Windows 8 Has Driven Millions To Become Apple Users

ianken said:
If they were "pros" then they would be able to solve their UI problem. I run Win8 at work and at home. I rarely see the start screen unless I want to. Just like I rarely actually ever used the start menu on Win7. I use a variety UI add-ons for a better experience (for me).

Apple: presents new UI that is a grid of buttons. Response "OMG! Sooo innovative. Where do I sign up for a chance to suck Steve Jobs dick?"

MSFT: presents new UI that is a grid of rectangles. Response "OMG! How r I use kumputar!??!?!?ONE DERP!!!!"

:rolleyes:
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lol pretty much. You learn a few tricks and you're golden with windows 8. Thing is people aren't willing to learn a few new, quick tricks and would rather complain instead. Productivity is more about learning than complaining boys and girls. It surprises me how people get through life sometimes.
 
You're telling me Win8 has singlehandedly doubled the userbase for Apple osx?

I Kidd..
 
Of course today Microsoft releases their quarterly results.

Guess what they posted?

RECORD REVENUE. It's getting comical at this point.
 
daglesj said:
It's like the author writes "I've been a professional track and field athlete for 10 years. I bought some new running shoes with laces just like my previous pair. But damn it I just can't work out how to tie the laces! I've had to go back to wearing my old pair of lace up running shoes! Those new shoes are just so dumb!" t.
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Only problem there is Metro isn't "like the previous pair". You wanted running shoes and they gave you kids' roller skates

Modern-baby-roller-skates.jpg
 
If you like the start menu there is free open source called clam shell for it boots directly to normal windows screen. I have multiple boot system and windows 8 is ok.
 
heatlesssun said:
Looks like Chromebooks in their first two years sold as well as the Surface RT did in its first two months: Chrome OS doing significantly worse than Windows RT
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A third hand rumor from unnamed sources. Not very credible.

Now look at the worlds larges online retailer, http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108 Chromebook is still number one there. 175 days in the top 100. It's been number one as long as I remember seeing it up there.
 
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odditory said:
Only problem there is Metro isn't "like the previous pair". You wanted running shoes and they gave you kids' roller skates
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No, the new UI is not like the previous "pair" because new "pair" is for more than just keyboard and mouse operation. If Windows stays tied to only keyboard and mouse operation then it's going to end up looking like this pair:

old%20shoes.jpg
 
BladeVenom said:
A third hand rumor from unnamed sources. Not very credible.

Now look at the worlds larges online retailer, http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Laptop-Computers/zgbs/electronics/565108 Chromebook is still number one there. 175 days in the top 100. It's been number one as long as I remember seeing it up there.
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So the NetMarketShare numbers given to Ed Bott is a third hand rumor from an unnamed source?

The first numbers were due to show up in the subscriber-only reports for the week ending April 14. This morning I asked a company spokesperson for a sneak peek and got this report:

For the week of 4/8 - 4/14, ChromeBook has 0.023 percent weighted worldwide usage. Because it rounds to less than 0.1 percent it’s not showing up in our reports.
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http://www.zdnet.com/first-real-world-usage-figures-suggest-chromebooks-are-struggling-7000014102/
 
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Hmmm so I guess Microsoft reporting that Windows OS sales are up over 22% from the same time last year means nothing and that people really are leaving the PC market in droves due to Windows 8 sucking so bad :rolleyes:.
 
It absolutely has for me.

Windows 8 was released and COMPLETELY ruined my workflow. I couldn't get anything done. I had a macbook air which was bought strictly on form factor, but OS X was always nice to use, but I never considered it a true competitor to windows. Well windows 8 made me re-think it, and I ended up using it for a couple days to see if I truly could get work done.

I could. In fact, I ended up liking it more than windows altogether, not just windows 8.

Ended up purchasing a macbook retina and haven't looked back, have zero intention of using windows for more than gaming really.

Windows is a joke compared to OS X to be honest.
 
oh PS, I'm sure people will say you can just download programs / hacks to make it function like windows 7 - that's great... but for how long? Clearly microsoft is force-feeding Metro down people's throats and it isn't going away any time soon. How long is it until Microsoft blocks these hacks / makes them no longer operable?

Business users cannot operate in this way... can't rely on "unofficial" hacks to get things done...
 
