Exciting new tech from Microsoft

[Camacha]

Microsoft has been subjected to much criticism since the release of Win8

Which I have always felt is a shame. Windows 8 really is a great OS if you give it a chance. I loathe the old cumbersome ideas making a return just because people would not try.

[78stonewobble]

Man, those are some dorky glasses...

Wall covering screens and highly improved kinect like functionality is fine enough for me.

...

In regards to windows. Well, windows 7 was quite decently received and seemed like a decent upgrade from xp for most in my family and win8 doesn't have any features we couldn't live without.

PS: I loathe new for the sake of new.

[Nibb31]

After using it for over a year, I can confirm that the Windows 8 user interface is crap. Its usability is all over the place and the concept of a schizophrenic UI was, by pretty much everybody's standards, a bad idea to begin with. As a result, it was a failure in terms of sales, especially in the Enterprise market where nobody has any use of with touch screens.

The underlying OS is great though, probably the best version of Windows for years, but most people were (quite rightly) put off by the broken UI.

[Camacha]

After using it for over a year, I can confirm that the Windows 8 user interface is crap.

I feel its fine. Nothing crap about it, just some bits that do not get used as much because they are somewhat out of place. Nothing is missing though.

In my view, Windows 8 was eaten up by a media storm. People heard it was bad, so they felt is was bad. Nobody cared to check for themselves - or very few at least.

[pxi]

A while back I posted a rant on my issues with 8. The tl;dr version basically boiled down to: I shouldn't have to google how to shut down my OS.

And as for nothing missing, do you remember when they moved from 3.1 to 95? You could still keep the 3.1 shell if you really wanted to. Microsoft missed a beat, forcing metro onto people with no option to re-enable the start menu. We should thank various $deity that they kept the keyboard shortcuts, at least they had the sense not to reinvent them at the same time.

That's my subjective opinion, as someone who not only had the 'pleasure' of checking for myself, but also had to support the desktop. And I can tell you that most of my clients were only too happy to find out that there was a downgrade option after they had that same pleasure.

[Robotengineer]

Having read 2 reviews by journalists who tried the HoloLens, it looks like the coolest thing to come out of Microsoft that I have seen. It is still early on, so Microsoft will find some way to mess it up, make it useless and then release it. I really wish Apple would enter the VR scene and show them how to do it right.

Edit: Also who named it? It doesn't sound particularly cutting edge.

[basic.syntax]

I forgot to add that I run an image of my old XP installation in a VM, on Win8.

The new UI is/was clunky, but, I spend most of my time in desktop apps, not looking at the start panel. The only metro apps I use are the weather thing and PDF reader.

MSFT reacted to some of the complaints in the 8.1 update, made the desktop a default startup option, and added shutdown menu options to the "power user" [win]+[x] menu.

I love the [win]+[x] menu...

[Bidule]

Holo-lens will be as hot as this :

[Camacha]

and added shutdown menu options to the "power user" [win]+[x] menu.

I love the [win]+[x] menu...

If that gets ripped out because people hated Metro or whatever they feel is wrong with 8 I will be very upset and cross. That makes it so easy to just swoosh through the OS. I fear the return of the Start Menu with integrated search functions and all.

[EdFred]

I feel its fine. Nothing crap about it, just some bits that do not get used as much because they are somewhat out of place. Nothing is missing though.

In my view, Windows 8 was eaten up by a media storm. People heard it was bad, so they felt is was bad. Nobody cared to check for themselves - or very few at least.

No, the UI sucked. Very first thing I did with the 4 or 5 win8 boxes I got was install classic shell, even with my touch screen monitors. When I need to use 5 or 6 different programs concurrently at work, the Metro UI blew chunks. Way easier to access the other programs through the taskbar along the bottom.

[pincushionman]

Exciting. I mean wait. I can take or leave the holo tech, honestly. Haven't been able to watch the video, but it sounds like a niche feature.

No, free upgrade from 7/8 kind of shocks me. I wonder if the MS leadership is moving beyond the Windows-is-a-product paradigm into a Windows-SUPPORTS-our-products one, where the future revenue comes mainly from applications, hardware sales, and support contracts for corporate installs. In that environment, having everyone able to get the same OS cheaply and easily means everyone can use (buy) your latest and greatest products. Companies like Red Hat don't even sell their OS, what they sell is support.

[basic.syntax]

Great article on all subjects Microsoft here, with some nice explanation in the middle section, about how the HoloLens will construct images.

Satya Nadella's Got a Plan to Make You Care About Microsoft. The First Step? Holograms

[pxi]

I fear the return of the Start Menu with integrated search functions and all.

I might be missing something here. Metro has integrated search as well, how is that better than the start menu?

I'll give MS one thing though; to the best of my knowledge, at least its search doesn't return results from amazon by default like Ubuntu's Unity shell.

