So for the most part I'm really liking my new computer, not that I've had that much time to get acquainted with it. There's just one problem. It runs Windows 8.
My impression of Windows Eight is this: as long as you stay on the desktop and don't need to use the start menu it works like a dream. If you do need the start menu or wander off the desktop it works like an Apple.
It's still painful to think about the last time I was in the same building --not the same room, thankfully, just the same building-- as someone on the phone with Apple's tech support.
When my age was measured in negative numbers I'm told Apples were good, in the time between when I was born and when the end of the Wozniack-era they made passable machines. Now they make... apples. The word itself has come to be tainted with disdain and brings down the reputation of the fruit. Not even the fruit being pointed to as the cause of Original Sin has damaged its reputation so much as what the company of the same name churns out now.
And so, the works like an Apple parts make me think, "If I wanted shit I'd go to the shit store and get brand name manure."
"Works like an Apple" was really driven home when I had to go to Google to find out how to turn the thing off. (Like I said, start menu, where the shut down options are, is gone and replaced with the "works like an Apple" part of the interface.)
But I've learned to work through that part, and all of the things I really want to do with the computer, with any computer, take place in the "Doesn't work like an Apple," section, so I am in fact quite happy with it.
A bit worried about the future of Microsoft though. If they thought this was a good idea...
I'd thought there was a way to get a more sensible interface without having to do anything wonky, but it seems from a brief google search that you'd have to download some sort of program. :( That's just ridiculous.
ReplyDelete(Also, just google searching about Win 8 made me want to hug my Win 7 computer. Yegad, Microsoft, what were you thinking!?)
I really, really miss the Start Menu on Win8. My laptop runs Win7 but my Surface Pro (which I obtained for drawing on the go) runs Win8 so it's more or less impossible to get used to it since I often switch between the two. I can't count the number of times I end up on the tablet interface by accident... >>
ReplyDeleteWe must have a memorial service (or a resurrection ritual) for the start menu.
DeleteI haven't used Windows as more than a virtualised machine since Win2K. It just seems to get more and more like a washing machine: you will do one of the selection of things in the standard way, you will not do any other thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's part, though a smaller part as things go, about what makes the new sections feel Apple-like. That kind of control of the user was Jobs' thing and became more and more a part of Apple after his return (which was post-Wozniack.)
DeleteWozniack was of the opinion, "Let the user do whatever they want, computers are to be opened up and played with until they do exactly what you want them to do." Jobs was of the opinion, "The user must do what I want, let us find ways to make it so that even dedicated tech savvy people can't do things except in ways I want them done."
The hand of Jobs was visible in the special screws used on early Apple cases, sunk down a very deep hole so that you needed an extra-long screwdriver with a special head just to get the case open.
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