Windows 8 is the new Windows Vista...

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freitasm

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#138861 20-Jan-2014 08:47

"Can we call Windows 8 the new Vista? Not so fast, analyst says." Call it what you want. That's what they call it inside of Microsoft.

— Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) January 17, 2014

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#969839 20-Jan-2014 08:58

this is according to someone who thrives on page views and ad words revenues to pay their bills. the more controversial the article title the more likely it will be read, syndicated, retweeted etc

Buzz Bumble

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#969854 20-Jan-2014 09:14

There was a news story last week that Microsoft is planning to call the next update "Windows 9" (rather than 8.2 or whatever) to escape the mess they created with Windows 8.

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#969856 20-Jan-2014 09:16

I vote that they called it something with a name. Searching for Numbers is a pain. I have spoken to various ex employees of MS who have very little good to say about Windows 8.

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#969858 20-Jan-2014 09:18

nathan: this is according to someone who thrives on page views and ad words revenues to pay their bills. the more controversial the article title the more likely it will be read, syndicated, retweeted etc

You say this about any negative Microsoft connotations from anyone who publishes online. You are entirely correct, but it doesn't mean what they're saying isn't true either.

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#969860 20-Jan-2014 09:25

well I work inside Microsoft and I've never heard anyone call it the new Vista.

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#969861 20-Jan-2014 09:27

nathan: well I work inside Microsoft and I've never heard anyone call it the new Vista.

No offense, but it's unlikely you could or would confirm it if you had, correct?

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#969863 20-Jan-2014 09:27

Even if this is true, that doesn't mean a lot.

Vista was hated for some very good reasons, but that didn't make it a terrible OS. It was tidied up a bit and called Windows 7, and you'll struggle to find someone using 7 who'll go back to XP. There's plenty of people who still use and love Vista.

I'd argue that it's impossible to make a radical change to an OS without angering the masses. You need to release a sacrificial OS that you can "fix" to get anywhere.

The real "haters" need to remember that being the loudest, doesn't make them the majority.

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MackinNZ

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#969864 20-Jan-2014 09:29

I predict this thread will be split into those people who don't like Windows 8.x agreeing with Thurrott and those who don't mind it disagreeing.

Everyone's a bit biased, few people are capable of being truly objective.

MaxLV

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#969866 20-Jan-2014 09:36

Buzz Bumble: There was a news story last week that Microsoft is planning to call the next update "Windows 9" (rather than 8.2 or whatever) to escape the mess they created with Windows 8.

What mess?

Windows 8.1 works fine here, including the 'metro interface.' I highly recommend it as an upgrade to Windows 7.

Most of the complaints a 'Luddite' type complaints about the new interface, and the lack of ONE button on the task bar. That's it.

MaxLV

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#969868 20-Jan-2014 09:38

Dairyxox:
nathan: this is according to someone who thrives on page views and ad words revenues to pay their bills. the more controversial the article title the more likely it will be read, syndicated, retweeted etc

You say this about any negative Microsoft connotations from anyone who publishes online. You are entirely correct, but it doesn't mean what they're saying isn't true either.

OTOH, it doesn't mean what they're saying IS true either.

freitasm

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#969872 20-Jan-2014 09:42

I personally think Windows 8.1 is a great advance in terms of technology under the hood.

The UI/UX is a nice thing if you have a touch-enabled device. However some modern apps are very limited in functionality. For example the Photos apps won't let you add tags to photos so right there a big use case is gone. We load hundreds of photos every year and tag those for easy search. If we want to do that it's either Windows Explorer or Photo Gallery, both desktop apps.

Microsoft is not going fast enough to fix the small things that make the experience bad. At the moment I hate Skydrive. From Foldershare to Live Sync to Skydrive, along the way it lost functionality (no remote access, no P2P LAN sync) and introduced bugs.

Microsoft doesn't seem to be working fast enough to fix things.

I use Windows 8.1 on my laptop with Start8 and uninstalled all modern apps I could. On my tablet I only have modern apps. Different scenarios, different interfaces are needed.

Brilliant OS, poor experience. That's my take.

MaxLV

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#969877 20-Jan-2014 09:48

freitasm:

"Can we call Windows 8 the new Vista? Not so fast, analyst says." Call it what you want. That's what they call it inside of Microsoft. — Paul Thurrott (@thurrott) January 17, 2014

Did Microsoft refuse to finance his CES trip this year or something???

I seem to remember for every new version of Windows (Windows 3.1, Windows for Work-groups, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7), the same type 'negative publicity' makes the headlines.

Until the next version is released, then all the 'publicity' is about how good the current version is, and why has Microsoft 'trashed' Windows with all the changes in the new version....

Only once has Microsoft really stuffed up an upgrade of Windows, and that was Windows ME, IMHO.

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#969879 20-Jan-2014 09:50

I seem to be one of the few that loved Vista from the start. It worked perfect for me from the start. Calling Windows 8 the new vista is also a bit over the top. I love Windows 8. Sure it is different and a departure from windows 95 to Windows 7 ui, but I find it quicker myself to navigate. I have put my most used programs to the start screen. I cant use Windows 8.1 on this laptop as it black screens a lot. Even basic install windows 8 upgrade drivers etc then upgrade to 8.1 and latest drivers. Windows 8 is great and certainly I think it is a bit off calling it new vista

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#969882 20-Jan-2014 09:59

MackinNZ: I predict this thread will be split into those people who don't like Windows 8.x agreeing with Thurrott and those who don't mind it disagreeing.

Everyone's a bit biased, few people are capable of being truly objective.

I predict that you will be proved wrong because there is more than one issue here. I'm one who doesn't fit into a simple dichotomy. I really enjoy Windows 8 but agree that it is the new Vista for several reasons. The primary reason is the media feeding frenzy which has gone well beyond facts. In that respect it is the new Vista.

Factually there are significant differences between the two. Looking at performance, a default install of Vista was incapable of running usefully on most PCs when it was released and it was measurably slower than XP whereas Windows 8 runs on low-end PCs and is at least as fast as 7.

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#969893 20-Jan-2014 10:06

Microsoft have come a long way since the days of DOS and the introduction of Windows. In earlier times each new release of Windows had broad incremental improvements of the stature needed to entice existing users to pay for and install the new release. XP was probably the last of these releases and therefore Vista was the first release that existing users yawned at.

In the consumer marketplace we now have 2 classes of hardware - the small-screen users (phones, tablets etc - not dominated by Windows) and the large-screen users (PC/laptop etc). For large-screen users I would argue that there has been little improvement since XP and that for many any upgrade is associated entirely with hardware upgrades. Personally I have one box running 8.1. and still prefer 7 (because Metro requires learning for no benefit whatever) and will not upgrade my two 7 boxes.

Microsoft needs to come to terms with the fact that most consumer users will only voluntarily upgrade windows when they replace their large-screen hardware.

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