Somewhat rare, these days, of course.
[]
I'm looking after two at the moment, both complete newcomers - and they
Never used an ATM, FreeView box (TV addon box), most TVs, even some
washing machines, ...?
were totally baffled by Windows 8. I installed Classic Shell, and now we're
getting on fine. One of them who had been struggling with Windows 8 for a
while asked me why on earth the menu system wasn't included as standard as
it was so obviously better than "a mass of silly pictures" (his words) -
Interesting. I'm pleased at his use of "obviously", especially if he
really was a computer newcomer; it does support my own view that
graphical (to this extent!) isn't always best.
other than to tell him that it always used to be in every version of
Windows, I had no answer, of course. No logic - no answer.
Once you've talked them out of having anything to do with the utterly
dreadful Windows Live Mail (luckily, there's nothing in the operating
system to tell them about it so they may not even hear of it) and put
(Good.)
Thunderbird on they're fine and can start making progress. I don't think it
is just the elderly that need logic - waving a mouse pointer around the
No; in my (limited) experience, the elderly are a lot more open to some
things than people expect. I still find my (rare) cases of computer
newcomers among the middle-aged and even younger - people who've never
seen that they need to get involved with computers. Probably not anyone
under about 30ish now, though, as schooling has involved their use for
about that long.
edge of the screen hoping for a menu to pop up instead of clicking an
obvious start button is plainly stupid at any age. I've been doing it for
Well, it obviously didn't seem so for whoever thought of it - and at
least to some extent to his/her supervisor, and those on whom they tried
it out (they must have done _some_ of that, surely).
some time now and still can't find the damn thing first go. The folk that
use the laptop's inbuilt mouse pad have *no* hope. Maybe it's easier when
you poke at it with your finger, but I haven't had to use any tablet
computers yet so that's a dubious delight I have to come.
You and me both. But remember that the younger generation (not just them
- just a convenient shorthand) _are_ used to jabbing all the time, on
their handheld devices (which they probably call 'phones).
Likewise, and, like most people, I like that with which I am familiar.
That's what I'm trying to guard against in myself.
However, I am quite prepared to admit when something is actually easier and
better and thus happy to change to the new version. When I first got the
Though I bet you - like me - take some convincing.
dreaded Vista the first thing I did was made the interface look like XP -
but when I got Windows 7 I gave the Legoland interface (as we called it)
another go and realised it was actually slightly easier to use. I still
don't like the fact that it takes me two clicks to get to the "All
Programs" list instead on the one click it took before, but I'm not tempted
Took me a long time to actually get used to XP after '9x; there are
still things I hanker for, but the (much-vaunted to the extent that I
used to find it very irritating) increased stability _is_ worth having,
and of course the better hardware (mainly USB) support. (And it amuses
me that XP users and beyond have to click on "Advanced" to change many
things about screen appearance, whereas '9x folk were considered capable
of handling such matters.)
[]
All of those versions that you mentioned posed an odd problem or two, but
there were none that I could not use immediately until Windows 8 came
Well, I still find finding certain things in 7 (which I don't yet have
myself) hard to find. (And I _think_ I did in XP.) So "use immediately -
with limitations" would describe my experience. My one real experience
of 8 so far was similar, in that I could do the few things I wanted/had
time to do (other than escape from the video player).
along. Several versions of Linux presented no problems whatever to use
immediately they were installed. For the first time with Windows 8 I had to
use Google to find out how to use the darned interface, (it took me half a
But how long did it take you with DOS/W3.x/'95/'98/XP/Vista? Or rather,
how long would it have taken you if you _hadn't_ used the previous ones?
My contention is that 8 is a _major_ change in how to do things, but not
_necessarily_ a change for the worse. I suspect it certainly is a change
for the worse _for me_, and probably for most of us who have used any
previous Windows - and possibly even Linux, Mac, and other OSs.
I guess part of my reaction (and many may be wondering why I am even
bothering to express a view, since I have neither 7 nor 8!), is because
of the vitriolic reactions I've seen, especially in this newsgroup: I
get the impression that many people just gave it one look, and said
"ooh, nasty". Many of them didn't even seem to have realised that TIFKAM
was only the _default_ interface, and that there _was_ (is) a
desktop-like one available too, even without Classic Shell (though some
_application_ creators haven't made their applications "play nice" - or
in some cases at all - with the desktop-like one).
hour to find out how to shut it down) and not until I found Classic Shell
could I use it freely.
Sorry I've rambled on so long, but the sheer and total stupidity of Windows
8 makes me quite angry.
I think it will me too, until I install Classic Shell (or StarDate).
Assuming I ever get 8 that is! I find my time is sufficiently occupied
by actually _doing_ things with my (XP!) computer, that changing it - or
its OS - is pretty low on my list of things to do. It might be W9 by the
time I _have_ to change.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to
be
doing at the moment. -Robert Benchley, humorist, drama critic, and actor
(1889-1945)
