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Comment by aceperry | Hacker News Reader

"I have never met anyone who truly likes windows"

Interestingly, I've seen a small group of Windows fanbois arise within the last couple of years. Very much like the Apple fanbois; just as irrational and quick to take offense at any criticism of MS and Windows.

But I agree with you that most people I know also tolerate windows. Some are even happy with it because they can do things with a computer that has windows.

That was until Windows 8 came out. I was surprised by the amount of hate windows 8 received, and it was well deserved IMHO. But then I was also surprised by the few people who didn't hate Windows 8, some even liked it. The fanbois.

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It's not fanbois, it's actual real-life users who love it. (Not all of them, but a high proportion, in my experience.)

Windows 8.1 is terrific on tablets and devices with touch screens. My wife loves it. I think most if not all the hate came from stuck-in-the-mud XP users, and from Windows 7 users with non-touch screens. Which is fair enough.

Those are, of course, the vast majority of Windows users, so -- even though most of them have never used it seriously -- they drown out the real Windows 8/8.1 users.

In my experience, most users don't have surface or windows tablets. And they came from XP or 7. As far as I can tell, they use windows 8 as seriously as when they used xp and 7.

You can dismiss the vast majority of people who have that experience, but that would be ignoring the reality for most people. Fortunately for Microsoft, MS has decided to listen to the huge amount of complaints and get rid of the problematic interface.

I've always wondered what the win8/8.1 supporters would have MS do about the situation. Tell the vast majority of "unserious" users to suck it up, shut up, and use Win8? No change is necessary, you just have to get serious about using it? I'm asking because I don't understand the point of view of win8 supporters.

BTW, I really do think that there are MS fanbois out there. Not trying to be insulting or anything, just something that seems to be a new trend. Peace.

I'm not dismissing their experience (if any), just pointing out that it's not the whole story. I like Windows 8/8.1 a lot, but I'm still using Windows 7 on my desktop....

My point is that there is no discontinuity between lots of people loving Windows 8 on touch-based 2-in-1s and tablets and lots of people hating it -- or, more often, hating the idea of it -- on non-touch machines.

So, the solution is to retain the best parts of Windows 8 on touch-based devices while making it more usable on non-touch devices. Which is what Microsoft is doing.

Either way, you'll note that Windows 7 Pro is still available from Microsoft as a current product, and that it will be supported until 2020.

"I'm not dismissing their experience (if any)"

Does that mean if someone doesn't like Win8, they don't have any experience? Or they're not serious? Sounds like an insulting dig at people you don't agree with.

"My point is that there is no discontinuity between lots of people loving Windows 8 on touch-based 2-in-1s and tablets and lots of people hating it -- or, more often, hating the idea of it -- on non-touch machines."

??? Not sure what you're trying to say here.

"Windows 7 Pro is still available from Microsoft as a current product"

Good news if you don't want Win8 on your laptop/desktop. I guess you'll have peace when Windows 10 comes out, and you don't have to hear any negative comments about Windows 8.

> Sounds like an insulting dig at people you don't agree with.

Yes, I shouldn't insult people just because they're ignorant and can't be bothered to learn how to use Windows 8, which in my experience, is predominantly the case.

It's certainly usable on desktops etc without touch screens, but it's suboptimal on those systems, which is why I don't load it on them. That doesn't mean I can't use it and appreciate its qualities on touch-screen PCs.

I shelled out money for a 8.1 license.

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