Not what you are expecting?
My rant du jour is not against Windows and its direction since Windows 7, it is a rant for it. More specifically it is a rant against those so called pundits that have built careers spouting opinion filled nonsense because it collects readers.
I have been reading about Update 1 for a while as most of us have. I had taken a look at the update on one of my tablets, I waited for my main computer and my laptop until today. I was expecting to not like the update. The reason I didn't think I would like the update is because I felt like Microsoft and the Windows team was bailing. It seemed like they were pandering to whiney, I don't like change people and I personally think that is weak! I love Windows 8 + and I love it on my Surface Pro, my RT, my laptop, my desktop. Touch, no-touch, I don't care. I find the OS elegant, fun and interesting.
I like the management of it, I like PowerShell, I like the dual experience of modern and classic. I like the cloud integration, I like the device management, I just like it. There were some time where I was frustrated with how I used to do something, but learning how a scenario works on this new OS family is interesting.
When I first installed a Windows 8 machine at home, a long time ago (I was working on the Windows Engineering team at the time so very early previews). I had to keep it to myself. But when it was announced I could install an update that exposed the new UI and start talking about it. It took me some time to get efficient but it was still a very cool experience.
I sat my oldest daughter down, she was probably 10 at the time, and I told her to check out my new computer. I walked away and without any instruction she was finding things, she was painting, creating docs, playing games and enjoying herself. No touch screen, just mouse and keyboard and she loved it and found it very intuitive.
How can some self-proclaimed experts spew nonsense about the OS without any technical backing? How can someone correlate the drop in PC sales with the OS alone and not take into account that computing is changing fundamentally? I read a piece today on Information Week that was not a bad piece. It was 'Windows 8.1 Update 1: 10 key changes'. OK, great, let's see what was important to them. The article began quoting Paul Thurrott and a couple of others on how they hated Windows 8+.
Now I have been following Windows since the beginning. I was an MCSE in Windows NT 3.5, I was one of the early MCSEs in Windows 2000 and I have been reading Paul and and others for years. Paul built a reputation on being incredibly helpful to those of us who were learning how these systems works. An incredible resource along with his colleagues. At some point it seems like he realized people cared about his opinion and it has been a decline in value since. The quote in the previously mentioned article was "Windows 8 is a disaster in every sense of the word." OK, taken out of context I'm sure but come on, really. Slackware was a disaster. There were so many great things about Windows 8 even for the haters out there from day 1. The willingness for Microsoft to take a pretty aggressive jump forward in the experience by itself is impressive and very, well, non-Microsoft. 'Disaster'? Really? Vista was a disaster. There was some user research regarding Vista that was interesting. Out of the population surveyed for a given study a very high percentage said that Vista was horrible. Out of those who said Vista was horrible a very low percentage had ever personally seen or used a Vista machine. I'm not going to even bother trying to dig that up because even if I did... haters are going to be haters. It is not even worth the argument.
I was happy to see that the Update, even though it was pandering a bit IMO, has some pretty great changes. Even though the Information Week article started out negative and had a bit of a negative tone, it walks through these 10 changes that are really interesting and make the usability of the system better. Check out that article here. There are a ton of articles going around. Come up with your own opinions. See what you like and what you don't. Don't listen to the haters, and don't be one. Make up your own mind. If you don't like it fine, but justify it with something a bit deeper than it is a disaster.
SMH
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