MS just posted another record quarterly profit (FY Q3 ended March 31, 2013), despite the 3/4 billion dollar fine paid the the EU. Windows sales are flat year over year.

http://arstechnica.com/information-...ter-revenue-in-spite-of-flat-windows-numbers/

Windows Division revenue was $5.703 billion, up 23 percent on the same quarter a year ago. However, $1.085 billion of this was revenue taken in previous quarters for the Windows Upgrade Offer. Excluding this, revenue was $4.618 billion, essentially unchanged year on year. Operating income for the division was $3.459 billion, up 16 percent from third quarter 2012.
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Win 7 sales in Q3'12 (Jan-Mar 2012) == Win 7 + Win 8 sales in Q3'13 (Jan-Mar 2013). I BLAME WINDOWS 8 FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!zero
 
I switched from PC to Apple just for the very reason of upgrades.

I tried to use windows 8 on a non-touch screen device (sorry I HATE my computer screen getting all nasty w/ finger prints - so I am not going to use a touch screen for computing)..

I do mostly Mobile development on Android, so I have three platforms to choose from Windows/OSX/Ubuntu..

I have been happy with my core i7 workstation that is now over 4 years old. It still is fast, and I can't complain. But... I needed a new laptop to replace my old core-2 duo.. I wanted something portable with a decent screen. All my options were new laptops with Windows 8. I tried using windows 8 in a VM for a while to see if I could over-come my issues w/ the new interface, but after 18+ years of mainly the same interface scheme. I could not bring myself to use Windows 8. I found the tiles too distracting, found it a pain in the butt to have to switch between desktop mode and full screen mode. And it just did not work for 'me'..

I could have chose a windows laptop and downgraded to windows 7, but I have never had much luck with laptop vendors keeping their drivers up to date, especially with old operating systems. I did not want to mess with that hassle.

I use Ubuntu as my build machine at work, so I am quite familiar with it, but their new user interface (Unity) is probably worse than Microsofts..

That pretty much left me OSX. I figured that my dislike of what Windows 8 was, and the locked down nature of it, left me little choice but to vote with my wallet to go to OSX. I can't say I am 'happy' with.. It seems like a half baked OS (from the UI standpoint).. I can't "cut/paste" a file via the gui to move it.. I either have to copy / drag, etc.. I have got set in my ways, and don't like having cluttered windows where I am dragging from one to another, I usually CTRL-X CTRL-V files I need to move.. Unfortunately I can't do that in OSX.. But from a hardware standpoint, the MacBook air is really portable, and easy to move around with a decent battery.. It has had it's shares of crashes, like when configuring my router w/ USB to Serial port (supposed to be OSX compatible), if I unplugged it from my macbook before disconnecting, my macbook would reboot.

So for work, I just had the opportunity for a laptop refresh, I switched from lenovo to mac book pro.. But I found that OSX in my work environment, connecting to my ubuntu build machine and mapping drives and re-connecting to them etc.. Just did not seem to work as easily as Windows 7.. But .. I like the retina display.. I have the darn thing at 2800x1800.. Text may be pretty small, but I have a hell of a lot of real-estate... So.. now I am running windows 7 on the MacBook pro...

I can't find anything really wrong with Windows 7.. Windows 8 is awesome if you use it on a RT device, or some other touch enabled device, but if you are using a mouse/keyboard.. It just feels clunky...

So.. I am a mixed bag.. But based on monitor resolution for work, I got the Macbook Pro (windows 7), and for home. MacBook air (osx).

I really think mac could sell a HELL of a lot more devices if they just shipped them with Windows 7 on them... The hardware is pretty good (albit a bit expensive).. But I can't find much comparable.
 
PCs are losing a lot of market share for lots of reasons not just windows 8 sucking, people are doing more and more computing through tablets and cell phones and whether apple haters (i'm no apple fan) like it or not apple is gaining a significant part of the share over the past few years.
 
RyanLucier said:
oh PS, I'm sure people will say you can just download programs / hacks to make it function like windows 7 - that's great... but for how long? Clearly microsoft is force-feeding Metro down people's throats and it isn't going away any time soon. How long is it until Microsoft blocks these hacks / makes them no longer operable?

Business users cannot operate in this way... can't rely on "unofficial" hacks to get things done...
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You got it. Start menu hacks are a temporary solution to a permanent problem (assuming MS never pulls their heads out). Businesses can't rely on a jailbreak since they're likely to be patched in subsequent updates and theres no guarantee the jailbreaks can be adapted to the new patch - especially if dependency code is removed. The solution has to be first party.

What I know is this - if Metro is so compelling and innovative, people that really like Metro shouldn't be afraid of Microsoft adding an opt-out for people that have no need for it. You can lead a horse to water....
 
This is what my customers were telling me when i was selling laptops at the it fiar a few months ago...

