While I am sure that Windows 8 is a disaster in progress, having an Apple blogger review it is akin to having a Clemson alumni review the dorms and dining halls at USC. Does one really expect them to be open and impartial? Weak.
On Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:06:02 PM UTC-5, cwpreston wrote: > Windows 8- don't do it. > > > > Sent to you by cwpreston via Google Reader: > > > Your trusty TUAW blogger tries Windows > 8<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/18/your-trusty-tuaw-blogger-tries-windows-8/> > via TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog <http://www.tuaw.com> by Mel > Martin on 12/18/12 > > I'm pretty much a hard-and-fast Mac guy. I've had Apple products since the > Apple II, and bought my first Mac when they came out in 1984, so I have a > lot of history with Apple. > > For a variety of reasons, I need to use a PC laptop to run a variety of > astronomical automation programs, and my 10-year-old Toshiba laptop running > Windows XP has been slowly dying. With all the holiday sales going on at > this time of year, I grabbed an HP laptop at a low price. It runs Windows > 8<http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/meet?ocid=GA8_SEM_GOO_Learn_Search_Txt_Desktop&semid=ef_GGL_e_17i1h30uqr4ffd3kft2l_16854402672&WT.search=1>, > > which is sort of intriguing, but the best part is that all my software > vendors assured me that their software would run fine under the Windows 8 > desktop mode, which is essentially Windows 7. > > Fresh out of the box, I played a bit with Windows 8. Without a touch > screen, it was a pretty painful experience. Not knowing the GUI very well > -- and without any helpful prompts or introductions on the part of Windows > 8 -- there were a lot of dead ends and right-clicking in corners. I'm sure > I'll figure it out in time. > > After an hour or so of use, I received a notification that Windows 8 > needed an update from HP. No problem... except there *was* a problem. The > update didn't "take" the first time, but it did on the second try. I should > have regarded that as a bad omen, and a few minutes later Microsoft let me > know that there was a Windows 8 update available. What the heck, maybe it > fixed the HP issue? > > I accepted the update, and the laptop happily re-booted. Uh-oh! Now > something was definitely wrong. Windows reported it was 13 percent through > the update, but the percentage just sat there at 13 percent. And sat. And > sat some more. It stayed that way for about 20 minutes, and then the > machine restarted again after telling me the update didn't work. I > restarted once again with fingers crossed. Nope. Stuck at 13 percent. > > It was time to do some research. Googling "Microsoft update > 13%<https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=windows+8+stuck+13%25&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8>", > > I hit the mother lode. Page after page of people running into the same > problem at 13 percent. I found one solution that seemed reasonable, but > when I printed it out it was in excess of three pages of instructions. I > sighed, dived in and fixed the problem. That was last week; this week I saw > a Microsoft support note <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2770816> about > the issue stating that perhaps that previous update didn't fix the problem. > > I am pretty tech savvy, so I could follow some of the twisted instructions > to manually fix the update. If I had been a novice Windows user and these > issues were my first taste of Windows 8, I would have been livid. I wasn't > too happy, sitting there cussing out Steve Ballmer for delivering an > operating system that made a computer fresh out of the box one update away > from a fail. > > As regular TUAW readers know, I'm fairly critical of Apple. Apple > Maps<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/28/tim-cook-apologizes-to-ios-6-maps-users/>was > not the greatest moment for the company, and there have been some > pretty flaky versions of OS X in the past. > MobileMe<http://www.tuaw.com/2008/08/05/ars-jobs-agrees-mobileme-not-up-to-apples-standards/>was > never satisfying, and Apple > iMessage<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/09/17/imessage-was-a-bit-rocky-for-some-today/>on > iOS is still hit and miss. Still, the kind of update problem I > experienced with Windows 8 is pretty inexcusable. > > There are already plenty of public doubts about the viability of Windows > 8, and giving new users a steaming pile instead of a reliable update to fix > some unexplained issue is horrific. As I sat there staring at a frozen > screen with no solution in sight without having an extra computer -- my Mac > -- available to search for an answer, I remembered that Apple had never, > ever dealt me these kinds of cards. Yes, I've had to re-boot from a few > updates, but nothing like this. It would be one thing if it was just me and > my Windows 8 laptop had some special configuration, but lots of people were > burned with the same issue with brand new hardware. > > Microsoft -- it just "doesn't work," and more and better testing is needed. > > Apple is far from perfect, but as the old saying goes, you don't get a > second chance to make a first impression. Microsoft, this is no way to > compete with Apple's out-of-the box experience. No way at all. > > Your trusty TUAW blogger tries Windows > 8<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/18/your-trusty-tuaw-blogger-tries-windows-8/>originally > appeared on TUAW > - The Unofficial Apple Weblog <http://www.tuaw.com> on Tue, 18 Dec 2012 > 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of > feeds<http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/> > . > Source<http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/meet?ocid=GA8_SEM_GOO_Learn_Search_Txt_Desktop&semid=ef_GGL_e_17i1h30uqr4ffd3kft2l_16854402672&WT.search=1> > | > Permalink<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/18/your-trusty-tuaw-blogger-tries-windows-8/> > | Email this <http://www.tuaw.com/forward/20405245/> | > Comments<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/12/18/your-trusty-tuaw-blogger-tries-windows-8/#comments> > > > > Things you can do from here: > > - Subscribe to TUAW - The Unofficial Apple > Weblog<http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.tuaw.com%2Frss.xml?source=email>using > > *Google Reader* > - Get started using Google > Reader<http://www.google.com/reader/?source=email>to easily keep up with > *all your favorite sites* > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Unique Geek" group. 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