Was Windows 8 THAT bad?

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  • čas přidán 4. 05. 2024
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    Microsoft has officially ended support for Windows 8 and nobody cares. Probably because no one used it, amirite? Was there anything worth remembering in this wildly unpopular version of Windows?
    Features new to Win 8: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature...
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    MUSIC CREDIT
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    Intro: Laszlo - Supernova
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    CHAPTERS
    ---------------------------------------------------
    0:00 Intro
    1:32 The NEW Start Screen & Metro Apps
    3:14 Gesture Navigation
    3:45 Mistakes were Made
    4:45 The Good
    6:15 what is what like IRL
    9:45 the worst part...
    10:25 8.1 saves the day
    11:50 What I use
    14:10 Outro
  • Věda a technologie

Komentáře • 6K

  • @LinusTechTips
    @LinusTechTips  Před rokem +460

    Boost your productivity with the help of Grammarly and its tone suggestions! Sign up for an account and get 20% off Grammarly Premium: grammarly.com/LTT

  • @epiclegend5599
    @epiclegend5599 Před rokem +13732

    Windows 8 was ahead and behind its time simultaneously

    • @jack76thegamer30
      @jack76thegamer30 Před rokem +156

      Sensei

    • @todorkatsarski7487
      @todorkatsarski7487 Před rokem +201

      I'm still using my original 8.1 installation for more than 7(8?) years already without any issues, I've never had problems with it. 7 looked better to me, but 8.1 was still nice. Of course I'm using a 3rd party start menu so it looks the same way as Win7 and this is from day 1. I have 0 complains with my installation so far. The only reason why I might update it to maybe 10 is the Linux subsystem for Windows.

    • @DreamFreeFPV
      @DreamFreeFPV Před rokem +78

      the UI honestly was GREAT i loved it.

    • @SirBrucie
      @SirBrucie Před rokem +50

      I told my buddy this the other day. After my experiences with 10 perhaps I treated 8 too poorly.

    • @samgray49
      @samgray49 Před rokem +25

      I agree, it had a pretty good memory management, and things that disappeared with Windows 10 that popped up in Windows 11.

  • @i-hate-handle-names
    @i-hate-handle-names Před rokem +1055

    Windows 8 was the point that microsoft decided to start blatantly dictating to users how they will use windows instead of just having windows to facilitate the user's needs.

    • @yeatnumber1Dmuncher
      @yeatnumber1Dmuncher Před 11 měsíci +58

      Yep, I should've seen it back then. Wn11 is what finally made me switch to Mint distro

    • @lejuanca
      @lejuanca Před 11 měsíci +12

      @@yeatnumber1Dmuncher care to elaborate?

    • @yeatnumber1Dmuncher
      @yeatnumber1Dmuncher Před 11 měsíci +52

      @@lejuanca lack of customization, annoying ads etc

    • @conchobar
      @conchobar Před 10 měsíci +6

      No, Microsoft responded to the tech media proclaiming the iPad the and iOS the new paradigm for computer UX.

    • @p3chv0gel22
      @p3chv0gel22 Před 10 měsíci +7

      ​@@conchobaryou're saying that, as if those were two mutually exclusive things. I mean, they could have shipped a mobile like UI as the Default but at least have given users the ability to Change it, if the so desire

  • @eliezeidan5148
    @eliezeidan5148 Před 4 měsíci +39

    The first time I used windows 8 in 2023 I had to search how to shut it down💀

  • @rynoman85
    @rynoman85 Před rokem +357

    The typing sound on the stock keyboard with the windows phones was the most pleasing sound I’ve ever heard. I’ll never forget typing on those phones. Probably the last time I actually had sounds enabled on my cell phone. 😂

    • @khryogenic
      @khryogenic Před rokem +4

      ​@@DustySquitoNM I miss my lumia 710(?) it was a great phone.

