I joined the Windows 8 world yesterday (9/20) after my Toshiba met a rather timely death after over 3 years of solid service. RIP Toshiba. Anyway, I've read about Microsoft's crazy year-old experiment for, well, a year now, and wonder what I will think if I commit myself to figuring it out and using the Metro interface to its fullest.
I expect my opinion to change dramatically over time, so there will be periodic updates.
9/21
Warning: Snap judgments ahead.
I hate it. I hate change. I just want my computer to be a computer, as I have defined it in my head. I'm among the first generation to have the internet my entire life (my family got our first computer when I was 1, and it accepted only floppy disks), but Windows 8 makes me feel like I'm old and don't understand technology. I'm being tossed into the abyss of tiles, touch, and terror. My burning questions so far:
1. Why, when I open Chrome, do I get a crazy view with no buttons at the top of the window and no icons below, but in Internet Explorer I get a view similar to the classic interface?
2. Why, when I download a file from the web, is there no option to open file location?
3. Why is search, an integral part of any OS, hidden? The only way I've been able to do it is my swiping from the right, and then selecting files within search. Why not default search everything?
3. I was warned about the fit/resolution issues, but I still wasn't prepared for this teeny tiny height on the text, url bar, volume etc. Why does Microsoft insist that I feel like an old person?
I will watch some tutorials and and start personalizing my live tiles, but I wonder why Microsoft did not send me a high quality tutorial upon first startup. In what way is the tile view intuitive to any first-time user? Just getting to Youtube and switching to the more familiar view was like walking a dark creepy forest of Microsoft's creation, and they wouldn't even hold my hand.
More to come. If you have any help or advice for W8, let me know in the comments!
But I think you're missing the point of the updated OS - the use of the tiles brings a minimalistic design to Windows that looks extremely clean and is quick to use. Perhaps it's not entirely intuitive but similar to the design of Android software, once you make it up the learning curve regarding how to use it, it is much quicker and efficient from a UI standpoint.
ReplyDeleteInteresting Mike, thanks for the comment. I certainly expect to get more efficient with it over time, that's why I decided to make this post in parts.
ReplyDeleteW8 is certainly "efficient" in the sense that a lot can be put on a screen and touched easily, but some of the stylistic choices appear purely to be different or edgy, at the cost of intuitiveness. The effect of the lack of start buttons or task bars has only been wasted time so far. I have high hopes that Microsoft will fix itself with 8.1...