Was Windows 8 THAT bad?

[DoctorNick]

Like windows 11, windows 8 was equally bad. Remember the rule of Microsoft. every 2nd version of Windows must suck in order to restore the order of the universe. Windows 12 is going to be great! Out next year!

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

8 hours ago, VinLAURiA said:

the more I don't have to worry about keeping stuff updated manually.

Package managers are good, I like them i linux. I would have nothing against a competently designed windows store that is just a competent and convenient way to find and maintain a list of common official regular applications, reducing risk of downloading a malicius installer and taking care of dependencies like .net and highlighting vulnerabilities of old packages.

 

It's just that I find the Windows Store incompetently designed, and UWP worthless garbage that should have never been made. Microsoft should get rid of all borked integration with windows subsystem. I never had to sign a canonical account to use aptget...

 

E.g. Steam for games is a vastly superior package manager experience for games. The fact that Sea of Thieves has a steam installer, but is borked by the windows store integration is inexcusable. I remember Linus had a problem with Minecraft on the Windows Store too.

[thewelshbrummie]

On 2/8/2023 at 4:45 PM, CaptainDarkstar42 said:

I loved Vista.  I had a new computer when Vista came out and it was in every way better than XP that ran on my school's computers. Yes I will die on this hill.

Vista was fine, if you had the hardware to run it. That was the biggest issue.

 

I used Vista on my first build but it started out with 2GB RAM which quickly became 4GB - it was smooth either way. But Vista was supported on 512MB RAM, for which it shouldn't have ever been certified. It was pretty poor on 1GB when I tried that out.

 

I actually liked 8 but at the time I was also invested in Windows Phone, so using the same account across both devices was a big deal - that and once 8.1 launched, being able to make one purchase of a game and it be cross compatible on both phone and PC. And there were a surprising number of games that supported that and worked really well on both a 24" and a 5" display (thinking particularly of the Square Enix GO games.

 

There's no question though that vanilla 8 wasn't great though with the learning curve. That deserved reputation really killed any momentum it might have had.

[Slizzo]

I've used all versions of consumer Windows products (and most Server products from NT4 and up), and honestly?

 

I've never really had any major issues with them. I was using Win8 from the get-go, but I also did buy Stardocks' Start8 app to run with it and return a normal, functioning start menu and desktop. It was great.

 

I also used Vista from the get-go. But, I also did have 4GB of RAM at the time to run it. No problems.

 

 

Using Win11 on the Beta channel since before official launch. Works great, no problems.

[Ubersonic]

I've been using Windows since W2.8 and I would say W8.1 is probably my favourite incarnation of Windows, it was definitely the last one that actually felt like an improvement / upgrade / evolution.  Both W10 and W11 both felt like a case of X steps forward Y steps back, and this is even worse with W11 as every improvement it has over W10 could (and should) have been made available in W10 (I.E dark mode for notepad, setting Windows Terminal as default CLI) but MS knew if they didn't restrict upgraded apps to W11 then nobody would use W11 as it would be objectively worse than W10 lol.

 

TBH if Microsoft had enabled DX12 in W8.1 instead of making it W10 only to force gamers to upgrade I would have still been using it until EOL, it was a fantastic OS that got a lot of hate from people who hated change, but sadly it was the last OS where Microsoft actually listened to the power user feedback instead of just trying to dumb everything down and make it harder to use like they have with W10/W11 (I.E the godawful settings menu that has half the functionality of control panel but looks prettier, on W11 they've even started removing stuff with no replacement lol).

 

It's also worth mentioning that one of the funniest Windows 8/8.1 things, is when you see somebody who stuck to W7 switch to W10/11 and they're like "ooh this is new, that's a cool feature" and it's a W8 feature (I.E Win-X) haha.

 

 

  

On 2/13/2023 at 8:12 PM, thewelshbrummie said:

There's no question though that vanilla 8 wasn't great though with the learning curve. That deserved reputation really killed any momentum it might have had.

