Editorial: Why Windows 8 Start Menu's Absence is Irrelevant

Yes but that won't happen until Microsoft has force fed a new idea. That seems to be the only way they will get a true response for the idea. Once the media hype has died down, only then will they know an idea is worth it or not. At this point Windows 8 is still not known to the masses and the idea is still limited to a select few.

Well said. Ugliness arguments aside (which are still very solid lol) the start menu just made much better use of the space it does occupy.

Windows 8 is an OVERBLOWN windows phone 7 on the desktop ? ! ? !

Like this guy rightly claims:



Microsoft STRIPPED Aero from Windows 7..
took the rectangular tool in Windows PAINT
and created Windows 8 METRO UI.. WOAA ! !

This cartoony rectangular, flat, bland, boring,
dull, big yawn, dry, monotonous, stale, blah,
uninteresting, unimaginative, uninspiring
waste of desktop space called METRO UI..
>> that?s still in SAFE MODE <<
..will never.. EVER.. be more successful than VISTA..

Those colors on tiles are just hideous..
and a full screen Start menu????


And Microsoft thinks that this..
..METRO UI >> Monstrosity << will compete
against iOS AND OSX..
REALLY Microsoft ? ? ! ! ! !

I DARE you to take a look:

tinyurl.com/6s5f72v

Who would want to buy Windows 8 to gaze at
HUGE Rectangles of ONE-COLOR tiles
taking over their entire Start screen area
rendering most of it useless.. ..
no matter how live those tiles are?

Metro is a just a WASTE OF SPACE ! ! ! !

HUGE Rectangles of UGLY COLORS means..
..only AROUND 16 tiles on screen without scrolling.. maybe more..
My Windows 7 can have around 200 Program Shortcuts on Desktop
BEFORE ANY SCROLLING IS DONE..

Metro UI is SO RESTRICTIVE.. IT?S LIKE A BRICK ! ! ! !
(running windows 8 in VM Player)

CANNOT turn on PC and go to [start] screen. Lock screen just JUMPS IN YOUR FACE ! !
CANNOT bypass entering a password.. you are FORCED to enter a password..
CANNOT change Metro?s scrolling to vertical.. mouse scroll wheels are not horizontal ! !
CANNOT move tiles where YOU WANT THEM.. they just keep jumping upwards.. >>:^(
CANNOT change a Tile?s image OR EVEN IT?S COLOR.. or make it smaller like an icon..
CANNOT rename a Tile.. actually you may change ALMOST nothing of a Tile?s attributes..
CANNOT change the background wallpaper.. good luck with default bg if u don?t like..
CANNOT snap two Metro Internet Explorers to half screen each.. IMPOSSIBLE..
CANNOT snap two different apps to half screen each.. one is pushed THIN to one side..
CANNOT display ALL the windows I WANT on the screen all at the same time..
CANNOT add OR access favorites to Metro Internet Explorer.. OR change homepage.. in fact..
CANNOT change any settings in Metro I. Explorer.. must use control panel I.E. options..
CANNOT close a Metro app easily.. must grab the app?s top and DRAG DOWN TO BOTTOM!!
CANNOT find history of recently used files and programs..
CANNOT organize [start] and [all apps] by moving apps inside folders so a jungle of tiles..
CANNOT create shortcuts to Desktop by drag & drop from Metro Start Screen.. in fact..
CANNOT create shortcuts to Desktop in ANY SIMPLE WAY at all ! !
CANNOT remain in Desktop as it?s crippled IN FAVOR of Metro.. just try to find programs without Metro..
CANNOT find [Shut down] to turn off computer the obvious way.. must click SETTINGS?!?!
CANNOT disable the Metro UI if you don?t like it.. you are stuck with Metro..
..and more CANNOT?s that don?t remember right now..

Want more proof that Windows 8 will be a worst failure than Vista?

Only 3% of first time buyers..
(IT and business professionals)
will opt for Windows 8:

http://tinyurl.com/7myv8cd

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120613005906/en/IDG-Connect-Research-Shows-44-Future-Tablet

WAKE UP Microsoft ! ! ! !
Your are competing against
iOS and iOSX..

..not against Windows 1.0 ! !

from a Windows 7 fanatic.

ff

I DARE you to take a look:

tinyurl.com/6s5f72v

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-...AAABck/7U6NSIthUoI/s1303/win8is DULL ! ! .jpg

ff

Example?

