I believe that W8 has good points (security, speed) and less good ones (GUI and the whole tiles business, multi program usage and unnecessarily obtuse navigation) the latter being well suited to tablet/phone systems (provided you have little finger oil and no abrasives on your skin). W8 is not well suited to desktop systems, and I don't think the desktop is obsolete. If speed is the major need, certainly most would be satisfied with SSD's.

Therefore, "Blue" is coming... suggesting MS sees the need to actually consider customer desires.

This is a customization site. The severe limitations put on customization, and a decade-plus of art have garnered it some fans here... but even the majority of them only with the help of Stardock's products and the hope we all have for Windowblinds 8 (and more Stardock programs in the future). 

More like "Blue" is coming... suggesting MS sees the need to actually garner more customer money.

Oddly enough... if customer needs and desires are satisfied, sales seem to increase.

Who knew?

I really am trying to remain respectful towards this community/thread.  I'll admit of course that the thread TITLE certainly got my hackles up (but then I'm sure kona knew exactly what he was doing!) and my initial posts to this thread may have been in kind however I believe that I have subsequently posted valid if opposing viewpoints and it seems the community (save one or two like Wizard) just ignore those valid points and carry on for........the sake of carrying on.

I have now repeatedly stated that (yes Jafo, Redneck and others.....) I know I am in the 'skinning' part of the universe where people who focus on the look/feel of things like to congregate to share ideas in how to change the look/feel of GUI's.  I absolutely get that and can respect that.  I have not and will not now expect to change anyone's mind on that and whether or not I happen to like the GUI of any particular OS is a moot point to this discussion.

I have now also repeatedly stated that while there are certain positives to Windows 8 that may only be of benefit at the enterprise level (windows to go, hyper-v, etc. etc.) the other positives/advancements such as much better/smarter memory management, better power management, more robust internal OS security and the fact that Windows 8 runs so much better on older hardware it is painfully obvious are all things one can expect the average end-user might be interested in.  I have provided a thread in which I detailed my experience taking a notebook from 2005, which had shipped with XP Pro and over the years of same task-use was reformatted to Vista Business, Windows 7 Pro and now Windows 8 Pro and have discovered that this latest OS utilizes the old hardware from 2005 more efficiently which manifests as a pretty obvious performance increase.  No SSD's, no other hardware improvements done to that old notebook (not even fan replacement) except an increase in HD size which happened during the notebook's Windows 7 reformat.

The fact that no one appears to really care about those 'benefits', points out to me in no uncertain terms that this really is just about people here hating the look/feel of the new OS's GUI so much they are not only willing to overlook any real benefit to the new OS, they are actively ignoring same.  That is just sad.

On one hand you have posters suggesting that not everyone can afford to have rigs like starkers, and besides giving the credit to MS for a 'better/faster OS' with components such as in starkers' machine running the OS is not appropriate.  True, but then you have posters suggesting hey with an SSD etc. look how the older OS flies.......meanwhile giving the older OS's the same sort of 'credit'....

We don't want to spend $40 to get better overall OS performance (among other things) but we'll spend $100's on SSD's (yes I understand an SSD doesn't just speed up the OS)? 

As I've also stated before, while I'm sure the older hardware market segment was/is not MS's target market I have done extensive testing (besides my old notebook) and the new OS consistently outperforms older OS's on aging hardware to the point where if a client wants to get the most out of older hardware I have no problem suggesting Win8 before some other more costly hardware upgrades.

I think after repeating myself yet again, I may have to bow out of this thread to keep my blood-pressure at a healthier level.  

Actually, I was referring to any system with any OS. The credit goes to the SSD technology, not the OS.  If you want a marked, highly noticable improvement in speed on any hardware, old or new, an SSD is the most bang for the buck you can get. And speaking of bucks, it costs more now to get Win 8 than a quality SSD. The MS $40 bargain price is now over and done with, while SSD prices per GB continue to drop.

(and my SSD was a gift from a real friend, it cost me nothing)

My point is, I just bought 8, now I'm supposed to pay for Win 8 SP 1?

I'm not ready to BUY another OS. Blue should be a service pack.

I have to agree with reply 126.       

Bottom line folks is that none of this is important enough to raise anyone's blood pressure.  Plain and simple all these discussions are only about personal preferences when it comes to our computers.  These are personal computers, not public ones. 

For those that find they are repeating themselves, possibly an antacid or anti-gas tablet might be helpful. 

So by the reports coming in the general public says Windows 8 is a failure. Many people here say Windows 8 is a failure. Yet a few here keep arguing that Windows 8 is the next best thing since sliced bread. Guess what? You're outnumbered. If it works for you, fine. However it doesn't work for the rest of the world. 

Doc, you have talent. That's hilarious. 

I do believe I may be your favorite subject....lol.

I think that's a tad overstated.... if only by one "the".

Also: http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-brings-in-2049-billion-in-revenue-for-q1-2013

Hmmm... guess the rest of the world wasn't aware of what it was supposed to be thinking.

Edited. Thanks. 

Just saw this:  http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-brings-in-2049-billion-in-revenue-for-q1-2013

No "Blue" in there. Just green.

Windows 8 is doomed!!!!!

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/18/technology/enterprise/microsoft-earnings/index.html

Microsoft reported a quarterly profit Thursday that rose from year-ago results, buoyed by the first full quarter of Windows 8 sales.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said operating income in its fiscal third-quarter rose 19% to $7.6 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the period ended March 31. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecast earnings of 68 cents per share.

^ Yep.

"Microsoft's press release stated that the Windows division brought in revenues of $5.70 billion for the quarter, an increase of 23 percent for the same period a year ago. "

- http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-brings-in-2049-billion-in-revenue-for-q1-2013

Gotta be something wrong with the world when you can make money off a backwards operating system. 

For some perspective....

http://www.pcworld.com/article/251490/windows_8_survey_half_who_have_tried_the_os_wouldnt_recommend_it.html

Summary:

According to this survey, satisfaction with W8 is about half and half...about half like it and would recommend it while about half dislike it and would not recommend it....you can read the article to see the percentages yourself, but it is very close to a 50-50 split...

It's easy to lose perspective when you surround yourself with people that think like you do....here we have employees and customers of a company that makes skinning software, so it only makes sense that most people on this forum dislike W8 (or at least the GUI)...on the flip side, I have yet to personally meet someone who dislikes W8 (about 8 or so friends use it), but then I also come from a crowd clearly different than most individuals here...

In short, it's wrong to call W8 critics or W8 advocates "minorities" since both groups are about the same size...obviously from a business standpoint, having a product approval of ~50% is foreboding, but it is hardly justification to cast either set of opinions as moronic or extreme....

For the record, that's 20.49 billion, not 2049. That revenue figure is from all MS operations and doesn't really reflect whether Win8 has helped or hurt that number.

 "the Windows division brought in revenues of $5.70 billion for the quarter, an increase of 23 percent for the same period a year ago."  That is to be expected during an OS release year, but I wonder how much of that was purchases of Windows 7 made to replace Win 8 on an OEM install. I also suspect there are a lot of unused copies of Win 8 out there that were picked up soley because it was cheap to do so. I wonder how sales have been since the price increase? Money is money to MS  shareholders though.