This is going to be one of those "heard from a friend of a friend" posts so skeptics please don't shoot the messenger!
I was talking to a programmer friend of mine who happens to know a friend that works in the Windows division of MS. We were discussing Windows 8 and the topic of Sinofsky's departure came up. My friend had a big smile on his face (because he hates the start screen) and said that he was told that we should expect big changes to Windows 8 by spring.
Apparently, MS got a lot of feedback from testers saying that they would like options to go straight to desktop, start menu, etc (those problems that a lot of people are complaining about). Windows 8 was Sinofsky's project and he didn't want people messing with his ideas so he was rigid on his stance about no start menu and all the rest. This is where he and others in the company butted heads. With Win 8 not selling as much as they would like they let him go.
So now according to my friend's source, there will most likely be a service pack out in the future (possibly spring) that will make the Windows 8 desktop experience more like Windows 7.
Personally I'm a bit skeptical myself because I don't know how much they would change. Adding a traditional start menu would kind of indicate that MS is conceding that the original idea was a failure. It's then how much they value pride over revenue.
Also, would a service pack really be able to add that type of functionality back? I know they could make cosmetic changes, but there would probably be a lot of work involved in order to change the start screen to desktop behaviour.
I was talking to a programmer friend of mine who happens to know a friend that works in the Windows division of MS. We were discussing Windows 8 and the topic of Sinofsky's departure came up. My friend had a big smile on his face (because he hates the start screen) and said that he was told that we should expect big changes to Windows 8 by spring.
Apparently, MS got a lot of feedback from testers saying that they would like options to go straight to desktop, start menu, etc (those problems that a lot of people are complaining about). Windows 8 was Sinofsky's project and he didn't want people messing with his ideas so he was rigid on his stance about no start menu and all the rest. This is where he and others in the company butted heads. With Win 8 not selling as much as they would like they let him go.
So now according to my friend's source, there will most likely be a service pack out in the future (possibly spring) that will make the Windows 8 desktop experience more like Windows 7.
Personally I'm a bit skeptical myself because I don't know how much they would change. Adding a traditional start menu would kind of indicate that MS is conceding that the original idea was a failure. It's then how much they value pride over revenue.
Also, would a service pack really be able to add that type of functionality back? I know they could make cosmetic changes, but there would probably be a lot of work involved in order to change the start screen to desktop behaviour.