"Most people don't follow tech news like me and you and don't like tweaking their computer. Calling them stupid for wanting a simple, easy to use OS is pretty *****ic in itself. But if you want the most complicated computer experience possible, you're more than welcome to build your own OS, or are you too much of a simpleton?
P.S. - I like how everyone bashes windows 8 for being so complicated and difficult to work with, and then turn around and bash it for being too simple. Pick a side people."
I didn't call anybody stupid. I take simple and stupid to have different meanings. I am sorry that you don't. I am really only using Bill Gates words from the video. If your upset that they designed Windows 8 for "people who want to consume things and do it in a simple way" then you need to send him an email.
I have no interest in returning to the days of programming in assembly language. Nor do I have any interest in performing every possible action on my desktop with the swipe of a finger. There are tradeoffs in many things in life. Windows 8 shoehorns users into a class of people they consider not smart enough to do things on their own. The fact is that people, barring mental retardation, are as smart as they choose to be. Everyday a person wakes up they can choose whether or not they want to watch hours and hours of YouTube videos, no YouTube videos, or strike a balance somewhere in between. If people want to consume content in a simple way, they already have devices for that. We have gaming consoles devoted exclusively to people who want to play games. We have portable DVD players for people who want to watch movies on the go.
My theory, is that Windows 8 for the desktop wasn't a response to help people "consume" content more "simply" on their desktop. That's all done pretty easily in Windows 7 as things stand. Windows 8 is an attempt to "force" people to do "nothing but" consume content just like they do on tablets now. Sure all the powerful functionality that exists in Windows 7 hasn't been completely stripped from Windows 8...yet. You know the story about putting a frog in boiling water, right? They gotta do this stuff very slowly and very gradually.
The justification for releasing Windows 8 makes no sense to me. I think it creates an even bigger gap between those would produce content and those who consume content. I do both on my computer. It seems Microsoft is shifting the focus of the desktop and the purpose from doing more consuming and less producing. They're making decisions for us, that should be left up to us, not decided by them. Nothing in Windows 7 hinders anybody from playing games, watching movies, or listening to MP3s all day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if they so choose.
I hear Microsoft touting cloud capabilities in Windows 8. They want everybody storing their content on their hard drives. I see Windows 8 as an attempt to return to the dark ages where the keyboard and monitor in the users home is nothing more than a dumb terminal which connects to resources beyond their control.
Microsoft is attempting to strip the desktop user of all his/her power and become dependent on them alone.
Windows 7 was the culmination of a perfect balance of simplicity, flexibility, and power. The freedom to do whatever you want, however you want. Freedom always includes choices. And it seems like Microsoft is slowing herding people down a single lane path. The way of the finger. I like to give Microsoft a one finger salute for the gift that is Windows 8.
If Windows 7 is too difficult for a person to use. They need to buy a tablet and just stay away from the desktop. Instead of allowing people to rise above their technology limitations in life, we are slowly bringing our expectations of the masses down by dumbing down the desktop. Windows 8 makes the desktop into nothing more than a glorified tablet for people they have discounted as 'too dumb to learn'.
Microsoft says they developed Windows 8 because they wanted people to be able to consume things as simply as possible. Bill Gates own words. Okay fine. The surface tablet makes perfect sense. What was the purpose of bringing it to the desktop?