" learn win8? i rather learn mac iOS"
 
Right, millions are going to go, "dang, no way I am going to use Windows 8 on that $400 computer which is all I need and can afford. I am going out right now and spending $2000 on a MacBook Pro since I will need to buy all the software I need as well since windows software does not work on OSX." :rolleyes:
 
odditory said:
You got it. Start menu hacks are a temporary solution to a permanent problem (assuming MS never pulls their heads out). Businesses can't rely on a jailbreak since they're likely to be patched in subsequent updates and theres no guarantee the jailbreaks can be adapted to the new patch - especially if dependency code is removed. The solution has to be first party.
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3rd parties have been offering Windows UI modification utilities forever. That said I do understand the hesitance of using such tools particularly in a business environment. However if one is only using desktop applications the transition to Windows 8 I don't believe is anywhere near as difficult as many are making it out to be.

odditory said:
What I know is this - if Metro is so compelling and innovative, people that really like Metro shouldn't be afraid of Microsoft adding an opt-out for people that have no need for it. You can lead a horse to water....
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The other way it can be seen is if Metro is so compelling and innovative why would there be an off switch for it? I've said many times that I don't have a problem with a classic UI switch but that such an option would probably slow down the development of the new UI, Metro apps and better and cheaper touch hardware. If OEMs can just flip a switch and make 8 look like 7 they'll simply keep putting Windows 8 on the same crap they've been making for too long without trying to do their own innovation, like the Leap Motion controllers going into HP PCs starting next month.

Maybe Microsoft will have to put in a switch to placate some customers but the Start Button/Menu isn't going to help sell more PCs and copies of Windows in the long term.
 
Rizen said:
Windows Phone is pretty awesome, but it's market share sucks. Pretty much no one has one. I know two people who have a Windows Phone. Same thing with Surface tablets in comparison to Android / iOS.
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I wanted to give WP8 a shot before I got my Note 2, but Verizon doesn't carry a top-tier WP8 handset. If they carried the Lumia 922 I would've seriously considered going with WP8 but due to the gimpy hardware options available, I was forced to go with android.
 
ManofGod said:
Right, millions are going to go, "dang, no way I am going to use Windows 8 on that $400 computer which is all I need and can afford. I am going out right now and spending $2000 on a MacBook Pro since I will need to buy all the software I need as well since windows software does not work on OSX." :rolleyes:
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Bingo. The nonsensical nature of some of this stuff is beyond bewildering. People aren’t buying Windows tablets because they can buy much cheaper Android tablets but those same people, because the Windows 8 UI is supposedly so bad, will spend a boatload of money they don’t have to instead of spending 10 minutes to figure out Windows 8. And people say Microsoft doesn’t get it.
 
Kueller said:
I wanted to give WP8 a shot before I got my Note 2, but Verizon doesn't carry a top-tier WP8 handset. If they carried the Lumia 922 I would've seriously considered going with WP8 but due to the gimpy hardware options available, I was forced to go with android.
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There's a good chance the 928 on Verizon will be announced next week. It sort of came out in Nokia's earnings call.
 
I have seen actually a lot of people get discouraged by Windows 8 so much they just chose to run their old xp machines longer. Lots did go to Mac.
 
I highly doubt Windows 8 drove millions of PC users to Apple... at least not as long as Windows 7 is still being supported.

I hate Windows 8 with a passion... Honest to God, I prefer DOS.
What idiot at Microsoft thought it was a good idea to install a touch-based tablet operating system on a desktop PC?

Long time Windows users were not looking forward to Windows 8.
We knew that like clockwork Microsoft alternates the release of a good Windows (98, XP, Win7) with a crappy one (ME, Vista, Win8). Some of us think MS does this intentionally to manipulate their stock price. Remember, investors don't make anything when a stock price is flat. I'll bet that many MS insiders sold their stock when it was flying high around the time Win8 was released, with the hope of buying it back just before Windows 9 is announced.
 
I find windows 8 very intuitive to use, only thing i don't like is the metro apps and that's only because i'm a resource freak. the apps just creep me out because there is no obvious way to end the task.
 
It's obvious what MS was going for in Win8, cross-platform w/ tablets, laptops, phones and PC's...I for one like the concept and in the long run i think it's a good way to go...short term however, alot of people will experience the "vista syndrome".
 
I call BS on this whole story. It's nothing more than a marketing piece.

Windows 8 had a bad launch because OEM's didn't want to start producing touch screen PC's and were already focused on the Android tablet market. Asus, Lenovo, HP and all the others were salivating over all that money the IPAD was making and as soon as Android 4.x showed up they figured that was where the future was.

The other reason Windows 8 isn't doing well is because the remainder of the PC hardware out there doesn't need it. In fact in a corporate setting it's pointless and awkward on current PC's.

It's more than just UI design it's a change in actually interacting with the UI which corporate offices aren't ready for so adoption will be much slower there than with past OS releases.

