Windows 8ifying of everything, why?

[Lightages]

  Anybody else getting tired of the style changes many programs have made to their GUIs to match the bland, horrible, confusing "style"of Windows 8?

I am getting really tired of the change to this horrible excuse for a user interface.

Anybody else hate this useless pile of crap that Windows 8 GUI is and all the blind lemmings falling them off the cliff following it?

[AndyC_772]

I hate it too. MS made a huge mistake with Windows 8, and to be fair, I think they know it. Windows 10 looks like it might be usable again.

[Mechanical Menace]

:rant:Anybody else getting tired of the style changes many programs have made to their GUIs to match the bland, horrible, confusing "style"of Windows 8?

The only app I use that's tried to use it is the Windows itself.

[justanothercanuck]

I've been complaining about this since Vista.  Don't like Aero, don't like the new start menu and control panel, just give me W2K or XP back... 

edit: I have the same gripes about Android... their removal of the menu and search buttons, replacing them with the left swipe menu / top right dropdown menu, and that hideous green colour... 

[xrunner]

I hate it too. MS made a huge mistake with Windows 8, and to be fair, I think they know it. Windows 10 looks like it might be usable again.

Looks like Windoze 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year of it's release, for users of 7 and 8 -

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2825116/free-at-last-after-windows-10-consumers-wont-pay-for-updates-or-upgrades.html

[andersm]

People always lose their shit when things change, then they get used to it and lose their shit when the next iteration comes along. Nothing new under the sun.

[nuno]

I always try to see things as "value". Does a change brings me any added value, or just adaptation effort?

[dannyf]

I am getting really tired of the change to this horrible excuse for a user interface.

The solution is simple: don't use Windows 8.

[nctnico]

People always lose their shit when things change, then they get used to it and lose their shit when the next iteration comes along. Nothing new under the sun.

That depends on whether the change is an improvement or not. In case of Microsoft it usually is not an improvement. The way (file) explorer works in Windows 7 just sucks. Folders keep shifting up&down and some stay invisible (like XP does in a lesser extend). Microsoft is trying to make their software 'smart' but all they do is make it more confusing to use. I've had it and I'm moving to Linux and keep Windows XP in a VM.

[rollatorwieltje]

Can't you change the theme anymore in Windows 8? My Windows 7 still looks like Windows 95 with "rainy day" theme. I don't care for those "fancy" themes, they look like they were designed by a 12 year old. Of course it required some extra tool, classicshell. It fixes all kinds of shit MS broke in the user interface.

For those who use Firefox, there's Classic theme restorer to make it usable again. Apparently the Firefox designers were caught by the same highly contagious ui-herpes, this allows you to fix it.

At work I have to use Office... Not only is it still infuriating to use after more than 20 years of development, it has it's own theme with some font I can barely read. I would really like to hear from the idiot that came up with this why he(/she?) thought this was a good idea. Also sticking shit like undo and redo in the damn title bar...

[c4757p]

People always lose their shit when things change, then they get used to it and lose their shit when the next iteration comes along. Nothing new under the sun.

Yeah, because it's annoying to have to relearn the system every time Marketing decides they want New and Shiny. Changes that make improvements are good. Changes because the way they've been doing it since the 90s is Old and Dull are just a pain in the ass.

[AndyC_772]

The problem here, of course, is that Marketing was never trying to improve the desktop, they were trying to improve sales of their unwanted, also-ran phone OS by making them more similar.

[NiHaoMike]

People always lose their shit when things change, then they get used to it and lose their shit when the next iteration comes along. Nothing new under the sun.

That depends on whether the change is an improvement or not. In case of Microsoft it usually is not an improvement. The way (file) explorer works in Windows 7 just sucks. Folders keep shifting up&down and some stay invisible (like XP does in a lesser extend). Microsoft is trying to make their software 'smart' but all they do is make it more confusing to use. I've had it and I'm moving to Linux and keep Windows XP in a VM.

What I would like to see is KDE for Windows, completely replacing the poorly engineered M$ junk (i.e. no always on top button and no tabs in file explorer) with something that looks and feels just like KDE on Linux, but still able to run Windows apps. Problem is, most KDE developers don't use Windows.

[rob77]

Guys, either accept it as it is and stop crying ... or stop using it
i'm sick and tired of guys bitching at microsoft and windows while using their products (in many cases STOLEN products)...

my primary OS for software and hardware development is Linux , but on the other hand i have 2 computers with windows (win7 and win8) and i'm paying also for office365 to microsoft. - i don't say their products are the best... but they do the job for me in some areas.

so use whatever fit your needs or whatever you like, and stop bitching !

peace for everyone !

[Lightages]

I am not complaining about Windows 8, I am complaining about the style changes many software is adopting just to make it look like the style of Windows 8. Most of the time it is a step backwards in usability.

As far as being a Luddite, HAH! I welcome new advances in technology. I really would not have to go back computer tech of 1998. Change for change's sake, and bad design never is welcome.

[Lightages]

and all the blind lemmings falling them off the cliff following it?

That's a myth, started by a Disney film. Lemmings don't follow one another off cliffs.
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/04/27/1081903.htm

Yes I know, just using a common metaphor.

[rdl]

I agree with you 100% There was nothing good about the Windows 8 interface. It was the 2nd worst thing Microsoft ever came up with (ribbon bar is number one). I will be staying with Windows 7 until I can get a real good look at 10.

I switched from Firefox to Pale Moon purely because of the stupid new interface the Firefox devs came up with. I might have been able to deal with it eventually except they decided to force "tabs on top", where they have no right to be.

