Apple Inc. maintains its trendy, sleek personality, while Microsoft goes through a desperate endeavor to appeal to Macintosh, iPhone, and iPad users. What once used to be the staple in all have home computing, (Windows) is now considerably unappealing to the modern computer users.
Will Microsoft every come out on top again?
Where I Come From (Regarding Windows Usage)
I can remember the 1st personal computer I ever used. It was a Compaq built machine that ran Windows 95. The only computers I regularly used were that Compaq with WIndows 95 on it, and a desktop that my grandpa had (Which ran Windows 98).
When my father decided to buy a new machine, (Sony Vaio with Windows Millenium Edition) he gave me his old one to put in my room. I was ecstatic, even though it had no internet connection. The GUI was so familiar to me, and I felt right at home using it. I also considered it an honor to finally have my own PC in my room.
My sister got a desktop after my dad did. It ran Windows 98, and I can remember playing games on it with her such as The Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Sim Themepark. All the games ran so smoothly on Windows 98, and ran well on all the other computers in the household as well. Those computers were awesome to play games on. The interface on all of them were so familiar to me and my family. Windows was the standard… I grew up with it all around me.
Keep in mind this was all when I was around 9 years old, so I barely knew what an operating system was. (Obviously I do now).
The next OS that came around the corner was Windows XP. When I went to my friends house that had a PC in the basement running XP, I could remember thinking, “Look at all the fancy colors and how good it looks!” What I was thinking about was the interface. It kept all the familiar things I grew to know and love, while making it look more modern. The start menu, the taskbar, etc. We never got a Windows XP machine until my 1st laptop.
My laptop was an HP with a single core clocked around 2 ghz, and had about a GB of RAM. I treasured that thing, and loved playing games on it. None of the computers that were mine actually had an internet connection, except the one that was considered the “family” computer. I had to hook up a phone line to my laptop’s built-in modem to hear all the crazy tones of dial-up tune me into a network of about 64 kbps. (It was horrendously slow).
I can remember loving to have this nostalgic interface in my hands all for myself, with the newest OS Microsoft had. Windows XP remained the most commonly used operating system hands down. Every friend I had when I was around 12 had computers running it. I occasionally saw the “foreign” Macintosh creeping around the corner of some friend’s houses.
When Vista hit, I heard so many horrendous things about it that I didn’t even bother. I waited for Windows 7 to arrive, and it was well worth the wait. Windows 7 is compatible with pretty much every piece of modern hardware, and kept the same interface I know and love. I wouldn’t change a thing about it, and many people would agree.
Microsoft Is Now Hit or Miss
With Windows 8 around the corner, Microsoft is pretty much gambling their entire well-being. If this operating system doesn’t succeed, they are nothing but screwed. They took away the normal taskbar. They took away the normal start button. They took away the normal desktop that contained many “windows” that are familiar to most everyday PC user. Such drastic of a change should be for the good. They are trying to make their OS look classy and slick, while making the interface too user friendly in my opinion.
Windows 8 is designed to be used on all types of computers. (Desktops, laptops, tablets, and probably eventually smartphones). Instead of merging the operating system used on computers such as desktops and laptops with that of tablets and smartphones, Microsoft should keep them separate. Finger swipes do not translate well into mouse movements and clicks. Microsoft made the main thing the users see most of the time the “Metro Tiles” which are pretty much the same thing as the iOS springboard. Each tile represents an application installed on the computer, and you tap/click it to launch. Completely erroneous behavior if you ask me.
Sure it may look good, but it’s entirely impractical. Only people who aren’t advanced, or too lazy to figure out what to do will appreciate this. It’s sad that about 90% of desktop/laptop users will now have a dumbed down OS if they choose to upgrade. Businesses would look like they are playing with a toy if they have this OS running in their cubicles. No one would be considered professional while playing around this joke of an interface.
So I will stay on Windows 7 until Microsoft gives me a reason to upgrade. (Other than making my OS too simplified). Hopefully Windows 9 will give back some of the staples that Windows has had for so many years.
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