Four months in: Windows 8 adoption is almost at a standstill

[Boomer 1,619]

W8 the worst OS ever.  I do not understand why any serious simmer would even consider it.  If you were "forced" to get it with a new pc, you ought to have bought your pc from a local shop who would be happy to put W7/64 on for you I imagine, or better yet, learn to build one yourself (not that hard).

[HiFlyer 9,408]

I have read a few reviews of Windows 8, and the general opinion is that it isn't as much of a "disaster" as some people would like you to believe. However, I still can't understand why anyone would want to "upgrade" from Windows 7 to Windows 8 unless they are purchasing a completely new PC. I mean, what would be the point??

 

Well that's kind of my point too. Windows7 has been out for years, and people are accustomed and comfortable with it. Now comes Windows8 and the only new thing brought to the table from the average consumers perspective is a confusing new interface.

 

"Well its not that hard to figure it out" some say "Just do this and this and this and also this." but the resounding answer from the masses is that they have enough on their plates just handling real life. They don't want or need to futz with their computers as well, even for a moment. The vast majority of people I encounter have no interest at all in all the various and sundry driver updates, possible incompatibilities and once easily accessible features (due to long acquaintance) now hidden behind candy colored tiles

 

Whats the tangible reward for the effort?.

 

Again, I can absolutely see Microsoft's marketing and strategic reward in getting us all to the windows store and integrating the OS across all its hardware, but the still unanswered questions are "Why should I care," and "Whats that got to do with me?"

[jonss1948 20]

What worries me more is when they pull production of OEM Disks of Win7 and force all of us onto Win8. Do you see the conundrum? After all, what a good way to increase sales of Win8.

 

Jon

[Boomer 1,619]

What worries me more is when they pull production of OEM Disks of Win7 and force all of us onto Win8. Do you see the conundrum? After all, what a good way to increase sales of Win8.

 

Jon

That's why we all need to buy some now.

[Dillon 2,206]

Corsair Obsidian 650D Case $195.00

Corsair Hydro Series H110 280mm CPU Cooler$149.00

Intel Core i7 3930K Processor6 Cores$595.00 

Corsair AX860i Platinum Power Supply$279.00

Asus P9X79-DELUXE$389.00 

Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 2133MHz DDR3 $289.00

Samsung 512GB SSD 830 Series$399.00

 

Asus GTX 680 Titan     $1200

 

I'm building the system within a month. I want a dual boot system so I can ease into win8 but still sim on win7 64 bit. I've just purchased XPlane Global and I want it on its own drive so there will be multiple drives. 4 at least. When I get over the deep financial wound I am about to inflict upon myself, I intend dual Veloceraptors. My point is "how restrictive is it for a guy who wants to tinker under the hood? ie: should I buy 2 x OEM's of Win7 Pro 64 bit or 1x7 and 1x8.

 

Jon

If I were you I'd go with Windows 7. For digging around and tinkering to get the best out of XPlane you'll find more people that can help you with Windows 7 versus 8.

 

Well that's kind of my point too. Windows7 has been out for years, and people are accustomed and comfortable with it. Now comes Windows8 and the only new thing brought to the table from the average consumers perspective is a confusing new interface.

 

"Well its not that hard to figure it out" some say "Just do this and this and this and also this." but the resounding answer from the masses is that they have enough on their plates just handling real life. They don't want or need to futz with their computers as well, even for a moment. The vast majority of people I encounter have no interest at all in all the various and sundry driver updates, possible incompatibilities and once easily accessible features (due to long acquaintance) now hidden behind candy colored tiles

 

Whats the tangible reward for the effort?.

 

Again, I can absolutely see Microsoft's marketing and strategic reward in getting us all to the windows store and integrating the OS across all its hardware, but the still unanswered questions are "Why should I care," and "Whats that got to do with me?"

I just had to modify this comment:

 

"Well that's kind of my point too. FS9 has been out for years, and people are accustomed and comfortable with it. Now comes FSX and the only new thing brought to the table from the average consumers perspective is graphic updates.

 

Whats the tangible reward for the effort?."

 

 

 

Like Bill Leaming once said Microsoft's play book sounds so familiar with what we've been dealing with over the years we end up with the same conversations with only the product name changed (takeout FLIGHT, insert WINDOWS 8). Whether it FSX or Flight it's the same playbook which leads us to the exact same comments.

[jonss1948 20]

If I were you I'd go with Windows 7. For digging around and tinkering to get the best out of XPlane you'll find more people that can help you with Windows 7 versus 8.

 I just had to modify this comment:

 

Well that's kind of my point too. FS9 has been out for years, and people are accustomed and comfortable with it. Now comes FSX and the only new thing brought to the table from the average consumers perspective is graphic updates.

 

Whats the tangible reward for the effort?.

 

 

 

Like Bill Leaming once said Microsoft's play book sounds so familiar with what we've been dealing with over the years we end up with the same conversations with only the subject title changed (takeout FLIGHT, insert WINDOWS 8). Whether it FSX or Flight it's the same playbook which leads us to the exact same comments.

Now, you're not criticizing Stevie B, I hope. Strange management decisions. Just 'aint got the old BG flaire. Apple is in the same dilemma. Visionaries aren't found on every street corner.

 

Jon

[HiFlyer 9,408]

If I were you I'd go with Windows 7. For digging around and tinkering to get the best out of XPlane you'll find more people that can help you with Windows 7 versus 8.

