After having been forced into using 11 at work, I may have been too harsh on Windows 8 when it came out. At least when you clicked Explorer it opened and Notepad didn’t take 10 seconds to launch
Windows 8 was definitely a stumble, but it at least could be made good with a couple apps to fix default behaviours (ie. boot to Desktop Mode, restore Win7-style Start Menu).
The start menu was the beginning of the atrocious thing we have today, but right click on it, and you got a quick access menu to everything from a terminal shell to settings to actual shutdown options. It still exists in some form today.
I'll say it outright - metro was good but was delivered poorly. I liked full screen start as an option on my tablet, and it also worked great once you configured it well on the desktop. The problem, as I said, was delivery - it was only nice out of the box for touchscreens.
I kept full screen start on my desktop at 8.1 because it was such a great workflow (once I reworked the hell out of it to logical groups for all the esoteric manufacturers specific software I needed).
11 is just a shit show though. And teams. And shoving copilot into absolutely everything.
MS always does what you expect though - continues to make things worse to use. They've been doing it for decades now, they are great at it!
I feel similar about Vista. Like it wasn't great, but it was fine, a reasonable attempt at a proto 7. The issues with UAC never really went away, people just got used to it. Honestly it was a fine OS.
12 Comments
cmbabul@slrpnk.net · 56 pts · 16d
After having been forced into using 11 at work, I may have been too harsh on Windows 8 when it came out. At least when you clicked Explorer it opened and Notepad didn’t take 10 seconds to launch
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 32 pts · 16d
Windows 8 was definitely a stumble, but it at least could be made good with a couple apps to fix default behaviours (ie. boot to Desktop Mode, restore Win7-style Start Menu).
Windows 11 is just rotten to the core.
Dave@lemmy.nz · 10 pts · 16d
If memory serves me correctly, Windows 8.1 introduced the right-click-on-start menu, arguably the best Windows start menu there ever was.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 16d
My memory of that time is getting foggy, but true - 8.1 definitely brought in a number of fixes to Microsoft’s initial, abominable Metro UI design.
Dave@lemmy.nz · 3 pts · 16d
The start menu was the beginning of the atrocious thing we have today, but right click on it, and you got a quick access menu to everything from a terminal shell to settings to actual shutdown options. It still exists in some form today.
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus · 7 pts · 16d
I'm stuck with windows for my work laptop.
I'll say it outright - metro was good but was delivered poorly. I liked full screen start as an option on my tablet, and it also worked great once you configured it well on the desktop. The problem, as I said, was delivery - it was only nice out of the box for touchscreens.
I kept full screen start on my desktop at 8.1 because it was such a great workflow (once I reworked the hell out of it to logical groups for all the esoteric manufacturers specific software I needed).
11 is just a shit show though. And teams. And shoving copilot into absolutely everything.
MS always does what you expect though - continues to make things worse to use. They've been doing it for decades now, they are great at it!
jagermo@feddit.org · 4 pts · 16d
They should habe stopped at 7, maybe 10. 11 is no fun to use
Baggie@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 16d
I feel similar about Vista. Like it wasn't great, but it was fine, a reasonable attempt at a proto 7. The issues with UAC never really went away, people just got used to it. Honestly it was a fine OS.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 16d
8 was excellent on my Surface Pro 3.
SmoothLiquidation@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 16d
That article was interesting but such a pain to read. Every other paragraph was repeating itself. I miss editors.
Sunshine@piefed.ca · 6 pts · 16d
Soon they will need to escape android and ios to sell games on phones.
Ptsf@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 11d
Windows store put the fear of Microsoft corporate in Gaben, especially when they started selling games