[zspade]

Windows 7 met a much better response from the market, and at least the last time I checked(August) was still selling faster than windows 8! The entire windows 8 release has felt forced and unnatural. Personally I still cannot get used to the awkward interface that can't decide whether it wants to be a tablet or desktop OS. This is a poor decision on Microsoft's part.

[ds9]

"Did you buy that computer?" - "No, I found another one that had Windows 7 instead of 8" - "Oh good deal!" -- overheard in line at a convenience store. Nearby, computer shop advertising on a big sign that you could still get Win 7 instead of 8. Anecdotes aren't data, I know, but my experience has been consistent with the consensus of rants online.

Now MS is "doubling down" on Win 8 instead of making concessions to those who need an interface that works well with keyboard and passive monitor. One might say, this proves it wasn't just Ballmer running the company into the ground!

Seriously, what is the chance that MS will come up with something better liked in another version a year or two in future?

It may be a tired cliché now to talk of Linux for PCs becoming mass-market, but things are looking better and better for this prospect. In particular, (a) nice noob-friendly GUIs (b) hardware support better than ever and (c) games finally coming along (thanks Valve/Steam).

[sliverstorm]

instead of making concessions to those who need an interface that works well with keyboard and passive monitor

What concessions are they missing? It's still the exact same damn shell when you drop down to Desktop mode. I use it all the time, on 3 different mouse&keyboard machines.

[kerpal]

I was just reading an article yesterday stating that Windows 7 had twice the growth rate in market share of Windows 8. Pretty dumb of Microsoft to alienate their customers but I suppose its nothing new.

[manojlds]

If they didn't do this a section would blame MS for another XP like situation.

[thatthatis]

XP like situations come from releasing half-baked UIs after fully baked UIs.

Vista had some really good ideas, executed poorly. Win8 has some good ideas, executed poorly.

By all measures, Win9 should be a great OS. MS just has a nasty habbit of releasing experimental software as if it were ready for production.

[wmil]

I think he's referring to the fact that there wasn't a major OS update for 5 years (XP: 2001, Vista: 2006).

Every part of Vista was a significant change leading to a lot of application incompatibilities. App developers hadn't dealt with changes like that for years, so fixes were slower than they should have been.

That was a major cause of Vista's poor reputation.

[xradionut]

"By all measures, Win9 should be a great OS. MS just has a nasty habbit of releasing experimental software as if it were ready for production."

I think they have jumped the shark with 8.x as far as their desktop OS goes.

[davidgerard]

Have you used Vista? It felt pretty much like 7 does now, to me. (YMMV etc.)