Windows 8: A Gamble And A Stumble

As a developer of Windows applications at a small-to-mid-sized business, I have quite a bit of interest in Windows 8, because it’s undoubtedly going to affect my job in the future. I downloaded and played around with the consumer preview on a desktop PC, to see how it would work in a business environment and in a home environment. Things might change between now and release - I am writing this assuming that there are no major changes from now until then.

The too long; didn’t read version is this: the tablet, or Metro mode, works fine as-is. Desktop mode, however, does not coexist peacefully with Metro: it’s something embedded within it. Major system functions like logging in after sleep and finding applications are handled entirely with Metro. This forces a touch interface on desktop users in some of the most annoying places. And it’s not going to be well received, for good reasons.

So, on to my detailed thoughts on Windows 8. I think a little backstory is useful here.

Convergence, then Separation

Windows PC’s made it into the home in the 90’s because they were cheap, and people already knew how to use them at work. What resulted from this was that home users got stuck with a work OS. It wasn’t easy or fun to use, and there was a lot of maintenance tasks that home users got stuck with, like dealing with filesystems, application installation, antivirus, networking and driver issues. It was the best available, though, so consumers bought them all up.

Businesses loved Windows for the most part. They got a system standardized with every other business, so interoperability was easy, and there wasn’t any work situation Windows couldn’t handle. Furthermore, as time went on, everybody learned to tolerate Windows, so you didn’t have to train anyone to operate the system itself because it was standard knowledge.

Then OS X came along. It did some things a lot better than Windows, but it was more expensive for most people¹, and people had to learn OS X’s quibbles in addition to XP’s (unless they were lucky enough to be able to use it for work). Also, OS X didn’t free them from worrying about the filesystem, or installing applications (better yet, uninstalling), and driver issues still came up with peripherals, perhaps even more so than Windows. So it’s not a huge surprise that OS X didn’t unseat Windows in the home, though it did have an impact.

The iPad, however is something else. Nearly all of the hassles with PC’s in the home are removed with an iPad. No viruses. No drivers. No filesystem. No 2-hour battery life. No performance hiccups. Most importantly, a very simple and clean UI. It’s a breath of fresh air, and a no-brainer for many home users tired of “dealing” with their PC.

That doesn’t matter to business very much. The iPad is not easily interoperable, the multitasking is not very efficient, the filesystem is really needed to work productively, and you only get one tiny screen to show apps on. It presents hinderances to business workflows - yes, you can make it work if you try, but it’s hard to imagine it being worth it.

What does this mean for Microsoft? The home and business markets finally diverged for PC’s. Consumers are fed up with using business machines at home and finally have an alternative. Microsoft will get shut out of the home market unless they address it - and because the iPad and Mac go together better than the iPad and PC, the loss of the home market would exert pressure on the business market as well.

Apple now has two enviroments: one for casual use at home, and one for work. Those are iOS and OS X. Microsoft had the option to build an entirely new OS for tablets, but chose not to, instead creating one OS for both markets, presumably in an attempt to prevent the breakup of the home and business market.

Windows 8: A Flawed Answer

What Microsoft needs to have to ensure success in both markets is this:

• For home tablet users, have a simple touch-interface OS, with easy app downloads, and no geek maintenance tasks like antivirus or driver installation. On top of that, the tablet needs to have real advantages over the iPad to be successful at all.
• For business users, it needs to remain the same, or the changes must increase productivity. Reduced maintenance tasks, better security, better built-in tools for doing work (Office’s responsibility mostly), and general keyboard-and-mouse UI improvements.

As of the consumer preview, this is what they actually accomplished.

For home tablet users, a touch OS that mostly meets the requirements of a good tablet OS. However, its advantages over the iPad are obscure things like multitasking, whereas the iPad has a mature ecosystem, good, inexpensive hardware and solid performance². We will likely have a situation similar to the Kindle Fire: doing well compared to other tablets besides the iPad, but not doing well otherwise. They haven’t executed it badly, but it’s hard to argue that their execution is any better for users than the iPad’s is.

