Windows 8 Ain't That Great

I'm planning to add to this post as time goes by, but here's my preliminary take on Windows 8:  It's psychotic, and you don't want it - at least not yet.  You gotta sort of scratch your head, squint, and ask yourself what the #%@* they were thinking out there in Redmond.  Actually, I know what they were thinking -- the part that escapes me is how they decided it was a good idea.  I smell politics at work here, along with a whiff of desperation.

Windows 8 consists of two primary components:  A modest update to Windows 7, and a brand new, cloud-based operating system (cribbed in part from the Windows Phone) that uses the touchscreen-based "Metro User Interface" (Microsoft has since deprecated the term "Metro").  Windows 7 is primarily mouse-and-keyboard oriented, while the newer Windows 8 Desktop is primarily a touch-based system.

I don't have anything that bad to say about either.  Taken on their individual merits, there may even be a lot to like.

But here's where the psychosis sets in:  Microsoft took these two fundamentally different models and forceably pounded them into one.  In addition, Microsoft seems to have randomly split needed and expected functionality between the two environments.  You have to do some things in one, others in the other.  And there's duplication, too -- a lot of it, especially when it comes to email, messaging, and Web access.

You can sort of infer what Microsoft is trying to do:  Provide a transitional operating system that will ease us into their vision of the future, where everything is cloud- and touch-based, while providing enough of the familiar to make us feel comfortable.  But doing so in a keyboard-and-mouse environment is going to go down in the history books as another epic Microsoft fail, right along with Microsoft Bob, Windows ME, Windows Vista, the Zune, and uhhh, 'Clippy'.  You might note the director of the entire Windows 8 project resigned recently -- voluntarily, I'm sure.

If you're buying a new computer, you have very little choice.  All Windows computer manufacturers sign contracts with Microsoft forbidding them from selling new computers pre-installed with anything but Windows 8.  Or else.  On a single day in December of 2012, every single Windows 7 computer seemingly vanished overnight from retailers' shelves.

I believe the current version of Windows 8 is going to be very, very short lived.  I honestly haven't read a single positive article on it anywhere in the tech press.  I further predict that Microsoft is already planning to hurriedly fix the most egregious problems, and release it as Service Pack 1.  Watch for it early next quarter.

In the meantime, if you must buy a new computer with Windows 8, make absolutely, 100% sure you buy one with a touchscreen.  Windows 8 is nearly unusable in a keyboard-and-mouse environment.  Better yet, find a new or refurbished Windows 7 PC online.  That's what I've been recommending to my very relieved customers.