The Verge got to interview Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell, and the priceless quotes are just flying left and right. “We’ll come out with our own and we’ll sell it to consumers by ourselves. That’ll be a Linux box, [and] if you want to install Windows you can. We’re not going to make it hard. This is not some locked box by any stretch of the imagination.” Others will be making Steambox devices too. Also: “Windows 8 was like this giant sadness. It just hurts everybody in the PC business. […] When I started using it I was like ‘oh my god…’ I find [Windows 8] unusable.” This last point is something I agree with vehemently. Can’t comment on Windows 8 on tablets, but on regular PCs it’s a schizophrenic, unusable clusterduck. It got me to switch back to Mac and use KDE (on my laptop). Let that sink in for a while.
Oh great. Playing multiplayer on my sofa with… keyboard and mouse… /facepalm
Clusterduck???? WTF happaned? Not allowed to swear anymore? (clusterfuck is actrually not a swearword in english but a loan word from jutish that got transformed over time. Well , to be honest you could call it an invaseve word as the jutes invaded england together with the saxons and angels.)
Year of the Linux Set-top!
You’re, like, 14 years too late.
“Windows 8 was like this giant sadness.”
bahahahahaha
It’s “Gabe Newell”…
@Thom What happened to the wonderful Windows 7..?
Windows 8 + Start8 is a pretty sweet setup. I never have to see the Metro part and the Desktop part works a little better than the already excellent Windows 7.
So you’re saying you paid for two things just to get it a little better than one thing that is older than either of those two things?
So this is why Windows 8 is a failure?
Only because it’s just slightly better than Windows 7?
No, because you have to tweak it to be better on non-touchscreen devices. (The first thing I do when I log into Win8 is click “Desktop”)
I use Windows 8 without Start8 and don’t have an issue.
Having Windows 8 on a tablet that lasts 10hours and can run legacy apps is pretty much everything I want in a device.
I’m sure others are happy too, I think there’s a fair deal of myopia on OSAlert about the target audience for Windows 8.
Modern UI was designed to be “touched”; and it works well there. When you’re without a touchscreen however…
Though, desktop in Win8 seems to be a bit more consistent than Win7.
I think the criticism of it on a non-Touch device is severely overblown.
I dogfood Windows 8 full time on a developer machine, and as a developer, I can hardly think of any usecase that would require more productivity. I think it stresses it pretty well.
I just use the right tool for the job. For example, if I want a full screen browsing experience for content consumption, I’ll dip into Metro IE.
If I need to view many tabs at a glance very quickly (say if I have 4-5 MSDN tabs open, a couple more tabs with some stats on app downloasds across WP/W8/PubCenter/AdMob/AdDuplex, and a couple instances of VS open) then I’ll use Desktop IE.
Similarly if I’m doing hardcore file management I’ll use explorer, but if I just want to browse for an image on my PC, or on SkyDrive or something I’ll use the Search Charm with App Pickers.
Problem is that Modern UI is supposed to be the main UI. It’s overblown only if you look at criticism from that side. Mouse and keyboard use with Modern UI is a sub-par experience in general and very annoying in too many(read – enough to remember) user facing cases.
PS: Fullscreen IE is as Modern UI as the content you’re consuming – it’s not(even Microsoft’s own site)
Like I said, that may be your opinion, or your stick to beat Windows 8 with, but its certainly not my experience. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate anything which impacted my productivity as a developer and I get along fine.
Obviously if you need functionality that exists outside of the new Metro bits, you are well within your rights to use the Classic Experience.
In the case of Visual Studio that’s what I do. I’m sure I could find some Web Browser shell on the Windows Store that shows me tabs the way I want them, but I just haven’t bothered.
Metro IE is easier for me to navigate when just doing content consumption. I have a Microsoft Touch Mouse which makes a lot of these gestures and esp. scrolling really easy for me to use.
I highly suggest it if your Windows 8 experience is as frustrating as you suggest.
Edited 2013-01-10 03:19 UTC
So you’re saying we should spend our hard-earned money on new hardware from Microsoft just to make up for shortcomings in the new software we already paid for from Microsoft?
Thanks, but I think I’ll just count my blessings that I switched to Linux for my day-to-day work near the end of the Windows XP era.
At least, this way, I can run a desktop environment that values consistency and getting work done over trying out every new, glitzy idea that pops into the developers’ heads.
Edited 2013-01-10 05:33 UTC
No. I’m saying that if it is such an issue for you, then you have options.
I’m not even sure where you come into the picture, because I’m certain I wasn’t replying to you. If you’re going to cut in on my discussion with someone else you should at least bother reading with proper context.
