machines, but I don't see why I would not use it on new machines if it was simply an improved windows 7 with metro as a app/shell replacement.

The way to make increasing profits, is to get a cut of all media and applications being sold directly to consumers though...
 
is blue the next (paid) os, or a free service pack-type upgrade to win 8. read a few sites and none were clear about it.
 
is blue the next (paid) os, or a free service pack-type upgrade to win 8. read a few sites and none were clear about it.

ah, nvm see that it's not established yet. sry can't edit front page posts...

anyway, am getting used to the win8 start menu. using on my htpc, where the big tiles are easy to read/see. keeping my desktop win7 for now.
 
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