Opinion: Windows 8 Is Unusable

I watched this video a couple of weeks ago - and while I agree with _some_ of his points, I question his ability to use _ANY_ computer by some of the comments he made and his total lack of troubleshooting skills.

In other words, he's a fraud trying to make a buck with a fancy video that isn't exactly accurate.

+1

A friend's grandmother got a new laptop with Win8 not long ago. I used it for the first time and figured out so much that this guy seemed unable to deal with...
 
I didn't seem to have any of the problems he was experiencing with Windows 8?
 
Something a lot of you don't realize. Probably all readers and posters here are savvy with computers in some form or another. You purchased windows 8 for your home pc because you wanted to and were willing to put forth effort to learn how to use it.

In an office environment most users are not computer savvy at all. Often you have to show someone how to do something over and over. Some users don't get it and never will. Others will get downright hostile over a change in their routine. You have no idea what changing to windows 8 would be like in an office setting.
 
Its terrible. I tried 3 times to use Windows 8 , during its RC and final releases I just couldn't take it. Its so undesirably miserable in so many ways I just don't know where to start.

The interface is the single largest flaw. Its clearly built for touchscreens and not for K/M usage. When I buy a new OS I don't want to have to install a mod in order to get back a feature I find critical to every day usage and by that I mean the Start Button. I think if your in the process of designing an OS and you remove a long time feature from that beta and suddenly you find people who are testing it out are so bothered by not having it that they've go about their own way to activate it again then and you do nothing about it then you clearly don't give a shit about what your consumer base really wants.

I also don't like the way Windows 8 handles extra OS installs. It is complete rubbish and truly is not something MS had to do or felt was a evolutionary step.

To top off those few complaints among many , MS is aggressively discouraging Windows 7 sales and OEM installs which is insane to me because they still make a tidy profit from selling this software. Granted this is the strategy they employ with every major OS release but I feel like Windows 7 did A LOT of good for MS. It kept them strongly competitive and even changed the minds of those who are completely against Windows into thinking that perhaps Windows has finally matured to the state where it can be truly reliable and worth any trouble. Now Windows 8 will do all kinds of damage to that built up image and people will react as if MS hasn't learned a damn thing at all.

I'm not going to buy Windows 8 period. Windows 7 runs great and I just don't see the need to pay someone for a headache when I can just bash my head into the wall and get one for free.
 
Something a lot of you don't realize. Probably all readers and posters here are savvy with computers in some form or another. You purchased windows 8 for your home pc because you wanted to and were willing to put forth effort to learn how to use it.

In an office environment most users are not computer savvy at all. Often you have to show someone how to do something over and over. Some users don't get it and never will. Others will get downright hostile over a change in their routine. You have no idea what changing to windows 8 would be like in an office setting.


So far the 10 computer thats have been bought by companies I help manage all hate the damned things.
 
I do agree with a lot of his points but some of them are blown out of proportion. Windows 8 is not a great OS and it's not a bad OS either. It's just ok. And seriously, he never figured out how to close metro apps. That's pretty bad. At the end he states he only spent 30 minutes with the OS. I'm sorry but 30 minutes is not long enough to draw any conclusion on any OS.
 
Oh look, the "If you don't get it you must be inferior/doing it wrong/not giving it a chance" crowd.

No, it doesn't. Not when the normal user experience is based on other methods.

Just because something can be taught doesn't mean the method is good. Yes, I could "learn" Windows 8, but as was noted earlier in this thread, if an OS requires "learning" for basic operational tasks it's been done badly.

All I asked is what is so difficult about switching apps with left edge swipes and closing them from top edge down swipes. There's going to be a learning curve with anything that's new to someone and I've showed a quite a few people Windows 8 on a tablet and I've not seen anyone that had any real difficulty in picking up the touch UI and I have been surprised by just how fast kids seem to pick it up. Though it does make sense as kids usually have far fewer preconceptions than adults about things, especially when adults have been using something for a long time.

When combined with the desktop Windows 8 does get more complex and less touch friendly but pure Modern UI operation with touch is pretty straight forward and simple.
 
