I've previously
featured Windows 7 as a software bliss example. More recently, Windows 8 and
8.1 have come out and it's been interesting to see how they've been received. There have been many good reviews, but there's been a lot more negative things said about it.
Personally, I don't
understand all the negativity. A lot of it is focused on the new Modern UI and
how it doesn't fit so well on desktops. I can see that, but if you don't like
the modern apps, then just don't use them. The regular Windows desktop is still
there and works pretty much how it always has.
There's a lot of
things I really like about the new Windows. One of them is the new start
screen. I think it's done really well and it helps me find a lot of information
quickly. I've set up a few tiles to auto-update - stocks, weather, email,
pictures, etc - so every time I see the start screen I know what's new in all
of these. I think of it a lot like the Mac OS Dashboard, except I actually look
at and use this one. I've tried to set up and use the Dashboard many times, but
I always seem to forget it exists after a day or two. I've noticed the same
from many Mac users I know.
Another thing that's
great for me is having Hyper-V built in to the non-server editions. I don't
have to install Virtualbox anymore, and it actually works better for me.
Hyper-V will automatically pause my VMs when I reboot the machine and start
them up again after reboot. I never got that working with Virtualbox and it was
always a pain.
Anyway, there's some
good about the new Windows and there are drawbacks as well. It's just
fascinating to me because it seems customers want change but they want
everything to stay the same as well.