    • @praveenm5723
      @praveenm5723 Před 5 měsíci +1

      Typing in wp ✨

    • @aprofondir
      @aprofondir Před 4 měsíci +1

      Puck puck puck puck

  • @chubbyemu
    @chubbyemu Před rokem +1433

    not sure if they did this intentionally, but this video is published almost to the exact 10 year anniversary of when the first Surface Pro was released. 09 Feb 2013. I woke up early that morning to get the Surface Pro at the Microsoft Store popup on Michigan Ave in Chicago, which was delayed a bit against the Surface RT, which came out a few months earlier. It had Windows RT, the Metro only version. I have a failed unboxing video of the Surface Pro with a "Year of the Snake" keyboard cover that will never see the light of day. That keyboard was unusable. To think, I could have been a tech CZcamsr during Linus' NCIX days... 🤨

    • @plc_memes
      @plc_memes Před rokem +113

      ARM tablets were the future, he thought.

    • @osacada12345
      @osacada12345 Před rokem +218

      Presenting to the emergency room
      Is Windows 8 showing signs of bad UI design and bad market share

    • @deterdettol
      @deterdettol Před rokem +166

      Chubbyemu posted a Surface Pro unboxing video.
      This is what happened to his career.

    • @mikearisbrocken8507
      @mikearisbrocken8507 Před rokem +49

      the diagnosis was "unusable"

    • @Aryzcw
      @Aryzcw Před rokem +15

      Yoo Chubbyemu!

  • @Fobia17
    @Fobia17 Před rokem +831

    I was actually working at Best Buy as the newly minted Microsoft Associate, got full advanced training on Win 8 and all. It was... Rough. Even proponents of 8 had these same criticisms. When we were doing pre-orders for new devices, I had a woman come in to buy our absolute cheapest desktop to give to her 6 year old nephew. The idea was that his little mind would learn it quickly and she'd have her own little tutor. Absolutely genius.

    • @Kyle496
      @Kyle496 Před rokem +130

      As a person who's job was to sell that garbage, I'd tell them all to downgrade it to win7 asap. We had a Microsoft rep in the store and I wouldn't take any of his BS. Win 8 was obviously a worse user experience for people who just wanted a PC for business (excel, word, etc), gaming, or basically anything that wasn't built like a tablet app.

    • @chadmann2724
      @chadmann2724 Před rokem +15

      My mom’s pc died with windows 7, got my own PC with 10 while 11 was around.

    • @sosukelele
      @sosukelele Před rokem +28

      @@chadmann2724 in my experience 11 isn't that bad, but the nerfed right-click has me looking up more keyboard shortcuts than ever before

    • @chadmann2724
      @chadmann2724 Před rokem

      @@sosukelele Is it worth the change in OS?

    • @theenzoferrari458
      @theenzoferrari458 Před rokem +6

      Poor kid got tortured.

  • @joshuan.
    @joshuan. Před rokem +91

    I love listening to Linus talk about past Windows. I vaguely remember listening to my older brother telling me how bad it was and that there was no point upgrading the family computer from Windows 7.

  • @TenWolf-wb7pc
    @TenWolf-wb7pc Před rokem +177

    My issue with windows 8 was that you HAD to restart in 15 minutes for updates. Your options were "restart now or in 15 minutes".
    I was in college at the time and a lot of tests were done online, and there were people who lost time on their tests because of this. One failed because he couldn't get back in after the restart.
    I can understand their goral, but at the same time, make it a setting you can turn off, and have it off by default.

    • @georgewashington6171
      @georgewashington6171 Před rokem +16

      You could turn off windows 8.1 updates, it was a little tedious admittedly but it was in settings and wasnt some dumb registry hack. Still using 8.1 to type this comment rn, after a debloat it idles at 500mb of ram on the desktop, still my favourite os

    • @leothehuman_9476
      @leothehuman_9476 Před 11 měsíci +6

      @@georgewashington6171 How did you debloat it so much? My Windows Server 2012 R2 which is even lighter idles at 600mb with the explorer closed, you definetly lied.
      Btw, switch to Windows Server 2012 R2 since it still is supported and has security updates.

    • @DmitriLowell
      @DmitriLowell Před 9 měsíci +7

      Dang, dude, this was a trigger for me. I was given the option of "Restart now or in 15 minutes" in the middle of a physics lab in university that required everyone to use graphing software on a laptop. I freaked out and had to click 15 minutes, but a lab in Uni is a lot longer than 15 minutes and I had to sit there, hand-writing all of the data that my group was getting so I can try to finish it in my dorm on my desktop while the damned thing spent the rest of the lab applying updates and rebooting.