I think the main issue was, that Windows 8 was designed by engineers based on feedback of how pro/power users used Windows, then tested by pro/power users, and at no point did anyone stop and say "hang on, our average customer has 60 icons on their desktop and half of them are Internet Explorer".

 

By the time MS realised their error people had branded it overcomplicated, a bad design, etc.  And just like Vista's undeserved reputation for bad performance there was no way back from that

 

 

  

On 2/9/2023 at 11:51 AM, Senzelian said:

Unfortunately it isn't. When I bought my first Windows 7 PC, which was using the 64-bit version, I had so many issues with software not wanting to run that I returned the entire thing. (It was a pre-build)

You're probably thinking of 16bit (early to mid 1990s) applications, they don't work on 64bit Windows (unless you use a wrapper).  32bit software has been fine on 64bit Windows since Vista.

 

 

  

On 2/10/2023 at 6:14 AM, Herrscher of LED Mirage said:

The Start Screen got in the way, and that's about it.

I'm not trying to mock you (or anyone else) here, but why did you care? Of all the Windows 8 complaints I always found this one the most absurd, I mean it's always been impossible to interact with the rest of the screen(s) when the Start menu is open, I just never understood why not being able to see something you can't use was so problematic for some users, especially given all the advantages of the full screen launcher.

[Soukamoshirenai]

Windows 8 and specially 8.1 have a special place in my memories and heart; fun times. (❁´◡`❁)

[Guest]

On 2/19/2023 at 10:35 AM, Ubersonic said:

I'm not trying to mock you (or anyone else) here, but why did you care? [...] I just never understood why not being able to see something you can't use was so problematic for some users, especially given all the advantages of the full screen launcher.

 

It's subjective preference. I just personally find it bulky. I used Classic Shell at the time when I tried it, and that settles the issue for me.

There's nothing more to argue about.

 

[Godlygamer23]

On 2/18/2023 at 9:35 PM, Ubersonic said:

You're probably thinking of 16bit (early to mid 1990s) applications, they don't work on 64bit Windows (unless you use a wrapper).  32bit software has been fine on 64bit Windows since Vista.

When I built my first PC in 2011, I don't even recall having any concerns regarding 32-bit versus 64-bit software. It was never a problem.

[Vishera]

On 2/19/2023 at 3:35 AM, Ubersonic said:

You're probably thinking of 16bit (early to mid 1990s) applications, they don't work on 64bit Windows (unless you use a wrapper).  32bit software has been fine on 64bit Windows since Vista.

On Windows 7 64-Bit you can run 16-bit applications in Windows XP mode.

In the following screenshot you can see Duke Nukem 3D (16-Bit) and the Max Payne 2 Launcher (32-Bit):

[YellowJersey]

I feel like Windows Vista, 7, and 8 had some personality to them. Windows 10 and 11 feel very cold and sterile by comparison.

[Fendrick]

I tried to sylize my Windows 11 to be like Vista.

I miss the visuals of Vista and 7.

 

 

[Vishera]

21 hours ago, YellowJersey said:

I feel like Windows Vista, 7, and 8 had some personality to them. Windows 10 and 11 feel very cold and sterile by comparison.

Windows 10 and newer were released under a different CEO.

[Vishera]

21 hours ago, Fendrick said:

I tried to sylize my Windows 11 to be like Vista.

I miss the visuals of Vista and 7.

One time i sat down and did something similar with Windows 10:

 

 

[ObsoleteTech]

On 2/23/2023 at 3:05 AM, YellowJersey said:

I feel like Windows Vista, 7, and 8 had some personality to them. Windows 10 and 11 feel very cold and sterile by comparison.

I like Windows 10 just because it is very streamlined and has a "no nonsense" design. 

I liked Vista because it was the first modern OS.

[YellowJersey]

7 hours ago, ObsoleteTech said:

I like Windows 10 just because it is very streamlined and has a "no nonsense" design. 

I liked Vista because it was the first modern OS.

I wouldn't say Windows 10 is "no nonsense." I find it full of nonsense, though that could just be because my neurons to are too old and clogged with tumours to keep up.