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Microsoft’s rumoured to be pulling ‘an Apple’, shifting from big product updates every three or so years, to a more rapid, yearly refresh cycle. The rumours currently focus on ‘Blue’, which is supposed to be a sort of feature-pack upgrade that Microsoft would sell though its online store, a bit like Apple does with OS X 10.x updates. But would you be up for paying a small amount, say £25, for that kind of thing every year?
Apple’s managed to successfully persuade people that they should rapidly upgrade every time Cupertino pushes out an update. It’s done that primarily through adding new features and tweaks, while not charging the Earth for them. Microsoft’s, ethos up until now, was hold back the improvements and hit people with them in a massive upgrade, making people pay through the nose for them.
Windows 8 kind of changed that with the cheap initial upgrade price, which recently expired, so is this a mark of things to come, and do you even really care? Apparently we’re not just talking Windows here, either. Windows Phone, Windows RT, and possibly other Microsoft products are in line for a ‘Blue’ refresh too. How much would be too much to stop you from opening your wallet for Microsoft’s latest and greatest, though? [ZDnet]
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Yup, better than £180 in one chunk on an OS that will be out of date in a handful of years.
Duh.
If it actually works, then yeah I guess. Depends on how it’s implemented though, and what happens to data and programs (I’ve never owned a mac so I don’t really know how it works with Apple)
Depends on the update – at the moment I wouldn’t update from 7 to 8 for free!
Why on earth not?! It’s faster, has loads of improvements, and tiles! The tiles are great!
I like the under the bonnet tinkering but the cosmetic stuff suck donkey balls.
I saw that show in Tijuana
There’s nothing wrong with the tiles at all, and if you’re even using them to navigate in the first place you’ve not been using a PC long enough – the keyboard is still FAR quicker than the mouse cursor.
Start, type the first few letters of the application you’re after, press Enter.
Exactly the same way you should have been using the Start Menu since Vista – No need to even look at it.
Agreed. This is basically how I’ve been using the Start button since Vista and it’s how I continue to use Windows 8.
This does make a mockery of the Metro interface (since I barely use it), but then it’s not ruining the experience either. I still benefit from all of the other advantages of the new OS.
TUIFKAM, in a nutshell, is there for prodding. If it’s not being prodded, then the keyboard still rules the roost (though if anyone can tell me what the replacement sequence for Alt+V, D in Explorer is, I’ll owe them a beer!)
Oh sure, I set some of the tiles up for basic smartphone-alike uses like email, news and weather, and they’re pretty nifty (albeit not life-changing). However, the rest of it just functions as a full-screen Start bar, and I’d rather use the keyboard for that.
‘View’ ribbon > Options > ‘View’ tab > ‘Apply to Folders’?
It’s not a direct replacement, but I got so bored of hitting that Details shortcut as well, it’s one of the first things I do on a new PC.
The problem is that I switch back and forth so frequently, especially when manipulating photos, between XL thumbnails and details, so having a working keyboard shortcut is a must atm.
At present that’s my only gripe with Win8 – the Release Preview had Ctrl+Alt+[1-6] for the different view options, which has been nuked in the final version.
Yeah, that’s pretty rubbish. Hold Ctrl and roll the mouse wheel, that’s all I’ve got for you
.
If that switches between them, then brilliant – it may still be better than actually having to use the cursor!
I don’t really care for the tiles one way or the other.
The piss poor hotpotch of a Jekyll and Hyde UI combined with the extra mouse mileage is what depresses me.
Same comment as above – Why are you using the mouse to navigate? The keyboard has been faster since Win 3.1, and will remain so for as long as there’s a need for text input on the device.
I use any and all modes to control it, but my lusers still don’t know what ctrl-x and ctrl-v do and are amazed when I use the ctrl click for selective lists. Ah who am I kidding, they get confused between right and left click sometimes. ;_;
I know it’s a change, but given a short acclimatisation they might actually find it preferable to the Start Menu, especially if coming from Vista/7.
Being dragged across hot coals is preferable to Vista, but I am also fighting the fear of change.
Still preferable to Me though
When it’s unfounded, that can be one of the biggest hurdles to user adoption – fear of the unknown – and it’s one Microsoft are all too well aware of with Win 8.
Faster: in many cases yes, however my current system is plenty fast enough for general usage, and I doubt the OS will change things like Rendering times in my 3d work.
Improvements: I disagree, I hate the direction of windows 8, I think it is a terrible misstep and for my work I have no need for the tiles gui. In a few years, 8 will be classed as the new vista, mark my words.
Ahahahahahahahahaha!
No, probably not although it depends if MS get their heads out of their arses.
Half the PCs I work on, are still on XP and would struggle with modern OSs. Ugh.
Also what the hell are they going to do to justify yearly releases?
Windows 7 is basically a better XP :\
Yar, but it does need a bit more oomph for the shinies and a lot of hardware was left behind from Vista onwards.
OK, but Vista was released six years ago. I agree that it was divisive at the time, but if you’re still using a PC that can’t run Vista perhaps it’s time to upgrade? Even a dual core Ivy Bridge Pentium would do nicely.
Pfft, you try persuading old people to spend money on a new PC when the old one still works.
Combine that with the infinite recession and really there is no hope.
Yeah, I’ve heard that ‘old one still works’ line from sooo many people, most of them, er… senior. I find the only way to persuade them is to demonstrate the advantages in the context of how they use their PC. Most people are happier once they get over the initial hurdle of having to learn something new.
However, you’d have to be highly recession-struck when you can’t afford to buy a perfectly decent desktop for £190 and you only need to do that once every five years or so (equating to roughly £3.20 per month).
More chance of prising limpets off rocks!
To be honest, as a laptop user I’d have to say “NO” as I tend to upgrade my main laptop every 3 or 4 years and that normally comes with the ‘latest’ OS anyway and the one that gets relegated to second place can stay on the proceeding OS as it’s an emergency back-up only. The previous backup machine will get given to friends or family for simple email / internet duties and by then is 7 or 8 years old and would probably struggle with the latest OS.
Exactly what my thoughts but wonder if Microsoft will still be selling/ subsidising Windows 8 with the laptop sales?
sure they will
The only Macs that I’ve got Mountain Lion on are those that came with it… Snow Leopard is still my OSX of choice!
nope. I’m not paying a subscription for an OS
It wouldn’t be a subscription if its anything like OSX you just skip the updates you don’t want, better than paying £180 for an OS which is out of date within a couple of years
No.
I would, but then I would still expect them to provide security updates for free.
Only if they did something worth updating for. Not sure there’s much for me to do it more then every now and then though.