John W Colby
jwcolby at gmail.com
Wed Feb 26 16:13:51 CST 2014
Yea, I affectionately (not) call it "the metro design". Someone out there in the world decided that absolutely huge pictures was best for me. Windows 8 does it, and many of the news orgs do it. Maybe Facebook started it? I dunno, but I wish they would stop it. A total waste of my screen real estate. John W. Colby Reality is what refuses to go away when you do not believe in it On 2/26/2014 2:44 PM, Hans-Christian Andersen wrote: > Just checked MSNBC after you mentioned it and… wow… that is a terrible, terrible design. Now I know where not to go if I want to see whats going on in the world at a glance, unless I want to see big close up pictures of John Kerry’s mug. > > Wow. How did this even get approved? > > - Hans > > > > On Feb 25, 2014, at 9:23 AM, John W Colby <jwcolby at gmail.com> wrote: > >> I bought an HP Envy 17" at Sams a few months ago. It came with Windows 8. Ugh. I tried to like it. Then I tried to endure it. I tried to modify it to get back Windows 7 like functionality. I found myself not using the laptop for actual work, though it was OK (barely) for games and internet stuff. I was pissed that I had spent a fair chunk of change on a very powerful, very nice laptop that I hated. >> >> Funny stuff here... >> >> http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/01/04/windows-8-review-the-thing-blows/ >> >> And it pretty much mirrors my experience. Even after working with it every day for a month I still had issues with things like drag and drop. How can you drag and drop files between two windows when... you can only have ONE WINDOW? And why should I be "allowed" two windows, but one of them has to be this scrunched up little slice docked to the left side while the other gets the rest of the screen? I have a 23" monitor, PLENTY of room for many different windows when I need them. But no, I am not "allowed" that. >> >> And why can't I minimize open programs to my task bar and click on them to reopen. Oh yea, I remember now, there IS NO TASK BAR. What??? And when I want to see the wireless strength I can just look at the wireless icon down in the taskbar... oh yea I forgot, THERE IS NO TASKBAR. In Windows 7 I use a handful of programs 99% of the time. I pin them to the taskbar. They stack. If I am remoted in to 5 different machines (yes, I do that every day) then I hover over the taskbar and up pops a list of the open remote desktop sessions. How do I accomplish that with Windows 8? >> >> How do you hover with a touch screen to begin with? And why am I searching for third party apps to get back functionality that I need and was FORBIDDEN to have with Windows 8? Is Microsoft my mom, telling me that I HAVE to do it this way? Even my mom no longer tells me what to do. >> >> I did discover that all of the old Windows applications look like they always did, can be windowed, and have the minimize and close button. But of course all of the "Windows 8 native" apps don't and don't and don't. >> >> And why do I have to rearrange a HUGE screen of HUGE blocks of pictures which pretty much have nothing to do with what they represent to get the ones I use most all on the screen at the same time. Menus exist because they logically group operations. In Windows 7 If I need an Office app I can go find all of the Microsoft office programs by finding the menu for that. Yes, you have to hunt and figure that out but once you do the menu allows you to see groups of programs (or operations). The "start" screen just has a bajillion HUGE blocks scrolling off to the right forever, mere and more as you add things to your computer. Wow. Try cut and paste between two apps. >> >> In the end, I discovered that I use my laptop for real work and Windows 8 makes real work hard. Even when you know how to use it, it is still hard. I often use a tablet for the internet and "social" stuff, but even that is not as easy to accomplish (I.e. that is also "real work" as on a Windows 7 computer. If I want to sit in my car or in my easy chair I will use my tablet but if I have serious research, opening a couple of instances of Chrome, with tabs, dragging tabs down to create new instances to research something... I go to my computer. My Windows 7 computer. >> >> I finally just broke down and bought Windows 7 pro and installed it. It was a MAJOR PITA to find all of the drivers for the chipset, touch screen etc. But I ended up with a fully functioning Windows 7. Given that all laptops come with 5400 rpm drives, and I was going to replace mine, I decided to buy a Samsung EVO 500 gb drive. WHOA!!! Smokin' The difference in everything I do is flat out incredible. >> >> The Windows experience is 7.8-7.9 in everything except the graphics which is a 6.7 due to Intel's sucky graphics chips. Oh to have a quad core I7 and AMD's graphics. Oh well. >> >> I now LOVE my laptop. >> >> My son has a Windows XP system, very old. He downloads a ton of crap and managed to get it so infected that I had major problems getting it sanitized. So I am building a new system. Given that XP loses the last vestiges of support in two months I decided to use Windows 7 for that as well. Which leaves me in a quandary. Do I buy a handful of copies for future proofing? Windows 7 sales (from third parties like new egg) will go away in about 6 months. >> >> On a final note to Metro bashing... Has anyone been to MSNBC lately? OMG. I no longer use that as my goto news source since I cannot find anything without paging down through page after page of pictures about crap I am not interested in. Someone bought into Metro big time. >> >> -- >> John W. Colby >> >> Windows 8 is what refuses to go away >> when you do not believe in it >> >> -- >> AccessD mailing list >> AccessD at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com