This piece is written a little... enthusiastically. That said, I would completely agree that the "Ah-ha!" moment for me with Windows 8 was when I tried it out on a touch-screen enabled laptop (something from Acer at Costco).
Suddenly the horrible "tiles" dashboard brought up by the Windows key made much more sense to me, was more fluid than I anticipated and after about 10 mins playing on the laptop I walked away feeling "Yep, this is exactly how a laptop should be."
I was really surprised. Found it instantly intuitive and a faster way to navigate my way around the computer.
There are also a slew of more advanced keyboard shortcuts in Win8 as well that make me happy that Microsoft hasn't forgotten about keyboard-driven folks.
I know there is a lot of Win8 hate going around, but so far, I think it was a good move. Very curious how Blue Sky (8.next codename?) turns out though.
And then I plug it into my 24" monitor and put the laptop on a stand. Bzzzt. Mind fuck. Motor cortex confused. "fluid" operations when the laptop was on my lap suddenly difficult, even painful with my deltoid injury. The keyboard is under my hands, the laptop screen in fact too far to touch without doing sit-ups.
Windows 8 is a broken frankenstein. It fundamentally does not work for anything other than a laptop-on-your-lap. The rest of us are impeded, annoyed or even physically injured by it.
Apple nailed it. Here's your tablet OS. Here's your laptop/desktop OS. Result: my house now has more Apple devices than all the Windows devices I've ever owned.
When you plug it into your 24" monitor, use it like you would Windows 7. All the keyboard short-cuts are there, you can press Windows Key + Type in anything you want to run and press enter or you can switch to desktop mode.
I really don't understand all this Windows 8 hate. I switched to using Mac-only (due to my new job) about 7 months ago and when I first tried using Windows 8, it took about 5 minutes before I found everything I needed.
If you are a beginner-user, Windows 8 is even easier since you probably just use Office + Internet Explorer which are right there in front of you in big tiles.
Intermediate-users can switch to desktop mode if they need.
Power-users can work even faster since now there are more keyboard shortcuts and that same desktop mode is there if you really want it.
Can you explain what prevents you from using Windows 8 like you would use Windows 7?
I think it's just the mental switch. It's like shifting from Mac to Windows, something I do frequently at school. Well, not that frequently - I avoid switching whenever possible because the simple cognitive shift to remember where my files are stored and which keyboard shortcuts to use is so disruptive to my workflow.
This is really not said enough. I've found windows 8 a vastly better experience, mainly due to speed improvements, keyboard shortcuts, metro (I prefer it now, non-touchscreen too), and the un-invasive windows update.
Sometimes I wonder if the haters have actually tried windows 8 or if they are only Mac Users spreading it around.
Same thing, but I dislike Windows 8 in the same way I hated the bad bits of vista. I'll live with it if my ThinkPad dies big time though. The concept is really good but the execution is a bit clunky.
I'm quite happy with the tiles concept. In fact I'm typing this on a Lumia 820...
Windows Blue I imagine will iron out these issues. I have some hopes that it will be the next windows 7.
Suddenly the horrible "tiles" dashboard brought up by the Windows key made much more sense to me, was more fluid than I anticipated and after about 10 mins playing on the laptop I walked away feeling "Yep, this is exactly how a laptop should be."
I was really surprised. Found it instantly intuitive and a faster way to navigate my way around the computer.
There are also a slew of more advanced keyboard shortcuts in Win8 as well that make me happy that Microsoft hasn't forgotten about keyboard-driven folks.
I know there is a lot of Win8 hate going around, but so far, I think it was a good move. Very curious how Blue Sky (8.next codename?) turns out though.