Even if one literal definition of insanity is to repeat the same process exactly while expecting different results, that doesn't prevent that strategy from occasionally being effective when working with PCs. It is not always the best way to deal with all issues however, something Microsoft may not be willing to admit if the rumours about Windows 9 are true. What was once going to be a major update to Win 8 may now be released as a newly named version of Windows according to the info at The Inquirer. The rebranding of the Win 8.1 Service Pack implies that the changes made to the OS will be mostly cosmetic; though a facelift to the GUI would be good the chances that Microsoft will drop their new Modern interface are quite slim. At least Microsoft is still able to claim this release did not go as badly as Vista.
"We reported on Friday that the Threshold project was being tipped as a major update for Windows 8, however according to Winsupersite it will instead be billed as a new Windows operating system version slated for release in April 2015."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Intel may shift introduction of Broadwell to Q3 @ Kitguru
- Intel readies two ‘Broadwell’-based NUCs with NFC, vPro support @ Kitguru
- Micron provides DDR4 details for servers, high-end desktops @ The Tech Report
- Diamond shows $40 external sound card with volume knob @ @ The Tech Report
- Blackberry pins its hopes on the QWERTY keyboard @ The Inquirer
- Nvidia Tegra K1 smashes Apple and Qualcomm in early benchmarks @ The Inquirer
- Workers, guards clash in hours-long Samsung factory RIOT in Vietnam @ The Register
- Knox vuln is Android not us, says Samsung @ The Register
- The Android Experiment: Episode 4 @ The Inquirer
- The 2014 MacX HD Video Converter Pro For Windows / Mac Giveaway Contest Rev. 2.0
“At least Microsoft is still
“At least Microsoft is still able to claim this release did not go as badly as Vista.”
That’s not really true at all. In fact windows 8/8.1 done worse then windows vista overall. The reason why for this is because windows vista didn’t have a tablet version nor was windows really all that great for tablets at that time.
So if u take away all the windows 8/8.1/RT tablets, then you got worse sales then vista.
They are real sales and
They are real sales and should be counted, tablets are really taking a huge chunk out of the traditional PC market and need to be included in stats like this.
I don’t remember Vista
I don’t remember Vista selling for $15. If we exclude that period when people where buying them just in case they become a success later, I think 8 is by far the worst selling OS from Microsoft.
So what. Windows 8 is not the
So what. Windows 8 is not the cause of people moving away from desktops. For most people a tablet (or SmartPhone) is enough for their needs. I don’t see why Win8 would ever have a quick a start as Win7, Vista, XP given all the other options out there.
Most people have a smartphone
Most people have a smartphone or tablet alongside a PC or laptop. Sales of NEW pcs did gone down, but that doesn’t mean that we have less desktops or laptops than in the past. Windows 8 unfortunately is so much of a failure in the laptop/desktop market that people do not consider upgrading their hardware or replacing Windows 7. I know people who bought Windows 8 back then when it was cheap and still using Windows 7 because they couldn’t get used to the new interface with a keyboard and mouse.
If they make it, that W9 has
If they make it, that W9 has the desktop experience as W7, they have a winner, anything less they will be burned for it, more or less.
I really still are wondering what made them do it, abandoning there bread and butter desktop users in W8.
I use W8 and i actually like the OS, as many under the hood improvements are worth switching over to it for, but it is ridicules that i had to use 3th party programs and hacks to make the OS function the way i wanted it again.
Some times you have to force change, there was also a lot of resistance to the ribbon interface in Office, but after some resistance, most people mostly liked it, and it was a change for the good.
I think MS was thinking that again, and I do see the need for Metro, and it would be fine if they had made the the new UI optional, because on touchscreens, the new UI is better, but not on the desktop, and as people dont like change, specially when forced up on them, and they are really unforgiving if its less efficient then the old way.
So if MS now lets people pick between what type of UI they wane use, and even let them switch if they use a hybrid device, W9 could be a winner again like W7 and XP.
And i really wonder if by now they finally learned there lesson, and they really start listening to there customers and acknowledge that they have to serve THERE needs and not there own, if they do, maybe then MS stands a change it will survive in the real long run.
Lets all remember that
Lets all remember that Windows Vista had about a max market share of about 16% penetration over the course of 3 years. Paying no attention to Steam’s false numbers on the global scale, Windows 8 is still a far distance from that and will be lucky to reach that in 2 years time come this September.
