[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]Thanks for the workarounds, but that's not really the issue here.Why do you think Microsoft went out of their way to stop users from disabling Metro? Why do you think they're forcing users to boot into Metro instead of giving them a choice? Answer these questions and you'll know why finding workarounds doesn't help solve the underlying problem.If Windows 8 and Metro take off, there will probably be no desktop in Windows 9. There will only be Office for Metro, new DirectX will only be for Metro, software vendors will switch from making desktop applications to Metro apps, and you'll need Microsoft's permission to install anything on your computer. That's basically where they're going with this, and in Windows 8 they allow the users just enough choice to ease that transition, nothing more than they absolutely have to.At this point I'd rather use Linux than Windows 8, but I think that I won't have to. Windows 7 will be supported until 2020, and long before that Surface will fail, WP8 will fail and when the current leadership in Microsoft is ousted, hopefully they'll find a more intelligent and less arrogant way make mobile devices and PCs (which are nothing alike) work together.[/citation]
I recognize, understand, and can fully agree with that sentiment very well. What MS is trying to do is despicable. If someone doesn't want Windows 8 due to the way that MS is trying to pull on us, then I have find no fault with their reasoning. However, complaining about Windows 8 for the wrong reasons annoys the heck out of me like any other mindless whining and such. I most certainly dislike it when people try spreading misinformation as fact, especially on a tech oriented site that is full of people who should know better. What some people don't seem to realize is that a little knowledge about something, although occasionally helpful, can be far worse than almost none at all, especially when they get almost fanatical about it.
However, I'm not so sure about Windows 8 failing. Don't forget that the average user probably didn't use the start menu in Windows 7 very much at all and also don't forget that they are the people that MS really cares about. Anyone in the business or enterprise and such markets, although they are the sort of people who are also important to MS and the most likely to have problems with Windows 8 if they don't know what to do with it, are also the most likely to either simply not care about upgrading to Windows 8 and Server 2012 and if they do and have trouble, they are likely to solve the problem by either downgrading or doing something about it if they really want to stay with the newer OSes.
Then, there are people in the middle, such as us enthusiasts, gamers, and other mid-kinda high end users (some power users and professionals whom don't need incredibly high end systems for their work). Unfortunately, although we may have some sway, we are probably the smallest market for the tech companies. We get sandwiched between the other two and mostly have the consumer stuff to work with. Even worse, many of the larger sub-groups within this middle class, such as the professionals, can use either purely more business/enterprise oriented stuff that lacks many of the idiot-proofed and such qualities of the consumer stuff (stuff being hardware, software, OS, and anything else of that sort that I might have missed) or at least a mix. The rest of us can either figure our own way through a lot of problems (both perceived and actually real) or be otherwise screwed in some way(s).
As far as I'm concerned, I'm more than willing to put up with a little more effort to save a buck or get some other sort of advantage. For example, on my own computers, I tend to use eval copies of Windows instead of buying my own. With hardware, I often try to get the absolute most out of it. This usually means that I like to use eval copies of server versions of Windows instead of regular versions due to the lower overhead and oftentimes better resource management. They also tend to at least be a little more secure and let me access more settings and such. I also make some use of different Linux distros (my preferred distro is Tinycore/Microcore because they only take up a little over 10MB of disk space, are probably about as light as a full desktop OS can get, and are faster than any other OS that I've ever used. They have effectively zero bloat.
Tinycore is the 32 bit version. There isn't an official 64 bit version with a GUI, but it only takes a few minutes to download the three or four files that the home page tells you to (they're very small) and use PowerISO (or a similar program) to put them in the ISO image for the 64 bit copy of Microcore (it's basically Tinycore, except it is command line because by default, it has no GUI, that's what the few small files that you download are for). These files just happen to be hosted by that very site too and it's all very easy. That almost any Windows program can be made to run well in Linux nowadays also makes such a transition easier for people who at least have a clue as to what they're doing, even if they're not experts.
My point is that you probably shouldn't think that people such as us are very relevant to MS's profits compared to other markets with many more people and that we probably won't react to Metro in the same way as those other peoples will. If there are problems, then we can try to solve them, but really, MS probably isn't going to solve their own problems just because of us nor are they likely to fail just because of us. Tens of thousands of mild to hardcore enthusiasts and such might hate Windows 8 (mostly for the wrong reasons, granted that's not relevant to this point), but millions of other users probably won't have such issues with it. If people want to send MS an impacting message, then they need to get more of the average users and/or the business/enterprises on-board for the ride too.
For that to happen, they need to have reasons to dislike what MS is doing. There are several problems with that. For example, the average user probably has no clue about all of this, probably wouldn't care anyway, and even if they did, they would probably need reasons other than what we care about in order to be active about this. Their concerns are not the same as ours and even at best, most of them are probably able to be satisfied by Metro. It won't really get in the way of Farmville, email, other web-surfing, and office work. It also won't really get in the way of a lot of even stuff that people such as us do. If most people don't mind Metro, then for the most part, they won't mind losing the desktop shell too much (if at all) either. Unless there is something that you, I, or anyone else can do about that, MS is in control and we're left trying to make something out of it all, even if it means using Linux exclusively or at least almost exclusively.
I'm also not sure about WP8 failing. In many ways, WP7's current version is actually quite excellent, granted it does still have some severe issues. If WP8 fixes at least most of them and at least alleviates the rest, then it could be great. I would probably still prefer my Android phones, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate the fact that the competition can be good too.
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