Intel's Otellini says Windows 8 is 'not ready'
Windows 8 is simply not ready, Intel's Paul Otellini warned staff, before saying that Microsoft is right to release it early.
While Otellini's precise wording is not known, Bloomberg claims to have the gist of the Intel head's presentation in a private meeting of Microsofties in Taipei yesterday: Windows 8 simply isn't ready for the prime time, with work still needing to be done on improving the software.
Despite these concerns Otellini claims to be in full support of Microsoft's move to release the software in October, telling staff that releasing the operating system early is the right thing to do and that improvements can be patched in after the software has shipped.
Otellini's criticisms of Windows 8 may stem from its sister release Windows RT, the first mainstream Windows release designed specifically to run on ARM architecture processors. With Intel taking on ARM in the mobile space with its own low-power Atom-based system-on-chip designs and ARM making moves in the server market with 64-bit models, there's plenty of bad blood between the two companies. As a result, Microsoft's decision to support ARM's continued dominance of the mobile and tablet space, and to help it branch out into laptops as well, may be leaving a bad taste in Otellini's mouth.
That said, Otellini is hardly alone in being concerned regarding the next-generation Microsoft operating system. Despite numerous improvements designed to reduce the software's memory footprint, boost graphics performance, and protect your most important files and folders, many in the industry have been quick to jump on Microsoft's back.
Valve's Gabe Newell, who is at the head of an effort to port his company's Steam digital distribution platform and Source Engine games to Linux, has publicly called Windows 8 a 'catastrophe,' while an ex-Microsoft programme manager launched a blog called 'Fixing Windows 8' to highlight apparent failings in the design of the Windows Phone-inspired Metro UI. His criticisms may have hit home, too, with Microsoft ditching the Metro branding altogether but keeping the interface intact.
As with any new operating system, there will be resistance to change. Whether Microsoft has in Windows 8 an operating system which will survive as long as the - still-supported - Windows XP or will crash and burn as impressively as Windows ME is something only time will tell.
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Discuss in the forums Replyi'm using the rtm version, as my main os now on both my machines, on my desktop I do have an issue with my soundcard, but that's a creative problem not a Microsoft one, I have an original x-fi fatality, sound goes off, go into the driver swap modes and back again it works again.(this may be related to remote desktop, but not sure)
I tried it for a couple of weeks on my spare machine, which might sound like it wouldn't help matters; given the fact that I'd spend just as much time on my main rig, running 7.
I can't really moan about the performance, but the UI was hateful. It never occurred to me that you can disable it at the time, but that thought leads me to my next question- "why would I buy something that I'd have to hobble to use it happily?"
Which is why I have never gotten round to reinstalling it.
It runs well, but the whole GUI is not really what people would like to use on a desktop. It's terrible to configure imho and not very user-friendly on a desktop where you're using a keyboard and mouse.
The missing start-menu, when you use the desktop instead of the metro-ui, is a really bad design-decision for desktop-users.
The explorer and the menus (ribbon-style) are changed and not as good as in Win7.
All in all Windows 8 is designed with touchscreens in mind and feels awkward to use for desktops, with it's changed menus and GUI.
Shutting down your PC now requires you to hit Alt+F4 due to the missing start-menu for example :p
I also hated the UI.
From what I can remember from the preview, shutting down meant logging out and then selecting shut down from the log in screen.
Which flavor of Linux are you using if you don't mind me asking?
That's only working in the Metro-UI. When you use the desktop-view, it's not.
Works on the desktop too. All charm bars are always active unless gaming.
http://i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa351/aramil1701/charms.png
Sent on my CM10 JB powered i9100 by TapaTalk 2
Next thing will be "Intel says AMDs new cpus aren't as good as ours".
Seems you've not disabled the Metro-UI, maybe that's why it works for you.
I wan't my classic windows-desktop with the classic taskbar and the start-menu. I don't want any widgets, icons or shortcuts on my desktop.
This is mainly because of the rules set out for metro app's, that (because of it's sandboxed nature) Apps can not launch external programs (((ie a steam "windows metro" app could never launch games) nor could it interface with it's running service......) or any other VOIP service while running.......)
