[WIN8] Windows 8 Thread

[James086]

Originally Posted by MR CHILLED

Wtf??

Anyways, anyone please with a sensible/coherent answer to the question above would be appreciated, ta.

I don't know where they take their suggestions from but I would wager that it's from industry reviewers, testing on a sample of non-professionals, the customer experience improvement things that you get asked about whenever you install anything but probably not their shareholders as shareholders generally don't get involved in the products of the company, just the large scale management.

[elvis]

Originally Posted by MR CHILLED

Where do MS take their suggestions from? Focus groups? Feedback from somewhere? MSDev network?

As I understand it, LOTS of focus groups.

I've only heard it second hand (one step removed from ex Microsoft employees), but by all accounts their UI teams spend a lot of time dealing with Joe Public doing constant testing and feedback sessions, and to a very wide set of demographics (not just Windows users, and not just corporate drones).

To be fair, UI is one of the hardest things to do. It's extremely subjective, and it doesn't matter how much money and research you pump into it, someone somewhere is going to find it confusing, difficult, frustrating or just plain ugly. It's easy to criticise a decision (like removing the "up" button), but there are always reasons behind it ("less clutter" always makes sense, until it removes something people like or are used to). Sadly sometimes it's a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

But yes, by all accounts Microsoft spend some big bikkies on it, and involve a lot of average folk from outside of the company for their mass opinions. Obviously opinion from inside Microsoft matters too, but they understand that asking people who live, eat and breathe Microsoft about what they think of it isn't going to give the most objective feedback.

[qwertylesh]

Yeah, MSDN, public beta's, customer experience programs, their own in house development, etc.

[Holdenkicks]

Originally Posted by James086

You know that you can just click the name of the folder higher up in the address bar right?

Yes, i know, but that option isn't always available to you. Example, in win xp, if you open control panel, and want to go up one level, to my computer, you can. In win vista, open control panel from the start menu, and then the only way to get any damned where else is by typing it in the address bar!

[elvis]

Originally Posted by qwertylesh

Yeah, MSDN, public beta's, customer experience programs

Those things in particular happen long after the development phase. By that stage, a lot of the critical design concepts have been signed off on months or even years earlier.

By public beta stage, things are in "minor tweak" phase.

[qwertylesh]

Oh yeah, nothing fundamental happens by then, but some interface changes do occur before the build goes gold/RTM.

[akashra]

Originally Posted by elvis

I've only heard it second hand (one step removed from ex Microsoft employees), but by all accounts their UI teams spend a lot of time dealing with Joe Public doing constant testing and feedback sessions, and to a very wide set of demographics (not just Windows users, and not just corporate drones).

The Microsoft HCI lab is an impressive set-up. It has to be seen in action.

[MR CHILLED]

Originally Posted by elvis

As I understand it, LOTS of focus groups......<snip>....

Thankyou. I have never really heard anything documented about it, ever...nor on any websites etc.

And they have never asked me what I'd like

[xxxxxx]

I hope they keep it light, I mean i'm running W7 on my 1Gz Athlon with1GB RAM. It runs fine, just hoping W8 will run even better.

[Tenoq]

Originally Posted by xxxxxx

I hope they keep it light, I mean i'm running W7 on my 1Gz Athlon with1GB RAM. It runs fine, just hoping W8 will run even better.

I hope they don't. Writing an OS to support 8 year old hardware (or 10, by the time it's released?) is stupid. No-one with a machine worth <$100 is going to fork out for a new $150 OS to upgrade - they're going to buy a $499 Dell/Acer/Compaq pile of garbage that's much newer and includes the OS.

I liked the fact Win 7 was lighter than Vista: it needed to be, because Vista was an absolute pig @ release. Windows 8 doesn't need to be - hardware has moved on significantly.

[qwertylesh]

Originally Posted by Tenoq

I hope they don't. Writing an OS to support 8 year old hardware (or 10, by the time it's released?) is stupid. No-one with a machine worth <$100 is going to fork out for a new $150 OS to upgrade - they're going to buy a $499 Dell/Acer/Compaq pile of garbage that's much newer and includes the OS.

I liked the fact Win 7 was lighter than Vista: it needed to be, because Vista was an absolute pig @ release. Windows 8 doesn't need to be - hardware has moved on significantly.

it was and IS a pig PRE AND POST SP1 & 2 & all other updates.
the "peformance" improvement updates were a total load of shit, the operating system is a fucking disgusting piece of shit disgrace and microsoft should have been fined for releasing it at all.

[HotHed]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/m...et-prototypes/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/l...computex-2011/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/01/m...-8-prototypes/

[heath_303]

loving the new features looks totally amazing

[James086]

Further blurring the lines between desktops and tablets. It is interesting that they chose to put the same OS on a tablet as a desktop. It means that it addresses the problem that a I have with current tablets; they can't do as much as a desktop. I expect a tablet to have less powerful hardware but I would want it to be running a desktop OS. I may get a Windows 8 tablet or if Google/Apple make a competitor then I might go with that.

[thebranded]

10:39AM "Not multiple versions of Windows, just one version of Windows running on all of them."

Sounds good, just hope that does not mean you install 5gb of files you cant use because your on a tablet as opposed to a full fledged PC