 I just had to modify this comment:

 

"Well that's kind of my point too. FS9 has been out for years, and people are accustomed and comfortable with it. Now comes FSX and the only new thing brought to the table from the average consumers perspective is graphic updates.

 

Whats the tangible reward for the effort?."

 

 

 

Like Bill Leaming once said Microsoft's play book sounds so familiar with what we've been dealing with over the years we end up with the same conversations with only the product name changed (takeout FLIGHT, insert WINDOWS 8). Whether it FSX or Flight it's the same playbook which leads us to the exact same comments.

 

For me, there are several reasons why I believe the situations are not directly analogous, by they are not for this thread.

[Guest]

If you make the kinda money Ballmer has made over the years, not only does he need to be a visionary to justify his perceived value, he needs to be 3-4 steps ahead -- so far he's not come even close and consistently 2 steps behind.

 

... but I'm bias as I sit here debugging a WCF service wanting to step back to my service calling code and can't do it because my Call Stack shows "External" ... end result are breakpoints in two place after the fact, not exactly "efficient" ... and yes I'm debugging asynchronous call but key is "I'm debugging" so I should have a more intelligent debugger in Visual Studio ... sadly I do not, thanks for all fish Ballmer (or lack of).

[Propane 16]

W8 the worst OS ever.  I do not understand why any serious simmer would even consider it.

 

Because it's faster, more stable and runs FSX just as well if not better than Win7? Oh wait, I can just yell that Win7/XP/Vista is the worst OS ever without bringing any supporting arguments to the table. Let's do that!

 

WINDOWS 7/XP/VISTA/OSX/LINUX IS THE WORST OS EVER!!

 

 

Oh wait, I said I would only post once in here. And lookie look, it has turned into a bash-fest as predicted.

[Glynn 405]

 

 

What worries me more is when they pull production of OEM Disks of Win7 and force all of us onto Win8

 

I will probably be ready to move to XPlane around that time and it runs better on LInux than it does on Windows so that will be the route I take.

Unix systems were always my main interest as far as operating systems go, It was FS9 then FSX that locked me into MS, there is really no compelling reason to stay with Microsoft if I move from FSX.

[3Green 80]

First-quarter shipments of PCs fell by about 14 per cent worldwide from the same time last year.  Hewlett-Packard (the world's largest PC maker) saw a 24 per cent drop in shipments, while Dell (the third largest PC maker) saw a 11 per cent decline.   Lenovo (second largest PC maker) remained flat.

Ironically, Steve Ballmer thought he came up with a great solution when Microsoft released their radical new version of Windows, Windows 8.  But all signs now point to Windows 8 being a complete flop and it now appears, that Windows 8 has actually helped slow the PC market.

It's just a matter of time, and Microsoft will be gone.

RJ

[Propane 16]

 

 

First-quarter shipments of PCs fell by about 14 per cent worldwide from the same time last year. Hewlett-Packard (the world's largest PC maker) saw a 24 per cent drop in shipments, while Dell (the third largest PC maker) saw a 11 per cent decline. Lenovo (second largest PC maker) remained flat.

I love how no-one factors in the increasing amount of affordable, good quality tablets to the masses when they read these numbers. No, just blame it on Windows. It's not like the mobile market has been taking market share from PC's for years in a row already. No, it's the sole result of Windows 8.

 

Don't mind me, I'm just shining some light on the other side of things .

[Bionor 44]

Personally I find Win 8 a better OS than Win 7, but not straight out of the box. After disabeling the Modern UI, hot corners and reintroducing the startmenu(all done with Start8) I had absolutly no complaints...but one; the disconnecting joystick-problem in FSX that MS clearly show no interest in fixing. I happily use Win 8 on both my worklaptop and personal laptop, but my desktop used mainly for FSX and other games, has just been reinstalled with Win 7.,,,the straw that broke the camels back...

[Guest]

 

 

Because it's faster, more stable and runs FSX just as well if not better than Win7? Oh wait, I can just yell that Win7/XP/Vista is the worst OS ever without bringing any supporting arguments to the table.

 

I think many would disagree with you and here is the supporting evidence   http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/unable-to-use-the-joystick-while-playing-fsx-on/1de533c3-08d3-4ae7-850a-cde2b76122ca

 

I guess Windows 8 users should be using their touch fingers to fly ... maybe the middle one  

 

Sorry couldn't resist, tis late and I've been coding straight for the past 24hrs, time to get some sleep...

[jonss1948 20]

 

 

It's just a matter of time, and Microsoft will be gone.

Unless something, anything! is done soon, you may well be right. I don't imagine with Ballmer's stock holding he'll be getting the discretionary 'tap on the shoulder'.

Don't mind me, I'm just shining some light on the other side of things .

To whatever extent the PC Market has fallen, I believe, as you do, that there are quite a few other influences  at play, here. Dell and HP and all the 'big kids' are experiencing a downturn in sales (I would'nt touch one of them with a 10 foot sterilised barge pole) but the GFC we all hear about, is still happening especially in Europe. Europeans buy PC's too. They just can't afford them. USA consumers exhibit little confidence in the marketplace and quite a few are unemployed so, to what degree I don't know but food on the table, roof over head and bills would take priority over a new PC. Ageing population probably has a bit to do with it too. Way too many influences to mention.

 

I have used win8 a couple of times, both times on laptops. It seemed fairly quick and I was not disappointed with it's performance in any way. That's the point. It's built for laptops and phones (and I'm not defending win8 or M$ Management) because that's the way the market is leaning. If they make win8 more pc friendly then I'll give it a whirl but it's win7 pro or Linux for me, until then.

 

Jon