Dave Ross not so sure about Microsoft Windows 8
Oct 29, 2012, 10:25 AM | Updated: 11:19 am
After the Ross home computer crashed and kept Dave from accessing his favorite solitaire game, 40 Thieves, he decided it was time to get a new machine.
Though unintentional, Dave became an early adopter of the new Windows 8 technology and used the opportunity to give Ross and Burbank listeners a review of the new system on Monday’s show.
Dave says the new program has “great curb appeal” with icons that expand programs to full screen with just a touch to his computer monitor.
The revamped system can be controlled by touching a device’s display screen and greets users with a mosaic of tiles featuring an array of dynamic applications instead of the old start menu and desktop tiles.
While Dave is impressed by the look of the design, he says finding programs and online tools he regularly uses is proving difficult.
“I like to go to Google and just sort of press the news button. See what Google News tells me,” says Dave. “You can’t find it. They’ve moved things around.”
He says the machine is stowing away his pictures somewhere in the clouds and programs he’s unfamiliar with are taking over.
“I can’t find my bar, my link bar [perhaps bookmarks], that I’ve spent a lifetime assembling. I don’t know where that is anymore.”
Dave acknowledges many of his troubles likely come from his unfamiliarity with the system, but he thinks the whole setup should’ve been a little easier to understand out of the box.
“I have to say that this far into the computer revolution, is it too much to ask for a computer you can plug in and it works the first time?”
Co-host Luke Burbank says one already exists. “It’s called a Mac.”
Many say Microsoft’s gamble on a redesign of Windows was to fend off the competitive threats posed by Apple, which has emerged as the world’s most valuable company on the strength of its iPhone and iPad.
Windows 8 is the most radical redesign of the operating system since 1995 and some analysts consider the software to be Microsoft’s most important product since co-founder Bill Gates won the contract to build an operating system for IBM Corp.’s first personal computer in 1981.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