I have stayed with Handbrake 0.98 because of the ugly mono-color buttons they switched to with 0.99

[Howardlong]

What made me laugh was the way Steven Sinofsky tried to tell everyone that their own user feedback drove the Windows 8 UI design, saying that no-one used the start menu anyway. Doh!

If you look at the MS have worked, there hasn't been any improvement to the UI since about Windows 2000. Everything else has been irritating, whether it be the hiding away of Windows Explorer in XP or the disappearance of the command prompt icon.

However MS needs to make a profit so they put more and more lipstick on to try to differentiate visually without improving the user experience or productivity. If you look at the keystrokes required to do things in Windows 7/Office 2010 compared to XP/Office 2007, there are usually more. How that is a productivity improvement I don't know.

The latest for the past couple of years has been to use CAPITALS in menus. I have no idea WTF that is about.

Yes, the ribbon on Office is irritating to say the least, removing the keyboard menu shortcuts visually that we all used. But MS have a history of this kind of thing. Clippy as an example. DOS4 is another.

[Stonent]

I install classic shell on windows 8.1 and find it perfectly fine. I never see metro at all. I do slightly prefer the GUI of windows server 2012r2. The top right window controls are outlined in black and I think look better and more finished.  Though Microsoft kept metro on server 2012 for reasons I don't understand.  I would like it if they offered a way to make the title bar a little more slim.

The free windows 10 upgrade is a smart move. Microsoft is still having to write separate security patches and updates for vista so in essence doubling the work.

From a programming standpoint windows 8 embraces more of windows presentation foundation, .net and backs away from the legacy windows forms and mfc.

I prefer programming for windows presentation foundation because it is XML based. That makes it really easy to repeat objects via cut and paste. Then you just adjust the x and y values to posititon and easily line things up.

[Zero999]

Guys, either accept it as it is and stop crying ... or stop using it
i'm sick and tired of guys bitching at microsoft and windows while using their products (in many cases STOLEN products)...

my primary OS for software and hardware development is Linux , but on the other hand i have 2 computers with windows (win7 and win8) and i'm paying also for office365 to microsoft. - i don't say their products are the best... but they do the job for me in some areas.

so use whatever fit your needs or whatever you like, and stop bitching !

peace for everyone !

The problem is, MS force people to use it.

Still want to use Windows XP? Fine but then you have to put up with new software not running on it, lack of security updates or AV software. Whether you like it or not, you'll end up being forced to use Windows 8 at some point.

[andersm]

Folders keep shifting up&down

I would classify that as a bug. I don't use my Windows 8.1 machine very often, but I don't remember Explorer doing that anymore.

I've had it and I'm moving to Linux and keep Windows XP in a VM.

Speaking of bad UI design... I've used some form or another of Linux for maybe 18 years, and I still haven't found an environment I like. "Unix with a GUI that doesn't suck" is the main reason why I switched my main desktop to OS X. Going from a 2005 Linux to a Mac was quite a revelation. No XF86Config file you have to dick around with just to get graphics? What is this witchcraft?

[tggzzz]

Guys, either accept it as it is and stop crying

It is perfectly reasonable to complain if a company unnecessarily takes away something that enables you to do your job, and replaces it with something that is more expensive. More expensive, for example, in terms of re-training staff and re-purchasing or re-developing software. Especially since users can correctly point out "we told you not to do that and you still did it anywazy"!

... or stop using it

Apparently many people have been following your exhortation to "stop using it". That's why many MS executives were involuntarily defenestrated and why MS has been forced into the humilating climb-down with Win10!

[n45048]

It seems like every "other" version of Windows is always a flop. I think it pretty much started with Windows Millennium Edition, then Vista and now Windows 8.

[GreyWoolfe]

[Still want to use Windows XP? Fine but then you have to put up with new software not running on it, lack of security updates or AV software. Whether you like it or not, you'll end up being forced to use Windows 8 at some point.

Nope, not me.  I use Wiin 7.  I fix issues on WIn8 for SWMBO and stepdaughter but won't use it myself.  I have a sacrificial laptop to upgrade to WIn 10 before I update my main computer. 

It seems like every "other" version of Windows is always a flop. I think it pretty much started with Windows Millennium Edition, then Vista and now Windows 8.

And Millennium (Moron) Edition is a bigger fail than the ribbon bar IMHO.  I had a ME laptop for a part time job installing AOL powered by Direct PC satellite internet to point the dishes.  As soon as the warranty ran out, I upgraded it to XP.  What a relief that was.

[nctnico]

Folders keep shifting up&down

I would classify that as a bug. I don't use my Windows 8.1 machine very often, but I don't remember Explorer doing that anymore.

I've had it and I'm moving to Linux and keep Windows XP in a VM.

Speaking of bad UI design... I've used some form or another of Linux for maybe 18 years, and I still haven't found an environment I like. "Unix with a GUI that doesn't suck" is the main reason why I switched my main desktop to OS X. Going from a 2005 Linux to a Mac was quite a revelation. No XF86Config file you have to dick around with just to get graphics? What is this witchcraft?

IMHO OSX isn't bad at all. I often call it 'Linux which works'. Having never used a Mac before I could use it to test one of my USB devices pretty quick. What I don't like about OSX is that Apple keeps everything closed.

Fortunately it isn't difficult to get graphics going on Linux with a modern distro and a well supported video card. I wouldn't call it working from the box but it is just as complicated as it is with Windows.