Today, I want to deal with the first of two big lies promulgated by the technology tweeting class. The first lie is that Windows 8 really sucks. The second is that desktops and notebooks are going away soon.

Truth: Windows 8 isn’t all that bad, though the Metro user interface can make that hard to discern.

Two is Not Always Better than One

Windows 8 is really two products that have, for worse not better, been forcibly munged together and foisted upon docile users. Separate the two and you have a pretty damn good operating system that sits below a user interface that may soon get badly needed improvements. But may still suck.

Like you, I saw Microsoft commercials during the football playoffs touting the Metro interface running on phones, tablets and desktops. Like you, I said – out-loud since I was with other techies – “why the hell would I want that?”

Is a bad UI made better because it is inescapable? Or does it just shut down the market for a whole range of Microsoft products? The supposed synergy among all these look-alike products has created something like a new Ice Age for Redmond and its friends. Windows 8’s reception has certainly been chilly and real acceptance glacial.

I keep looking at Windows 8 touch screens, reaching out, touching, watching an app open and thinking, “Isn’t that what a mouse is for?” Followed, almost immediately, by “and look at that smudge I made!”

Today, Metro is a disaster. But it won’t always be – I am going out on a limb here – because Microsoft almost always gets it “right enough” in the end.

Metro is a first generation product and we all know it takes three tries for Microsoft to do anything right. And those are real tries, not what happens when the marketing failure klaxon horns begin sounding.

Over the coming months, I expect Metro to become more like Windows 7. Next year, what may of may not be called Windows 9 should appear. It may finally get Metro right.

Windows 7, meanwhile, qualifies as Microsoft’s best operating system ever, even if Scarlett Johansson does not yet answer my intimate technology questions. (Second best: Windows 2000).

My Search for Portability

I am thinking about this because I am right now in the market for a new portable something. My trusty 8-year-old Dell notebook has finally died and it is time to upgrade. I want highly portable and usable, because I will be carrying this machine around. It needs to support my work as well as my volunteer life in emergency communications.

My new portable must be able to run Windows and probably will not be a Mac, mostly because of cost for a Mac that does Windows well.

A 15-inch screen will do nicely. Windows 7 is first choice. But, the notebook replacement Windows tablets also interest me. The Dell Venue 11 has captured my fancy, but I really, really don’t want to make a mistake.

Cost is an issue, in the sense that I don’t want to overbuy or overpay. My needs are more portability than power. Obviously, I’d prefer Windows 7 but will tolerate Windows 8.

I will probably make the purchase within a week and while I’ve surveyed the market, there is so much out there that if you’d like to make suggestions, I’d appreciate them. What notebook or equivalent would you purchase and why?

Drop me an email and I’ll report back.

photo credit: mbiebusch via photopin cc