  • @Azeria
    @Azeria Před rokem +483

    Windows 8 ended up being a lot like Vista, underneath it had a lot of good power and features, but most people only got to use them with 7 and 10.

    • @volvo09
      @volvo09 Před rokem +40

      Yeah, Vista introduced some great stuff to windows, but unfortunately most people ran it on junk hardware. 1gb or ram was not uncommon, add a slow drive in there and it was a disaster.
      That was my worst era in home PC service. The proliferation of all the scam "PC cleaner" and "virus scanner" software also made for terrible experiences.
      (I loved it though, it's one of my favorite windows versions, I deeply miss it).

    • @CyberVirtual
      @CyberVirtual Před rokem +16

      Microsoft is the epitome of failing at making a decent Software Ecosystem. They should have embraced an open ended economy like Android or lean towards the Xbox Side of their software programming. Instead every exclusive launcher or app made for Windows absolutely sucks ass except for Game Pass. Complete Synergy with Xbox should have been a focus in early 2013 in the 8th console generation but it's too late to play catch up.

    • @charliek9394
      @charliek9394 Před rokem

      The fuck you talking about? Vista was good if you had a decent PC, i had 0 fucking issues with it.

    • @Mr.Morden
      @Mr.Morden Před rokem +14

      The only bad thing about Windows 8 was the lack of a Start button, the way the Start menu rendered over top of the task bar. The worst thing brought forward to Windows 11 Fluid UI (the modern version of Modern UI) is the massive amount of whitespace between control elements. That's fine for a tiny touch screen but it is absolutely mentally deficient when on a large PC monitor (mouse or touch). I could dismiss that problem if there was a way to change information density of Fluid UI controls to eliminate all that whitespace. There isn't a way to change that though.

    • @TheLongDon
      @TheLongDon Před rokem +4

      @@CyberVirtual I mean, to be fair they don't have anybody to catch up to. They dominate PC OS

  • @matttypes2695
    @matttypes2695 Před rokem +428

    I used to work at Office Depot and per their contract I was forced to promote and educate customers on windows 8. I didn’t meet a single customer that liked it especially because of the missing start button.

    • @StephenOwen
      @StephenOwen Před rokem +36

      The absolute worst was that lots of customers standardized on Server 2012, not Server 2012 R2. This meant when remoting, it expected a touch screen and you had to use the terrible metro UI interactions like the charms bar and dragging from the left for the start menu.
      Fortunately most of those shops hopped to Server 2016 when that shipped and fixed most of the issues.

    • @Bill_Woo
      @Bill_Woo Před rokem +1

      It was about this era that "Help/About" even disappeared from all matters Microsoft. Seriously? Are they absolutely retharded??? Since the beginning of time, you could go alt-h,a and get help about. That's just one of the countless things that anyone, ANYONE could find on menus, but MS declared jihad on menus.
      I'm a scientist that types formulas and writes code. I don't use a mouse for that. I don't swipe for that. I don't do scientific calculations on my phone. MS just doesn't understand computers. That's the entire problem. MS does not understand computers.

    • @quantumleaper
      @quantumleaper Před rokem +14

      I added a third-party Start Button, which could be customized to look like a button from 95 to 7. Also, 90% of the programs I use are on the taskbar anyway.

    • @generalebeta97
      @generalebeta97 Před rokem +2

      @@quantumleaper mee too it was called "classic shell" literaly the first google result and worked for me. It wasnt that bad.

    • @HHalcyon
      @HHalcyon Před rokem

      The missing start button problem blew my mind the most. I hate that thing with all my heart and wish it didn't exist. Just press Windows key and problem solved. I mean I don't mind people having it but there's no comfortable way of removing it altogether as it's just unnecessary clutter on my taskbar.

  • @TrepidDestiny
    @TrepidDestiny Před rokem +32

    I used Windows 8.1 for a brief time. It wasn't bad, but it felt awkward, and as soon as my system said "you can upgrade to windows 10" I did (which came with it's own hurdles).

  • @bumblingbubble
    @bumblingbubble Před rokem +13

    I used 8.1 on my Thinkpad from '20-'22 because I wanted to give it a try out of curiosity. It definitely wasn't as awful as I remembered it was at launch and I would've continued using it had they not killed it off. But now, having moved to a debloated version of Windows 10, I don't remember the upsides of running it vs running Win10.

