Lol Peter are you sure you're not a comedy writer in your spare time :)) Nice "Review" ;) And OS X8 just makes it look funny,...all it needs is an ) under it,... X8) and it's smiley glass made (look sideways)...lol Aren't we glad we're Mac users,....lol
Kind regards Daniel --- Daniel Kerr MacWizardry Phone: 0414 795 960 Email: <daniel AT macwizardry.com.au> Web: <http://www.macwizardry.com.au> **For everything Apple** On 13/07/2012, at 12:41 AM, Peter Hinchliffe wrote: > Just my own humble opinion, but after having had a run with the trial version > of Windows 8, all I can say is that Apple's share of the desktop space can do > nothing but increase. This thing will set Windows users all over screaming in > all directions. > > Having upgraded my copy of Parallels to version 7 through one of the recent > MacUpdate bundles, I thought I'd see what all the excitement was about and > took advantage of the easy Windows 8 download/installation option offered on > the Parallels start screen. All it has cost me so far has been 3 Gb of hard > drive space, and time I'll never get back. > > Where to begin? > > Windows 8 is startling, to say the least. As illogical as it was, at least > the Start Button was an identifiable object at the bottom left of the screen, > where you knew could go to launch programs, call up Control Panels, gain > access to the hard drive's contents, and even log out or shut down. Even if > it was illogically named, at least most people were able to work out its many > uses fairly quickly. Now, in Window 8's Metro Interface - it's gone! Now I > can see that for Microsoft Windows, the only thing more illogical than the > Start Button is NOT having a start button. > > It took me a good ten minutes of careful mousing around to discover how to > shut down: you have to park your mouse in the very bottom right-hand corner > of the screen, whereupon a transparent menu containing five icons pops out > from the right-hand side of the screen. You then have to move mouse over this > menu, at which point it turns black and the icons now have labels: Search, > Share, Start (ah! there it is...), Devices and Settings. Perhaps the Shutdown > command is under the "Start" icon (well, it's been like that for the last > seventeen years!)? Nope. All that does is take you back to the Metro > Interface. > > Oh, and by the way...if you object to Launchpad in Lion and soon Mountain > Lion, you're going to HATE Metro in Windows 8. They've taken Launchpad and > made it look ugly but hey! It does respond to gestures on the Mousepad! > > OK, so how do we shut down? Turns out that's in the Settings Icon! Of course. > Everyone has been telling Microsoft for years that the Start Button was a > silly place to go to shut down, so obviously, it's now a SETTING. Wow. > > Well let's try actually doing something. Let's try a few programs (which are > all presented as icons displayed against garishly coloured panels). Let's try > "Maps". Nothing happens. OK, it is a trial, perhaps it's not ready yet. > > Let's try Calendar. Nope, I need a Microsoft account to do that. How about > Weather? > > Yes, that works. Only trouble is that the temperatures are all in Fahrenheit. > There is no obvious way to change this within Weather itself, so let's quit > and try to find the Regions Control Panel. Hang on...THERE'S NO QUIT COMMAND. > There's no window to close because the program takes up the entire screen. > There is no window and there is no menu. There's an inactive Back Button and > that's all. The only way out is to drag the mouse down to bottom right of the > screen, rollup to the popout menu and click the Start Icon, which takes me > back to the Metro Interface. Maybe I'm starting to get the hang of this. > > There's still no Control Panel though. What happens if I right-click on the > background? Suddenly, a large green Dockish-lookng area pops up at the bottom > of the screen, containing a single icon labelled "All apps". I click this and > I get as screen entitled "Apps". That's right - APPS! How iOS of them, but > now things are looking a little more hopeful. By now, Parallels has populated > this screen with all of my Mac applications as well, so I can use Windows 8 > as an Application launcher for the Mac if I really want to, but that's by the > by. The important thing is I've now found the Control Panel. Click. > > I've now left the Metro Interface and I'm looking at a more familiar Windows > 7-like screen. But not quite. There's still no Start Button, but perhaps even > worse, there's absolutely no indication anywhere that the Weather "app" is > still running! I would at least expect to see some sign of it in the Task > Bar; but I'm trying sort this measurements problem, so I go to the Region" > settings, but there's no allowance for temperature measurements. There is a > setting for "Measurements" which is set to "Metric", but it has had no effect > on the Weather program. > > There's more believe me, but it's all in the same vein. Much of the included > software won't work without a Microsoft account. When in the new Metro > Interface there are no menus, no windows (funny - it IS called Windows 8...), > no clear or intuitive pathways to get back from wherever it is you end up. It > is certainly possible to work it out, but it requires considerable patience, > a bit of lateral thinking, and lots of poking into dark corners with the > mouse cursor. Even right-clicking has completely unexpected results depending > on where you are. You can get back to a Windows 7-like Desktop environment > that does have windows and menus, but you can't do much without inevitably > returning to the Metro disaster. > > Enough. I've wasted enough time with all this. At least now I know how to > shut down gracefully. Goodbye. > > I have been privately congratulating Microsoft for finally finding the > resources to strike out their own and come up with something different > instead of just copying or buying whatever else is out there. Now I'm glad > I've kept it mostly private. Windows 8 just shows that Microsoft should not > be let on their own. I can only hope that there enough complaints from early > adopters that some important changes can be made before this thing is > released to an unsuspecting public. Vista was bad enough, but they were able > to recover to a large extent with Windows 7. I don't know how they will > recover from this. From what I can see there will be no escape from the Metro > Interface with this system. All common workflows will be thrown to the four > winds. Just working out what to do is a major challenge. It's going to be an > IT Manager's worst nightmare. > > On the other hand, it must bode well for OS X 8. Anyone fearful of Mountain > Lion will quickly see they have nothing to worry about. Bring on Mountain > Lion! Please!! > > As I said at the beginning, it's jut my humble opinion... > > > Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services > FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer > Perth, Western Australia > Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 046 948 > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