Selling well and being a success are not tied together with technology in most cases. Major industry entities order each and every MS OS just as a contingency, not necessarily because they plan to deploy the technologies. Of course it helps that Microsoft makes bulk copies fairly affordable to do that type of selling to begin with.
In the consumer realm it doesn’t matter if Vista sold at $199 vs Windows 8’s early $40 or whether false Windows 8 versions (RT) are included. The only thing that matters is penetration in the consumer realm, a market Microsoft has long since firmly owned and made little profit from compared to the Server side of things, and that is a disaster thanks to a unnecessary clustered Metro UI on an otherwise incredible Server OS.
Well, on net it is
Well, on net it is 10%…
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/windows-8-x-breaks-10-percent-internet-explorer-11-makes-a-splash/
BTW: Talk about dismissing data not fitting preconceived notion like Steam. (How they are false? They don’t agree with your worldview? That’s your problem, not others…)
Still a long way to go. At
Still a long way to go. At this rate in 3 years they’ll be 20% market share compared to Vista’s 16% give or take.
Steam data is hardly accurate or relevant. It’s very one-sided and my reference was to prevent people from quoting its numbers as market share as it would be completely false. According to them Windows 8 has greater than 20% market share and XP has 6%. Given many tech sites will commonly report this, it’s relevant. Gamers ride the latest and greatest and given the massive bias towards them and laptops playing DOTA it can’t be taken seriously.
That’s why I dismiss them and so should you.
I’ve not really tested or
I’ve not really tested or tried using windows 8 or 8.1 for the sole fact that I do not own an existing PC with a touchscreen. To me the Metro UI is built for touch and does not lend itself well to a mouse and keyboard from what I’ve heard. At one time I had considered it for a htpc if I could use an xbox 360 wireless controller, which I later found was not natively supported. So as it is, windows 7 works fine for me
Makes sense not moving from
Makes sense not moving from Win7 to Win8 on a desktop. I made the move and found it more stable/faster than Win7. I use the Metro environment about 10 percent of the time. I don’t really have a problem with a different interface; but I have a Win8 tablet so it is not a big deal. I actually using the Win8 (metro) app alot on my desktop as well as a task tracker software that I can use on Win8 tablet, Windows Phone, and what I used to use on my iPhone and iPad.
Well until M$ gets a new CEO,
Well until M$ gets a new CEO, and Ballmer is off of the M$ board of directors, I can stick with windows 7, and dual boot a Linux distro, I hope Steam can clarify the situation with UEFI, as they need to have a dual boot installer that works with the UEFI Safe Boot turned off, so that Windows 7 can be dual booted with steam OS. I really would like it if Steam could help by allowing people to dual boot STEAM OS with Win 7, and then it should only be a matter of deleting the windows 7 partition after 2020. Dual booting Steam with windows 7 would help ease the transition to using only Steam OS, as it will take a few years for all/most of the gaming titles to make the move away from M$’s clutches!
TIFKAM and all its Known and Unknown aliases, runtimes, frameworks, assemblies, and code, Is, and always Will be, Persona Non Grata, on my laptops and PCs!
A planned storyline from a
A planned storyline from a (TV series)! That B.A., a Reg. poster found relevent to M$, That I pass on to the pcper readers, as it is Oh So True of the M$ TRUST, and I mean the Standard Oil kind of Trust, as well as the credulous kind.
“First it’s Threshold, then Foothold, and finally Stranglehold?”*
*See: Threshold (TV series), Planned_storylines
TIFKAM THIS M$, I’ll will never bend over and Spread glutei maximi, unlike some of these 8.* commentards, with their OH M$ has mended their ways, they have seen the light, they are fixing it, crap!!! The closed ecosystem FIX is and always will the TRUE intent of M$, and its paid spinions!
Props go out to B.A. (reg. Poster,) and to the Gaben, and his Gaming OS TuxBird Based distro, for a MonkeyBoy free gaming future!
I don’t understand all the
I don’t understand all the hullabaloo around Windows 8 versions. Pretty much the only problem people have with Windows 8 is Metro. That’s a useful (even necessary) part of Windows for touch screens, it’s just not useful for desktop use. If Microsoft adds back the start menu and makes apps run in a window, that would pretty much address all concerns, no? So why continue to moan?
I’m sure that by April 2015 there will also be enough underlying changes in the OS to make a Windows 9 moniker reasonable.
