Windoze 8

Leaked shot of a preliminary Win 9 Start Menu:

http://static.neow.in/images/uploaded/startmenu.png

Not bad, all things considered. Though MS is still tile-happy.

There's nothing inherently wrong with tiles, but they're associated with Win8(.1). That might turn some people off. I guarantee there will be either an option not to display tiles or a third-party utility to do away with them.

And I'm apprehensive about the "All Apps" thing on the bottom left just over the search box. I've the sneaky suspicion it will launch the start screen "all apps" view. I hope not. It wouldn't even make sense, not after all that MS has gone through these past 18 months or so, but as a high school friend liked to say "There may be limits to human intelligence, but human stupidity knows no bounds."

For all that, I need to say this: had MS released Win8 with such a Start menu, this thread would not have existed.

Unlike Windows ME (mistake edition) or Vista, Windows 8(.1) did more than just hurt Microsoft. It has hurt just about eveyr PC user in the world. Consider this:

http://www.zdnet.com/desktop-pcs-and-the-windows-desktop-endangered-species-7000031643/

At that, this article is "pro" desktop. But consider this paragraph:

Quote:

One phrase in that introductory post leaps out at me today: "Essentially," Sinofsky wrote, "you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app." That's indeed what happened, and perhaps the root of Windows 8's identity crisis. On a tablet, the desktop is just another app, and in fact one you're not likely to use often. But on desktop PCs and traditional clamshell notebooks, the desktop isn't an app, it's a destination, and anything that takes you away from it is a potential distraction.

I would say, incidentally, that on a desktop/notebook PC the desktop is not a "destination." It's the computer. The whole reason you have a desktop/laptop int he first place.

As I said before, the tech world has gone tablet and touch happy. I can see why. I like my tablet a lot. I use it so much, that I can barely believe I've had it for less than a year. But there isn't much I do on it that I don't prefer to do on the desktop PC. Things like browsing the web, Facebook and even some games are done best with a desktop or laptop, not a tablet. The only "apps" I run on the tablet exclusively are Pinterest, Audible and e-book readers. Google maps for traffic and directions, if you include the phone.

It's really emabrrasing to suddenly realize something that is not just obvious but blantantly obvious. Yet here it is:

I used an XP PC (two of them in fact) from around the time it launched until around 2007. That was when I got stuck for years with a Vista PC. I did think to upgrade it to Win7 around 2010 but 1) the upgrade cost a fair deal of money and 2) my PC fell short of the specs. By the time I could properly afford a new PC it was 2012, so I decided to hang on a little longer and get the newest OS, which would be <ugh> Windows 8. And of course you all know what happened then.

The thing is: I skipped Win7 for years.

When Win8 came out, what remained of the desktop was closer to Win7's than what I knew. For those who may not recall, the Win7 desktop was quite, quite different from all the previous Windows desktops going clear back to Win95. Not only could you "pin" "apps" to the taskbar, but the whole structure of menus to configure various desktop options were completely different. And the search function on the start menu worked quickly, rather than at the glacial pace it had on Vista. And the quick-launch icons present since Win98 were gone (though they can be recovered).

"Pinning apps" and "searching the PC" feature prominently on the crippled Win8 desktop.

I did make brief and ocassional use of Win7 machines at the office. But the key here is "brief." I did little more than open a program or folder from a desktop icon (they like desktop icons at this office). I figured the "apps" pinned next to the start button were open programs; lot sof people have their PCs set up to run several things when they boot up. I wasn't used to that, not was I used to searching when I wanted to open a folder or run a program.

That's me. How about everyone else?

It's hard to say, of course, but recently the tech press has been obsessed with just how many people still run XP. base don that, and the reaction to Windows 8, I figure a lot of people all over the world also skipped over Win7. So when Microsft said they'd studied the "telemetry" from current users and found most pinned "apps" and used search, who were they talking about?

Obvious, isn't it? Blatantly, utterly obvious.

People running Windows 7.

How about the rest of us? <cue crickets>.

More rumors regarding the next Windows version (possibly to be called Windows 9):

1) the charms bar will go away.

I would say "bravo!" (or, rather "bravo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), but I won't. A lot of commenters in the tech press bemoan this move by MS, especially those using touch in Win8.1 tablets, a few are upset about not having this, um, "feature" on the desktop <roll eyes>. So what I'll say is something I've been saying for a while: Microsoft, give us lots of choices in customizing the OS.

