Microsoft, It's Time To Retire Windows

If this is the case, I'll run my Win7 in to the ground for at least another decade, if not longer.

"Windows" might not be the most accurate name for Windows 8. But then there's Apple...

The problem is that damn MS is so big now they have gotten out of touch with reality...
Not speaking of all the things that MS is up to but a lot..
All these acquisitions and ventures off into 'non MS' areas of technology is just too too much.
Someone needs to gets these guys under control.
Forcing newer software versions upon us even strongly against the consumers will.
I can continue on but I must say that I like Win7....
This also why I do not or try to not pay for MS 'technologies'..

Microsoft has said its just an overlay.. Like Windows Media Center. Windows 8 is still behind it, and judging by the footage I've seen.. looks the same as Windows 7 right now.

If the "tiles" are just an interface, I don't see why they cannot provide the ability for the users to switch to an alternate "classic" interface and do so interchangeably. They may not want to provide this to move in the direction they want and that is their choice. In this case, I will stick with Windows 7 as well.

On the side, the Win 8 interface reminds me more of "windows" than the current interface. I don't think it is a hard bridge to cross and I would not expect MS to change the brand.

But it still IS Windows. If you watch the Windows 8 video, when he moves away from the stupid tile interface it still looks just like Windows 7 underneath. So if they want to have a departure, how about a REAL departure. How about they actually re-write it from the ground up again instead of giving us yet another revision of the Windows 2000 core...

they do have the w7 interface...this is how it looks if you have a tablet or if you want it to look like that on your PC and its completely optional

If remember the rant with Aero and the XP skin at the beginning... You need to refresh things up sometimes to find better fits.

Hey, like rockers say: if it's too loud, you're too old! Same could be said for software: if it's too complex, you're too old!

Cheers!

I just don't really understand microsoft's goal here. We don't want sloppy, inefficient, clutter. If we did we'd go to macOS. The general windows user wants to have more control over their system, not less. I think the basic rationale for going for windows over macOS has been that it gives you more control and less gimmick. If microsoft tries to reverse this, they'll be alienating their real customers while trying to acquire apple's customers, who aren't interested. A version of windows focused on performance and a minimal UI would make a lot more sense than taking the apple route and just making everything bigger, uglier, and slower.

Of course, for all I know what we know as windows 8 isn't even going to be released as a desktop OS, and while it attempts to work on the tablet market, microsoft will develop an actual operating system for desktop computers and traditional laptops.

Of course MS is going to have a "classic" view on "windows 8". Once Windows 8 tablets start coming out kiss Android tablets good-bye.

Unfortunately, M$ did not see the tablet revival coming when they were working on windows 7. If they had, I expect that another viable approach would have been to detect, or at least allow a user to indicate, that 7 was installed on a tablet device and adjust the UI accordingly. Seems a pretty simple concept even though there is a parting of ways between desktop and tablet UI. I see this as similar to web sites that detect when they are being browsed by a mobile device and provide a different page designed to accommodate that mobile device.

Unless there is significant thought into this new UI, one market sector that I anticipate will have problems with "second-class mice" is the CAD market. Good luck, M$, in finding a "one-size" fits all solution.

History taught us, that many "innovations" (like Vista, RIMMs, Itanium, etc) fail miserably no matter who invented them.

I think the only real potential here is to use a beefed-up Kinect that is more responsive and more accurate and have some excellent voice recognition software. Get rid of the keyboard and mouse altogether. Could be great for HTPC's and the like. As for any other type of setup, I don't see this catching on.

Eh, windows 8 is just like windows 7
You can still use the start menu, with regular windows like you could before, it's just like some add-on for windows where you use tiles to navigate... you know, for regular donkey consumers that need 4 big buttons in windows "facebook, youtube, mail, news" .

"However, I don't think that anyone would install this OS on a traditional PC."
You've been wrong before.

"Of course, Microsoft can't change computing alone."
It did it before, and likely will do it again.

I think people just have ADD. I think people just get tired of the usual start button, task bar ect... and want something new. That doesn't mean the current interface isn't intuitive, user friendly and the best solution so far. I always thought XP was the best version so far and they should just improve on that. Or rebuild XP from the ground up know what we know today.

If I want obfuscating tiles to hide the underlying reality of what I really own, I'll by a mac.
I prefer to have access to all my hardware the way I want it.

http://www.reactos.org

is almost ready, approaching beta.
Windows without MS, an opensource alternative that you have complete control of.

I’m open to new things of course but why change something that just works so well. Windows.. a brand name beginning from so long ago is just as significant as Duke Nukem.

Oh well.. be better if they called it sliders rather than tiles and have each layer interface with a worm hole. Problem solved with the excessive mouse movement...