It's like if GM or Toyota suddenly switched all their cars over to running on natural gas exclusively and didn't bother to tell anyone till they got to the dealership. Too big of a shock with no preparation. You have to prepare people for change and put the support in place before you can expect people to accept it.

It's not a bad OS it was just launched badly.:cool:
 
Were this the case, wouldn't Apples sales figures since Win 8's launch be noticeable out of the norm higher? I think this article is bullshit apple fanboying.

And I think everyone that hates Windows 8 needs to get over themselves, been using it on my Desktop and 7 on my laptop and dont give two shits between the two.
 
Eradan said:
She had already used a Mac so it's not like she was jumping into something completely new.
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No, but if they had been looking for a laptop before Windows 8 came out, they would have bought one with Windows 7.
 
Also if people were to buy into this argument then they would have to say that windows 7 drove millions of people to Apple because apples massive movement with laptops and all in ones picked up the most momentum long before windows 8, in fact by apples own number their laptop and desktop sales are down aroundf 12%.
 
supergfunk33 said:
I find windows 8 very intuitive to use, only thing i don't like is the metro apps and that's only because i'm a resource freak. the apps just creep me out because there is no obvious way to end the task.
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As someone who has been using Microsoft products since Dos 2.0, I find Windows 8 (and Server 2012) to be unintuitive to use.
 
nutzo said:
As someone who has been using Microsoft products since Dos 2.0, I find Windows 8 (and Server 2012) to be unintuitive to use.
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I think the notion of intuitive is often mistaken for familiar. If someone has been using Windows for a long time with only keyboards and mice there's certainly a lot that's unfamiliar about Windows 8.

When I started hearing of complaints about how unintuitive Windows 8 was, I tried to take a step back and think about that statement. It's hard for me to be objective on the subject because I'd read a lot Paul Thurrott's Windows 8 blogs and whatever one my think about him he actually had some great material on using Windows 8 so I pretty much knew how to use Windows 8 before I even had the Developer Preview installed on a single machine.

I tired to think about the subject a little deeper. Just how intuitive has any device I've ever used been? Have I ever just started using a device with no instruction and was on my way? Honestly I can't think of anything that I've ever used extensively where at some time or another I didn't read RTFM. Be it my car or instructions for putting together a bookcase or fixing something around the house, there's typically a process where I have to educate myself.

I've come to the conclusion that this might be one reason that I've not had a problem adapting to Windows 8. If I don't know something I just read up on it and think I've noticed that there is some resistance to that notion with some Windows 8 opponents. They feel like they should just know it already without even a modicum of study. Which I guess is understandable, it is Windows after all, that OS that's been around for almost 30 years. Of course the fact that a 30 year old OS now has to compete with 21st smart phones and tablets is part of the problem facing Windows.
 
chrispix said:
That pretty much left me OSX. I figured that my dislike of what Windows 8 was, and the locked down nature of it, left me little choice but to vote with my wallet to go to OSX. I can't say I am 'happy' with.. It seems like a half baked OS (from the UI standpoint).. I can't "cut/paste" a file via the gui to move it.. I either have to copy / drag, etc.. I have got set in my ways, and don't like having cluttered windows where I am dragging from one to another, I usually CTRL-X CTRL-V files I need to move.. Unfortunately I can't do that in OSX..
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Actually you can sort of do it, by copy (Command+C) and move paste (Option+Command+V) the files, which is a pain as I always try to cut and paste as per windows.

I have traditionally been a windows user since Windows for Workgroups 3.11, although I avoided WindowsME like the plague, went straight from windows 98 to Windows 2000. Trying out windows 8 was a huge shock, my reaction after 20 minutes with it was stuff it, I am not using this pile of crud. Instead I kept on using windows 7 on my desktop.

There should be an option on installation on how I want my desktop to look and feel:
Option 1: Metro
Option 2: Windows 7
etc...
 
Windows 8 is OK imo. I used it for 3 months now without any problem.

Just, on my way changing to the Mac to try new things...
 
I own a 13.3 MacBook Air which work has bought for me (I'd have never paid out of pocket for that thing), and even though work literally pays me to use it I am not using it and just bought a one of the new Dell XPS 13 machines instead.

MS just posted record earnings per share for the third quarter, so even with the W8 fiasco the world is still in order. Life is good.
 
RyanLucier said:
It absolutely has for me.

Windows 8 was released and COMPLETELY ruined my workflow. I couldn't get anything done. I had a macbook air which was bought strictly on form factor, but OS X was always nice to use, but I never considered it a true competitor to windows. Well windows 8 made me re-think it, and I ended up using it for a couple days to see if I truly could get work done.
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I guess you couldn't find the desktop within those two days then?

The phrase "couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag" springs to mind.
 
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