  • @arachnenet2244
    @arachnenet2244 Před rokem +389

    I had forgotten about all the weird stuff Win8 did because the first thing I did when I got it was installing Classic Shell. What a wild time this was!

    • @ThreadBomb
      @ThreadBomb Před rokem +12

      Yes, Classic Shell! A shame it's no longer supported, but it still works.

    • @griffin1366
      @griffin1366 Před rokem

      @@ThreadBomb It's called OpenShell now (open source) and is still maintained to this day. Works on Win11 too!

    • @matthewtremain683
      @matthewtremain683 Před rokem +10

      I still remember the first time I installed windows 8. I classic shelled that B ASAP. After a little cursing.

    • @PutoML
      @PutoML Před rokem +2

      @@ThreadBomb It's been forked into OpenShell.

    • @byronhorde5892
      @byronhorde5892 Před rokem +1

      I remember ClassicShell. That was my goto. That is, until the Win 8.1 update hit.

  • @metaleggman18
    @metaleggman18 Před rokem +200

    With the update to 8.1, Windows 8 did eventually get pretty useable. I remember Luke saying that a long ways back on the WAN Show. Still a misstep, especially in terms of backwards compatibility, but most all complaints were fixed in 10, and as you said, a lot of cool features were added. I feel like the only reason Vista had so much adoption was because gamers wanted the best of the best, and DX10 (I believe) was Vista exclusive, and I believe Halo 2 and Gears of War were Vista only as well. It was also flashy, pretty, and had a truly functional x64 version (XP x64, I love ya, I enjoyed ya, but man were you a pain).

    • @profosist
      @profosist Před rokem +4

      Keep in mind launch Windows 10 had all the features that were promised in 8.2 with Win8.1 update 1 its was darn right good OS but there's no way it could come back form all the bad press.

    • @HyperVanilo
      @HyperVanilo Před rokem +1

      I still remember after I installed 8.1 how relieved I was when I see the Start button where it should've been

  • @DCGMatthew1
    @DCGMatthew1 Před rokem +2

    I used the full screen tiles for the start menu on Windows 10 for a while just because I think it looks so good. I actually don't remember if I have it set or if you even can on Windows 11, I'll see probably in a day or two when I have my PC running again.
    The Windows phone was awesome as well, and the tiles design looked so good on that as well.

  • @Mythikal13
    @Mythikal13 Před 9 měsíci +11

    The one panel I ever used on Windows 8 was the desktop panel. It's honestly funny how arbitrary that whole UI became

  • @waynej747
    @waynej747 Před rokem +98

    I know of a number of corporate IT administrators who felt that the Win8 UI was a step too far for their corporate environment, and had zero interest in installing third party apps to make the experience more familiar for their users. So their decision was to stick with Win7 as long as they could, and hope that MS came to their senses!

    • @PhysicsGamer
      @PhysicsGamer Před rokem +10

      The graph in the video shows that even to this day ~10% of Windows PCs report using Windows 7. Even Windows 11 continues to suffer from the bad decisions made back in Windows 8, which manifests in things like an unusable search, horrible UI design language that appears to have forgotten decades' worth of skeuomorphism, and menus that prefer becoming convoluted in order to avoid being "complicated".

    • @michaelblair5566
      @michaelblair5566 Před rokem +3

      I NEVER installed Windows 8. Because the users would not have understood it. Stuck with 7 until 10 came out.

    • @Alias_Anybody
      @Alias_Anybody Před rokem

      I killed two birds with one stone and as soon as Windows 10 was stable and established I installed it on some shiny new SATA SSDs which at that point had fallen in price to the point it was a really cheap performance boost for former Win7 machines.
      Most of those will unfortunately reach EOL when Win10 support runs out, even though at least some still do the job.

  • @snazzy
    @snazzy Před rokem +510

    Metro desktop was amazing on early Surface devices and actually pulled me away from Mac as my primary machine for about 6 months. No Windows version had done that before or since.

    • @yazidbecdaigle4709
      @yazidbecdaigle4709 Před rokem +3

      best windows of all time but people not like metro

    • @LuLeBe
      @LuLeBe Před rokem +6

      Yeah on my surface book with windows 10 and 11 I'm struggling with the touch controls at times, would be nice to still have a more touch-friendly interface when using the touchscreen.

