Article: PC makers plan rebellion against Windows at 2014 CES, analysts say

[jwinch2]

PC makers plan rebellion against Windows at 2014 CES, analysts say | Fox News

For the record, I have both Windows Phone on a Lumia 920 and Windows 8.1 on my laptop. I adopted WP8 immediately upon the release of the Lumia 920 and Windows 8 early last summer upon the purchase of a new PC.

Having said that, I do think there are some things that Microsoft needs to pay attention to when it comes to their Windows platform and its functionality on PC's going forward. They might think they know best, but they also need to remember that it is the consumer who decides what to purchase, and if you are not giving them what they want and like, you are going to lose in the long run.

Personally, I really liked Windows 7 but when I bought my new laptop last summer I was ready to give Windows 8 a try. I did not like it but figured it was because it was new and I wanted to give it a fair chance. With the 8.1 update, I hoped some things would be smoothed out and some concessions for the non touch screen user and those who prefer the traditional interface would be made. That didn't really happen. Its now been 6 months since I adopted the platform and I am still not happy with it though I recently downloaded the trial version of StartIsBack and it has helped the experience dramatically.

I am sure some will dismiss this since it is an article in mainstream media and they typically suck at tech reporting, and will dismiss my comments because they are not glowingly supportive of MS, but I think there are legitimate issues for MS to consider. Other reports suggest they are in fact taking these issues seriously, and I am hopeful that they are accurate:

http://windowsitpro.com/windows-81/microsoft-windows-big-changes-coming

 

[SnailUK]

Its ironic that peoples main issue with w8 was that it was trying to merge tablet and pc, yet this goes even further down this route.

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[gedzum]

Windows 8 isn't so bad. I mean it's basically Windows 7 with added store/metro applications. It has the desktop support that everyone is accustomed to. I think it works just fine on mouse and keyboard. Scroll wheel (Ctrl+Scroll wheel for semantic zoom) works well, thumb buttons for back, right click for in app menus. I actually think it works better than touch (on my laptop). The only thing I really don't like is how they changed the method to close apps in 8.1. I prefered it in Win8.

 

[madyrocksin]

I am using windows 8 on my PC and i kinda like it, if you know those few keyboard shortcuts then i don't think its gonna be a problem.

But i think MS should provide an option to integrate the metro and the basic OS during the installation, this will keep most if not all happy

 

[Ian Too]

Thanks for posting the link, though the article isn't really anything new. Samsung already sell PCs contaminated with Android emulators, which is why I won't buy one. It's deeply ironic to me that just as Microsoft are cleaning up Windows and making it a secure platform, OEMs are introducing a whole new source of contamination. Wasn't Java enough?

If you're using Windows 8.1, then using the boot to desktop option, your experience should be nearly identical to that you had on Windows 7, except faster and more secure.

It seems to me that OEMs and the tech press are being deeply hypocritical against Microsoft and profoundly uncritical of Google. Lapping up the latest Android device despite its gaping security and Google's active invasion of user's personal privacy, while continually harping upon comparatively minor issues like the lack of a start button (Why incidentally, are you using StartIsBack when using Windows 8.1, which has the start button?) and lack of apps. Tech reporting lacks proportion and balance, almost as if it's being lead by an OEM - anti-Microsoft agenda.

 

[jwinch2]

Why incidentally, are you using StartIsBack when using Windows 8.1, which has the start button?

Because the supposed start button in 8.1 does not work anything like what I want. The StartIsBack software remedies that. I have only had it for a few days now, but I am far happier with my experience since I installed it.

 

[a5cent]

With the 8.1 update, I hoped some things would be smoothed out and some concessions for the non touch screen user and those who prefer the traditional interface would be made. That didn't really happen. Its now been 6 months since I adopted the platform and I am still not happy with it though I recently downloaded the trial version of StartIsBack and it has helped the experience dramatically.

Despite your post being rather vague and never quite mentioning exactly what it is that you disliked about W8.x, I was with you up until the part I quoted above. I agree that W8.x can justifiably be faulted for many things. That W8 replaced that Start Menu with a Start Screen is not one of them.

IMHO the people complaining about the missing Start Menu have either (a) just not figured out how to use the Start Screen, which for people on this site shouldn't be an issue or (b) don't understand that the Start Screen is not the same thing as the metro environment. What I do understand is that people dislike being (apparently uncontrollably) switched back and forth between the desktop and metro environments, which have very different rules for navigation and window arrangement. I have experienced it far too often that people simply lack the technical background to articulate that problem, and instead blame the most visual entry point into that new, unfamiliar and app-lacking metro environment... the W8 Start Screen.

There is almost nothing that the W7 Start Menu does better than the W8 Start Screen. If you really think the W8 Start Screen is one of W8's biggest problems, then you're fundamentally misunderstanding something. I would agree that the W8 Start Screen has by now become a PR and marketing liability, but I assume that this thread is more concerned with real technical issues rather than just how something is perceived.

This is how MS can fix W8 (technically, I'm not sure the perception of W8 can be saved):

1)
Require that users explicitly enable the metro environment.

1a)
Failing to do so wouldn't mean that metro apps can't be used, but that they are instead opened in a window like any other desktop app. The metro app would only switch into full-screen mode when its window is maximized, but even then none of the traditional metro-ified means of navigation and window arrangement would apply. If you want to use metro apps side by side, then you would arrange the windows accordingly, just as if they were desktop applications. When not maximized, the metro app windows could be resized, within limits, and probably with some window size snapping that would correspond to the display resolutions that metro apps support. Without enabling the metro environment, there is no metro-like app snapping, there is no "pull down to close" gesture, there is no "cycle through apps by swiping from left" gesture. What I would retain are the metro side bars (left and right) and the W8 Start Screen. I also wouldn't bring back the inferior W7 Start Menu.

