Was Gabe Newell right to declare Windows 8 a catastrophe?

[Pulsar_t]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... atastrophe



The "beauty" of Windows had always been the openness to develop on the platform, despite the platform being proprietary it was widespread and people took it for granted. Now with this blighted walled garden approach things are going to get complicated indeed.

[BoringSupreez]

It's a disaster as far as I'm concerned in that I have no compelling reason to upgrade from Windows 7. No good games require it, I don't have a touchscreen monitor or tablet PC, and the new interface looks annoying. I've been using the old style my entire life, ever since Windows 3.1. What makes MS think I suddenly want change now?

[jfrost]

No.

It's just typical internet for you. You can get a hysterical point of view about anything if you really want to.

[Gunstar Green]

I'm expecting a Vista-like reception for Windows 8 followed by a better one a year or two later that addresses the major complaints. That's how Microsoft has pretty much always operated.

Windows 8 does have a "desktop mode" which gets rid of all the tablet touch-screen button nonsense.

Gabe Newell has some selfish reasons for not liking Windows 8, specifically the "App Store"-like market that will likely compete with Steam. It doesn't mean he's completely wrong about the stuff he's saying though.

The fear is a future where you can't get any programs for your computer unless you buy them directly through Microsoft's marketplace, effectively killing open source and independent development as well as the ability to use any of your older programs. That's not really the case yet though.

[Hobie-wan]

Windows 8 does have a "desktop mode" which gets rid of all the tablet touch-screen button nonsense.

No it doesn't. That's the 'start menu' now.

[Pulsar_t]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... t-confirms

[gtmtnbiker]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... t-confirms

Couldn't you post the relevant fragment from the article instead of forcing people to click on a link?

DirectX 11.1 is exclusive to the divisive Windows 8 operating system, Microsoft has confirmed.

Microsoft's Daniel Moth wrote on the Microsoft Answers forum that DirectX 11.1 is part of Windows 8, as DirectX 11 was part of Windows 7 when it launched. But, unlike with DirectX 11, which was retro-fitted to work with Vista, “there is no plan for DirectX 11.1 to be made available on Windows 7”.

I've installed Windows 8 on a few machines and yes, it's different but after a day with it, I really haven't had any issues.

[isiolia]

I've installed Windows 8 on a few machines and yes, it's different but after a day with it, I really haven't had any issues.

I think it's a lot less the occasionally messy mashup of touch and traditional interfaces that's seen as a long-term problem, and more the potential fragmentation between Win32 and Windows Runtime based applications.

Obviously, yes, people can just acclimate to Windows being rearranged...again...but you now have two application types in the OS that can't actually work together. One of which is setting a trend of a very closed system, and may gain traction due to being the phone/tablet API as well.

[Flake]

I'd settle for someone creating a windows 3.1 interface for a modern OS. Then I'd be in heaven.

[BoringSupreez]

I'd settle for someone creating a windows 3.1 interface for a modern OS. Then I'd be in heaven.

PCs have been around long enough that looking to the past for inspiration is not a ridiculous idea at all.