Comments on: Windows 8: Worth the wait, but is it too late?

By: nuernest

nuernest — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 09:01:07 +0000

“We will only know when the PC era has ended in retrospect”
The future is either quantum computers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_co mputer) or DNA computers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_comput ing).
The present PC is the intermediate phase.

By: jorge62

jorge62 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:42:58 +0000

I liked Vista, I just replaced Vista 64 bit with windows 7. The only reason I went with windows 7 is because I just replaced my hard drives with SSD’s. Windows 7 works well with SSD’s (trim). I never had any problems with Vista.

By: Helge

Helge — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:52:03 +0000

I was a LONG holdout w8th XP, and never tried Vista due to bad press, but was finally convinced by the reviews and my own experience with Windows 7 beta, and found 7 to be an excellent O/S. I’ll be hard to convince to leave the WIMP (Windows icons mouse-pointer) interface for the phone-type one, though. I have a huge 27″ landscape-aspect monitor. I almost always have multiple applications open, and copy-paste between them, etc. Win 8 is supposed also to support that interface, so if that’s true and can be made the default interface, I’ll be happy. Otherwise, I’ll stay with 7.

By: jscott418

jscott418 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:04:19 +0000

I hope the author knows that Windows 8 is just in a developer state. I think its probably a year away if everything goes well for PC’s. Probably earlier for the Tablet. But then again they are already way late to the tablet market. I can only comment on the PC side of it. But for me and I think others. Windows 7 will be the XP for the future. I think Microsoft will have a hard time selling Windows 8 to PC users. Simply because of the delayed acceptance of Windows 7 and the continuing use of XP.

By: BenRapp

BenRapp — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:12:09 +0000

*Why* did you write this on an iPad? That’s the bit I don’t grasp in the whole tablet frenzy. You half-acknowledge this in your post, but I just can’t fathom people’s desperation to move away from 3840×1200 and a separate pair of input devices to XVGA at best with half the screen taken up with a keyboard and covered in finger smudges. As a device for consuming other peoples’ output in a fairly passive way, sure, but for any kind of authoring beyond two-line emails it always looks to me like a dog walking on its hind legs.

Have you measured your productivity comparing iPad to regular PC? I watch colleagues trying to manage their workload on iPads and wonder if they’re as envious of my ability to have several sources of information open in front of me at the same time as I am scornful of their return to the single window at a time of DOS.

I’ve had an iPad since they were first released. I’ve really tried to see it as a business tool (we even prototyped a Citrix-on-iPad version of our cloud desktop product in an attempt to have our cake and eat it) but at the end of the day I use it to watch movies and play Angry Birds, with occasional checks of my email.

I’m sure it’s a great way for Joe Average to facebook (is that a verb yet?) but I can’t see tablets, or tablet-like interfaces, making much difference to the spreadsheet-jockeys who really make the world go round.

Wonder why we can never see hype cycles while we’re riding them?

By: SilentBoy741

SilentBoy741 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:29:58 +0000

I’m running win7. Win8 has to answer the one big question that I ask before any upgrade: “What does this operating system do that my current doesn’t?” If the answer is only “tablet” features, I don’t need it. Admittedly, that’s just me.

By: rogolf

rogolf — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:27:20 +0000

The platform for windows will need voice recognition asap.
The tablet or some wearable device is next. The text/type generation will soon end. The race is to that end.

By: LYSANDER_0

LYSANDER_0 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:24:26 +0000

Wow, the promsises sound great! But is Windows 8 going to be another VISTA-like, bug-ridden MS product rushed to market? After VISTA, Microsoft is at 2.9 strikes with even their most (once-upon-a-time) loyal users.

By: xJonx

xJonx — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:12:59 +0000

The Xbox, Windows phones, Windows, Windows Tablets, etc. ALL use the .Net Framework.

Basically that means that I can write ONE piece of code that will run on all these platforms. If I am a smart developer, and I create an application for Window PC, then to take that application and create it such that it runs on Windows Phone (for instance), all I will have to do is create a Windows Phone Interface because I already have all the behind the scenes code (reusable from the Windows PC application).

Because this is (mostly) true, any surge by Microsoft on one platform will cause a surge in the other platforms as well. Without a doubt this is true to some extent, to WHAT extent this is true, well, time will tell.

By: GSH10

GSH10 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:33:23 +0000

From the tone of your article, I take it that you do not use Windows 7. Your take on Windows 8, other than the fact that it’s different and designed for tablets and mobile devices as well as desktops and laptops, is oddly absent.

Why is that?

One of my closest friends, in the design and software space, has been a staunch Apple user since the early 80s. They have added Windows 7 boxes to run Adobe CS (Creative Suite), which is now their preference.

My son-in-law, an Apple diehard fan had a coup de fordre with Windows 8.

During my wait for Windows 7, I was on the brink of switching to Apple, but Windows has won my heart back and & is on all of our machines. And Windows 8 will replace Windows 7.

Let us not forget that when Apple was on the brink of death, it was Bill Gates who saved the day. As Steve Jobs said, “Microsoft is our oldest and one of our best partners.

This is a long race with no finish line.