Are comments like this the result of trolling?
He was asking a legitimate question. I've often wondered the same: whether the numerous errors you make are a result of handwriting recognition failures or merely human ones.
 
Regardless of your opinion on Windows 8, to post a video that took longer to create than the time you spent evaluating the new OS shows a very real rush to judgement. I think most people will say that they spent more than 30 minutes to learn their way around Windows 8. I personally have it boot to the desktop and use it for the most part like Windows 7. It works just fine for me. He has points about the choices MS has made but it is usable.
 
I'm in the Win8 is a turd camp, so I agree with him. It offers nothing I need which I don't already have.
 
I was pretty hard on 8 during the RC phase and it definitely took some adjustment. Now that I've settled in with it I think it's a pretty decent operating system. I don't care much for metro but don't have touch capability on my current setup.

That said I don't think it's worth going out of your way to upgrade from 7. Going forward if my next notebook does have touch I'd prefer 8.

I agree that non-hobbyists using strictly keyboard/mouse would probably be less inclined to like it, but my Mom is in her late 50s and doesn't have any complaints with it. She's fairly seasoned with computers, had XP and 7 before, just takes some getting used to.

At some point all the desktop/notebooks OS's are going to cross that straight and have touch functionality integrated. Businesses too, whether they see it or not. It's going to be a bumpy ride along the way but eventually I think it will smooth out and make sense. Mouse/keyboard are too practical to do away with any time in the forseeable future but in 10 years I'd be surprised to see any PC or Mac displays without touch interfaces that we'll all be using at least a small percentage of the time.
 
Lot of things I like about Win 8, but MORE things I dislike. I agree with a lot of what this guy has to say, although a bit hysterical and hyperbolic. Win 8 is a far cry from what Win 7 did. It's not the worst OS out from Microsoft but it's close.
 
I definitely wouldn't put 8 in the category of Vista, or that awful ME. Windows 8 just seems a little awkward with the interface, it's not a flat-out dud.
 
So this guy is trying to be like Ben Yahtzee Croshaw? Even used the same style/art that he uses on Zero Punctuation.

Like, omigod, he used a yellow background and cartoons. Ben Croshaw totally invented that.
 
Plus Win7 set the bar pretty high, I liked it more on release than any prior OS they made. 98SE and XP wre solid too but my user experience with Win7 was/is still much better overall. Win8 made a lot of changes to adjust to the times.

What I dislike most is MS ignoring the clear feedback from customers, who want the option to bypass Metro and get a start button back. I know they have a forward vision with all this but users want to go at their own pace. They want a Start button, so just let them have it, and stop trying to drag them kicking and screaming into the touch-app future.
 
All I asked is what is so difficult about switching apps with left edge swipes and closing them from top edge down swipes. There's going to be a learning curve with anything that's new to someone and I've showed a quite a few people Windows 8 on a tablet and I've not seen anyone that had any real difficulty in picking up the touch UI and I have been surprised by just how fast kids seem to pick it up. Though it does make sense as kids usually have far fewer preconceptions than adults about things, especially when adults have been using something for a long time.

When combined with the desktop Windows 8 does get more complex and less touch friendly but pure Modern UI operation with touch is pretty straight forward and simple.

You didn't just ask a question. You attacked and belittled someone by comparing them to a child so you could insult and upset them. It was viciously intended and this post is just your usual dance to attempt to justify being violently angry at people who have different ideas about something than you. It's all your usual game of picking a fight, upsetting someone, and then trying to come off as intelligent sounding when they respond so you can make yourself feel superior about your ability to control a discussion and manipulate others.
 
He was asking a legitimate question. I've often wondered the same: whether the numerous errors you make are a result of handwriting recognition failures or merely human ones.

I doubt that he or you are interested in my typing proficiency or the accuracy of handwriting recognition in Windows. At any rate, the typing accuracy of the comment in question was written using the Windows 8 onscreen keyboard via touchscreen. This post written using the Windows 8 onscreen keyboard via handwriting to text recognition that I'm much more accurate with personally as it adds a proofing step.
 
