Windows 8 What's so great about Windows8?

[Drew]

A wee anecdote (w/ a moral):

Now, to approach this in my own way & maybe, hopefully put a message across...

People often ask me, what's so special about Windows8. OR, "I can't see any reason to want it over what I have" OR "that damned UI & those blasted APPs" OR why is it any better than 7 or my (please don't take it away from me) XP, etc, etc, etc.

I have oft said Win8 is cool because it does things (for you) all by itself & w/out adding software or bothering w/ install discs; there are many examples of this. For the moment my story focuses on one in particular. This is a commonplace thing that countless people want to do everyday.

I have a Nokia cel phone (brand not, really, critical, here). It takes photos. I want to take those from that device to my PC to save and or share. As stated, something that applies to countless folks, these days. In Windows7 I downloaded, installed (& Updated) Nokia Suite, the phone got connected, recognised & so on... a whole process to be able to grab photos from the device.

Now, we come to Windows8. Did not have to lift a finger... 8 did everything, instantly, all by itself. All I did was connected the phone via USB to the computer. Windows8, Johnny-on-the-spot, installed "the Device". No (Nokia) phone program or software installed had been installed (nor ever needed to be). Went to Windows Live Photos... phone showed but, it found no photos, hmmmm. Windows Media Player sees the device but, that only send files TO the device. However, what about one of those 'ridiculous' APPs?? There's a Windows8 Photos APP. Hmmmm... Connect the phone, Clk Photos APP & voila, immediately, there's all the photos in the phone on the screen. Check ALL or the ones wanted, @ that moment, @ the bottom of the screen is a 'box' showing a dated folder to which, the selected shots will go and an Import button. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, it is DONE.

Point is to see & know that Win8 does have some cool things going for it. It does make doing things quick & EASY and all by itself, natively. This is not, was not the case w/ previous Windows Operating Systems. So, anyway, the above is just one of many things that come to mind when someone asks, "What's so great about Windows8?"

Cheers,
Drew
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[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I too have found Windows 8 very easy to use with hardware.
Anything I plug in installs and works great.

I've never had the issues that I sometimes had with Windows 7 and internet connections.

Now that I'm getting used to where everything is I can't imagine going back to Windows 7.

I don't like the interface but since I don't have to use it, that isn't an issue.

I can't wait for the release so I can install it over my Windows 7 install and have some more space.
I installed Windows 8 on a small partition and have had issues with space as I added more stuff.

It will be nice to have it installed on the hard drive I have Windows 7 on and have lots of free space.

Mike

 

[mediaad]

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Robertwav1]

Windows 8 coupled with a SSD is a blur. Faster and leaner is always better.

 

[Hanover]

Being able to get Windows 8 into a newly-installed state without actually having to do a reinstall is very nice.

 

[Drew]

I oft wonder if the naysayers, the naïve, the neophytes, the nasty fear-mongers, the purveyors of myths, the suckers for myths... will any hear or be able to hear, let themselves hear, all the good (things) in or about Windows8 that many people mention w/ great enthusiasm. Do they or will they hear all the positive comments made praising particular aspects & then more accolades from additional, other people lauding, even, more & different impressive Features, functions or underlying technologies. Can some people come to understand Win8 & have it, also for them, be fun, easy & sensible to use?

Being guarded not to rant or repeat (too much)...

There have been heaps of attempts to prognosticate how things will unfold for Windows8 following Oct. 26th. Adoption discussions saying how that will go. We don't really know, folks! Que sera, sera. However, the crux of the matter is attitude. That, in a word, nutshells it. New or the same, APPs or not, start buttons & menus gone or not old or new, none of that matters more than attitude, it transcends everything. Willingness, interest, openness and not being an unknowing, innocent, lemming... being the sort to listen, learn & not go by hype & hearsay.

Many things contribute to a poor attitude. Many (other, better) things can, also, provoke a good attitude. Things are easier to discover, absorb & appreciate w/out being self-centric, wearing blinders, being gullible, stubborn or arrogant.

That said, I, just, hope people will hear (& think about) the virtues of Windows8 that people are so keen to state w/ excitement. Maybe it will cause them ponder that the good attitude, indeed, has merit.

Cheers,
Drew
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[sirloyne]

I oft wonder if the naysayers, the naïve, the neophytes, the nasty fear-mongers, the purveyors of myths, the suckers for myths... will any hear or be able to hear, let themselves hear, all the good (things) in or about Windows8 that many people mention w/ great enthusiasm. Do they or will they hear all the positive comments made praising particular aspects & then more accolades from additional, other people lauding, even, more & different impressive Features, functions or underlying technologies. Can some people come to understand Win8 & have it, also for them, be fun, easy & sensible to use?

Does Windows Snap still prevent Windows from remembering how big your windows were? Does Windows 8 let you organize your folders by letters, or is it still that useless A-H junk? For people who actually do things, and have lots and lots of folders and files to sort and search through, Windows 7 was about as bad as they could have made it and Windows 8 is just a harder to navigate Windows 7. The reason people stay with XP isn't because they can't learn anything new, (as many people like to say while patting themselves on the back for being so witty), it's because XP worked. The new Windows direction is about form over function. It's about impressing the impressionable with bright colors and useless eye-candy. If the "takes forever to close as I fade into nothingness" approach when you close a window actually improved something, then that would be different, but really it just makes Windows use more space and memory. I'm sure all those "under the hood" changes are real impressive, but if it can't perform even the simplest tasks like alphabetizing folders then it's pretty much worthless. I would rather my OS was all function and no form. If I want to be wowed by slick transitions I'll install a program to do it.

 

[davehc]

Many of the initial comments and complaints regarding Vista, were correct. But it was mainly the fault of the driver manufacturers, rather than the OS itself, which made it, in it's initial stages, so poor. But, Drew, I do feel that in the case of Windows 8, there were a small handful of "anti new things" or "Anti Microsoft", users, particularly on forums who plunged into the early releases, some with experience, some with nest to none, who, without giving it a fair run, immediately reacted to the changes. It was very much a case of "give a dog a bad name". The various "help" forums are a very powerful source of (mis)information these days. One forum in particular, to which I subscribe, had only four, but very prolific, members who were several time daily telling the world how bad Windows 8 was. That particular forum is acknowledged throughout the internet as a reliable source of Windows information and, I am sure, did a great deal of singular damage to the forthcoming OS. As you say "Attitude".

 

[Hanover]

Does Windows Snap still prevent Windows from remembering how big your windows were? Does Windows 8 let you organize your folders by letters, or is it still that useless A-H junk? .

You can sort and/or group. In fact they give you a lot of different sorting/grouping options in the BRAND NEW file explorer. So you can see all your file names grouped by folders or just see all our folders alphabetically in one big list. Those are just a couple of the things you can now do in the file explorer.

 

[sirloyne]

You can sort and/or group. In fact they give you a lot of different sorting/grouping options in the BRAND NEW file explorer. So you can see all your file names grouped by folders or just see all our folders alphabetically in one big list. Those are just a couple of the things you can now do in the file explorer.

Just to clarify... if I go into my "Music" folder and click "sort by name" and "show in groups", will the 600 artist folders be sorted like XP... folders that start with "A" be under "A", folders that start with "B" be under "B", folders that start with "C" be under "C", etc., or is it still that completely useless A-H like in that horrible Win 7? Did they realize how lazy they were when they did this and only did it to make it easier for themselves and to hell with the end user?

 

[sirloyne]

So I'm guessing A-H is still intact... along with Windows Snap preventing Windows from remembering how big your windows were and those ridiculous blue rectangles? So it's just as bad as 7, but now harder to get around in? Sign me up!