The kicker is for those at work and home using the keyboard and mouse, though. There are a handful that might try using the Metro mode excusively, but this is not optimized for keyboard/mouse use. Most will work in the desktop OS, getting work done. However, Metro is wrapped around the desktop mode, and Metro is heavily reliant on gestures and otherwise hidden interface elements. The OS as a whole uses Metro for commonly used interface elements. Here’s a couple examples below of the differences between Windows 7 and Windows 8 for desktop users.

Waking from sleep mode

• Old way: password window pops up, type it in, you’re logged back in. Sometimes on corporate intranets it’ll tell you to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL but that’s spelled out for you right on the screen.
• New Way: big photo screen with the time, date and Wifi status comes up. No icons or anything indicating how to log back in. To do so, you have to click anywhere, and drag the entire screen upwards to see the login screen. Let me stress that there is nothing that gives you any hint that this is what you need to do until you click, in which case when you release the mouse button the screen slides up a bit, theoretically indicating you can slide it up to reveal something. When you do so by dragging, you finally see the password box.

Launch Notepad (the GUI way)

• Old way: Start menu -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad
• New way: Move your mouse to the lower-left hotcorner (again, no icon to indicate this exists), click to bring up the Start screen, aaand… Notepad doesn’t show up anywhere as an app. Only way to bring it up? Start typing the text “notepad” to bring up the search. There isn’t even an app search box that you start typing into - you have to start pressing keys to make this appear. Again, no icon or indicator or hint to tell you to do so.

The result is that on the desktop, things that you knew how to do before seem to be gone completely. For geeks, that’ll be mildly annoying until they inevitably figure it out. For most people, that’ll be nearly rage-inducing, and there will be many calls to IT. Windows 8 on the desktop is, in the current Consumer Preview incarnation, going to be a learning experience, not a pleasant one, and not one that is in any way necessary.

Reactions and Reasons

The Windows Vista debacle proved that people hold Windows to a certain standard. If it’s slow and irritating, there will be a revolt, even if it isn’t deserved. Vista was only slow on crappy hardware for about a year or two, and the changes made in Vista really were improvements to the experience. It only needed some getting used to, or sometimes some newer hardware. Windows 7 changed the taskbar and did little else, and it’s now one of the most well-liked versions of Windows ever - it’s 95% Vista, and yet people love it.

The common user’s reaction to Windows 8 will make Vista look great by comparison. It forces people to pretend their mouse is a finger in some contexts but not in others. It forces people to learn gestures that make no sense on the desktop. It forces users to learn capabilities that are hidden by default. It almost makes me think Microsoft is trolling its desktop users.

Why are they doing this? I can only imagine it’s an effort to eventually get people to use the touch interface for everything, and to eliminate desktop mode. That was if it was a logical decision at all - it could be some loony idea that blending the two interfaces together will create “synergy” and that the product will be better because of it.

If we believe the former - let’s not give legitimacy to the latter - then that’s a misguided idea. Apple is doing this the right way with Mountain Lion: they’re bringing over features from iOS, but they fit into the OS X user interface scheme. This scheme is highly optimized for keyboard and mouse input and it works quite well. They are trying to reduce dependence on the filesystem and on outside-of-app-store installations, but they aren’t removing those unless they are no longer needed for work.

Instead Microsoft still thinks work and home systems can be satisfied with one common operating scheme. I think it’s a mistake to think this way now. The wants of both groups have always been different, but until now home users didn’t have an option. Now that they do, the answer isn’t to try and blend them together.

It Can Be Much Better

Geeks can get over it. It’s not too hard to learn these hidden gestures - in fact, even the average guy will eventually learn them all. But he won’t be happy to do it, and Windows sales are driven as much by public perception (see Vista) as necessity and desire to upgrade for IT departments (also see Vista). Windows 8 does not look like it will score very well on either front.

