is ms telling us the truth about windows 8?

[cariocadude]

Microsoft is saying to everybody that windows 8 sales are wonderful? I read in so many places how people hate win8. is win8 a success or not?

 

[Tsumi]

Even if it isn't, does it really matter? No company is going to go out and say that their product is a failure, that is bad for their image and stock.

Almost every OEM computer is sold with a Windows product. By now, Windows 7 computers would have been replaced with Windows 8. As long as people keep buying OEM computers, Windows 8 will continue to be sold.

 

[bigdogchris]

Microsoft is saying to everybody that windows 8 sales are wonderful? I read in so many places how people hate win8. is win8 a success or not?

A significant portion of Windows sales, whether it be Windows 7 or 8, are from OEM installations. I don't really think that's a fair way to count sales because it's like Nintendo saying Mario sold 100 Million copies because every Nintendo came with it.

Windows 8 has the advantage of shipping on desktops, laptops, new ultra books and tablets in order to get the numbers 7 had shipping just on desktops and laptops. Plus, a lot of business oriented products are still only shipping with 7, no 8 option.

The truth is, the market is changing. Windows 8 was supposed to try to fill the gap between slipping PC sales and growing tablet sales, but it has actually hurt the market IMO. The touch UI should of been it's own, separate product based on RT and not named "Windows", not include the desktop and it needs to cost almost nothing to OEMs. Microsoft should of separated their desktop/laptop OS from their tablet OS like Apple has done successfully and like Microsoft has done with their 360 (you don't see them brandishing the Microsoft or Windows logo on 360).

 

[mrtheshaggy]

What bigdogchris said. The copy that came on my laptop was wiped and Windows 7 was installed. Yet they still chalk that up as a happy Windows 8 customer.

 

[Eman D. Rahym]

Microsoft is saying to everybody that windows 8 sales are wonderful? I read in so many places how people hate win8. is win8 a success or not?

Actually, Microsoft is saying they shipped over 100 million copies of Windows 8. It's up to you to decide whether that is wonderful or not.

Not everyone hates Windows 8. I don't. What with the various previews and the RTM edition I've been using it for nearly fifteen months now. It works fine. The desktop is a refined version of what was included in Windows 7. The Start Screen is very different from the old Start Menu, but really, between pinning programs to your taskbar and using jump lists, how much time do you spend each day using your Start Menu? You open it, launch the program, and go back to the desktop. Same thing with the Start Screen. I spend hours in front of a PC every day and less than five minutes of that time, likely much less, is spent using the Start Screen. That's even using it to launch Metro apps. The change from the Start Menu to the Start Screen is just not that big of a deal to me.

What do you mean by "success?" Is Windows 8 stable? Yes. Can it run almost all your old programs? Yes. Can it run almost all your old hardware? Yes. Can it run an entirely new category of programs? Yes. Has it been tweaked and refined over Windows 7? Yes. On the other hand, is it the best selling OS ever? No. Has it managed by itself to turn the economy around? No. Has it managed to resurrect the swooning PC market? Not yet at least.

There are literally millions of installations of Windows 8 out in the wild now. Can't you find a friend or a shop and fiddle with one for a bit to decide for yourself what you think of it?

 

[Snufykat]

How many of these windows 8 hate posts do we need?

 

[bigdogchris]

What do you mean by "success?" Is Windows 8 stable? Yes. Can it run almost all your old programs? Yes. Can it run almost all your old hardware? Yes. Can it run an entirely new category of programs? Yes. Has it been tweaked and refined over Windows 7?

I don't think a single person has said that Windows 8 is anything but stellar when it comes to the improved kernel. It's an amazing OS that I wish more people could use. For a few of you the OS works just fine but for a large amount of people it doesn't without some type of add-on or hacked GUI. If the Start menu was such a trivial feature then why are so many people unwilling to let it go?

It's possible that Microsoft's thinking about Start menu's usefulness was flawed and until you open your mind to that you'll never see the truth. The closed minded "it's not wrong, you're wrong" attitude that a few people here have is an elitist attitude.

 

[DPI]

How many of these windows 8 hate posts do we need?

As many as it takes until Microsoft gets the message to put customer interests ahead of the their own impatience to quickly transition Windows to a sterile, locked down, ipad like environment for the sole purpose of making a 30% cut of all software sold, where competition can be stifled by not giving third parties the same library and API access freedom that Microsoft's own programmers are granted.

 

[pxc]

Care to restate the question as it applies to reality?

I'm about as concerned as anyone else about the direction MS is taking Windows, but it is selling well in a down market and regular consumers don't seem to mind it. Not accepting the basic facts is quite childish.

 

[SuperSubZero]

As many as it takes until Microsoft gets the message to put customer interests ahead of

Customer interests are disastrous. They do not generate profit or innovation. Customers don't know what they want, and base their perceived needs on whatever the buzzwords are and what trade rags say. The worst person to tell your business what to make is a person with money and power who is extremely narrow-minded. Customer interests do not create iPhones, they create Blackberry "increment model number by one thousand"s. 10 customers with power result in 10 checkboxes for 10 options the hundred million users with no hand in the decision don't care about.

There are pros and cons to shifting the design focus from "what does the user say they want?" to "what do WE think the user wants?" Apple has gotten good at it, MS hasn't quite figured it out yet. There is also the perception that Windows is going to some locked-down model and the zillion apps out there are just going to stop working, as we all know MS doesn't care about backwards compatibility and ya know, they will just break virtually every app on the planet in a $39 upgrade.

 

[heatlesssun]

As many as it takes until Microsoft gets the message to put customer interests ahead of the their own impatience to quickly transition Windows to a sterile, locked down, ipad like environment for the sole purpose of making a 30% cut of all software sold, where competition can be stifled by not giving third parties the same library and API access freedom that Microsoft's own programmers are granted.

Repeating the same things with filled with tons of technical inaccuracies, meaningless generalizations and portraying all customers as having the same needs, wants and desires however isn't at all useful to Microsoft or any other company trying to meat needs and at the same time trying to keep a product relevant to current technical and social trends.

 

[MrCrispy]

I find it quite annoying how everyone and their uncle is willing to attack MS for the slightest possible reason, while Apple who have a well documented history of lying, being anti-consumer, arrogant and secretive, get a free pass and are instead even praised.

People are basically used to running Windows for free (cheap pc's, free upgrades, cheap/free software) with total freedom, unlike the total walled garden of Apple.