InfoWorld: "Windows 8 review: Yes, it's that bad"

[AngryNil]

Windows 8 review: Yes, it's that bad | Microsoft Windows - InfoWorld

So, I was searching up Windows 8 on Google when the top news item was an InfoWorld article. I can't say that I've ever read the site, but my first impression was far from positive.

I'm been disappointed to no end with the "tech journalists" who write like bloggers and act like bloggers. It's your job, if you're reviewing a product, to give it a proper go. It's your job to back up your assertions with data or factual truths.

It's sad to see writers who clearly approach a review with a closed mind, who will be looking out for faults (while ignoring any provided functionality that "fixes" these faults) so they can craft their piece around those negatives. The Vanity Fair article comes to mind.

However, this piece was a nice springboard for me to argue my point - one I've asserted in various places. There's a popular view that Windows 8 somehow detracts from the desktop experience and productivity - a view held among those who are already actively compromising their output by sticking to old, inefficient workflows.

The new Metro Start screen remains relentlessly two-dimensional with flipping tiles that look like LEDs on the Vegas Strip.

Brilliant display of journalism here. That aside, here's the point: due to the vibrant and full-screen nature of the start screen, the people doing "real work" are hindered in their productivity. A screen that flashes up for a second will destroy their workflow, and they would be better off all switching to Linux.

Never mind that choosing a duller theme and pinning desktop apps will get rid of "distracting" Live Tiles and fancy colours, I'll let it pass. But the next point is the killer one:

There's no Start button on the desktop, and the utilities that managed to graft Start onto older beta versions don't work with the final RTM Win8... I can confirm after months in the trenches and talking with many hundreds of testers that anyone who defines "real work" as typing and mousing won't like Windows 8 one little bit. Let's take that as a given and move on from there.

So here's the crux of the issue - those who do "real work" on their machines, those who are so incredibly productive that they can't be distracted for a second by the start screen? They apparently don't know about the Windows key, and don't use keyboard shortcuts. If they did, they wouldn't be complaining one bit about Windows 8.

Dinosaurs.

 

[ltyarbro42]

Lol well said. I too have gotten tired of the outside media sources being so ready to tear it down without even giving it a try or knowing anything about it, for that matter. What is it exactly that drives all of these "tech journalists" to be so bitter. Was Microsoft an old friend that just so happened to sleep with their sister... Proverbially? XD

Either way, we aren't get our fair chance. Thank god, only we nerds listen to them anyways XD

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[jimski]

And I guess the journalist failed to realize that in three years, "everyone" will be using large touch screens with voice. Mice and keyboards will only be around for us older folks.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express Pro

 

[theefman]

Its only ok if apple does it, then its the dogs hanging fruit of operating systems. Twats. :dry

 

[cj-m]

you are right as well. i am tired of reading umpteen negative and inane articles concerning W8 and Surface tablets by such esteemed technical experts.

A lot of what i read comes from the unhappy ones here in WP Central. So it seems that WP Central is the original go to source for most bloggers.

However, what i am trying to get across is that all this judgement is being made on something which is not yet out in full production.

Maybe it is easier to bash something when either you don't have the full facts or you can make them all up! What gets me is the "everyone who uses..." "100% of users..." arguements.

 

[Mitlov]

An editorial on The Verge is a nice counterpoint:

This is my next: Windows 8 | The Verge

The author points out that Windows 8 is the first OS to work equally well with keyboard-and-mouse and touch, loves the concept of modular devices that can be a tablet, laptop, or desktop depending on what you plug in, and says he's switching from OSX/iOS to Windows 8 as a result.

 

[vp710]

It used to be cool to diss everything the "evil MS corporation" was coming up with. The truth is, it's not anymore. MS is changing its whole way of doing things, how they treat customers and OEMs, their products, their direction. Each day that passes, Google and Apple are becoming more like everything everyone hated about the old Microsoft. Some people and "tech specialists" are just too ignorant to see it, or succumb to the easy option of anti-MS click-bait.

For about a year, I've witnessed an exponentially increasing trend of people complaining about blind MS bias on these blogs. People know what's up, these "journalists" will follow eventually.