Windows 8, you scare me

I’ve been reading about the upcoming features of Windows 8 and I have to say I’m far from impressed. Now that Microsoft has been handed their asses in the both the tablet and mobile market, they’ve decided to forego fixing the deficiencies of Windows 7 and are overcompensating by making everything touch enabled and mobile ready. That’s a great idea, but I have no use for such things in my desktop OS. I don’t want those damnable widgets I’ve seen on the Windows 7 phone. That is a horrible UI for a desktop. The only cloud feature I need is something as easy and convenient as Dropbox, except more secure. I don’t want everything tied to Internet Explorer. Is the ability to make an ISO something I need to wait for an entirely new OS for? Why can’t I manipulate ZIP and RAR files natively in Windows? Why do I have to use a file manager tool as antiquated as Explorer? Why can’t Windows support multiple monitors correctly and give me a taskbar that stretches across both and the ability to have applications start on a specific screen?

There are so many gaps in Windows that need to be addressed. Microsoft seems to suffer from the George Lucas syndrome. They’ve decided that making something flashy and shiny is more important than making something with substance. Who cares about the plot, make more explosions!

You know what I love about the iPad, the fact that I don’t have to configure it. I didn’t have to set up the network, I didn’t have to load any drivers, I don’t have to wonder if an app I download is going to work on my device. For a tablet, a closed system is actually beneficial. You know things will work. You don’t have to dig into the innards of the machine to bring out functionality. Windows doesn’t work that way. I’m constantly fighting with drivers and configuration issues. Windows isn’t easy, it’s constantly getting in the way of itself. I can’t count the number of hours I’ve spend searching for registry keys to turn off the functionality Microsoft says I need.

Here’s another thing, how is Windows 7 better than XP or even 2000? As a user that does a ton of writing, plays a few games, works with the Internet for 12+ hours a day, stores dozens of terabytes worth of data and manipulates photos on a weekly basis, how is Windows 7 or 8 or even Vista better than what I’ve had before? Windows 7 is 64-bit which is great, too bad the rest of the apps aren’t. I’m not really getting an advantage there am I, expect for being able to use more than 4GB of memory, which is itself a double-edged sword. If apps were written more efficiently would I really need more than 4GB? If I wasn’t bogged down with hundreds of megs worth of .Net Framework and runtime libraries would I be better off? If Windows and Office didn’t take up dozens of gigs of HD space would I really need terabytes worth of drive space?

The point is, I don’t want to worry about the OS. I don’t even want to know it’s there. I want it to do its job and get the hell out of my way. I don’t want all this stupid bling on the desktop. I don’t want to search for drivers and make sure apps are compatible. I want to forget about the OS. Hell, I want the OS to be invisible. The less I know it’s there the better. If what I’m reading is true, then I want nothing to do with Windows 8.