Another dumb idea ... touch screens are only used for portable devices simply to reduce necessary real estate required to use the device. People endure touch screen interfaces because of this, not because they think it's a better interface. It's kinda sad just how Microsoft keep getting "the future" wrong.

If Microsoft want to be forward thinking, they should be focusing on a interface that can detect when someone is talking to it and respond accordingly with 99.99% accuracy ... touch screen is just another clumsy way of interacting with a computer. Gaaah, Microsoft just don't get it ... I seriously don't think they have a single person in that company with an "vision" or "imagination" at all ... just a bunch of drones.

Hopefully win8 will have a "classic" gui mode "Use visual styles on windows and buttons"

Good toughts and Bad toughts here. I like win 7. I do. It's the most user friendly Os I ever had. I love my explorer, my taskbar etc. I also love having control over my pc. that's why i'm not a mac user. If they "macify" windows, it will go down the wrong pipe with a lot of loyal users, this could hurt ms in the long run. On the other hand, I've come to trust them. Even if they had the odd "bad" os (not really bad, just, not right). I think there is a global need for "the next step" in computer usage. I hope I'm not the only one that thinks we should have been much further along by now, what with touchscreens, 3d interfaces, tactile inputs... all the tech available. I think ms is trying to come up with something completely new. It's hard to do that without stepping on some toes. Some will like it, others will not. Do I like the sliding and bubbly things: NO. But I doubt that we are seeing the full picture here. I hope they step up the game, and maybe pick up some lost macsheep on the way...

Microsoft says: Tom's, it's time to retire Wolfgang.

Sorry if this is a double post, but it wasn't refreshing...

This new interface, may be great for pretty little tiles, or mini-windows of icons for programs, or live feeds of video, web cams, TV shows and movies, which is great eye candy. But how the heck is someone doing CAD or Geographic Information Systems supposed to use MS Kinect supposed to be able to access all the buttons which are quick links to all the tools we use. I have a 30" monitor and hundreds of buttons that I can see and use in my GIS system all on the "ribbon bars". In this new environment, software designers would have to either just use the text menu system or to use more counter-intuitive icons (if I know the developers well enough from past experience), for the icon approach this means endless nested "gestures to get to the commands you want to do what you want. For simple software, it may be fine, but for complex software that has thousands of separate tools within it, it just is a nightmare and cardio workout just to do you daily work. I'm going down the road of total body repetitive strain injury in order to use a computer. MS Kinect I doubt will be as precise as a mouse or wacom tablet with it's high precision pointing capabilities. The day that MS Kinect will be able to tell which individual pixel we're looking at when looking at a 2560 x 1600 pixel monitor... well that's impressive. I'm not saying it's impossible, but arriving for Windows 8, not likely.

I like my current interface just fine, and don't like the tiles. The tiles would be fine if everyone used the same apps for the same things, but we don't. We as users can put our own apps on the desktop, where we want them. It is up to the app writers to implement tiles or widgets for their apps, so we could easily semi-minimize an app to a small tile or icon and still see what is going on with it. But for people that don't want that, they can have the current interface.

Nothing wrong with the start menu- it gives you access to features and controls that are not used as frequently, without cluttering up the desktop.

Let me SCREAM that I do NOT want to STAND in front of my PC. Give me a visual interface, that is one that looks at me while I look at it, that can watch and interpret hand and face movements and gestures. If I slide my hand around like a mouse, it moves the cursor like I would with a mouse. If i tap with a finger, it clicks, double tap, double clicks. Allow me to program gestures to do actions. Spreading all five fingers out to to their extent and closing into a fist might mean "save my current file" for instance. Watch my face. If i close my hand into a fist and move my head to the right, turn the page to the right.... If I spread my fingers out and double tap the desk while extended, bring up my running app list and then go back to tracking my hand like a mouse so I can select another app.... etc. etc. etc. This will entice me to adopt this technology for my desktop. I already loathe the amount of "games" for kinect that force me to stand. Can I not get a game that lets me play with JUST my hands?

a couple people touched on it but i'm pretty sure this is just an overlay. remember, this OS will cover a wide range of devices and so whatever your particular device needs/ doesn't need, the OS will install/run accordingly. at least that's been my understanding so far.

They should call it Windows Tiles. Then the next version could be Windows Tiles 2 and then eventually just Tiles 3. Similar to how Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare turned into Modern Warfare 2.

I'm going to give M$ the benefit of the doubt until I try it out myself. While I'm not sure how easy gestures / touch screens will be for navigation, I can see how we are moving towards that. Soon we'll have Minority Report like interfaces.

On an unrelated note, have you heard that Codemasters` servers were hacked and user data compromised? I wonder when Toms will report this news..

Windows 7 works fine for me. I wont upgrade to 8. They are just making a stupid looking interface.

Blah ha ha, what do all the MS fanboys have to say about their beloved Winblows OS now. Ubuntu forever.