That said, if Desktop mode and Metro mode had been separated entirely - perhaps with an on-launch option - then it would be a much different product. Metro mode works fine on its own. Desktop mode works fine on its own. If Desktop was untouched, then it would be the same old Windows for the people who need it to be the same old Windows. And Metro doesn’t need to be interfacing with the desktop at all - there shouldn’t be any keyboard/mouse-optimized elements accessible on a tablet.

Would it have been so bad to have a choice on installation or startup: Tablet mode and Desktop mode? Pick one, then that’s your computer. You could switch at any time, so you can have a tablet on the go, then plug into a monitor, keyboard & mouse, and switch over to work mode. That is a cool idea that intrigues me - one computer for both work & home. However, how many systems will there be that will be capable of running x86 apps, be affordable, have decent specs and be decent tablets? There won’t be very many for quite a while, and the Windows 8 work experience isn’t going to be a pleasant one regardless thanks to the interference of the Metro interface.

In conclusion, I would be very, very surprised if Windows 8 did as well as Windows 7. I would not be so surprised if it did better than Vista, but I expect it to do worse. If that is the case, I also expect that when it goes out the door, Steve Ballmer won’t be far behind.

Responsiveness

I’m an avid reader of RSS feeds and blogs, whether they be long form or short form. My iPad is the best tool to do both, thanks to the Reeder and Instapaper apps. For a reason that I haven’t been able to put my finger on until today, though, I’ve much preferred reading in Reeder over Instapaper. I think I have finally figured out why: responsiveness.

When I launch Instapaper, new article titles are loaded and displayed, but the content is unavailable for a few seconds. Then it becomes available, then I tap on the article square. It then hangs for about half a second, then displays the article screen, but there’s a spinner which runs for another half second while it processes the data, before displaying the article itself. The lags occur even if you’ve already opened and read the article before.

Reeder perhaps takes a little longer to load the contents, but once they are loaded, there is no lag (except to load pictures) at all. You can tap, flip through and read articles as fast as your fingers can move. Reeder instantly reacts to your commands in a very smooth and fluid way.

Is responsiveness important for a long-form reading app as opposed to an RSS reader? It might be less important, but I think it’s important for any application. The bottom line is that if there’s an article in Reeder that I can “star” to save for later instead of saving it in Instapaper, I’ll prefer that approach because it’s nicer to use.

It’s a complex situation, but I don’t enjoy using Instapaper nearly as much as Reeder as a result. It’s a shame, really, because it is otherwise a wonderful app with a great developer behind it. But then, so is Reeder.

Exclusive Betas

The new Tweetbot for iPad app was released to the public today, and it’s a great app. Here’s something I’ve noticed about what the blog writers are saying about it, though:

David Chartier:

I helped beta test both versions and there’s a ton of great new stuff.

MG Siegler:

I’ve been testing out Tweetbot for iPad for a few weeks now, it’s brilliant.

Shawn Blanc:

I’ve been using it for the past several weeks and the more I use it the more I like it. Highly recommended.

Though I miss the days of public betas - when for a little extra work and a little extra patience you could have all of the coolest stuff fresh off the build server - I understand why those days are over. For one, Apple won’t even let you publicly distribute an app beta, and that conflicts with the practice of never revealing a product until it’s ready to buy. Also, there are advantages to hand-picking beta testers. Above all, though, nobody will argue that the quality of apps have suffered as a result - well, at least I wouldn’t.

However, I’m a bit perturbed by how so many of the popular and highly-respected blog writers were in on the beta. Is it really a beta, or an exclusive preview disguised as a beta? Are the writers being let in on it because they’re good beta testers (which they probably are) or because they’re more likely to drive traffic to their new app than anyone else? It smells fishy to me.

Sample Data

 public static IEnumerable<ShippingData> GetSampleShippingData()
        {
            return new List<ShippingData>{ new ShippingData
               {
                   Carrier = "Planet Express",
                   DateShipped = new DateTime(3000, 1, 1),
                   ServiceLevel = "Next Day Intragalactic"
               }};
        }

Hey, gotta have some fun at work.