Has Microsoft Pulled Off Its Biggest Reinvention Ever?

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With the launch of Windows 8, followed closely by Surface RT and Windows Phone 8, I guess a case can be made that Microsoft has indeed pulled off its biggest reinvention ever. Now, whether you like what has come from that reinvention is a different story altogether.

It's been a (re)defining few days for Microsoft, with the unveiling of three key products in less than a week — all aiming to deliver one message: that Microsoft is not only relevant but central to the post-PC world. The near-simultaneous launches of Microsoft Surface, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 show Microsoft is mustering its armies for the battle of ecosystems with Apple and Google.
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I like it all so far. Breath of fresh air for an IT vet. New shit to learn, new problems to master.
 
Post-PC world? I'm sorry, I didn't realize my PC had gone anywhere or been replaced by something better. Oh right, it hasn't. Little premature to call it a Post-PC world when the PC still dominates the market MS. I am glad to see MS looking forward even if I do find Win 8 to be a tablet OS and worthless on a PC, but sometimes marketing people need to be flogged.
 
I strongly wished for a clock on the Start screen (non-tile). :(
 
Brilliant move and very unexpected. I never would have expected a something like this from a company as mature as Microsoft.
 
I see a lot of people who hate 8 but nothing will be the turkey Vista was.Talk about reinventing MS..
 
Tried Windows 8 today.... sooooooo buggy.

I couldn't download the latest windows update - it crashed and had to reverse the update to get back. I googled it and saw it was common

When trying to play music, it would constantly pause for 3-6 seconds... then rewind a little and keep playing. Didn't matter what program I used, WMP or winamp.

This is just what I could find within a couple hours of using it. Quickest uninstall ever. It's very obvious what this is... it's a divert from a poweruser to a home user on a couch ala Apple. Pathetic.
 
Cyraxx said:
Tried Windows 8 today.... sooooooo buggy.

I couldn't download the latest windows update - it crashed and had to reverse the update to get back. I googled it and saw it was common

When trying to play music, it would constantly pause for 3-6 seconds... then rewind a little and keep playing. Didn't matter what program I used, WMP or winamp.

This is just what I could find within a couple hours of using it. Quickest uninstall ever. It's very obvious what this is... it's a divert from a poweruser to a home user on a couch ala Apple. Pathetic.
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You obviously have other hardware issues or driver issues then. It's worked flawlessly on the 8 devices I've installed it on so far.
 
Love windows 8 so far, works great, nice to see windows has new tricks, metro is actually quite nice on multi monitor. The new task manager is worth the 15$ alone :p
 
Nothing but driver issues with W8 thus far. I still can't get switchable graphics working between the HD2000 and a Radeon 5xxx series GPU. Meaning no HDMI, no proper 3D acceleration, etc. Begh.
 
Cyraxx said:
Tried Windows 8 today.... sooooooo buggy.

I couldn't download the latest windows update - it crashed and had to reverse the update to get back. I googled it and saw it was common

When trying to play music, it would constantly pause for 3-6 seconds... then rewind a little and keep playing. Didn't matter what program I used, WMP or winamp.

This is just what I could find within a couple hours of using it. Quickest uninstall ever. It's very obvious what this is... it's a divert from a poweruser to a home user on a couch ala Apple. Pathetic.
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As much as I don't care for the interface changes, I haven't seen anything like that so far. I haven't played at all in the store to load programs yet, but the few things I've loaded in the release version and the stuff from the previews didn't do anything crazy like that.
 
You guys should really consider getting an all Intel system. Take out the video card and whatever other add-in parts you have and go for like a single hard drive and integrated graphics with motherboard sound and it'll work lots more betterer. Honestly, you're probably giving it too much hardware and making it confused.
 
so far all that was "reinvented" for me was "reinventing" windows 8 back to windows 7.

If I never saw metro UI again i'd be die a happy man...
 
SunnyD said:
Nothing but issues for me and the two other people on IM that are complaining to me about the issues they're having with it right now.
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Sucks to be you guys? I don't know what to say. I have put it on quite a few old and new pieces of hardware just to see how it worked and have had few issues. The only real issue I have had was getting vsphere on a win8 install, but installing under win xp compact fixed that. I had more issues when windows xp came out, that was a damn mess. Nothing worked right.

Sorry you are having issues, but most people are not. Early adoption on hardware not prepped for it carries some issues. Always has, always will. Bought a laptop 2 years ago and the OEM only has win 7 drivers for it? Shove the 7 drivers on and hope for the best until they get new drivers out. Not ms's fault. Hell the dell 14z I put it on today started right up. It was an easier install than win 7. I could have ran it out of the gate without a single driver.
 
There are still people on here that refuse to upgrade windows 2000 cause a real is can should run on their Pentium III.
 
SunnyD said:
Nothing but issues for me and the two other people on IM that are complaining to me about the issues they're having with it right now.
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That's the way it was with Vista. Myself, and a lot of people I knew personally (and online) never had a single problem. But, from reading the forums and boards, there obviously were some problems with it. So, I don't deny that 8 has some problems. But, it's so closely related to Windows 7 that I wonder where the fault is... Drivers, bad install, user error, compatibility with a program...
 
