I have had the time, 6-8 weeks of trying out the new WIN8 OS so now I can make an experienced and qualified judgment of what it does for me. I have posted earlier WIN8 discoveries in this blog.
I am running, screaming and hollering, clutching WIN7 OS tightly in my hot little computer-user hands. What? Yes, I said WIN7! Ha! I am just using a vivid metaphor to get some attention to my conclusion.
I have also re-installed (dual boot) Linux Fedora OS on Sandbox with WIN8. The hat is just my style…
My conclusion is I consider WIN7 and even Linux Fedora far more purposeful for my needs than WIN8. I believe Microsoft is poised at the edge of a major split between a consumer grade social and entertainment computer operating system slash (/) program and the industrial grade business, scientific, design, educational software support tool.
Both WIN7 & 8 can do what each other can do to a certain extent as they take diverging paths, but I predict the chasm will grow wider with time. In my opinion WIN8 is not a system upgrade or increase in performance to WIN7. It is a new direction in social communication. Also my opinion, without an Internet social connection and a touch screen, what is new with WIN8 adds no value over WIN7. WIN8 is the crossover for Microsoft, defining a new role for what an Internet connected, consumer touch screen computer operating system has become. As an OS, it’s no longer just about the needs of the hardware. It’s now packed with specialized Internet applications
That doesn’t mean I am going to shun what Microsoft has wrought. I don’t say WIN8 is worthless; it’s just heading off in a new direction. I actually like the differences between any OS including OSX and Linux too. I could throw in several others you never heard of. I don’t get emotionally involved about any operating system. I started writing machine code before boot ROM’s and OS’s ever existed. Now any good working OS is a wonderful necessity.
I never expected that an OS would assume (or contain) the role of a major application. The fact that it has, is because like radio and the television before it, the Internet connected computer is now considered “marketable bidirectional resource” socialized consumer computer appliance by the big house OS vendors. There are still striped down industrial strength Operating Systems (even from Microsoft) but they are marketed only in trade journals to industrial and business needs.
Again, I am not saying WIN8 is wrong in any way. For me, I see it used in a different way than the traditional work purpose computer OS. There will be crossover use to be sure. The old standard work PC desktop look and performance is still available in WIN8 but currently seems more like it is there just because it can be.
Today all consumer computer operating systems have traveled far beyond the original intention of being a background control system to handle basic input/output functions, like file saves and printing. The original intent of the OS was that all mundane hardware control code requirements were to be invisible, so that the computer program would not have to be written to match the hardware, just match a universal operating system.
The present day “consumer-needs-based” OS is an application rich program unto itself now designed to make a social statement, not just hide in the background doing its original I/O job. WIN8 definitely attempted to run (not ruin) my social life when I installed it. I don’t really need or want that in my base application computer operating system. My iPhone presently does enough of that for me. I am pleased WIN7 is not so intrusive.
I remember and still have an iTunes video copy from five years ago of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on stage (at D2007, I believe) discussing how together they were going to change the world of what personal computing is all about. No longer would it be focused on the desktop computer (and pure computing) but rather how they would create a new type of hand held consumer computer “Internet device” that would be used in a social role. They did not lie. Apple already established the “social” communication computer phone and the OS system to run it. Win8 is the most current PC OS to do the same thing. None of what we have today “just happened”. Social based iPads and Tablets are intended by the giants of the industry. Face Book gave them a big boost. The computer process has become invisible. The do all personal digital assistant “run-my-life” experience an embedded computer device provides now outshines how it is done.
My feeling is it’s too bad all these OS based applications are getting so hard to turn off.
Welcome Dan to the future in the 21st century.