Feeling Nooby

As far as I can ascertain, Microsoft are in the process of "Doing a Nokia". Maybe, to be fair, I should dub this, "Doing a Palm", since Palm managed to shoot themselves, quite spectacularly, in the foot some years before Nokia followed suit. But since no one now remembers who Palm were, we'll go with my first assertion.

So, Microsoft. They've manage to piss off a sizable chunk of the Windows using community with their new OS, Windows 8 - myself included. I've got to say a big, old "Thanks" to MS for this. This is the FIRST time in literally YEARS I've found myself SO totally incapable of actually USING an OS. In addition to that, they're currently in the process of completely alienating the gaming community. While I was happy to purchase an X-Box 360 for my daughter for Christmas, there is little you could do to persuade me to buy the X-Box One. Permanent internet connection? No more than 24 hours between logon checks? Yeah, I don't think so!

I've just spent a year teaching my teachers and students how to find programs easily within Windows 7. This is simplicity itself - if the program has a shortcut somewhere in your menu system, starting to type part of the name of the shortcut will bring it up. So, for example, imagine I want to work with Publisher - I press the Start button (yes, on the keyboard), and start typing Pub.... By the time I've got that far, it's showing me, as the top result of the search, MS Publisher. We're talking 4 key presses and Enter. I'm hard pressed to work out how much more simple that could be. And after all, my PC is FULL of software.

My android devices are slightly less full, although the tablet could use a bit of clearing. I've got 5 screens to put icons on, so I can sort them in a manor suitable to how I work. I tend to group like things together, although it's possible that my idea of "like" things is not someone else's.

Now, the reason I appear to be digressing, this time, is that I've yet to find anything to recommend Windows 8 as a PC based OS. There's a tile for every app shortcut, spread across the screen in a neatly ordered, and yet confusing array. I know - I sound like your grandma! But you know, thanks to Microsoft, I now feel bewildered, and annoyed. In fact, I think I'd go so far as to say actively grumpy!

While I'm sure that the tile interface is great for a touch device, I question the utility of this for a keyboard-operated device, specifically those without a touch screen. Of course you can move the mouse over to the right, and have the screen scroll for you. And this is better than being able to search for something, how? This is better than having an organised menu system, how? The tiles are 4 times the size of the old icons on the screen, and yet many of them, those not of Microsoft's world, are simply a large background with the same icon used for previous versions of Windows. No wonder I need to scroll across.

Rumour has it that your most commonly used programs will migrate to a place of greater favour - from this I assume that the tiles of your most used programs will end up nearer the left. Less scrolling. Yes, that's definitely going to make this OS easier to use. /sarcasm.

The sad thing is that I'm not unfamiliar with an interface like this. But I can't FIND what I need to help my users. I have been vainly searching for the Control Panel (or whatever they've decided to call it for this incarnation), and I have NO idea where it is, or how even to search for it. Thank goodness for Google!

I know other people have said the same thing - why are MS so all fired up about putting the SAME interface on all their different devices? I've known Windows phone users who LOVE the interface, but I've yet to meet a PC user who has anything good to say about it. The nicest comment was "Put Classic Shell or Start 8 on the machine."

I've been using computers since 1983, mostly with success, and shall I tell you what I hate? I HATE being made to feel as if I know absolutely nothing.

Come back to me - tell me how YOU like Windows 8.