    • @ghostofdre
      @ghostofdre Před rokem +5

      It was good for tablets, somewhat. People probably have forgotten all the quirks the interface had, the inconsistency between Metro and x86 apps and the always full screen nature of the metro apps.

    • @iannicolson
      @iannicolson Před rokem +1

      @@LuLeBe On Windows 10, you can use the full-screen start menu. In modern apps, there is also an option to make the app full-screen (Windows 8 style, no title bar)

    • @cyscott2714
      @cyscott2714 Před rokem +1

      I have the Surface 1 and when it came out it was the perfect solution for me. I was going to college and used it most of the time as a tablet for taking notes using the stylus or when I needed to look something up in the browser. I used it in desktop mode when I needed to do something more complex like making an Excel spreadsheet, but that was a pretty rare case. So my experience was good, because my use case didn't require desktop mode a lot.

  • @meiduza
    @meiduza Před rokem +82

    I actually loved the Metro menu. With some basic tweaking you could get an awesome sorted library with gorgeous artwork for all the apps/games you frequented.

  • @karenwang313
    @karenwang313 Před rokem +3

    I used to run windows 8.1 on my surface pro 2 back when I was in college, it was honestly a very pleasant experience. I eventually was forced to upgrade to windows 10 because of a bug in windows update that caused the tablet to have 100% CPU usage until it ran out of power. I'll be sad to see it go.

  • @linden6352
    @linden6352 Před rokem +215

    It feels weird being nostalgic for Windows 8 but as a teen, my first experiences with tech were the family laptop on 8 and later 8.1. Such a weird OS looking back- it's like half the devs wanted modern style and half wanted old functionality and the execs wanted excessive touch support, and they had a very weird child.

    • @zwenkwiel816
      @zwenkwiel816 Před rokem +1

      And that weird child the devs and execs had made windows 8, it all makes sense now XD

    • @PG03TheGod
      @PG03TheGod Před rokem +2

      💀💀💀

    • @Arnoldismouldy
      @Arnoldismouldy Před rokem

      My first time ever using a computer was on windows 8. So yea kinda nostalgic for that

    • @caffeinesippingman
      @caffeinesippingman Před rokem +1

      I had a customer that liked 8.0
      When 8.1 came out I offered to "fix" his PC and he didn't want me to because he liked it the way it was.

    • @imgnatkursld
      @imgnatkursld Před rokem +5

      Windows 8 came out at a time when the industry thought we were all going to move away from laptops and get tablets instead. Windows 8 was supposed to be a transitional interface to get us used to working with a tablet. So it was kind of weird by design

  • @caprature
    @caprature Před rokem +194

    Lets not forget how lean Windows 8 and 8.1 were on system requirements vs 10 on the same hardware. The last os you could truly run from a HDD, and was very good and snappy on even lowly bay trail atoms.

    • @GnBst
      @GnBst Před rokem +15

      I remember booting windows 2000 in 12 seconds from a 5400rpm hard drive and a Pentium 3 866 with 256mb PC133 SDRAM. It has the added benefit of the network stack ACTUALLY being loaded when the logon prompt was presented. and the OS install was only 400MB.

    • @gustavovm491
      @gustavovm491 Před rokem +9

      Yeah I have a bay trail tablet and it ran much better with 8.1 than with 10.

    • @hmst5420
      @hmst5420 Před rokem +7

      Yeah. It's noticeably faster than 10 and even 7.

    • @MrVoltz
      @MrVoltz Před rokem +4

      I very much agree with your comment. Back in the day I installed Classic Shell, which returned Windows 7-like start menu and you didn't have to touch the Metro stuff. It run just fine even on single core Celeron with 1 GB of RAM. The UI still looks fresh, I personally like the Ribbon tabs in Paint and Explorer and the new Task Manager. There was no clutter and the new Settings app was entirely optional (you still could do everything from the Control Panel).

    • @user-kf7oq6uw8f
      @user-kf7oq6uw8f Před rokem +7

      RN I'm installing Win8.1 on half a dozen of old office PCs before selling them. Why? Because Win10 doesn't even have GPU drivers for built into *motherboard* iGPUs and Win7 lacks pretty much everything including .NET Frameworks that are installed by default in 8.1 and later. With Win8.1 Embedded Pro just 1 GB of idle RAM usage while Win10 easily takes 1.7 or even more.

