Windows 8 a certifiable flop

After using Windows 8.1 on my &gt;5 year old laptop for the last month, the only thing I really <i>dislike</i> about it is the schizophrenic impedance-mismatch between the &quot;Desktop&quot; metaphor and the new &quot;Metro&quot; interface. Like on reviewer said, &quot;at boot, you get this tablet interface, but then you click the Start button, and it&#x27;s Windows 7 underneath.&quot; Me, I&#x27;m a techie, so figured things out pretty quick, and I love the fast boot, improved file copy dialog, and much improved Task Manager<p>I think that Windows 7 is the new XP: It&#x27;s a great OS, with perhaps no obvious warts, so nobody really <i>needs</i> to upgrade, as wee needed to upgrade from Windows Me (Ugh!). It looks modern enough, is very stable (c&#x27;mon now, let&#x27;s admit it) and simply does its job. For most people, why bother upgrade?<p>In time, of course, we&#x27;ll see Windows 8 numbers improve, as people replace old computers. But most laptops now, are like Windows 7, and XP before it: They&#x27;re good enough for most people, so why bother upgrade?

They need at least one killer &quot;Modern&quot; (windows 8 only) application.<p>I can&#x27;t see anything modern apps can do that normal desktop apps can&#x27;t. The interface is dramatically different, and that can be a plus if the right app came along that you WANTED to use your fingers to control over a keyboard and mouse.<p>Off the top of my head, I could imagine a hardware&#x2F;software combination that automates your house. A wifi connected controller box would use the power lines in your house to transmit information (like x10 does) to cheap replacement switches and outlets; letting you control what does and doesn&#x27;t get power. Maybe the outlets track how much electricity your household devices are using and you can get a pretty graph. Maybe they use a threshold to determine when a device is in standby mode and give you the option to automatically cut it&#x27;s trickle power. Maybe an IR breakout box lets you control your entertainment center. Some sort of wifi streaming box lets you stream audio from one room to another. Maybe a few wifi enabled cheap cameras you can mount around let you monitor your rooms. All of these features would be controlled centrally through a windows 8 modern device. I could see something like this being a good use of the simple design of metro applications. Wasn&#x27;t there a Microsoft home concept a long time ago? What happened to that?<p>I hope Redmond devotes more energy to developing killer apps in the near future. I think they could turn this around if they get normal consumers inspired.

I thought Microsoft OS releases were generally agreed to be like Star Trek films - you really only need to see every second one.

I think in the larger scheme of things Windows 8 will prove to be a win. It greatly simplifies the overall interface for the average user. It will take time for MS to work out some the rough spots --and they need user feedback to do that well. But it will get there.<p>Meanwhile Android is feeling pretty clunky.

what about windows 8.1? what about windows vista as a point of comparison? what about how its nearly just windows 7 with extra stuff?<p>new machines are being churned out with windows 8 preloaded. it seems like its just a matter of time before it, or its progeny become accepted as &#x27;the standard&#x27;... until mac or *nix seriously up their game (still we are saying this?) i don&#x27;t see any alternatives - unless MS ship Windows 9 that does for 8 what 7 did for Vista.

I have to wonder if the plan with Win8 all along was to give the OEMs a savage beating before MS steps into the market to compete with them directly.