Windows 8 is 10 years old today - bad product, missed bet or way ahead of its time?

[Djole123]

On August 1, 2012, Microsoft released the infamous Windows 8 to manufacturing. It promised to usher in the new era of computing, doing away with the Start menu and button, and instead attempting to push in Metro as the new paradigm shift, with its flat design and touch optimizations.

 

 

Even though many initial complaints were remedied in the subsequent 8.1 release and its additional updates, the product, in the end, had very modest success - in its peak in July 2015, right before the release of Windows 10, Windows 8.1 had a total market share of 13% with 8.0 being at just shy of 3%, a far cry from the market share Windows 7 had at the time, which was sitting steadily at over 60%. 

 

Microsoft was betting hard on the touch interface, after all, in 2012, the iPad was on the market for about two years, and Android tablets were catching some steam too. Windows RT was released alongside Windows 8 to push ARM to the masses, although it left a lot to be desired with its many limitations, the main one being the lack of any desktop app support (aside from a few first party apps such as Microsoft Office 2013). 

This sudden push to unfamiliarity could be the cause of the ultimate commercial failure of Windows 8/8.1, and Microsoft backtracked on it in Windows 10 in 2015. But was it really a complete misstep for Windows or Microsoft in general, a wrong bet or a future we were not fully ready yet for?

How did you feel about Windows 8 when it first came out? Did you jump in on the shiny new touch interface wagon? What do you think about it now, a decade after its release?

[LloydLynx]

I think Windows 8 got aesthetic. Workflow wise; fun to play around with, but not very practical on desktop.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Its just mediocre atleast for 8.1 imo, never got to experience 8 iirc

[Zando_]

I didn't get to use 8 much, I suppose that's lucky though, it sucked ass. Horrible to maneuver through with a mouse, which is the main way I (and I think most people) are used to navigating an OS. And I don't see enough of a benefit with touchscreen laptops/desktops to justify a full shift like that, Windows 10 strikes a far better middle ground when using a touch design, without sacrificing the ability to navigate easily with a mouse. 

6 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

Windows 8.1 had a total market share of 13% with 8.0 being at just shy of 3%

I think this is because lots of people bought laptops with it preinstalled and did not have the technical know-how to downgrade to 7. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I was one the early adopters of Windows 8 because I was on the market for a new laptop at the time just when the OS was announced. Jumped ship during the subsequent winter holiday and bar the Start menu (which I personally didn't mind, in fact was rather refreshing at the time), it felt just like Windows 7 (no surprises there). In fact, my entire review of it would've gone like tear away the flat design language lies Windows 7. 

 

The only major gripe I had with it was how to shut the bloody thing down because prior to 8.1, you had to go to the Charms menu > Settings > Power. Forcing me to learn shortcuts that I'll eventually keep using to this day... like spamming Alt + F4 until the Windows Shutdown menu appears. 

 

Apart from the Hybrid Boot mode which legitimately made startup a bit quicker on HDDs (though at the end of the day, it's still a HDD so you're still going to be waiting for it to catch up at the desktop), the new Task Manager is the only lasting change from Windows 8 that I can think of. 

[BondiBlue]

One thing I always liked about Windows 8/8.1 was how well they ran on lower end devices and on mechanical hard drives. My daily driver laptop in 2013 was a Toshiba Satellite laptop from 2010 or so, and I was running Windows 8 on it alongside the factory image of Windows 7. It ran very well for several years, eventually being replaced in late 2016 with a slightly newer HP laptop that I ended up running Windows 10 on. That Toshiba laptop ran very well on Windows 8, and I eventually came to like the interface (apart from all the Metro stuff - that wasn't good on non-touch devices). I still use a couple machines running Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1, and I still like the UI. I just ignore all the Metro UI elements as much as I can, and that's it. 

 

I also have a fair bit of experience with Windows 8.1 on a touch device. In my case it's Windows RT running on an original Microsoft Surface RT. In that case the Metro UI works well enough, and I used it a fair bit when that tablet was still in regular use. I did find the regular desktop to be more useful for some tasks though, even on a touch device. 

[da na]

They just missed the mark(et) with this one. Really miscalculated. Tablets don't rule the world, people still use keyboards, so making an OS assuming the opposite wasn't the best move.

[Dedayog]

Windows 95SE.  All day, every day.

[Levent]

I too was one of the early adapters but I quickly returned to W7. Then I switched back in 2016 when I got a free license during my second year in uni. I actually stuck to 8.1 Embedded "Industry?" until 2018 or so, 2 years after W10. It was quite a bit more stable than W10 until 2017-2018.

[Chiyawa]

For a tablet, it is superb. But, at that time, I think close to 98% of x86 64-bit machines don't have touchscreen, which is a shame.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

On 8/1/2022 at 7:49 PM, Chiyawa said:

For a tablet, it is superb. But, at that time, I think close to 98% of x86 64-bit machines don't have touchscreen, which is a shame.

The number of times people poked at my laptop screen just because it had Windows 8 pre-installed on it... only for them to ask why it wasn't working.