Just bought a windoze 8.1 laptop

GunJack

securityguy wrote: »

Why is it assumed as an axiom that desktop GUIs reached a state of grace with Windows XP, and thereafter all change in decay? That "traditional" is always the best answer? Nokia and RIM/Blackberry were absolutely fixed on the idea that people would always want a mechanical keypad on their phone: how's that working out for them right now? Philips were not prepared to countenance the idea of a device that played music without using either cassettes or CDs, because surely no-one would want music stored on their computer, and passed up on the iPod.

There is a pretty direct line from the Alto, circa 1975, through Mac circa 1986 and Windows circa 1995. Since then, there's been essentially no desktop innovation. But the basic metaphors ("folders" and the like) are now dead metaphors, because most people starting to use computers are more familiar with the computer than they are with the paper-based precursors. But both Windows and OS/X are very conservative in UI, neither doing much that an Alto didn't, and someone who had used a Unix workstation in the early 1980s (by which time both contextual and button-based menus had arrived) would see anything new. It's as though car manufacturers had look at the Morris Marina and decided that this was the end of the development line, and nothing could ever be better. It seems a bold claim to state that paradigms will never change, and all a company needs to do is stay the same and they'll be safe forever. As RIM's shareholders will tell you.

the thing is, the windows desktop environment is very good for productive work..the mouse/keyboard combo works. That's not to say something may come along later to be better than it, but currently, for productivity, it just works

ukcarper

GunJack wrote: »

the thing is, the windows desktop environment is very good for productive work..the mouse/keyboard combo works. That's not to say something may come along later to be better than it, but currently, for productivity, it just works

I prefer desktop but that doesn't mean I don't like windows 8 I just use desktop on that. It's not exactly difficult to go to desktop mode with 8.1 you can boot straight into it if you want. I really don't see the problem.

Kite2010

Boot straight into desktop mode, install "classic shell" to bring the old style start menu back.

Then you will never have to use the Metro screen

securityguy

Jivesinger wrote: »

I don't assume this, and I agree that some of the noise of Windows 8 around that a lot has changed.

However... the 'Metro' UI, presented by Microsoft as the future, is pretty hopeless for doing work.

Sure, and I find the claim that multiple windows on a screen are somehow not a valid way to work (see some of the more excitable Windows 9 previews) preposterous: aside from anything else, it means that drag and drop is instantly made impossible. And the alternative to drag and drop, where an off-screen clipboard is manipulated, is conceptually very untidy. Just because Metro is new doesn't mean it's good, and my gut feel is that it isn't good. But that's not because, as some would have you believe, XP is the one true GUI. The main reason why people think XP is good is that they're used to it, in the same way that people would probably think there was some rational basis to the clutch being on the left of the brake, when in fact it's mostly just because you learnt to drive like that.

rockin_plumber

https://marketing.dell.com/Global/FileLib/Windows_8/windows-8-ebook.pdf


Free book for the haters maybe?

But probably for the ones that maybe want to give windows 8 a chance?

November2

Thank you. Just read the dummy book, most helpful.