I can see why it is like that as it makes it very secure, but it means that metro apps can only really be info readers (as most are ATM), without someone doing a large amount of work for very little gain, because you just can't call an EXE file
Thanks
I'm with you. I really don't like Unity, and I really don't like 8's UI. Both look like touch interfaces that were ported to the desktop.
I agree that 8 isn't ready. The reason I switched to KDE is the reason I left Unity, the same reason I don't like the Win8 interface: The ability to customize my interface exactly how I want. Hey, if I wanted a unicorn dancing around my desktop in a series of .png animations, I know how to.
I'll post my customizations in the Desktop thread.
This is true. However success equates to popularity and not necessarily effectiveness of purpose.
Shutting down is done by activating the right side charms menu and selecting power then shutdown. Anyway this is an example(albeit slightly anecdotal) of the lack of initial intuitiveness of the metro element of the O/S.
I don't think I'm opposed to the premise of including metro with the desktop. However, there are many modifications that I would like to see which I think would improve the experience of metro on the desktop. I would think most of them are unlikely to happen but you never know.
The basics for muggles loving this are there. I think metro isn't as effective as it could be however. What is going to win the muggleses's are some of the more, what I consider gimmicky features, such as live tiles and your phone apps are on your desktop. It's popularity might be determined on whether these items for the muggleses's out weigh frustrations caused by metro falling down on the fundamentals. (I'm not sure how to turn the bloody thing off but who cares I've got live facebook updates on my start screen!...for example) Again some of the effectiveness as a desktop O/S element isn't present with metro but that may not(and is unlikely to) stop it's popularity. While I disagree that the two align (popularity and effectiveness) the outcome is likely to be the same(success for windows 8).
Huh, that's funny. When I last tried Mint, I bailed because I was just trying to get some things done, but every 5 minutes I had to open a terminal to "sudo blah blah blah" After two days of that I gave up and put Windows back on it.
And why, exactly, is Otellini offering up his opinion? Yeah, he's likely a little pissed that there seems to be some splitting at the seams of the old Wintel relationship, but who gives a **** what the CEO of Intel thinks of Windows? Back in the day, I wouldn't have gone asking the Delco guys what they thought of the new Camaro.
Gabe Newell I can understand, since MS seems to be stepping on his toes a bit, as he sees it. Not that I envision myself buying a whole lot of games from the Windows store (at least Steam's DRM doesn't even feel like DRM cough*Games for Windows Live*cough)
Buy maybe Otellini feels like he's got the same skin in the game - if Win 8 tanks, that's not going to help Intel's revenue...although I found it funny that people started talking about the apocalypse when Intel dropped their revenue forecast for one quarter by a billion dollars...from 13 to 12.
And, @Nexxo, nooooo, no Harry Potter references. Let that crap fade into memory >:(
:D
To put it another way: every five minutes I had to open the registry to DWORD HKEY_LOCAL_COMPUTER_BLAH_BLAH. After two days of that, I gave up and put Linux back on.
There is no such thing as a perfect operating system, and I don't think I've ever tried to claim that Linux is objectively "better" than Windows. Cheaper, sure. More open, yes. More flexible, yes. Better? That depends entirely on personal perspective. For me it's better because I understand it better, for you it's worse because you understand Windows better.
At the end of the day, computers are tools. Use whatever software you need to get the job done. For me (and my mother, who also uses Ubuntu, funnily enough) that's Linux.
Business users, gamers, anyone who has pubes, no. Yeah sure, if you are young and think twitter and Facepuke are essential tools without which you can not breath, seems Windows 8 will slot in to your life perfectly. As for the rest of us, we will find ways to make it work. Which is almost as bad as what Apple do (make you pay through the teeth for something new that is actually no more useful that what came before).
BTW, I like Metro as a start screen (at least without all my apps listed, just email, gmail, stocks, weather ....). But after that, desktop, start button, shortcut bar, .... all the way.
It's a little dense :P
Well we have Intel with misgivings, the creator of Minecraft, Valve and oh Blizzard too... any other reasonably big players?