[AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase

Gustav Brock gustav at cactus.dk
Wed Feb 26 02:55:56 CST 2014


Hi Arthur

You nailed it as usual. I was playing with words like stubborn old farts, but pussies is much nicer!

I've used Windows 8 (now 8.1 of course) on my home workstation since the very first developer edition (with the wonderful fish on the desktop) and with zero add-ons as I've never been a fan of the small and miserable and messy Start menu. It's an outdated left-over from Windows 95 (seems like everyone have forgotten how MS was ridiculed when it introduced).
We still run Win7 and a little WinXP at the office but we seriously consider moving to Win8 after the next update.

As I have mentioned before, the Metro/Modern UI is a masterpiece in design, and if you can't "see" this, it is because of exactly this, that excellent design doesn't stand forward, it only supports the function - and if you don't realize this, just borrow a Mac for a moment and study what old-fashioned is about, indeed the ugly animation that sucks windows when they are minimized and the sloshing icons at the bottom. I guess you get used to it, but it makes me feel sick.

Of course, as a developer I mostly use the desktop of Win8. Also, my 27" monitor has no touch, so the Metro interface is mouse only for me. But the organization of icons in groups on the Start screen is a big progress compared to the multilevel Start menu of Win7-.

Further, it is like most look at Win8 as Win7 with another interface. That is not so. It is faster, and with an SSD drive you have finally reached what a computer should be: Instantly on and off with sleep mode, and only few seconds to the login screen from a cold boot.

Finally, as Martin mentions, where Windows 8 really shines is on a tablet. We have a Surface Pro 2, a wonderful machine, and I have used the old desktop on that. It is doable, but don't forget your glasses or the pen-pointer. It is not productive, and if that would have been the only option, people would have bashed MS, much like what happened with the old Windows Mobile. Something had to be done, and the Metro/Modern touch interface is the answer. Apps can be snipped/snapped in and out and you quickly feel at home.

/gustav


-----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Arthur Fuller
Sendt: 25. februar 2014 21:05
Til: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Emne: Re: [AccessD] Ramblings of a nutcase

IMHO, you folks are all pussies and refuse to see what's great about Windows 8. With the proviso that you download and install ClassicShell (google it). This free tool goes a long way toward making Windows 8 palatable for old-timers. In fact it goes further than that; it's smarter and better than the old classic start menu.

Even without this wonderful tool, there are a few key things you can do to smarten up your startup tile UI: most notably, you can drag the tiles into an arrangement of your choice, and also create groups of tiles containing associated programs (i.e. a Media group, a SQL group, etc. And most significantly, you can drag your most frequently-visited programs to the top left of the tile groups. In my tile setup, the first tile is Desktop. I have two monitors and the desktop opens on the large monitor. I also make extensive use of the QuickLaunch bar, and the programs soon learn which monitor they should load on.

That custom setup accomplished, you are now in a position to see some of the startup, performance and memory management advantages of Windows 8.1. I can only say that I'd never consider going back to Windows 7. I still have a copy of it, but it's on a separate box entirely, and I find myself using that box less and less -- just for large downloads and for running Ubuntu Linux.

I have one more customization of the Win 8.1 laptop planned. I recently read a net piece on how to hook up two external monitors to a laptop.
That's next. I'll have three monitors, two external and the laptop monitor.
That will be very cool.

My $0.02.

Arthur 



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