alsoRun's thoughts on Win8

alsoRun

deepocean and I have been debating about Windows 8. It is helpful that I write down my thoughts.

First, Win 7 is a mature and productive desktop operation system. There are two issues. First, applications are installed everywhere that often messes up with system files. So a computer becomes slower as time goes. Another problem is that it does not support touch well.

In Win 8, Microsoft introduces  another mode "Metro" or modern. In this mode, apps  are written using a different API called WinRT as opposed to the traditional Win32. These apps are optimized for touch and they can be installed and uninstalled very cleanly without corrupting your system. Win 8 also preserves the ability to run the old style desktop applications. But interestingly, the desktop is treated as just an app on Win 8. So if you use 10 desktop applications and 2 metro apps, you will see basically three apps. You will have to go inside the desktop app to locate the 10 desktop applications. So this does sound ridiculous if you mostly use traditional applications. Fortunately, the alt/tab does cycle through each app and application, treating a new metro app and old desktop applications on equal footing.

Another huge question is the direction of metro apps. As now, these apps have fewer options and are much less powerful. It seems this is by design. So will these apps ever be able to replace the traditional heavy duty applications? Another issue is that you can only display two metro apps side by side, which is far from enough for power users.

On the positive side, Win 8 runs much more efficient than Win 7 in booting faster, using less resource and switching task more smoothly.

In conclusion, it all depends on how many Metro apps you are going to use. A few Metro apps are in fact pretty impressive. For example, News app takes news reading to a level no desktop application can match. I also prefer the metro version IE 10 to the desktop IE 10 by a wide margin.  I have purchased a programmer's editor. The full potential of Win 8, however, can only be realized when Microsoft releases Office Metro edition that is as powerful as the current desktop version.

xcr

天王盖地虎，

漫人

alsoRun 发表于 2012-11-19 07:16 PM
deepocean and I have been debating about Windows 8. It is helpful that I write down my thoughts.

Fi ...

WinRT? My understanding is that WinRT is something else, the operating system for the Surface Tablet, because Surface doesn't use the Intel x86 chip, but rather an ARM based chip. So the OS has to be re-written.

So if you have a touch screen, then it seems Win 8 has some benefit. But if you just have a regular desktop monitor or even a regular laptop without multiple touch, I don't see the advantages. I have to admit I haven't used Win 8 nor WinRT.

alsoRun

漫人 发表于 2012-11-19 11:08 PM
WinRT? My understanding is that WinRT is something else, the operating system for the Surface Tabl ...

WinRT is the new programing model/API and Windows RT is Windows 8 for ARM CPU.

deepocean

回复 alsoRun 的帖子

windows 8的metro UI有很多败笔。就说一点吧：随时只能看到一个app的UI。这个假设对电话小屏幕完全正确。但是对24"的desktop屏幕完全是胡扯，是计算机工业多年来的multi-tasking进展的退步。比如昨天，根据微软的网页指示，我打算装回media center(win8的又一大evil)。第一步是要用charm search找到windows add features。但是charm search一打开就占领了整个屏幕，原来网页指令的下一步就看不到了。非常不方便。微软必须知道，phone跟计算机的desktop是不一样的！

好处是，微软火人后马上会变化。本导预计在几个月内微软将推出patch重新恢复win7的一些基本UI功能。

deepocean

你如果想要在win8里加media center，你只要给微软一个email就可以得一个免费license key。条件是你必须是win8 pro。这个offer明年1月31日到期。
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/feature-packs

alsoRun

回复 deepocean 的帖子

I hear ya!