I’d suspected it for a while, but today I got some firsthand experience and proof.
Windows 8 is absolutely, god-awful, terrible. I had to try it out myself to be sure, but what a monstrosity.
Had a staff member at work bring it in for some help, and superficially I’d say it’s about 60% like Windows 7. But the additions and changes are just absurd, with weird pop-up menus and pointless options that run off the screen, appear on the edges for no reason and just go out of their way to annoy you. A lot of simple tasks are now absurdly complicated, and the whole thing is just so remarkably, poorly designed.
They’ve gone out of their way to impersonate Apple so very clearly, yet they’ve done such a remarkably poor job of it!
I know that many will say “oh but it’s meant for tablets now!” but that is an irrelevant and idiotic argument. If that’s what it’s meant for then sell it on that and nothing else. But no, they’re selling it on a billion laptops and desktops as well, for no apparent reason except they’re Microsoft and they can. (Naturally I saw it on a standard laptop today).
People think hating Microsoft is an exercise in superlatives. It’s not. It comes out of experience and a hatred of their arrogance and dullness, and the degree they still hold everyone else in the marketplace in contempt, even though their power is only a fraction of what it was a decade ago. I’m glad they don’t have the power they used to, but they still have a lot of it.
I have a very certain vow to never personally buy Microsoft systems ever. Right now I’m very Apple-centred for my hardware, but I admit there’s every chance I could buy something Android in the future (or related gear like Chromebooks). But I will never buy Microsoft gear again. Not ever. Even though I know I will work with them, and in a limited way even recommend them for others, I will never buy it for myself or my family.