You didn't just ask a question. You attacked and belittled someone by comparing them to a child so you could insult and upset them. It was viciously intended and this post is just your usual dance to attempt to justify being violently angry at people who have different ideas about something than you. It's all your usual game of picking a fight, upsetting someone, and then trying to come off as intelligent sounding when they respond so you can make yourself feel superior about your ability to control a discussion and manipulate others.

Wow, this is a stretch. There are plenty of adults that I know that readily concede that their children are much better with technology than they are. Indeed, wasn't there a thread about the very subject on the [H] started last week?
 
The die hard defenders can say all they want, you can call him a poser or bash him for only using it 30 minutes. The reality is more and more people who do this for a living and analyze usability as a profession are lining up against Win 8. A hand full of us bitching on a tech forum, sure you can still argue against us. Once the industry starts turning against it, well defending it just becomes blind fanboyism.

Win 8 was a terrible design decision and he is right, everyone who pushed it through should be fired. It was fine for a Tablet OS only and it had a chance of succeeding as a Tablet OS only. However when MS decided to force it on non touch devices and ignore all the building dissent to it and then eliminated the Start menu despite extremely vocal protests, they doomed it to failure. Windows 8 is a complete disaster and anyone who says otherwise at this point is a moron.
 
The amount of bullshit in here is amazing.

You guys keep bitching back and forth about the pros and cons of this video and windows 8.

What most of you are failing to realize is this simple fact: Can Average Joe use it? This video highlights this aspect of it perfectly. This weighs on several factors such as previous exposure to windows computers, their IQ level, willingness to learn it, and time to learn it. It doesn't matter if a 3 year old can use it, because a 3 year old isn't going to buy it.

When you factor in corporate environments which is Microsoft's bread and butter, you also have all the average joe factors listed above as well as cost to re-train average joe, qualifying it on the network, qualifying all the apps associated to work with it, not to mention all the time and money costs of helpdesk personnel dealing with average joe's issues. Time and money are not always readily available in this shit economy.

In this regard, Windows 8 fails miserably. It may be a decent setup for touchscreens, power users/enthusiasts, highly inquisitive 3-year-olds with a lot of time on their hands, or the US government looking to get a massive deal when they have massive debt, but it fails with average joe and most corporate environments.
 
I find it hard to believe that he couldn't figure out how to access the charms bar when it's the very first thing Windows shows you on first boot. Seriously... It shows an animation over and over for like 30 seconds
 
I have Win 8 on all of my machines. I have no problems at all. Granted, it's not how I'd set up the UI but my family is fine using Win 8 now.
 
Wow, I think I can hear this guy's neck beard when he speaks.

P.S. Posted from my Windows 8 PC, if you're not an idiot it's perfectly usable.
 
I doubt that he or you are interested in my typing proficiency or the accuracy of handwriting recognition in Windows. At any rate, the typing accuracy of the comment in question was written using the Windows 8 onscreen keyboard via touchscreen. This post written using the Windows 8 onscreen keyboard via handwriting to text recognition that I'm much more accurate with personally as it adds a proofing step.

In your strain to properly spell the words in your post, you've butchered the grammar. Maybe you should try a keyboard.
 
P.S. Posted from my Windows 8 PC, if you're not an idiot it's perfectly usable.

Gee...another "if you have trouble with a dramatically different operating system GUI, then you must be an idiot" idiot. :D
 
In your strain to properly spell the words in your post, you've butchered the grammar. Maybe you should try a keyboard.

You really don't have to strain between IE 10's spell checker and that built into the handwriting recognition engine in Windows. If you want to be the grammar Nazi you could at least point out the issues. I just checked the post you quoted in Word 2013's spelling and grammar scanner and it didn't show any issues.
 
Gee...another "if you have trouble with a dramatically different operating system GUI, then you must be an idiot" idiot. :D

For someone so concerned about grammar there's also this thing called reading that comes in handy when trying to learn new things.
 
Windows 8 is very different, as I have said before it is the most different OS probably ever created for the desktop by any large company.

