Microsoft Explains Why the Start Menu Needed to Die

[MULTIZ321]

Microsoft Explains Why the Start Menu Needed to Die - by Mark Hachman/PCMag.com


Richard

 

[scrapngen]

Windows 8 will be a huge change in the PC World.

 

[ronparise]

You can often tell where the Windows OS is going by looking where the mac OS has been

 

[Passepartout]

For a quick preview of Windows 8, look at the Windows Phone 7 or (now) 7.5. It will be very similar. I am looking forward to it.

Jim Ricks

 

[scrapngen]

For a quick preview of Windows 8, look at the Windows Phone 7 or (now) 7.5. It will be very similar. I am looking forward to it.

Jim Ricks

And if you have a touch screen, or have multiple monitors, it will be even better...

 

[Talent312]

This is in keeping with the typical MS practice of being reactive to what's already going on around them, rather than producing a product that's predictive. OTOH, MS seems to have a nack for wrapping up whats out there into packages that have better functionality. We shall see...

 

[bogey21]

I wish they would just fix the bugs and leave everything else alone.

George

 

[Passepartout]

I wish they would just fix the bugs and leave everything else alone.

George

What bugs? Have you kept up with the updates? My W7 seems bug free.

Jim

 

[mshatty]

You can often tell where the Windows OS is going by looking where the mac OS has been

I like my Mac a lot but its internet ability is still limited for Adobe Flash to this day. Unbelievable that Apple can't or won't fix it.

 

[Elan]

What bugs? Have you kept up with the updates? My W7 seems bug free.

Jim

My W7 is bug free also.

 

[ondeadlin]

Windows 8 will be a huge change in the PC World.

Yes, it might even finally catch up with an early version Apple OS X.

;-)

 

[ScoopKona]

Yes, it might even finally catch up with an early version Apple OS X.

;-)

Yes, and Apple's processor speed may some day catch up to my old Intel 386.

 

[ampaholic]

My W7 is bug free also.

Actually even my Vista seems "bug free".

 

[Talent312]

One reason to wait until there's at least one "SP" update for any MS product...

Steve Ballmer, on MS' own Zune product:
Sometimes you get it the first time you cook the soup, sometimes it takes till the second time you cook the soup...You get better every time.

John Scully, former Apple CEO:
The legendary statement about Microsoft, which is mostly true, is that they get it right the third time.

 

[bogey21]

What bugs? Have you kept up with the updates? My W7 seems bug free.

Probably a bad choice of words on my part. It seems like every now and then I get a notice that Microsoft has updated something in my computer. This is what I want. If there is something that needs to be updated, update it. If not, leave it alone.

George

 

[scrapngen]

Probably a bad choice of words on my part. It seems like every now and then I get a notice that Microsoft has updated something in my computer. This is what I want. If there is something that needs to be updated, update it. If not, leave it alone.

George

If you look at what each update fixes, it often says something re: security.
I think many of the updates are due to the prevalence of hackers liking to mess w/the big MS giant. Each time some hacker finds some arcane way to mess with a MS program, MS has to lock it up. However, many of the lawsuits against MS were involving the "right" to change MS programs...

 

[ondeadlin]

Yes, and Apple's processor speed may some day catch up to my old Intel 386.

Your average user simply doesn't need overwhelming processing speed. He or she would much prefer a product that's easier to use, which is why there's never been any passion for Windows the way there is for Apple or even Android.

 

[Elan]

Your average user simply doesn't need overwhelming processing speed. He or she would much prefer a product that's easier to use, which is why there's never been any passion for Windows the way there is for Apple or even Android.

Likewise, not everyone needs their hand held to use a computer. For those that prefer to pay a 40% premium for hand holding, more power to you. Windows works fine for the rest of us.

Faster, cheaper, and compatible with more software and hardware. I'm pretty passionate about that!

 

[ondeadlin]

Jim, I'm actually highly proficient in both, and continue to use both on a daily basis. They do have different strengths for different tasks.

But I'm always amused by the hostility certain Windows users have toward the Apple OS and Apple products, like they're threatened by their ease of use or something. Apple users, conversely, generally have to be fluent in both, because of the dominance of Windows market share, yet I never pick up much hostility over that fact. It's just accepted, because it's the baseline reality.

 

[Talent312]

... I'm always amused by the hostility certain Windows users have toward the Apple OS and Apple products, like they're threatened by their ease of use or something. Apple users, conversely, generally have to be fluent in both, because of the dominance of Windows market share, yet I never pick up much hostility over that fact. It's just accepted, because it's the baseline reality.

So, Windows users are more insecure, hostile and intolerant than Apple users?

Really? Well, certain Apple users are barely literate simpletons who like bright, shiny toys. Give 'em a marble, and they'll either stare at it, mezmerized by the pretty colors, or hold it to their ear, hoping to hear the sound of the sea. -- A Windows user. <satire>

 

[ondeadlin]

It's, again, amusing that in a post in which I clearly self-identified as a Windows user myself, and was careful to use the qualifier "certain Windows users", that a reader could come away with that interpretation. Sorta makes my original point, I think.

 

[Elan]

It's, again, amusing that in a post in which I clearly self-identified as a Windows user myself, and was careful to use the qualifier "certain Windows users", that a reader could come away with that interpretation. Sorta makes my original point, I think.

What's even more amusing is that in a thread about Windows, Mac users felt a compulsion to chime in with their typically asinine "Mac is better" type banter.
Who's feeling threatened?

 

[Talent312]

Perhaps my brand of humor is too dry for certain people.

 

[timeos2]

What bugs? Have you kept up with the updates? My W7 seems bug free.

Jim

You've got to be kidding! Win7 is as bug ridden & flawed as all but Vista & Millennium before it! It is a monstrous mess of growing spaghetti code at best - a pile of unrelated patches at worst. Rather than changing anything they should go in and cull the estimate 1/3 of the code that is needless or flawed & actually improve rather than add to the existing massive overhead of the OS.

They STILL haven't fixed two file system flaws that have been around since they "upgraded" (actually messed up) Windows 2000 (THE best Windows there ever was as the majority of it was IBM's OS/2 base NOT the fatally flawed MS mess we see today. In 10 years+ and 4-5 "versions" they can't find & fix a basic file system that has been around even longer? Yet they can come out with "new" flawed code & sell it?

This is a company that has outlived whatever limited value they may have once offered, mostly marketing as it turns out, and they need to get out of the way of real innovators so we can move the industry forward..

Maybe in a year or two, sadly due to the recent loss of Steve Jobs, Apple will do what they could have done for years and license their interface to non-Apple companies. They could own the PC desktop / laptop / tablet / netbook world if they do. Mr Jobs just would never allow it (he liked the total control) but it is money waiting for them in the billions as well as prestige if they ever do it. I for one wold love to see it happen then let the true innovators of today - Apple & Google along with tiny players like WebOS - fight it out. We'd all be better off.

 

[timeos2]

Yes, and Apple's processor speed may some day catch up to my old Intel 386.

The Apple & PC worlds use the same processor (Intel / AMD) now - and Apple does it with far less memory requirements. Thats one reason why a license situation would favor Apple big time!

That has to be the worst nightmare for MS as they could slip to 2nd place or worse in a heartbeat if Apple makes such a move.