2) A preview is tentatively rumored to be scheduled to be released late September or early October. Further rumor is it will be available to everyone interested. I shall obliterate the laptop's Win8.1 partition in anticipation. This time I will run the preview in time and not get caught unaware. had I know what Win8 was going to be like by early 2012, I'd have purchased a Win7 PC then. I'd have had plenty to choose from, too <sigh>.

Quote: Nareed

2) A preview is tentatively rumored to be scheduled to be released late September or early October.

The latest date reported is Sept 30th, which is really early October.

Time enough to dig the laptop out, delete the Win8.1 partition and re-partition the HD.

I shall be brutally honest in my appraisal of Windows 9 (Perhaps they should name it Windows Apology Edition? Maybe shorten it to Windows AE?), or at any rate brutal.

The latest rumor is the new version of Windows will allow an update direct to a specific build number.

What does this mean? That if you skipped updates for an extended period of time, rather common for backup machines which are not in use daily, you can leapfrog over the earlier updates and go straight to the latter ones.

This happens to me every time I bring out my laptop. Typically I use it only when I take it on trips, or when I'm testing a Windows preview or Linux, and it can stay stowed inactive for months. Bottom line is I spend the better part of an hour, or longer sometimes, updating it.

I can imagine other situations in which updates might be skipped. From time to time one reads that this or that MS Windows update caused some kind of systemic problem, for example. Remember the infamous Windows XP Service Pack 2? As a matter of fact I never did that update on my old XP at home.

Anyway, this feature has been seen in internal MS builds of Win (maybe) 9. It may or may not make it to the final release, or even to the preview.

A few odds and ends:

1) I don't think Microsoft will name the next PC OS Windows 9. I think they'll come up with a different name. But I've nothing to back this up. What I'm sure of is that if a) they do name it Win9, many people will criticize them for lacking originality, but if they b) name it something else, such as Windows AE(*), they'll be criticized for bad marketing.

2) I won't keep on attacking Windows 8 any more. Our side won, and we ought be gracious in victory. So I've refrained from thrashing people online who still claim the start screen is the same thing as the start menu (it's not even close to the same thing), or those who insist Win8 is God, Country, Mother and Apple Pie, but that troglodytes stuck in the past are too afraid to change, among other inanities.

3) reports on the probable costs of Win9 (if it's called that) keep varying about as much as the weather. I've heard free to everyone, free to Win8(.1) users only, free to no one, $25 for all, $25 for Win8.1 users only, cheaper for people moving up from XP than Win7, among other things. IMO Microsoft still doesn't know what to do about it.


(*) Apology Edition.

As the Date for the Launch of the iPhone 6 Nears, news, comments and everything else about everything else are drying up. Instead we get to hear More about Apple, about people Lining Up already, endless speculations about What Would Jobs Do, etc.

But Apple is not a cult. I've asked Apple enthusiasts about it, and they all swear up one side and down the other in the name of the Apple, the Woz and the Holy Jobs that it's not a cult.

Fortunately the maximum length of saturation coverage of the new iPhone is just shy of three weeks. That's when Microsoft is expected to release the Win9 preview.

Not that I expect saturation coverage to last this long to begin with, but as the Apple watch won't be released for a while, I expect innumerable pieces speculating on it, detailing the very last detail of a few advance-release versions (remember Google Glass??), and endless discussions about price, immitrators, new Android devices to compete with it, ad infinitum.

This won't end the wall-to-wall coverage of the new apple artifact (relic??), but it's very interesting and very promising:


http://winsupersite.com/windows/windows-9-technical-preview-video-leaks-analysis#comment-641671

It's a video of the next Windows in action.

It confirms most of what has been leaked thus far, but adds a few choice tidbits.

1) When clicking (NOT tapping) on "All Apps," a traditional list appears, along with icons (NOT tiles) and folders (NOT nothing).

2) The tiles on the right side of the menu are very customizable. they can be pinned, unpinned and resized. This is great because a) MS finally is allowing users a say on their interface, and b) one can rid one's desktop of tiles completely if necessary. About that, I suppose they might be helpful or useful in some way, much better than wiping off the screen in order to check something in the "tiles." We'll wait and see. I'm glad the option is there.

Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't complain. I really, really, really don't like the flat, lifeless look that seems to be all the rage these days. Really, Apple should rethink it (so everyone else will imitate them). IN the meantime, this is the second opportunity for Stardock et al to sell a theme replacement for Windows 9