  • @InShortSight
    @InShortSight Před rokem

    The swipe from left and right side shortcuts were very handy on touch screen devices, good for running full screen apps and doing tablet things. I put about 3 years of school/uni notes into the metro version of OneNote on the og surface.
    It was basically built to sell the surface line, like they bet it all on touch screens becoming the norm on all laptops.

  • @UltraViolet666
    @UltraViolet666 Před 11 měsíci +2

    I used Windows 8 exclusively in 2013, my last year of high school. It was installed on our student laptops, and most students hated it and reverted back to Windows 7. Except I thought it was pretty cool and kept it the whole year, even though i didnt have a touchscreen laptop. I loved rearranging the tiles on the homescreen and made everything i needed (my class notes, etc) super accessible. When i got a Nokia Lumia phone with the same design in 2014, i customised it to look like a tumblr blog with photo tiles everywhere. Good memories :) but definitely get the frustration.

  • @eslmatt811
    @eslmatt811 Před rokem +202

    The 8 and 8.1 feature I really miss is the refresh option. You could create your own refresh image with all your programs installed. Then when your relative messed up the system you could just have them run refresh and they were back up and running in 10 minutes.
    Beta testing windows 10, I kept putting requests in. Sure there are ways around it, but nothing as simple for relatives.

    • @monkeyoperator1360
      @monkeyoperator1360 Před rokem +3

      doesnt windows 10 have this option ?

    • @JuniorCloudHouse
      @JuniorCloudHouse Před rokem

      just use Macrium Backup. Works even better.

    • @MyNameIsBucket
      @MyNameIsBucket Před rokem +1

      Windows has always had System Restore. You can create a restore point once you get the programs and settings you want.

    • @rpzcsonli
      @rpzcsonli Před rokem +29

      @@MyNameIsBucketit was easier in Windows 8 and 8.1, it was like factory reset on a phone, 1 click and it was done in 2 mins.

    • @MyNameIsBucket
      @MyNameIsBucket Před rokem +4

      @@rpzcsonli You got me there. System Restore is at least three or four clicks.

  • @proesterchen
    @proesterchen Před rokem +454

    Yes.
    Hiding the actual user desktop and applications whenever opening the start menu was the worst idea in the history of Windows.

    • @brokeandtired
      @brokeandtired Před rokem +15

      Yeah...I tried Windows 8 twice...Pure cancer. Glad I never upgraded to it.

    • @RebellionAlpha
      @RebellionAlpha Před rokem +5

      Actually I used the full screen start menu on Windows 10 and I miss it in Windows 11. 8 and 8.1 were great even for the desktop.

    • @commanderosis435
      @commanderosis435 Před rokem +1

      I remember first trying it and being so confused. Once I figured it out I was so livid. It was like they were hiding everything from me.

    • @Nothinglastsforever
      @Nothinglastsforever Před rokem +1

      Blame Steven Sinofsky for that.

    • @avocado3-in-182
      @avocado3-in-182 Před rokem

      I heard about windows 8 when I was in middle school but I never seen it up close. My dad’s and my mom’s laptops were stuck at windows 7 when windows 8 came out, so I don’t know what it look like until now.

  • @kieranmorley2833
    @kieranmorley2833 Před rokem +3

    I never used windows 8 but my first actual pc was 8.1 and it was absolutely amazing I’m glad Linus saw the good in my second favorite os (besides the original osx) and I’m going to continue to use it on my media pc in the future

  • @rebelbolt
    @rebelbolt Před rokem +5

    I had a touchscreen that turned into a cool little laptop thing, I actually loved using windows 8 and I remember very specifically there was a way to view a more original desktop view
    Edit: I also remember gaming on my desktop PC with windows 8 before I went to windows 10, and I must say I remember it being much better for some titles but there wasnt any compatibility with the xbox features

  • @PatrykStachowiak
    @PatrykStachowiak Před rokem +25

    Now imagine using this interface on Windows Server 2012 Standard, somewhere on the other side of the globe via RDP or remote console with poor internet connection and big latency. Opening start menu was quite challenging

