Ok, so Win 8 is growing on me...

[heatlesssun]

Irrelevant. You said "Average Joe until now has never had the opportunity to have both a desktop and tablet in one device." The tablets of 2002 combined the tablet with the Windows desktop.


Irrelevant. Again, you said "Average Joe until now has never had the opportunity to have both a desktop and tablet in one device." The tablets of 2002 combined the tablet with the Windows desktop.

Your knowledge of things you have not seen or used much is impressive. At any rate your statements are of little relevance as well since the Tablet PCs of 2002 didn't have any support for touch beyond left click registration. What you're doing is like attempting to compare the 2002 iPad to the current version.

 

[spanq]

So, even though you've backpedaled from 'no changes under the hood' to 'well, it can still get infected through the browser!', your argument is still incorrect. IE has evolved to deal with security threats, and the security threats have evolved with it.

Not once did I say there were absolutely no changes under the hood. I said it hasn't really changed all that much. You can still hose Explorer with a bad CD. You can still kill the print spooler trying to clear documents from the queue. You can still wipe or change the password of any Windows installation with a nifty boot CD with Linux. Window's font management still blows. You still have to restart your entire computer when changing a workgroup name. Windows Backup still maintains its position in the suck department. Windows' disk repair tools are mostly the same. Hell, how many times has Microsoft released a huge security patch outside of its update schedule that applies to all versions of Windows? The list of things that have not changed and have been carried over from the days of yore go on and on. You can nitpick all you want about memory subsystems and kernels and what not, but at the end of the day, many of the popular means in which you can bring Windows to its knees (and, of course, stand it back up) have been the same for a long, long time.

I understand you're trying to impress upon me your amazing knowledge of Windows, but you're arguing for the sake of arguing. You don't agree with me. I get it. The horse you're beating can't die any further.

The easiest way through security, though, is going to be 1. on that list above - which they've tried to combat with things like SmartScreen. That can't always work, but you can only do so much to stop someone from downloading shady smiley packs.

You're right and ultimately it's up to the user to prevent malicious software from hosing a machine, but the means in which malware takes over a computer, disables anti-virus, drops itself as a startup item, and blasts you in the face more than Peter North is the same as it was back in the Windows 98 days. Sure, IE has changed and malware developers are constantly changing how they deploy their crap onto your computer, but once it's been clicked and let free to run, it's the same ol' story.

And you may very well be correct. All I'm saying is that the Average Joe until now has never had the opportunity to have both a desktop and tablet in one device.

True, but Microsoft isn't giving Average Joe the opportunity to make the transition on his own terms. Taking the old school Start Menu out of Windows 8 is huge mistake and damn near every Windows and tech blog in the universe has expressed some sort of concern about it making things difficult for Average Joe. I think giving consumers the ability to learn and adapt would better prepare them for the inevitably of the common desktop computer being replaced by a tablet. To this day, many people don't even know half of the cool little things Windows 7 does, like docking programs to the taskbar, pinning items, or split-screening.

Like I mentioned before, I think Windows 8 featuring Metro "tiles" as gadgets on the standard desktop would offer the best of both worlds.

The whole "nobody loves windows" comment just isn't true. I LOVE Windows 7, and I was quite fond of Windows 2000 and the older NT line. While I dont love XP, its decent and gets the job done for a work PC.

I shouldn't have said nobody and I apologize. I love Windows 7, too. I even loved Windows XP for the first year or so. But in general, Windows has always been a love-hate relationship for a lot of people.

 

[heatlesssun]

True, but Microsoft isn't giving Average Joe the opportunity to make the transition on his own terms. Taking the old school Start Menu out of Windows 8 is huge mistake and damn near every Windows and tech blog in the universe has expressed some sort of concern about it making things difficult for Average Joe. I think giving consumers the ability to learn and adapt would better prepare them for the inevitably of the common desktop computer being replaced by a tablet. To this day, many people don't even know half of the cool little things Windows 7 does, like docking programs to the taskbar, pinning items, or split-screening.

In Windows 8 if a user wants to use a Metro app with a keyboard and mouse, they can. If a user wants to use a Metro app with a touch screen, they can. If they're up for it they can use a desktop app with a touch screen. And if they don't like to type they literally could just write everything with a pen. Windows 8 allows users to use it on pretty much whatever terms they want.

Like I mentioned before, I think Windows 8 featuring Metro "tiles" as gadgets on the standard desktop would offer the best of both worlds.

According to Paul Thurott Microsoft told him that currently putting Metro on the desktop would present security problems for the sandboxing model.

 

[polonyc2]

Windows 8 does get better the more familiar you get with it but I'm still not going to switch from Windows 7...I can see people on tablets loving Metro and those with tradiational desktops using the Desktop version of W8 but I don't see the point of anyone using BOTH

Metro is totally useless for people with a mouse/keyboard setup...it's a more annoying version of those widgets from Vista/7...plus I tried using the Metro version of IE and it wouldn't load sites that use Flash because it said Flash wasn't installed while the Desktop version of IE worked fine on those same sites...seems like some things conflict

I see Windows 9 coming out sooner rather then later in the same way that Windows 7 arrived relatively shortly after Vista...MS will need to try and recoup their losses

 

[heatlesssun]

Windows 8 does get better the more familiar you get with it but I'm still not going to switch from Windows 7...I can see people on tablets loving Metro and those with tradiational desktops using the Desktop version of W8 but I don't see the point of anyone using BOTH

Metro is totally useless for people with a mouse/keyboard setup...it's a more annoying version of those widgets from Vista/7...plus I tried using the Metro version of IE and it wouldn't load sites that use Flash because it said Flash wasn't installed while the Desktop version of IE worked fine on those same sites...seems like some things conflict

Two words, hybrid devices, on that kind of hardware Windows 8 excels. But I use Windows 8 on a keyboard and mouse only dual screen desktop, the experience is in not significant way different from Windows 7. All the same programs work and I also use a number of Metro apps which overall work fine with keyboards and mice. Until one sees the real apps coming for Windows 8, it's impossible to call Metro useless for keyboard and mouse driven devices. There's going to be a number of Metro apps almost without question what people will like just fine with keyboards and mice.

As for Flash, Microsoft is limiting the use of Flash to known sites. Flash is a source of a LOT of attacks and they have to tread a big carefully here. The desktop version of IE is actually touch capable if Flash and other plug-ins are needed.