Windows 8 may drive me to Linux - Part 2

Windows 8 may drive me to Linux

• By Matthew Murray on March 5, 2012 at 1:42 pm
• 459 Comments

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Microsoft is not entirely alone in this outlook, of course. Apple pioneered it with its iPhone, spread it with its iPad, and is trying to propagate it still further with each new release of itsconverging OS lines. But Apple has one advantage Microsoft doesn’t: It controls the hardware, too. This lets Apple ensure that its devices, of any size or complexity, work with the software exactly the way they’re supposed to. One of the main reasons I’ve stuck with Microsoft so long is that its openness across a broad range of products and platforms encourages usingtechnology the way I like to: while maintaining foundational control over the hardware and the software alike.

That doesn’t work in the Metro-ized Windows 8 — either way. Interacting with apps is clunky and nonintuitive with the mouse. Programs take longer than they should to start because each is accompanied by animation that plays before it opens. Switching between open tasks (which you’ll do all the time, as they’re so difficult to close) is cumbersome and confusing if you use either of the new “corner” methods rather than the stalwart (and, thankfully, still-working) Alt-Tab. Signing in is a chore because you have to “sweep away” a splash screen and log in via a Microsoft account, and finding the setting to change this is like a scavenger hunt in a junkyard. And what if you don’t care about your e-mail, your calendar, the weather, or the Microsoft Store — why should you have to remove all those links instead of add them as you want them? Previous versions of Windows stashed them in the Start menu or on the taskbar, but here they’re front and center. Again: taking choices away by default.

The good news is that if you hate Metro you can still use the desktop. Sort of. Unfortunately, it’s treated as another app, and not something you can see automatically when you turn on your computer. And, once you get in, the functionality is basically identical to that of Windows 7, minus the convenience of the traditional Start button and menu. In other words, if you buy Windows 8 and don’t groove on it, you’re not even granted an updated alternative to the OS you gave up. This is, in every way, a raw deal for everyone except devoted tablet users. A colleague crowed about using Windows 8 and not seeing Metro for hours — would Microsoft really consider that a plus?

Compare this behavior with that of another operating system: Ubuntu. Canonical, the company behind the popular Linux distribution,took a lot of heat last year when it moved Ubuntu full-time to its own Unity interface, which was developed with the goal of helping Ubuntu better cater to the emerging tablet market. Yes, it added a new (side-mounted) program launcher filled with big icons and a dash for searching through your programs and files. But the underlying functionality remained the same, and you still had (and have) the option of using it the old-fashioned way, and you don’t have to change your workflow to do it. In other words, it expanded into a new market without shutting out the previous one — exactly what Microsoft hasn’t done.

Of course, the Redmond-based company is in a much different position, with a dazzlingly large market share, and thus has good reasons for thinking it can get away with this and telling everyone how they’ll use their computers at home and work. Microsoft may be right, but my time with Windows 8 has made it seem so simplistic that I can’t envision why any company would want it on any non-tablet computers (and I’ve never worked at, or even seen, a business that operated entirely off of tablets). And I see even advanced home users rebelling against using one program per screen, something PC owners haven’t had to endure since DOS went the way of the dodo.

If Microsoft has demonstrated a more hubristic attitude when releasing a product, I can’t recall it. And I’m not sure such cockiness is safe this time around. Windows 8 is poised to alienate millions of people who have been devoted Microsoft users, or even (in my case) fans, for as long as the company has been around — all in a play to wrest a nascent product market from the Cupertino-based firm that now dominates it. It’s a gutsy move, and I appreciate that — but the company’s willingness to junk nearly 30 years of work, and the customer trust it’s generated during that time, does not thrill me.

There’s still time for Microsoft to change its mind. Not everything about Windows 8 is bad. I like, uh, the reduced boot times — my hard drive–based test computer dropped to 48 seconds from 55 after upgrading. And one little option to let me specify whether I want to boot into Metro or the desktop, preferably located near the top of the byzantine Settings menu, would instantly inspire me to give the whole thing a long second look. I’d love to see more truly useful features, but I’ll keep my demands light for the moment. Once the biggest “fixes” are undone, we can discuss the rest.

One warning, Microsoft: If you don’t, you’ll permanently lose this defender. You’re halfway there already. I’m too die-hard a DIYer to ever love Macs, but the folks at Canonical have shown that, even while favoring Unity, they want longtime desktop users to feel at home with their product. I have to say, I’ve been getting might cozy with it — whether on desktops or tablets. And it’s free. If you don’t prove with Windows 8, as you have with so many of your previous products, that this one is worth paying for, I’ll drop you faster than you dropped the desktop.

I’m giving you the chance you refuse to give me. Please don’t blow it.