That said I find it ironic that kids seem to be better at figuring it out than tech experts. I think the issue is that tech experts like this guy who is highly bias and one sides, default to doing and looking for what they know. And well thats not windows 8. If you clear your mind and say this is not windows, in fact if MS had made windows 8 a secret and called it something from apple or a different company, I bet it would have been hailed with massive support and praised as one of the most innovative OS ever created.

But now instead you get people who ignor the obvious hint when you first turn on a new windows 8 device, or first install it on a new machine that tells you to move you mouse into the corners and just start freaking out because it does not act as you expect. He mentions lots of things like right clicking, sorry right clicking is not intuitive or worse yet long pressing a finger / button ala phones / OSX, I have never seen a new phone user know to do that just because it is intuitive. They all have to be told to do that. So the point is he didnt give windows 8 a fair shake as a new OS, he expected it to be like all others and freaked out when it was not.

That said MS should have seen this comming and smoothed people in. Or they should have made a puppet company and released it without telling anyone it was a MS OS / surface as a new device.
 
You really don't have to strain between IE 10's spell checker and that built into the handwriting recognition engine in Windows. If you want to be the grammar Nazi you could at least point out the issues. I just checked the post you quoted in Word 2013's spelling and grammar scanner and it didn't show any issues.

The last sentence of that post was broken and fragmented, as is the first sentence of the post I'm quoting here. It's quite common with tablet users, because punctuation slows Swype-ish movements to a crawl, and demonstrates yet another of their weaknesses in terms of usability. One of the corporations I oversee has had a pandemic of this among executives, who for some reason demanded IPad minis to do their jobs. Memos have become increasingly...interesting.

And if you want to play Godwin already, that's your call, but little surprise. I assume it just gives you a chance to break away from the "I was only asking how you could be so stupid as to not think Windows 8 is better than God and bacon and puppies thrown into a blender and served in a Guinness glass" bullshit that you so routinely employ.
 
Is it just me or do people come out of the woodwork to defend to the death Microsoft's screw-ups every time they release a half-baked version of Windows?

Windows NT: "If you reboot it every day to get back your memory, the new management features are nice."

Windows ME: "See, it's only unstable if you actually try to do anything on it."

Windows Vista: "Oh if you run it on a computer with three times as much RAM, processor, and storage as it calls for it's actually not dog slow."

Windows 8: "Why don't people try it for a year before they criticize? I did and I can sort of find my way around now."

If the answer is a touchscreen UI on desktop PCs then the question is stupid. It didn't work with Gnome 3, it doesn't work with Windows 8, and it wouldn't work with iOS if Apple was dumb enough to actually force that UI on the desktop.

The fact that Microsoft isn't losing desktop marketshare hand over fist at this point just goes to show that they still maintain a monopoly on the desktop.
 
For someone so concerned about grammar there's also this thing called reading that comes in handy when trying to learn new things.

Um...your own reading comprehension demonstrates trouble. He said if you're not an idiot, then Windows 8 is "perfectly usable". Apart from being an utter lie, notice the use of the word "perfect". That indicates that every single person who comes into contact with it should have no problems. People are having problems. Hence, it's not "perfectly usable". He also stated that it's "perfectly usable" for anyone...except idiots. There are many people who have had trouble with Windows 8, and many have clearly demonstrated that they are not idiots. This is understandable to most people except those who are, for whatever reason, unable to abide people being critical of Metro. Metro is a dramatic change to the Windows GUI. Hence, to paraphrase his statement, "if you have trouble with a dramatically different operating system GUI, then you must be an idiot".

Now go ahead and call me a troll or something and let's get this shit over with. I don't really respect your opinion; I'll admit that. However, you're a bully, and I despise bullies.
 
The migration to Linux begins.

Even though Windows 8 is clunky and looks like a girly-girl OS, even I know this will not happen on the desktop.
Linux is always going to be in use for custom devices, enterprise, and those with lots of time on their hands.

It has too steep of a learning curve for the average user to just pick up and use.
Even Ubuntu 12.xx (Unity-only) and Mint xx are still too much for those who want to do anything beyond "surf the web".
 
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