I wonder if the MS leadership is moving beyond the Windows-is-a-product paradigm into a Windows-SUPPORTS-our-products one, where the future revenue comes mainly from applications, hardware sales, and support contracts for corporate installs. In that environment, having everyone able to get the same OS cheaply and easily means everyone can use (buy) your latest and greatest products. Companies like Red Hat don't even sell their OS, what they sell is support.

I think that is very much where MS are heading in the long term. If nothing else they've almost done a U-turn on their policy regarding Linux. Years ago they were calling it a cancer, now they're contributing code to the kernel, admittedly just to help with virtualization of Linux under Hyper-V, but even so it's a massive step forward.

Edited January 22, 2015 by pxi

[Camacha]

No, the UI sucked. Very first thing I did with the 4 or 5 win8 boxes I got was install classic shell, even with my touch screen monitors.

"I never really tried the new UI, but I am sure it sucks"

I might be missing something here. Metro has integrated search as well, how is that better than the start menu?

In my opinion it is not. Search, settings search, so easy.

[EdFred]

"I never really tried the new UI, but I am sure it sucks"

In my opinion it is not. Search, settings search, so easy.

Nice try, but I've been building computers longer than most users of this forum has been alive. The UI sucks for Metro. Charms, slide this way, move a mouse to a corner for this, move to another corner for this. It's horrible. The only nice thing about it was that on the metro screen I could start typing something and the options would show up. Other than that, Metro is HORRIBLE for a work environment, and multitasking.

[Camacha]

Nice try, but I've been building computers longer than most users of this forum has been alive.

That changes little if you did not really try, then years count for nothing That is exactly what happened in most cases - people heard it was bad, expected it to be bad, ran into new things and judged them bad instead of trying to work them out and that was it for Windows 8.

Especially for power users it is a very sleek OS. I seriously think it is not only Microsoft's best OS, but very well might be the best OS that is currently out there. Productivity is a breeze. If you know what you are doing everything is right at your fingertips.

Hot dang, I start sounding like a fanboy. Who would have thought after all those years of love/hate.

[EdFred]

The OS is fine (the only thing that crashes on it is KSP), but when everything goes full screen, it blows. I have to flip through the entire MS suite each day, with multiple files opened in each program. I am not going to hit ALT+TAB 10-15 times to get to the file I need or to open new ones, when I can right click on my taskbar and get exactly what I need much faster. Which is why I install classicshell first. I tried Win8 Metro UI for about a week. It sucked, so I installed classicshell.

Oh, and don't even get me started with needing a #*^#&%*$*&$&*^ Microsoft Account to run certain things, or the bastardized version of outlook, or....

Edited January 22, 2015 by EdFred

[Camacha]

That is kind of what I mean. You do not need a Microsoft account and the taskbar is available without any mods. They make the former a bit hard, that is true, but if you know how to work it it will work.

[Aethon]

This was kind of alluded to in the video but NASA's going for it.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/january/nasa-microsoft-collaboration-will-allow-scientists-to-work-on-mars/index.html

[Camacha]

If you manage to impress NASA you have won one internets whatever the circumstances, as far as I am concerned

[Newt]

This was kind of alluded to in the video but NASA's going for it.

Also this from JPL.

I am feeling a bit less skeptical now.

[Brotoro]

"The era of holographic computing is here."

What does any of this have to do with holography?

[pxi]

That changes little if you did not really try, then years count for nothing That is exactly what happened in most cases - people heard it was bad, expected it to be bad, ran into new things and judged them bad instead of trying to work them out and that was it for Windows 8.

Especially for power users it is a very sleek OS. I seriously think it is not only Microsoft's best OS, but very well might be the best OS that is currently out there. Productivity is a breeze. If you know what you are doing everything is right at your fingertips.

Hot dang, I start sounding like a fanboy. Who would have thought after all those years of love/hate.

I'm glad you're the one making that last statement.

I didn't bother going down the route of classic shell, I stuck with 8, I've figured it out, I've learned to... well, endure it. I don't think it's the worst thing ever produced, with the exception of the touchpad gesture movements. 99% of the time when I popped out the charms bar I simply wanted to move my pointer to the left. That feature lasted all of a couple of days before it was gone. But by the same token, there is massive room for improvement.

I have no doubt there are those that like metro, but it seems fairly clear at this point that a lot of people don't like it. This isn't that they are *all* wrong, or misinformed, or didn't give it a fair try, or whatever. Different people have different workflows, some things work better for some than others. Look at desktops on Linux, there are more variations than I have fingers on my hands. Microsoft could have learned a lesson from that, and 8 would have been more successful as a result I have no doubt.

[Newt]

What does any of this have to do with holography?

Holography seems to be used too generally, sometimes referring to just about any 3D projection/simulation, not so much the technical definition. In that way, this is holography because it involves interaction with a computer through a virtual 3D interface. It is, I imagine a popular term to use for its ability to conjure up images of Star Trek and Star Wars, which is exciting to a fair number of people, and not annoying to the rest.

[Brotoro]

People using words incorrectly annoys me.