...still waiting

Obviously not if you compare MS's slice of the OS market. $21.7bn income on $73.7bn revenue would suggest MS don't have clue 1 about what JBP wants. I'd assume that MS must have an inkling to what Joe/Zen Blow Public wants in at least one case:

MS's market share would seem to indicate thus. If you think otherwise, why are you using Vista? Lose a bet? I recall Vista's launch and gestation wasn't plain sailing

Windows 7 extended support runs until January 2020
Vista extended support runs until November 2017
XP's extended support runs until August 2014
...get the sandwich board ready, the End is Nigh...only eight years left!

The four "play god" references certainly are.

So (leaving aside your views of your clients), you view W8 as a "steaming pile" and likely "to blow a head gasket", which begs the question, why? The only thing you've offered up is that MS aren't diversifying the product line. I don't see ANYTHING in your post as to why W8 is operationally unsound

If you stood by your convictions, you'd hand in your MS tin star wouldn't you? Hand your "sucker clients" over to someone else- there must be others in the area. If your locale is anything like other countries, "Microsoft Accedited" is somewhat easier to obtain than a taxi licence.

BTW: As a "sucker", I'll be running W8 on one on my rigs. I'll run it because of it's performance characteristics and not the UI...the same reason that I purchase a car based on how well it drives and not how the dash looks.

But would you buy the car if it performs well but yet the shifter is located under the seat causing you extra time to shift? A shift in convenience seems to be the biggest issue with Windows 8, which effects some more than others.

"What MS should have done, was leave the option.. I mean they kept a Classic [ 9x/NT4 ] theme in Windows for how long ? Yet they take the start screen and kill the start menu without even a single transition OS."

Guest is correct. The option should have been to use metro or not.

You MUST be getting paid by MS to write such an article. No way that an "average" end user is going to prefer Metro over the standard desktop

@dividebyzero "MS's market share would seem to indicate thus."

NO it wouldn't. The CURRENT market share represents their initial piece of that pie. It is shrinking, everyday. 8 and Metro will ensure that it does not grow.

Gotta agree with you there. It's funny that people are scared about this. You ALWAYS have the option of NOT upgrading to win8, and by doing that, M$ will understand the enormous stupidity that is not to listen to their customers. They still support Vista and Win7, and will do so for a good amount of time, so no worries here!

About the article, this metro bullshit doesn't replace the start menu, or makes anything faster in the OS, it's just a dumbed down interface for touchscreen devices, that will simply NOT work for desktops.

"extra time to shift"? If the shifter was under the seat I'd need to be triple jointed and grow muscles in different places (my fixer-upper is a Chrysler w/440 wedge + A-833 4-sp. Imagine trying to power shift a big block with your arm under the seat. Then imagine how much forward/rear/side vision you'd have in that position)
I'm using W7 and W8 day-to-day, and the shift is more akin to going from my older manual cars (540i and the MOPAR's) to my fathers tiptronic paddle shift Audi. Both are functional, but moving between them if you heavily favour one over the other can give you pause when you first jump behind the wheel- precisely why I'm jumping in with almost two feet- but then, I've always enjoyed getting down to the nuts and bolts of any new toy, and as I reinstall my OS's on a 6 month basis (+ install a new customer build OS on average once a week) it doesn't actually seem that much of a chore to set up preferences, defaults, layout etc.

I actually find it amazing that a percentage of people deriding W8 because of the default UI think nothing of spending hours upon hours customizing their desktop with widgets and finding that all-important picture of an anatomically challenged anime/ improbably posed female model for their screen real estate...so, each to their own. As for W8-You either buy or don't. By the time Win7's support cycle runs out in 2020 I'm guessing that a few more OS editions and UI changes would have taken place, and the user probably wont be forced into adopting W8...that's just a guess on my part.

Keeping the Guest contribution up to its usual standard- excessive use of caps and BS.
Pulling opinion out of your a thin air and proclaiming it fact only works when the real info isn't front and centre.

