“Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future,” John Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “The real problem is that it is both unusable and annoying. It makes your teeth itch as you keep asking, ‘Why are they doing this!?'”
“No business will tolerate this software, let me assure you. As a productivity tool, it is unusable,” Dvorak writes. “There is an old-fashioned desktop you can visit, but whenever the OS gets the chance, it throws you back onto the Metro interface. For those of us who thought we could avoid Metro and live on the desktop screen, we are going to be sorely disappointed.”
Dvorak writes, “This is a problem for Microsoft investors. The potential for this OS to be an unrecoverable disaster for the company is at the highest possible level I’ve ever seen… I have no idea why Microsoft would take such an enormous gamble on its cash cow like this.”
MacDailyNews Take: Because Apple is killing them, that’s why. Either they try something dramatic or they slowly die. Because the “OS Wars” never really ended because Apple never actually disappeared as once hoped by every closed-minded dunce who never failed to underestimate Steve Jobs. Look in the mirror, John. And because Microsoft is run by a clown. A beautiful, glorious, magnificent clown! That’s why, John.
Dvorak writes, “What is this departure based on? It’s based on the pipe dream that the unsuccessful user interface used by Windows Phone will turn into a success on the tablet — to such an extreme that people will also demand it on the desktop, so all the platforms can have the same look and feel. This is insanity, plain and simple… Now Microsoft wants to take all the habits and workflows and new skill sets we’ve developed and toss them into the bin for this? Who at Microsoft signed off on this? Do they even use computers?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Well, there’s a lovely “review.” However, since Dvorak is almost always wrong, the chances of Windows 8’s success just went up dramatically. Or, maybe, just maybe, John’s right for a change?
Regardless, many more Windows sufferers will find themselves in boats similar to John’s and, faced with learning something new anyway, they will drift right into the nearest Apple Store for their first Mac — however late to the party they may be — or iPad, and we will welcome them with open arms.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
To push Windows Tablets, Microsoft makes iPad support more expensive/a> – April 24, 2012
Apple’s new iPad could dramatically alter the Windows PC upgrade cycle – March 8, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
The 9 versions of Windows 8 show one of the key differences between Microsoft and Apple – March 2, 2012
Windows 8 tablet vs. Apple iPad running iOS 5: feature by feature (with video) – March 1, 2012
Needham: Apple Mac growth to continue six-year run of outpacing Windows PCs – February 28, 2012
Tim Cook: Apple the only company innovating in personal computers, and have been for some time – February 24, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
Windows 8 is an absolute screw-up. I’m running build 8400 right now because I needed something 64-bit and free (I don’t use Linux). The Metro interface might be great on the XBOX 360, on which you don’t need to dig through the filesystem, but it’s rotten on a desktop. I am in complete agreement that there will be no business take-up on this OS until Metro can be stopped. I don’t particularly like the Start Menu and Windows Explorer compared to the Finder, but at least I can navigate them in fairly short order. Windows 8 has screwed up one-click application launching, because if you’re on the Desktop, you have to use Windows Explorer for everything not pinned to the Taskbar! Dvorak is 100% on the money on his point of this being a disaster, if nothing else. If you know Windows and you haven’t seen 8 in action yet, go watch some videos. You’ll laugh at how they’ve destroyed workflow.
Hasn’t Dvorak been a windows evangelist for years touting its superiority to the Mac OS? One of their biggest supporters turning their backs on their golden child ideals?
When this dude turns his back, it shows the tipping point is upon us and it’s only downhill from here for MS..
I can believe Microsoft is giving this full featured OS away wrapped inside WP7. But it does whack Apple’s little peepee on boot up times w/ UEFI. I’m getting 7.6 sec cold start boots w/ posting less than 1 sec.
But when you get in it, it’s Media Center still needs some work, but will be awesome when finished. There are tons of big developers making many other Apps and some Apps already beat anything on iPad. Games? Boy howdy… there isn’t one Top Developer that isn’t working on custom games only for Win 8 and it’s getting it’s own Kinect module!
Gestures are excellent and very plentiful. Multitasking is unbeatable. I can be watching TV and during commercials which between dual screen w/ a game. Multi-tasking obliterates Apple’s iOS for Tablets, OS-X and no doubt will rip off half their tablet market inside of a year, w/ it’s full featured OS hidden inside to run all your old Windows Games, Photoshop, etc.
Adobe even says they’re making a full custom Touchscreen version of all their products just for Windows 8 Only… and telling Apple to suck on that!!! haha… 😀 ….btw, FLASH is still alive on the Web and even MS is using it!!!
Windows Phone is aleady dead, and Windows 8 is currently a disaster before it even hits the market.
But please, keep tapdancing on the deck of the Titanic. It’s pretty funny 😀
“…still needs some work, but will be awesome when finished…”
Microsoft. Trying to “finish” since 1984.
I deleted my Linux mint and tried windows 8
After 15 minutes I reinstalled Linux mint cinnamon
Thanks microsoft but no thanks!
Not many will actually upgrade to Windows 8. In the windows world, upgraders are overwhelmingly only enterprise clients.
The vast majority of Windows 8 sales will NOT come from upgrades; it will come with new hardware purchases, as it always did. Even the most colossal dud so far, Vista, sold very well because you simply could NOT buy a new Dell, HP, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Acer… without buying a copy of Vista. I had known so many who wiped their brand new PCs clean of Vista and installed XP; meanwhile, Microsoft clocked that Vista sale just the same. I would not be surprised if the same scenario takes place with Windows 8.
This article illustrates that change for change sake isn’t a reason for change.
So, to all of you people who think iOS and OS X are “stale”, remember the same was said about Windows.
And the WIndows 7 EOL date just got pushed another 5 years
Dvorak = Loser
MS’s willingness to throw it’s most dedicated users under the bus to meet the mobile threat makes for quite a show (for Apple users.) I think they’ll succeed at beating Android in tablets… but at what cost to their core franchise?
“However, since Dvorak is almost always wrong, the chances of Windows 8′s success just went up dramatically.”
LOL 🙂
Well, he is a complaint machine…
How true. And how sad.
Microsoft destroys itself. For it’s own money, for it’s own legacy, for it’s own loyal customers. This is so epic show, so I can’t believe it is TRUE!!!
As a Windows user for 15 years, I downloaded and tried the Win 8 RTM last night. It is a totaly piece of crap and unusable. The UI is a fail, just count how many clicks you need to shut the machine down. The Metro is totally pointless when you use it in a working enviroment and they removed the start menu!
Microsoft responded to the threat that is not there. Jumping on the tablet bandwagon (we just could not resist the coolness factor and by pure coincidence of design decisions past – it was easy for us) we developed an iPad version of our flagship industrial business application (used by 20,000 companies in 122 countries).
The Apple iPad version was a killer at trade shows, I tell you, but the actual iPad traffic accounts for about 2% of the total application usage. When all is said and done, people still prefer the PC and the mouse when they work.