Tuesday, September 10, 2013

I'm really impressed with Windows 8 - how bad it is!

It maybe fine on a phone or a tablet, but as I have no intention of purchasing a Windows powered one of them I cannot comment. In fact, there are too many better alternatives out there and that also includes Google Android.

In addition to the ungainly, and frankly "amateurish", appearance of the "tile" interface - there is little on the "Home" screen that is of interest to me when I am using a computer. In general the tiles are too big and apart from Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer there is nothing really of interest to me. I have no intention of purchasing anything from the Microsoft Store or using anything that needs a Microsoft Account. Why are all the tiles so big?

My Windows desktop is rather like that of a Mac as it comes out of the box, it is a carefully selected background image and NO ICONS. I am of the school that likes menus and believes that this should be the sole way of accessing programs.

Whatever I attempted to do on the Windows 8 computer that I purchased (on a non-touch device) I had to drag the cursor to the side or corner of the screen to pull up the menu so that I could either access the settings or do even the simplest of tasks as actually turning the computer off! Most of the time the menu refused to pop-up - I got the impression that this would not be a problem if you were using Windows 8 with a touch screen as a swipe to the left would bring up the menu, using a mouse or the trackpad yielded less than satisfactory results.

Reverting to the traditional desktop was a pain - I admit that this was probably due to a learning curve and I probably would get used to the Windows 8 way of doing things. If I had to purchase a Windows machine I would probably "live with it" and not downgrade it to Windows 7 (although I am capable).

The computer had an InsydeH2O UEFI preboot, a bain to many, as I was not looking to see if I could install an alternate operating system I do not know if this would have been problematic (in that it would have "locked-out" changes - ie. a Secure Boot)

The computer was returned to BestBuy within 24 hrs of purchase. I think that it is time to save up for a Mac.