    • @grummpyyounggeek
      @grummpyyounggeek Před rokem +1

      2012 R2 was kind of forced upon me when building out a VBlock. VCE in their infitie wisdow customised their 2012 R2 VMs by leaving in the Windows Store alongside the "Desktop experience". I don't think I EVER saw a metro app for Server 2012. All that effort of a metro interface, through to Administrative Tools only to be dropped back to an interface from 2008 and older.
      I also suffered the animations which on a slow connection made a frustrating RDP experience. In the end GPOs were deployed to turn off any fade effects or animations. It felt like Windows 95 but it was the only way to not have to painstaking wait for the pointless menu to render.
      Fun fact... Even VMwares hands on labs didn't like the Start menu of 8/8.1 and 2012/2012 R2. The Terminal Servers spun up with each lab would have Classic Shell installed. Thankfully they now run on 2016/2019.

    • @munozyoshi
      @munozyoshi Před rokem +1

      I remember this, it was a huge fail. Someone actually created a powershell script that let you select a lot of the tasks you needed to do on a server as an admin.

  • @castform57
    @castform57 Před rokem +41

    My history with win8: it came with my laptop, worked alright for a while. Once it updated and completely destroyed the audio drivers, and at one point it BSOD'd due to wifi drivers that had worked fine long before. Had to also start completely from zero once.
    At one point I had enough and drove to a 24h electronics shop at like 3am, bought an ssd, installed win7 on it, and it's still working fine to this day.

  • @bazimnubailaz
    @bazimnubailaz Před rokem +1

    when windows 8 came out, I was so obsessed with it that I installed a crack version of it my PC, I was so font of the start screen style that I did a class assignment in that start menu bento grid theme. but as the video mentioned, there were no functional apps that I could use since we did not have a internet connection back then, all the apps I needed where on the desktop 😅

  • @martaintitan
    @martaintitan Před 6 měsíci +4

    I upgraded from windows xp directly to windows 8 and the only challenge I faced was absent start button. Once it grew over me, I loved windows 8/8.1. To this date I miss it, it's UI had some positive vibes going. I never used windows 7 on my pc.

  • @PyTransformer
    @PyTransformer Před rokem +129

    If you moved your mouse to the bottom left and clicked to open the start menu, you could type in your search and it would automatically search. The search was much better back then too, and honestly was a better experience because you saw your search results on a full screen with more information.

    • @Luca_212
      @Luca_212 Před rokem +2

      This can only be a joke

    • @ju5e3
      @ju5e3 Před rokem +17

      @@Luca_212? He's right

    • @esatd34
      @esatd34 Před rokem +5

      yeah. as linus said, hidden things are not welcome in computer rookies. that needs an "accidental key press" to reveal itself. And the user must have a revelation of it lol

    • @drone124
      @drone124 Před rokem +1

      This is basically how I got by on Win 8

    • @EikottXD
      @EikottXD Před rokem

      You can do that on 11. Or maybe it's because I have StartAllBack installed.

  • @Menirz
    @Menirz Před rokem +516

    I absolutely loved 8.1 on my laptop because the track pad swipe shortcuts essentially replaced the touch screen, but still worked great on the desktop.
    I was actually annoyed when I upgraded to Win10 because so many of the shortcuts I had gotten used to just weren't there anymore.
    That said, that laptop died and my desktop replacement has caused all muscle memory of those short cuts up atrophy, so I guess it wasn't that bad of a thing in the long run.

    • @zachSpark1234
      @zachSpark1234 Před rokem +2

      Yea I loved sweet sweet 8.1 wINdios

    • @blockstuff4227
      @blockstuff4227 Před rokem +8

      Same! It was much faster than Windows 10. Especially on an HDD.
      Even volume/brightness slider or Wi-Fi settings, etc opened up in a snap.

    • @saturngd_
      @saturngd_ Před rokem +1

      I FUCKING LOVE WINDOWS 8 AND 8.1!

    • @polocatfan
      @polocatfan Před rokem +1

      8.1 is basically windows 9.

