Making Windows 8 work

[mbpark]

Hello,

I have some very positive (and some negative) things to report about Windows 8.

1. Classic Shell (classicshell.sourceforge.net) brings back the Start menu and works very well, even with Office 2013.

2. Windows 8 is fast. It is faster than 7 on the same hardware. They really made it run well this time.

3. Many of the wireless bugs in Windows 7 are fixed. This is the first Microsoft OS where I didn't have to utilize a third-party utility or 10-step configuration to configure wireless (we use WPA2-Enterprise with RADIUS and EAP-TLS authentication at work). Android, depending on the vendor and version, still has major issues. Mac OS X and and iOS work very well too.

4. By the time you put all the third-party utilities such as Chrome, Firefox, Pidgin, etc. on the OS, it really doesn't function any differently if you have Classic Shell.

5. Built-in AV. This helps for all of the millions of people who refuse to buy AV or install AVG, Avast!, or a similar product. It's not the best, but it's something.

Office 2013 has its own issues because they took a step back with the user interface, but Windows 8 in itself is actually a really good core OS with a bad UI.

To me, it's no different than having to reconfigure Ubuntu Linux to use LXDE or e17 instead of the Unity UI that they ship with by default on my Linux box at work.

If I want a tablet UI, I'll stick with an iPad. I already got to play with one of the Samsung tablets at work, and besides the wireless issues we had with it, was not impressed with Android as a tablet OS. Google and Samsung can't get Android working well in the enterprise yet.

I will admit it was better than the Motorola Xoom that crashed on a product demo for a department chair.

However, I will also admit that Microsoft really shot themselves in the foot with Windows RT, and may have taken off the leg. We use Windows CE as a wireless handheld OS all over the place (and so does almost every major health system in the USA, Target, and Wal-Mart). Apparently, Windows RT is the replacement for it, and was promised to start replacing it in the embedded market. Those tablets that have a mixup between the Classic and New UIs should make anyone from Microsoft embarrassed to have shipped something so half-baked. Apple should be sending them gifts for taking some of the heat off of their issues.

They have provided no real upgrade path from Windows CE, and no one from Microsoft can provide me a decent answer as to what is going on. I do have them stopping by in 2 weeks. Maybe they can give me an answer then.

Windows 8 is a really good desktop OS with a bad UI. It's fast, stable, and with a little tweaking, does what I need at work. The problems are that Office 2013 is a step back, Windows RT is a step back, the Surface is a step back, and the Windows RT/Phone 8/CE confusion is a step back.

If anything, Microsoft needs to be looking at new leadership that can provide a unified vision across their platforms that works, not islands of good in a sea of bad. The vision of trying to make everything Microsoft look like an iPad has not worked.