W8 is a steaming pile of crap for PC users. It's fugly, in no way improves usability, and will only confuse the heck out of the extreme novice users who are still trying to get comfortable with W7 and earlier versions. This is beyond any doubt designed for tablet / smartphone use, NOT PC - even most of the MS fanatics aren't denying that. There is no reason for MS to have gone so far out of their way to remove the start menu utterly and completely, including the underlying code, other than sheer arrogance. This is just MS deciding they know what is best for everyone and forcing people into this crap, regardless of how many people don't like it. They are control freaks. The author is, imho, clearly nothing but a MS shill or a fanboi - it amounts to the same thing. Heck I could achieve the same effect as Metro by covering my desktop with links to every 'app' I have on my PC, but I don't because it is not an effective way to navigate. How the fcuk can anyone think that is an improvement? This is like saying an office filing system is dated and then just throwing the files all over the floor and saying it's an improvement! *****s! Guess what - MS apps and other software have to stay separate too. Great - multiple sets of progs to sort through - yeah real improvement there, retards! There must be some complete b@stard high up @ MS who came up with this stupid idea and everyone was too scared to speak out for fear they'd get fired - this is the only way I can think this W8 got all the way to the end-user stage. Surely many of the staff must have realized what a complete clusterfcuk this o/s is - or are they all just completely brainwashed in there? One thing W8 has done positive - it's created a HUGE opportunity for other o/s makers to take a chunk of the market segment. I'm sure Apple will also try to benefit from this somehow. MS - you REALLY fcuked up this time - not that you'll ever admit it.

The only really good thing about W8 is it's multi-display capabilities, but a SP release to W7 could have resolved that.

The sense of entitlement on some of you is amusing.

Microsoft has to do what it has to do. Whether you like it or not, Windows 8 is happening. Whether it is a success or not, well, it <I>is</I> happening.

Luckily none of you who don't like it (or don't want to even try it), don't have to buy it. But I assure you one thing though: do not think for a second that the removal of the Start button (and apparent fervent desire to keep it that way) wasn't studied, researched, calculated and carefully considered.

Even if Windows 8 flops, I doubt they'd bring the Start button back; this new era of computing requires a generational shift, one that will inevitably force us to adapt to new paradigms. Again, whether you like it or not.

Well, then, guess I had to create an account. "Opinion"? The link you provided only shows me to be correct. Their share has gone DOWN, not up, in the past year.

My opinion also matters considering that I developed Splinter, the most dynamic and diverse desktop interface on the planet. The desktop environment is, kinda, "my" domain.

Of course this is what it is about. The average end user no longer "needing" the desktop environment, due to Metro. It is a farce

"Again, we're speaking about Metro strictly as a Start menu successor"

It doesn't matter what you are "strictly" talking about. This isn't "what" Metro is. Metro is meant as a replacement for the ENTIRE desktop environment, not the Start Menu. You cannot separate them because just the use of Metro is completely monopolizing of the entire environment

No. What you're saying would make sense if the Start Screen was inferior to the Start button. It turns out, it only really is to us "power users." And that's why it's irrelevant.

No. It is inferior in numerous ways. JUST the fact that everything is being tracked when on the Start Screen makes it inferior. There is no benefit to the end user to have MS tracking every move you make while in Metro. Further, when in the Start Screen, you are not in the desktop environment. That, alone, also, is enough to make it inferior. Far inferior

What are you going on about? MS also tracks user behavior while on the desktop; that's how they got the telemetry data they used to get to the conclusion that people don't really use the Start button.

The second part doesn't even make sense.

Either way, you're just confirming my point: it's irrelevant. You care about it because you are a power user.

Uh, no. Your actual; quote was:

As you should plainly see from the numbers, MS's percentage is not a steady decline. Before the June numbers, MS's marketshare actually rose consecutively in March, April and May, and presently sits at exactly the same level as 9 months ago....so much for "shrinking every day"

Wow. Colour me impressed...that you need to post consecutively because you can't work out how to use the edit button. I'll look it up if I ever think I need it - tho I'm more likely to need a splinter remover

Telemetry data from WHAT? 7? No, they certainly do not. MS has no idea what I am doing in 7 unless I want to tell them. They didn't get the idea from end users, that is ridiculous. I don't recall there ever being a start menu in 8 but if there was in the developer preview, that certainly wasn't getting telemetry data from the average end user. Are you actually trying to say that the average end user is going to be BETTER OFF with Metro and the Start Screen than the current desktop environment with the Start Menu? Ludicrous, as far as I am concerned. It is all about money. Period. Metro, all of it is designed to track patterns to sell your info to advertisers and to restrict the use of applications on "your desktop" to those bought in the Microsoft Store, period.

And the second part is completely relevant. How can you say that the absence of vision on what is going on in whatever window you have open is irrelevant? Any number of things could occur in real-time that would either negate the need to open whatever you are trying for in the Start Menu/Screen or require you open something else. (not just power users, false argument).

Why have to completely remove the desktop environment just to open some app? Why can't it be opened on the same screen? You see the difference? One way, restricts, the other does not. Classic MS.

I dont have an edit button. Maybe new users don't get them. The next line is funny, though. A bit close minded, eh? It is fine. To each their own.


EDIT----hhaha, must have been a post threshold to pass