And then there's Windows 8, which I want to like, because it has the potential to solve some important problems (touch screen, phone, tablet), but is deeply flawed. It's two OS's in one, and neither works like the other at all.
I still don't see why so many people have issues with Windows 8. OK, they got rid of the start button from the taskbar - it's back in 8.1
The start
menu is gone, but now that it no longer gets cluttered as you install desktop programs, the desktop app icons look nicer, and you have the option for small icons, I don't really have a problem with the start screen.
The only remaining issue I have really is that search seems to be slower to populate the results than the start menu. (strangely you can hit enter to launch the first result before it displays anything)
Oh, and Windows still expects the taskbar to be across the bottom of the screen. When it's at the top, as I use, you get a Start Button, but quickly mousing over to the upper-left corner cycles through Metro apps if you have any open - you still have to go to the lower-left corner for the "real" start button. I'm sure I will get used to that, but until yesterday, it wasn't even an issue. (as I did not use Metro apps)
The way I see it, is that it's a full desktop OS, which also has the
option of running tablet apps.
Frankly, I think that's a very good thing - there's a ton of apps I bought when I had an iPad, that I would love to run on our MacBook. Instead you have to buy a desktop version if one exists (rare) or you're just stuck without any way to use them.
I also think it's a big mistake that Apple are not embracing touchscreens on their notebooks. My father, who is not computer literate, was utterly confused for a couple of minutes after I updated to the latest Skype on his MacBook, and he was unable to touch the buttons. (I guess the UI just looked too similar to something you would see on a tablet) It's just instinctive now if you've spent any time with an iPad or similar device.
If they get Windows phone running the same core as well, so that one app runs on all your hardware, that's very exciting to me.
I do think there are still some difficulties using tablet-designed apps on a desktop though. I think they should allow you to run them in a window on the desktop, though
Stardock seems to have a solution for that.
An example of this is
Flipboard, which was (finally) just released on Windows 8 yesterday. Now I have access to, in my opinion, the best RSS reader for image-heavy sites on my desktop PC. (for text-heavy sites, I prefer
Reeder - though I find myself using the web interface for
Feedly more and more now)
There's no desktop app for Flipboard, and it doesn't seem like they have much interest in developing one.
I would also really like to have seen proper integration of remotes and game controllers in the Metro interface - especially when they're
basically using the Start Screen interface on the new Xbox.
So yes, there have been some stumbling blocks, but I think Microsoft are a lot more forward-looking than Apple with this approach, and I do think convergence is the way forward.
Surface turned out to be a disaster. It had a lot of promise, but the implementation didn't work as a laptop. I think Matt's kids use the one I bought now. Maybe.
I think this was a marketing problem more than anything else. It was never meant to be used as a laptop - it's a tablet that, when placed on a table, gives you access to a proper keyboard. So you have the portability of a tablet, with the ability to get some actual work done if you need to.
The problem is that people looked at it and thought it was a convertible laptop with a touchscreen. (like the Lenovo Yoga)
The difference being that as a tablet, its primary use case is media consumption
without a keyboard and mouse, and because the keyboard is totally optional, when you tried to use it on your lap, it was very top-heavy and unbalanced.
The reviews I've read of the Surface 2/Pro 2 seem to think the second position they added to the stand has mostly solved this problem - though it's still not going to be as good as a laptop when you are trying to use it as one. But you cannot use a laptop like a tablet
at all.