My bit: Windows 8 is a little impractical for fast every day PC use, but for a tablet why not...in fact windows might do very well in the future with tablets and such, but for now Win7 is what I have decided to stick with.
 
filip said:
My bit: Windows 8 is a little impractical for fast every day PC use, but for a tablet why not...
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Not dogging you or anything, but can I ask why? I won't bitch or moan (others might), but I'm just curious as to why you think it's impractical for fast every day PC use. I don't seem to have any problems and after the initial shock, it's faster than 7. Takes some time to learn the quirks and shortcuts, though.
 
For what it's worth, I hope Microsoft succeeds at this. Apple has always played the card where everything they make works together, which is cool, but Microsoft has one-upped it by saying "not only does it all work together, but it's consistent". Your iPod and Macbook are different when it comes to how you use them, but the phone, surface tablet, and a tablet/notebook are all using the same kernel and have the same exact usability standpoints. Whether Microsoft completely dominates these markets isn't so much the point as far as I'm concerned, it's that I hope they have a bit of a shake up moment like Google tends to do.
 
No issues with my HTPC, it actually cleared up my muddy bass problem I was having.
 
SkribbelKat said:
You guys should really consider getting an all Intel system. Take out the video card and whatever other add-in parts you have and go for like a single hard drive and integrated graphics with motherboard sound and it'll work lots more betterer. Honestly, you're probably giving it too much hardware and making it confused.
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You are not far from the truth on that either.
 
BBA said:
You are not far from the truth on that either.
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Not sure if these are sarcastic but I have it on a system with a 4850e, 2 gigs of memory a SSD, HDD and a 4550. No problems.

Sound over HDMI actually improved.
 
jstnomega said:
BALLMER: props for going sown swinging
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Seriously. After all of these things flop hard, can they hire a CEO who actually knows what he's doing and has some vision for the future? All we seem to be seeing from Microsoft lately are "me too" products that are just too little too late. And Windows 8 is a fucking trainwreck of an OS.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Not dogging you or anything, but can I ask why? I won't bitch or moan (others might), but I'm just curious as to why you think it's impractical for fast every day PC use. I don't seem to have any problems and after the initial shock, it's faster than 7. Takes some time to learn the quirks and shortcuts, though.
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Well, I did not take time to get use to it but there is a lot more fishing around for stuff. The menus were a turn off for me (hovering over the edge of the side to see that menu option thing). Over all I don't think it is for me: never really liked the whole win8 setup.
 
SkribbelKat said:
You guys should really consider getting an all Intel system. Take out the video card and whatever other add-in parts you have and go for like a single hard drive and integrated graphics with motherboard sound and it'll work lots more betterer. Honestly, you're probably giving it too much hardware and making it confused.
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The funny thing is, a lot of the people I've seen with trouble have Intel systems. Hell I've had similar on my i3 laptop. Drivers are key, especially for video and network performance. But it's not as easy as running the Intel driver agent on their website, as if kept getting the wrong driver, at least at first.
 
rflcptr said:
An immediately visible clock has been a part of the interface since... whenever.
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Yet it its been a part of the Start menu since...never. So why would people expect one w/Win8? As soon as people realize the Start screen is just the Start menu reinvented, they will stop whining about it and realize that 99% of your time will be spent on the desktop, same as Win7 and anything before it.
 
The under the hood changes are worth it imho. Modern UI is no big deal. The Win8 killer app is Cocktail Flow :D
 
Silverghost said:
The under the hood changes are worth it imho. Modern UI is no big deal. The Win8 killer app is Cocktail Flow :D
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^^^ This! And its just as awesome on Windows Phone. I actually got it for WP7 first, then damn near spit my Jack & Coke on the monitor when I saw it was available for Windows 8 as well.
 
SkribbelKat said:
You guys should really consider getting an all Intel system. Take out the video card and whatever other add-in parts you have and go for like a single hard drive and integrated graphics with motherboard sound and it'll work lots more betterer. Honestly, you're probably giving it too much hardware and making it confused.
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Not sure if serious.......
 
... all aiming to deliver one message: that Microsoft is not only relevant but central to the post-PC world.
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I think the plan is to get Win8 installed so people will say "What a piece of shit my PC has become!"

Thus begins the demise of the desktop, killed by its parent like a teenager they don't want to grow up and leave home. :D
 
wilsonrdfl said:
Yet it its been a part of the Start menu since...never. So why would people expect one w/Win8? As soon as people realize the Start screen is just the Start menu reinvented, they will stop whining about it and realize that 99% of your time will be spent on the desktop, same as Win7 and anything before it.
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Silverghost said:
The under the hood changes are worth it imho. Modern UI is no big deal. The Win8 killer app is Cocktail Flow :D
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Just like Vista people hate change, it is all how you sell it to them. Sorry for all you crazies but Win7 was vista with jumplists and window snapping. XP was met with similar scorn too and it then became beloved even though it was Windows 2000 with fancier windows.

Windows8 under the hood stuff is quite awesome the way it manages memory and boot/hibernation is quite awesome and a hugely important shift for how a PC handles running applications. The new task manager and the improved transfers are all quite good as well. The new UI, great with a touchscreen, for a mouse user - treat as a full screen start and roll with it.

Yes there are bugs, it was just released and with the billions of hardware configurations out there I'm sure it'll take a short while to figure it all out just like every new release.


Best endorsement is that ever since I installed consumer preview on my tablet pc it aggravates me that my desktop doesn't have touch, I keep finding myself reaching for my monitor and wondering why my gestures don't work.
 
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