1b)
Enabling the metro environment wouldn't disable access to the desktop, but would simply have W8 function as it does today, including support for all metro-like gestures. Any metro apps that may have been running in a window on the desktop would instantly be removed from the desktop and moved over into the metro environment.

2)
Add folders to the apps list (which they should also do for WP), so people with dozens of applications can navigate the list with less clutter. Also provide a video tutorial explaining how the Start Screen is really just the same old W7 Start Menu in new cloths, with a focus on all the things it does better.

 

[Citizen X]

foxnews.com

Ummm... no thanks. Get a better source and we will talk.

 

[sahib lopez]

so pc makers want to put android and windows together as a dual boot option and option to use android .. a not secure os that only runs apps that are limited in nature, because people the minority tech people refuse to use windows 8. wow I would hate to see that as a computer guy. the thought of supporting android in the future gives me the shivers x.x this might sound immature but ..yuck

 

[jmshub]

Windows 8 is fantastic. It suffers this failure of public opinion, but it has all of the best things of Windows 7. Things like the ribbon in Windows Explorer make it really difficult to go back to 7.

Vendors are trying chrome for the same reasons they attempted to sell Linux pcs a few years ago...they are looking to cheap out.

 

[sahib lopez]

Windows 8 is fantastic. It suffers this failure of public opinion, but it has all of the best things of Windows 7. Things like the ribbon in Windows Explorer make it really difficult to go back to 7.

Vendors are trying chrome for the same reasons they attempted to sell Linux pcs a few years ago...they are looking to cheap out.

I have the same thing when I go back to use windows 7. when I use windows 7 im always trying to use it as windows 8 and have to change back my mind set. but I don't want to have android on that next computer that my family would buy and end up having to tech them and tell them this is not windows this is android where msft is not present

 

[mpt15]

I absolutely love the Start Screen. I like having all my important information displayed where I want it. It was a bit of a shocker at first, but in 3 days, I knew there was no way I was returning to W7. The few desktop apps I really want available to me without going to the start screen, I have created either a shortcut on the desktop or I have pinned to taskbar.

I love just being on the start screen and typing something, and it just shows up in the search. I like not having to get to a second device like a tablet/phone just to use apps.

I understand that for some people it may not be easy to accept the start screen , but it is the best thing to happen to Windows. Change is good, and I think MS got it right. People need to give it a chance. Just think about when you got your first iPad or smartphone.... You did embrace the change. Give W8 a chance.

 

[Reflexx]

It looks like Android emulation is mainly going to address the lack of apps in the Microsoft app store. It may pose a threat to MS trying to get devs to make apps for the Modern environment.

 

[SnailUK]

And the moment Android apps work on a pc, Microsoft might as well close their app store, as no one will bother to write windows versions of the apps. And as a side effect that kills the windows 8 start screen, because there will be no more live tiles, or metro look apps.

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[Reflexx]

And the moment Android apps work on a pc, Microsoft might as well close their app store, as no one will bother to write windows versions of the apps. And as a side effect that kills the windows 8 start screen, because there will be no more live tiles, or metro look apps.

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Well, if it'd done by emulation then a better more streamlined experience will be had by going native. This is especially true for budget machines.

And lIke you said, there would be no live tiles for these apps. You couldn't pin them. You'd pin the emulator.

Also, if people have trouble adjusting to stuff like the Start Screen, imagine what trouble they'll have with multiple environments. Techies might like it. Lay people will think it's confusing.

Enterprise also won't want that on their PCs.

So maybe there will be a few models with it, but I can't see it becoming the norm.

 

[Loco5150]

I really dont understand people who complain about Windows 8.1 vs Windows 7. I dont like the modern ui apps, I have no need for them, I do everything at desktop side like I did at Windows 7. So, why Im not complaining? For me nothing has changed from Windows 7. Yes the "start menu" has changed shape, but its just a bigger version of the start menu on the W7. Its nothing else really to me as I use destop for everything.

This is why I dont get the complaining. You know that you dont need to run modern apps in Win8 or Win8.1? You know you can only pin desktop shortcuts there, so its like the old start menu with different design? You know you can always boot direcly to desktop in Win8.1, if it anoying to have the start menu open when you boot up?

If you know these things, Im lost here. IMHO nothing has changed from Windows7 to Windows8. Oh, except if you dont have SSD system harddrive, your boot time is much faster.

I think considering what MS did here, they did a great job. They have the old and the new in the same package, without forcing anyone to use the new if they dont want.

 

[Agent-P]

Also provide a video tutorial explaining how the Start Screen is really just the same old W7 Start Menu in new cloths, with a focus on all the things it does better.

This is what MS should've done when Windows 8 was first released. It should have been a mandatory interactive tutorial that was presented upon initial booting. Sure, people like us would've found it annoying, but I think it would have been hugely helpful in preventing Windows 8 from having such a negative perception. People as a whole don't like change and they're lazy. If you're not going to show them how to use it, they'll just dismiss it (which I feel is exactly what happened).

 

[etphoto]

Just another Microsoft better change or else thread.

When ever there is change you'll always have a segment trying to hang on to the past.

 

[Nogitsune Micah]

If this is true perhaps we can see more surface things from Microsoft and the new Nokia. I always felt like surface was something being weakened because Microsoft didn't want to **** off their partners. But if I am not mistaken, surface is the highest selling windows tablet....if they want to dual boot android with windows, I want to see surface LAPTOPS and let Microsoft go full force. Then we can likely see the price of surface tablets go down a bit and see what Microsoft has in store for us.

So I kind of hope this is true in a way though the thought of android anywhere near windows disgusts me.

 

[raul_junior]

I stopped reading after "fox news"