Windows 8: Should You Upgrade?
By: Arie Slob
Should you upgrade to Windows 8? That question will be asked frequently in the next few days, when Windows 8 will be officially available. The obvious answer: it depends.
Let me explain. I think the answer is a simple NO if you are a content creator. Now if you are mainly a content consumer the answer will depend on your preferences.
Most users that are deciding if they would want to upgrade are PC users (be it laptop or desktop PCs). Most tasks that users perform on PCs will be less intuitive or easy to perform on Windows 8 than on previous Windows versions. Sure, a task such as sharing a news story through email or via facebook will be easy, but a lot of other things can be a PITA.
Want some examples? Windows 7 does quite a good job of finding things on your system. Need to schedule a task? Type "schedule" in the Windows 7 Start menu's "Search programs and files" and "Task Scheduler" will be listed at the top of your Start menu (Figure). Try that with Windows 8. You just type while on the "Start screen" of Windows 8, but typing "schedule" shows that there are no results ("No apps match your search") (Figure). If you look closely at the left you'll notice that under "Settings" there should be two results, and clicking the "Settings" icon does finally show "Schedule tasks" as a "Setting" (Figure). Now with the search results screen taking up the whole screen, can someone explain why these results can't be combined, so the extra mouse (finger) movement & click aren't needed? Yes, this is only one small example; the point is that Windows 7 is more user friendly when it comes to searching for programs/applications/settings than Windows 8.
Another obvious clue Microsoft gives that Windows 8 is just a mobile/tablet OS (which of course they say it is not) is the extreme amount of wasted space with almost all apps when used on anything with a 10" or larger screen. What's the point of using 100% of the display for the weather app if you want to see the predictions for the next few days (Figure)? Same goes for the messaging and most other apps too.
Since most menus for apps are hidden by default, discovering them is an issue, and it does slow you down. Yea, on small form factor devices there's no space to display menus, but there's plenty on desktop and laptop PCs.
Multi-tasking is a joke when it comes to the new apps. You can only run two apps at a time (if you are lucky). Let me explain. Desktop users (and especially those with larger screen sizes) are used to arranging Windows applications running on their screen any way they want. Maybe they want one application running on the top half of their screen, and have two other applications sharing the bottom half. Currently you can have it any way you want. Not so with the new "Modern" style apps. You can only share the screen (vertically) between two apps, one will use 320 pixels*, and the 2nd app uses the remainder. That's all the flexibility you get. You have multiple monitors? Tough luck; you can only run these apps on the main display. I should be able to run an application on any of my monitors in any size I like to run it. You'll also need to be running a screen with at least 1366 horizontal pixels to support the option to display two apps simultaneously, on my 19" screen's native 1280x1024 resolution I can only run one app full screen.
*) It is actually 320 device independent pixels (DIPs), so it will be the same physical size on a 11.6" screen regardless of whether the screen has a resolution of 1366x768 (320px), 1920x1080 (448px), or 2560x1440 (576px).
I have a laptop where I run Windows 8, and since I don't use my laptop all that often, I can live with it. On occasions I boot my spare SSD drive on my main machine to run Windows 8, sometimes I manage to 'stick with it' for a day. Some of the software I need (VPN drivers, for example) aren't yet available for Windows 8, and that is one drawback, but mainly I miss Windows 7 search functionality. You see, I spend all my time on the 'classic' desktop, so having to switch to the start screen to use Windows 8 crummy search to find stuff is a PITA. The other large drawback is that I prefer running multiple applications on any monitor I like in any configuration I like.
I haven't found anything in Windows 8 that makes me want to use it. I would think it does fine on a tablet, but can't see the point of upgrading my desktop PC to it.