I’ve read every post on this article.
JAlexoid is saying that Modern UI is sub-par for non-touchscreen use.
I have no problem with people suggesting options, but you did still suggest he replace perfectly good hardware to compensate for what is effectively a software usability regression.
(This is the kind of situation which Microsoft and Apple fanboys seek out and jump on as “proof” that open-source software like Linux is inferior to proprietary stuff because, without management, things like Unity get released disruptively half-baked and change happens with no regard for existing users.)
Edited 2013-01-10 14:43 UTC
I suggested it if he made the determination the experience so terrible that he cannot possibly manage, that he can purchase supporting peripherals.
This is a very extreme usecase: A desktop which doesn’t have a trackpad (Because its not a Laptop) and a user who in is having very specific issues.
This isn’t to say that his problems are widespread beyond just him or a vocal minority of people who think like him. This is a specific solution for a specific problem he’s having.
I think you make a critical mistake in believing that because I suggested a specific solution for someone, that it is an essential part of using Windows 8. It isn’t.
I think this is a strawman, in fact, I say that the people crying over Unity are extremely nearsighted. In fact, I take that supposed criticism and invert it a bit in that I say that Linux is inferior because it has a userbase that amounts to petulant children who chastise developers trying to bring Linux up to par.
I’ll accept “very specific issues” but we’ll have to agree to disagree on the “doesn’t have a trackpad” being an extreme case.
I hate those things and, if I have to buy a laptop, I always spend the extra time finding a laptop that has a touchpoint/micro-joystick and either no touchpad or a BIOS kill-switch for it. (I prefer to use that region on a laptop as a palm rest while typing or using the touchpoint.)
Perhaps. Either way, we don’t need to waste more time arguing over whether or not we’re on the same page.
I never said Unity is bad. I said it was released before it was ready and that, at minimum, shows disrespect for the users’ needs. A lot of distros made a similar mistake with KDE 4.0 because the KDE developers did a terrible job of indicating what was a developer preview.
These days, my only significant problem with Unity is the same problem I’ve had with MacOS since I first encountered it as a kid in the System 6.x days:
I think detaching menu bars from their associated windows is bad design, even if it doesn’t auto-hide the way Unity does it.
Nelson, whenever I read your comment I get a feeling of you being some PR guy paid for participating in forums and answering criticism of any product by some major brand.
Some of us just don’t think the criticisms of Windows 8 on the desktop is that valid.
Follow me on Twitter sometimes. Its not all roses when it comes to Microsoft and I criticize them, rather harshly at times.
There is just a tendency here on OSAlert to argue the same things over and over, so you get thoughts of mine that haven’t really changed because some people here are fixated on the same arguments.
This Windows 8 bashing gets really boring… I Gabe Newell doesn’t want to pay MS for his faux console – good for him, but it hardly makes him a reliable source on the quality of Win8.
Maybe, I don’t know, just try using it for longer than one hour (or, in case of most people, AT ALL)? The start screen just needs getting used to, and after a day becomes really workable. Extra hint: keyboard shortcuts can be used instead of the weird mouse gestures. You should love it, *nixers
.
Plus, has anybody seen e.g. the new file copy dialog or the task manager? They are real, actual improvements over 7.
How about for over a year? Is that enough?
I haven’t used the previews/betas etc., so I can’t really tell how much it has improved.
But all I can reply is: Yes, seems to be enough. Guess your mileage may vary, though I still don’t get your hate for the OS. Don’t like metro (I admit, it’s hard to love it with so few decent apps) – don’t use it. Treat the start screen as you would the start menu, and work mainly in desktop.
But I like Modern UI. Just not when it comes to mouse and keyboard(with exceptions to “showcase” apps, like gallery)
It’s exactly why Gabe is criticizing Win8.
Okay, let’s not get too sidetracked on Windows 8.
I’m suitably impressed by what Valve are doing here. I said in a previous article’s comments about my scepticism of Valve’s words about openness, of course words are nothing until the product ships but what they’re doing here is definitely /different/
Here’s what’s not certain going forward to me:
* Linux. How will the Valve-approved SteamBox, running Linux, compete, with a vastly reduced software catalogue, compete against other ‘SteamBox’ vendors selling Windows devices with broader software support?
* Cost? This certainly looks high-end. If it’s $1000 from one vendor, how much is it from Valve? This is a major purchase, and how much of the market is really affluent enough to drop a G on a gaming PC running Linux?
The OEM PC market right now is a disaster. I’m hoping that Valve’s approach is right enough to revive things a bit. I would like nothing more than to see the decades old HP / Packard Bell / Acer / … PC line up change into something actually new.