If M$ makes the entire Metro
If M$ makes the entire Metro Runtime, services, and frameworks, ETC. an optional download/install choice they may be able to slow the movement away from their OS ecosystem! But do you really think that M$’s attempt at adding the TIFKAM closed Ecosystem to its OS, as such a prominent part of the OS, was anything other than M$’s attempt at forcing an Apple style App(and a poor one at that) closed ecosystem onto Third party OEM hardware, and ultimately on to the hardware’s owners! When I purchased my third party OEM manfactured laptop, I did so expressly for the purpose of having an open ecosystem computing platform, and not the Apple style closed ecosystem! One of the reasons that windows gained such a market, was, first and foremost, most computer users did not wish to have a closed software/hardware ecosystemon their Third party OEM hardware. This hullabaloo, as you say, is in fact justified anger at the unregulated, tacitly allowed to become a unregulated public utility by 30 years of ineffectual justice department incompetence/other, M$, and its continually changing its OS to suit its own, and not the user’s(consumer and enterpise), excess profits, at considerable expence, over the years, to these enterprises and consumers. Many enterprises, some with market caps as large the fortune 100 type enterprise, as well as the midsize ones, have switched to open source VMs and have developed/contracted with providors of open sourced based/paid for support contracts. Remember the anger focused at “Ma Bell” and its telecommunications monopoly. It’s not just the consumer that is angry at M$, it is the gaming industry, and the googles, facebooks, down to the the mom and pop, just running their operation on windows home server(Where is HS now)! M$ is never going the stop the enterprises(BIG and Mid size) from moving away from their new found freedom, and the Googles and Facebooks will be soon developing their own server Based CPUs, and running off of mostly Debian Stable Linux/KVM/Other, other industry standard OS distros! Steam OS BETA is out there in the wild, and many will be switching! The market is now going to do what the Justice Departments of 30 years, could not would not do! I would not be suprised, in the Least, if SONY takes the BSD OS, that it has developed for its Gaming platform, and ports it over to its Laptops/PCs and creates its own Apple style Walled Garden, but for me M$ will be just a deleted Windows 7 partition after 2020, as I transition completely to a KVM/VM ecosystem, no Tears for the OS robber barons from me!
I bought a new laptop to take
I bought a new laptop to take over for my other laptop which suffered bad DC jack burns. I only selected windows 8 because anything else cost more money.
Its only been a few weeks and even with classic shell, etc, Windows 8 had completely CRIPPLED a $3,000 Sager with its absolute catastrophic failure to run A DISK DRIVE A BLOODY DISK DRIVE PROPERLY. Its a common glitch and each person gets a different program that goes into Disk overload, tried different programs with the same result. Active corners, charm bar (could never fully kill it), it was traumatizing to flick my mouse the wrong way and get some GUI BS on my screen while I’m trying to work.
SO! Given that I had no idea what EUFI was, I learned a new skill in making a EUFI bootable Windows 7 Ultimate thumb and promptly erased that wintrash8 off my computer and put windows 7 on. I’ll have to do it again when my second drive arrives for Raid-0.
Microsoft can take Windows 8.1 and their windows 9 and shovel it! I’ll be using Windows 7 until its as hole ridden as XP! DIE WINDOWS 8 DIE, AND YOUR METRO TOO!!!
(rant)That won’t take long, Microsoft can just give the NSA a bunch of zero day exploits to feed to the cybercriminals and drive everyone onto an even more spy ridden OS. (/rant)
last week i did my 5th win 7
last week i did my 5th win 7 installation on a win 8 machine. it was a pretty nice laptop that since it was not a touchscreen- would not really work with win 8.
i was practically begged to install win 7 on the machine
I did ask them why they had not bought a touch screen laptop- answer was-” we wanted a computer not a tablet- WE already have Tablets”
This is fine. People still
This is fine. People still want desktops. They still want powerful operating systems. They still want to create and not just consume. They want to use more than a finger on a screen. If Microsoft and Apple do not want to cater to us, someone else will come and fill the void.
This would be a great time for linux to finally shine on the desktop we’ve been clamoring the last two decades for. It’s too bad there’s still so much infighting and drama going on in that community.
Bad Click bate title
Bad Click bate title super-fail…
Dozen times? Who did hit author over head with a bat so hard that he sees things double? Even if I were very generous I count only 8 accounting for both mobile and tablet/desktop. (aka Windows Phone and Windows itself)
Saying title is misleading and inaccurate would be beyond understatement.
Microsoft has its own tock –
Microsoft has its own tock – tick, with “happy” customers and then ticked off customers.