Goodbye Windows 8, hello Windows 8.1

ZDNet ^ | 07/30/2013 | Mary Branscombe

[TomGuy]

Microsoft is also trying to put out a 'new version' of Windows in a year, rather than three,

That is as ludicrous as Firefox's rapid release insanity.

[jocon307]

Hubby says every other OS is OK, you need the odd numbered ones.

I actually bought a lap top this year because i realized if I waited I’d be stuck with windows 8.

[montag813]

I for one have really been enjoying 8.1

What are you running, Enterprise Preview?

[montag813]

I am not a huge fan of metro, but that is just fine too.

Windows-D and it's gone. Big whoop. Takes half a second.

[VanDeKoik]

Nope. Just the standard 8.1 preview.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

I figure there must be some conflict or incompatibility between what Flash is doing and what Windows, and the underlying x86 hardware expects, that cause these crashes, which take as you said a long time to complete, I’ve never timed them, but a minute or longer is standard, I think.

i've had the same problem with Flash Player on OpenSUSE 12.3. It's not just a Windows issue. Flash is just a piece of garbage.

[Pontiac]

You missed it, it was Win 7.

I run windows 7 at work. I have at least 3 program crashes a day.

I guess I should be happy that it is no longer the entire system crash that I used to get with XP.

[kevkrom]

That is as ludicrous as Firefox's rapid release insanity.

Apple has gone to yearly updates of OS X - not as large as previous "point" releases, but it ensures the OS evolves as a reasonable rate. I'd think a shorter OS cycle for Microsoft would help them prioritize what they need to be doing rather than the complete UI overhauls they insist on putting in every release.

Firefox's "new public release version every 32 hours or so" schedule is indeed insane, however.

[cva66snipe]

Instead of focusing on new products every year focus on making the ones you have more stable, reliable, and easy to use? Windows still has not caught on to the fact playing button, button, who's got the button, with well known features & functions every few years is not the type of upgrades people are looking for.

I love XP but the first thing I did was switch over to the classic set up so I could find everything I needed. Make that default with the new as an option and products may catch on faster. Oh and Touch Screen Desktop W-8? Come on MS get real and practical. That one should not have made it past their first level supervisor's desk.

[Psycho_Bunny]

It won’t cause the fury Win8 did but the damage is done: this product cycle was a complete disaster for and by them.

And they’re on-track to make things worse: they’ve got some seriously pissed off IT staffs looking straight at them and they don’t look like they’re backing down from the push to make a Core/Powershell server install ‘Best Practice’.

All of the tech companies in the Seattle region are getting hit hard - but, Microsoft the hardest - by someone they don’t even compete with: Amazon.com.

They’ve become a talent black hole, sucking in everyone they can get their hands on and it’s causing pain everywhere....

You wouldn’t believe how much my view of South Lake Union has changed in the last two years. To give you an idea of how bad/awesome it is, I took a look at the Amazon career page a couple weeks ago, submitting a search for “Manager” in “WA - Seattle”.....

I got 72 pages with 20 hits per page. lol

[Psycho_Bunny]

Your IT staff is the problem, there...or you have a vendor who’s failed to properly debug their software.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I yanked them off the Trusted/Preferred Vendors list for the BS they pulled this product cycle. They’re barely competent, scamming, and their responses to the problems they’ve created have been nothing less than insulting.

If you work in enterprise licensing at MS, you’re going to have a rather annoying year.

[rarestia]

I’ve had to run the MAP tool three times for true up, and leadership is livid over the numbers they’re getting. I’m just an engineer, but I can see the writing on the wall. I’ve been pushing for Ubuntu server since it’s supported cheaper than RHEL.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The general consumer wouldn’t see the real problems with Win8: those are coming up in the workplace and are exasperated by nonsense Microsoft has thrown into other products.

They’ve tossed a ton of SMB IT staffs under the bus. You wouldn’t believe how infuriating it is to pay tens of thousands of dollars for “Software Assurance” licensing, only to have MS kick the training back 10 years. Now, instead of a few regulars calling about having forgotten a password every week or two, training and procedure docs have to be re-written, then classes have to be conducted and then we’re looking at 6 months of tapering-off questions and complaints.

Which is sort of fine if you don’t have any Access Data Projects in your domain AND YOU WERE TOLD A COUPLE YEARS AGO TO GET READY FOR THE CHANGE but, ADPs with SQL Server was a SMB best practice for almost 10 years: and MS yanked that data provider from Office 2013. It’s going to cost a minimum of $100,000 to fix that problem at my work. And you can’t wait around because copies of 2010 are getting snapped up all over by the suckers in the same boat as you.

With the economy the way it is, 25 million dollar companies can’t afford to get hit with unnecessary $100,000 IT expenses. Especially if there’s zero gain.

And there’s a lot more...like, this whole situation gets worse when looking at what MS wants to do with Server: or, what they don’t want to do....”work”. They’re grooming everyone for making a Core/PowerShell install of Server, the Best Practice and that means a living hell for SMB IT.

MS’s belief that overworked IT staffs aren’t going to have a problem admining a modern network via a “DOS” prompt, is insane at face value. There were what, 100 DOS commands in 6.22? MS just passed 500 PowerShell commands and applets/scripts.

Who has time to memorize that crap? And the only time you’re really going to need it is the worst time to have anything other than expertise in it: servers are down. So you’ll be sitting in a server-room, hunting through tech forums, on your cell phone (because those a-holes at MS don’t bother with help files, anymore), looking for a script someone said fixed a problem like yours, while the entire company is breathing down your neck.

Is that not enough reason for a little whining? If not, here’s some icing on the Eight Cake. it’s a scam. It’s Windows 7 with some functionality removed to speed it up, a Service Pack installed AND an alpha release of about a third of Windows 9 shoved in there: that’s Metro.

MS is getting their ass beaten by Apple and Google in the “App” marketplace and they have no product capable of producing the demand they need to catch up. Metro is their attempt to force that demand. There was no business reason, at all, to remove the Start Menu: zero. They didn’t even pull it until right before the RTM release of 8.

Touchscreens? No. Who’s dumb enough to deploy touchscreens anywhere other than tablets, laptops, POS/Retail outlets and kiosks? The ergonomic damage to the wrists 40+ hours a week can do is nothing compared to the suits that would start floating in over repetitive stress to the shoulder, neck and back, caused by the average office worker having a touchscreen

MS had to have known that: they aren’t pushing businesses to “go touch”. They were only concerned with forcing customers into the their App Store, and the only way they could do that was by removing the Start Menu: you don’t have to go into Metro if you have a Start Menu.

Oh...sorry. I didn’t mean to go off. I’m pretty pissed right now....lol

Anyway, the correct way to have pulled the Start Menu would have been to make it optional for Windows 8 and mandatory for Windows 9.