Replies

“I see Win8 really catching on as most people will just learn it, and adopt their routine to it.”

Obviously you’re not a professional, power PC user. I am. I program for a living. I open dozens of programs dozens of times each during development. No way, no shape, no form does Metro UI allow that quickly. That’s what quickstart, desktop shortcuts, and the Start Menu are for.

I, and thousands of other power users tried W8 and we have all given it thumbs down. I was unable to work until I hacked the registry to disable Metro UI and installed Classic Shell to restore the Start Menu.

And don’t tell me I can’t adapt. I’ve worked with computers for 42 years, the last 17 years with PCs. I worked in a corporate environment as the chief network engineer for a corporation with over a 1000 employees. There’s simply no way that Windows 8 as it’s currently configured will be adopted on PCs by anybody except people who have no other choice but to buy their next PC from bestbuy. And even then, i’m guessing most will be taking them back.

Governments and corporations are simply not going to retrain millions of their employees to use an interface designed to work well only on touch screen devices that have screens the size of a credit card.

"Obviously you’re not a professional, power PC user. I am. I program for a living. I open dozens of programs dozens of times each during development. No way, no shape, no form does Metro UI allow that quickly. That’s what quickstart, desktop shortcuts, and the Start Menu are for."

Dozens? Really?

Press the Windows key and start typing the name of the program and it shows up instantly.

As far as desktop shortcuts and quickstart? Didn't you notice they are all STILL there?

The reality is that you need not even use Metro Start for much of anything if you dont want to. You can unpin everything other than the Desktop tile.

"I, and thousands of other power users tried W8 and we have all given it thumbs down. I was unable to work until I hacked the registry to disable Metro UI and installed Classic Shell to restore the Start Menu."

So now you clicked Start, and moved a mouse around through sub folders? THAT is what a "power user" does?

That's not being a power user. Those people can work effortlessly in new environments and quickly pick up on new methods. What you are describing is the equivalent of the office hen that writes her supervisor because they upgraded the web browser and she cant figure out how to get to her "email webpage" and thus needs it changed back.

If "thousands" of those types cant use their power skills to wing it, well then there are plenty of others coming up that will and they will have your job eventually who will take to it.

"And don’t tell me I can’t adapt. I’ve worked with computers for 42 years, the last 17 years with PCs. I worked in a corporate environment as the chief network engineer for a corporation with over a 1000 employees. There’s simply no way that Windows 8 as it’s currently configured will be adopted on PCs by anybody except people who have no other choice but to buy their next PC from bestbuy. And even then, i’m guessing most will be taking them back."

And I bet I could have heard the same rant from you when you went from command lines to a desktop GUI as I hear now. In this case that 20th century paradigm that older programmers are rooted in is coming to a close. The age of the pretend desktop is over.

Governments and corporations are simply not going to retrain millions of their employees to use an interface designed to work well only on touch screen devices that have screens the size of a credit card.

They trained people to use a mouse. They trained them to use the internet. They trained them to use tablets and smartphones, and they will do so here as well because technology is always progressing.

My advice? Drop the curmudgeon act and start practicing because the kids coming up are going to be skilled in using this stuff and will be the ones setting the pace in your workplace very soon.

And besides, if it is just that terrible, then just keep using Windows 7. No one is forcing you to upgrade, just dont expect everyone else to stay there with you.