Noted, but his primary issue was the buggyiness, not aesthetics. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 20, 2012, at 8:22 AM, Luke Jaconetti <[email protected]> wrote:

> 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
>> via TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog 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, 
>> 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%", 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 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 was 
>> not the greatest moment for the company, and there have been some pretty 
>> flaky versions of OS X in the past. MobileMe was never satisfying, and Apple 
>> iMessage 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 originally appeared on TUAW - The 
>> Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our 
>> terms for use of feeds.
>> 
>> Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
>> 
>>  
>>  
>> Things you can do from here:
>> Subscribe to TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog using Google Reader
>> Get started using Google Reader 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.
> To view this discussion on the web visit 
> https://groups.google.com/d/msg/theuniquegeek/-/cieZpX_eMAwJ.
> To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
> [email protected].
> For more options, visit this group at 
> http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek?hl=en.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The 
Unique Geek" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/theuniquegeek?hl=en.

Reply via email to