This OS has been called the "Vista" of its generation. Many people consider Microsoft to be under a "tick tock" style of OS design. For every bad tick, there is a good "tock". They see this as the following:
- Win98 = Good
- WinMe = Bad
- WinXP = Good
- Win Vista = Bad
- Win 7 = Good
- Win 8 = Bad!!!
The Start Menu, introduced in Windows 95, at the time was designed as a gateway to your applications. The design of which was very different from Microsoft's previously released "Program Manager". Under the Program Manager environment, which existed in Windows 3.1; applications would "minimize" to icons on the desktop behind the core Program Manager window. Program Manager itself had little folder icons, grouped together, such as "Accessories", "Games", which you would double click to open and find your applications. For Windows 95, all of this functionality had been moved to the "Taskbar and Start Menu". The folders became folders in the Start Menu list, and running applications would display in the Taskbar.
Even this change was not well-received amongst the computing world of the time. Unfortunately, I cannot find the recent blog post by Raymond at Microsoft on "The Old New Thing" which detailed this hate affair with the Start Menu at its introduction.
Moving forward to Windows 8, the "Start Menu" as we once knew it is gone. In its stead remains the Start Screen, which provides a touch-friendly interface to your applications. Applications that formerly installed icons to the Start Menu will now install them to the Start Screen. And applications downloaded from the Windows Store will also display as "Live Tiles" on this same screen.
The perception of Windows 8 has also not been helped by the views of people whom are considered to be industry leaders in the enthusiast and gaming community. Mojang's own Notch (Markus Perrson), creator of Minecraft, tweeted his concerns about the operating system when Microsoft approached him to bring Minecraft to the forefront of the platform.
Even Valve's own Gabe Newell has slammed Microsoft's decision to release Windows 8 with its own Windows Store.
Most people fail to understand one thing about Gabe's opposition. His opposition has nothing to do with the "closed" nature of the Windows Store, but rather that it is a direct competitor to Valve's Steam delivery system. Interestingly, even I consider his fears to be unfounded. The Windows Store, while bringing a basic application delivery system to the Windows platform (something that has long existed in other OS', with the iTunes store in iOS and OSX, the Google Play Store with Android), is not quite a drop-in replacement for Steam. For example, the Steam overlay system provides an extremely convenient way for you to communicate with your friends that are not playing the game with you. Steam itself also has tight integration with its games for network play, where you can invite your friends to jump into the game with you through Steam. While Microsoft has similar functionality with the Xbox platform, they've had a decade to integrate this into Windows in a usable manner and they have shown they seemingly have no interest to do so.
The Good Things About Windows 8
Having used Windows 8 now for a number of months on my primary desktop and gaming laptop machines, I have personally come to the conclusion that the Start Screen isn't really as big of a deal as most people make it out to be. I click on the Desktop icon, and I'm now using the Windows desktop as I have always done so. I hadn't used the Start Menu since Windows XP came out with Quick Launch, of which I was a heavy user, so it never really bothered me to see it go away. The desktop operates pretty much the same it always has for years.
However, when I purchased my Surface Pro tablet (which I am using to write this post!), I have come to navigate Windows 8 in a very different manner than I do on the desktop. I make heavy use of the Start Screen and the "Metro" applications. I have become extremely fond of the Bing News app, I use the Mail App regularly, and I shift to the desktop only to run desktop-oriented applications. I have become a HUGE fan of the swiping functionality. I commonly cycle between my applications with a flick of a finger on the left edge of the screen. I push buttons with my fingers on websites. I tap between my conversations in the people app. I search the web and all of my applications with the awesome Search function on the Charm Menu. (To bring up Charms, put the mouse cursor in the bottom right corner and move it upwards; or on touch, simply swipe on the right edge)
The security model of Windows 8 has been improved dramatically. And while I won't go into it on this blog, this PDF (it's legit, I swear! but update your Adobe Reader anyway) into the impressive internal improvements. While no security is 100% perfect, it is nice to see the defensive strategies continue to evolve.
After seeing the Surface Pro devices that myself and a coworker recently purchased, our colleagues at work have now decided they want one. We are also in the process of validating Windows 8 for our secure environment with our IT staff.
