Was Gabe Newell right to declare Windows 8 a catastrophe?

[Gamerforlife]

As the recent owner of a new computer, I have to say that I don't really like the interface on Windows 8. I also seem to run into conflicts when running games as many don't support it or just don't perform properly with it. So yeah, I don't like Windows 8. I love everything about my new PC except the operating system installed on it

[isiolia]

As the recent owner of a new computer, I have to say that I don't really like the interface on Windows 8. I also seem to run into conflicts when running games as many don't support it or just don't perform properly with it. So yeah, I don't like Windows 8. I love everything about my new PC except the operating system installed on it

I put it on my recent build/upgrade to familiarize myself with it, and have yet to run into anything that has issues that weren't present on 7. What's not worked right for you?

[Hobie-wan]

This is fun, and includes some of the things that pissed me off when I was checking out Windows 8.

[Stark]

This is fun, and includes some of the things that pissed me off when I was checking out Windows 8.

Man I am such a Windows apologist.

So I'm about 10 minutes in and while funny, it's seems like some of his annoyances so far are things that would be annoying on iOS if you were using it for the first time too. For example, he's annoyed that apps are full screen. Well they don't have to be, you can have a slider and have two apps on the screen at once. On an iPad you're stuck with one. He's annoyed that he doesn't know how to close an app that is backgrounded. Would you know how to do that on iPad if you hadn't been told or Googled the answer? Still watching the vid...first impressions.

[MrPopo]

This is fun, and includes some of the things that pissed me off when I was checking out Windows 8.

Man I am such a Windows apologist.

So I'm about 10 minutes in and while funny, it's seems like some of his annoyances so far are things that would be annoying on iOS if you were using it for the first time too. For example, he's annoyed that apps are full screen. Well they don't have to be, you can have a slider and have two apps on the screen at once. On an iPad you're stuck with one. He's annoyed that he doesn't know how to close an app that is backgrounded. Would you know how to do that on iPad if you hadn't been told or Googled the answer? Still watching the vid...first impressions.

Yeah, that's the same thing I'm getting out of the video. I can't figure out how he managed to get the weather app to pop up unannounced. And the closing app thing, the design decision there is that Microsoft wants you to stop thinking that apps need to be closed.

Oh, and he just got to the "I can't figure out how to open charms" part, which means he didn't actually pay attention to his computer when it first booted (which explicitly lays out "hey, there's shit on the edges now and here's how you get there").

[ZenErik]

Ah. That video. My Apple fangirl friend sent it to me. I watched a little bit, but that guy was pretty aggravating. Don't have any of those issues with Windows 8. I prefer OS X, but like Windows 8 quite a bit. Not sure how I feel about the lack of cohesion though. We will see how the OS continues to develop over the next few years.

[Hobie-wan]

So I'm about 10 minutes in and while funny, it's seems like some of his annoyances so far are things that would be annoying on iOS if you were using it for the first time too. For example, he's annoyed that apps are full screen. Well they don't have to be, you can have a slider and have two apps on the screen at once. On an iPad you're stuck with one. He's annoyed that he doesn't know how to close an app that is backgrounded. Would you know how to do that on iPad if you hadn't been told or Googled the answer? Still watching the vid...first impressions.

That slider only lets you do thirds. After nearly 20 years of being able to size windows and move them around wherever I like, now for the interface being shoved down your throat, it is full or 1/3 and 2/3 only? That's a step backwards. His beef wasn't closing an app that was in the background, it was closing any app. Again, after nearly 20 years of having an icon up at the top in the bar or going File > Exit/Quit, it is a jarring change for no good reason. Heck if you want to go back to the old Macintosh OS there's another 8 or 9 years of File > Exit/Quit. If you don't know how to close an app on an Ipad, it is because you haven't used one before and it is a new system you haven't used. That is vastly different from something that pretends to be a new version of something you've used before. That is like buying a new car and having the shutdown procedure change from:

1. Put in park or neutral depending on transmission
2. Set parking brake
3. Turn and remove key

to:

1. Push a button on the dash labeled park
2. Pull a brake handle above the window
3. Lift the steering wheel and push it into the dash

It might be a fine solution, but it is needlessly different for no reason. If they wanted to keep up with the annoying 'hover over hidden crap' thing (which is unintuitive) they could have had an X slide into view when hovering near the upper right corner. At least then it would be somewhat related to previous ways and would be a light learning transition.

Yeah, that's the same thing I'm getting out of the video. I can't figure out how he managed to get the weather app to pop up unannounced. And the closing app thing, the design decision there is that Microsoft wants you to stop thinking that apps need to be closed.

You obviously didn't watch the whole video as he eventually found out why the weather kept coming up, though no help of Windows 8 itself. If you're on a tablet where 8 makes sense, seems like you'd want to close stuff so your battery lasts longer.

[MrPopo]

Yeah, that's the same thing I'm getting out of the video. I can't figure out how he managed to get the weather app to pop up unannounced. And the closing app thing, the design decision there is that Microsoft wants you to stop thinking that apps need to be closed.

You obviously didn't watch the whole video as he eventually found out why the weather kept coming up, though no help of Windows 8 itself. If you're on a tablet where 8 makes sense, seems like you'd want to close stuff so your battery lasts longer.

That was the biggest piece of design, though. Windows 8 automatically suspends apps to save battery life and you actually lose some battery life if you close apps all the time (as it costs more to spin up an app fresh vs. restore a suspended app in the best case and is exactly the same in the worst case).

I did watch the whole video. Was it when he was accidentally swiping things in from the side using his track pad? I've used a laptop with a track pad a bit with Win 8 and never had that problem, but I don't use grand sweeping gestures on the track pad like he apparently does.

[Hobie-wan]

That was the biggest piece of design, though. Windows 8 automatically suspends apps to save battery life and you actually lose some battery life if you close apps all the time (as it costs more to spin up an app fresh vs. restore a suspended app in the best case and is exactly the same in the worst case).

Seems like having it page the apps memory out to disk and back again because you aren't using it for a bit wouldn't be all that much different from just dumping from memory and loading again later.

[MrPopo]

That was the biggest piece of design, though. Windows 8 automatically suspends apps to save battery life and you actually lose some battery life if you close apps all the time (as it costs more to spin up an app fresh vs. restore a suspended app in the best case and is exactly the same in the worst case).

Seems like having it page the apps memory out to disk and back again because you aren't using it for a bit wouldn't be all that much different from just dumping from memory and loading again later.

That's the worst case: it dumps to disk. But many times it can suspend while leaving the program resident in memory, and it'll leave it there until it needs to dump it for active programs.