  • @matthewparker9276
    @matthewparker9276 Před rokem +16

    There was a bunch of good things introduced in windows 8, that I actually miss when I occasionally step back to windows 7 or vista.
    But the UI for PC users was annoying. Even with the 8.1 improvements it felt like I had to fight against the UI to get it to fit into my workflow.
    Some of my biggest annoyances with windows 10 are carry overs from windows 8, like the default video app always opening in full screen and a multi step process to return to windowed mode. It makes it significantly harder to multi task apps.
    I feel the same way about windows 11. There are many technical improvements, but it's not worth the sacrifice of the workflow.

    • @Dwaxxx
      @Dwaxxx Před 8 měsíci +1

      I use windows 8.1 and I really don't get the hate. It's basically just windows 7 with a new start menu and tons of new features.

  • @thomaspotterdotexe
    @thomaspotterdotexe Před rokem +4

    Windows 8.1 was the best experience I've had. I had one potato laptop and it was really smooth, even the animation from boot screen to start screen, really satisfying. The new bluescreen is also helpful since not everyone is so technical about it. The search page with bing was beautifully interactive. It was the lightest official OS from Microsoft compared to Windows 7 and 10. Windows Live (password manager?) was the first password manager that I've used since it just seamlessly synchronize between computer and (back then when I have) lumia's phone. The music app (before it was bought by Microsoft then became groove), was the best one. The artist cover, lyrics, radio, etc is just wow. For the 2013 era, it was the best one. It just sadly people and the developer doing it so wrong and ofc Microsoft is at the wrong era.

  • @ZekeOrionReviews
    @ZekeOrionReviews Před rokem +255

    honestly prefer the clssic control panel as it just feels better and more intuitive (though I set mine to show all icons instead of groups) my only issue is the lack of a dark mode for it and settings menues like the sound menu or the volume mixer pop up menus!

    • @SuperWotman
      @SuperWotman Před rokem +27

      There are also some settings you can only find in the classic panel. Every sys admin I know uses the old.

    • @SuperWotman
      @SuperWotman Před rokem +2

      There are also some settings you can only find in the classic panel. Every sys admin I know uses the old.

    • @Deminese2
      @Deminese2 Před rokem +11

      @@SuperWotman Yeah I can't stand the current control panel. the old panel has a few things I use in daily help desk stuff that doesn't exist in 10

    • @n646n
      @n646n Před rokem +1

      Same. Either search for it or use classic control panel.

    • @LRM12o8
      @LRM12o8 Před rokem +5

      100% agree. The colorful icons and simple lists just make it so much easier to find what you're looking for than the flat, single-color line icons and whatever-the-f@ck you can call the arrangement of elements in the "new" (Windows 8/10) settings app.
      I hate that "modern" minimalist design philosophy with a passion! Everything just looks the same, they have such a weird aversion to simple, logical lists and hide everything in random sub-submenus because they're way too focused on making it look "clean", rather than making it convenient to actually use. It's form over function and it's stupid!
      I don't care if the control panel may look "cluttered" or "not elegant enough", I don't wanna look at it, I wanna use to set whatever I need to set as quickly as possible!

  • @zenu903
    @zenu903 Před rokem +51

    I've had a very low end computer for a long time and 8.1 was literally my main OS for almost the entirety of it, I loved that it was lightweight and super responsive; and when you configured the start tiles, I actually preferred it to a corner menu.
    I also liked that it allowed me to play mobile games I couldn't elsewhere like Asphalt and Alto's Adventure. The metro interface and its apps didn't bother me and (unpopular opinion I know) but I liked the new design a lot too.
    I tried moving to 10 when it was offered as a free upgrade but was so much heavier to my poor Celeron 847 with 2GB of RAM that it eventually made me move back to 8.1, then experimenting (and later going full time) over to Linux.

    • @Y0sS3FF
      @Y0sS3FF Před rokem

      Exactly !

    • @mkorsukov
      @mkorsukov Před rokem

      Same story

    • @gustavovm491
      @gustavovm491 Před rokem +2

      Yes 8.1 shined on Atom and Celerons. Not even 10 LTSC was as snappy. The closest I have seen were some modded 10 isos that disabled a bunch of stuff.

  • @acehammer6284
    @acehammer6284 Před rokem +1

    I have a Windows Surface tablet(well a dead tablet) with Windows 8 on it and it was a pretty nice tablet to use. I think it was kind of lacking in the apps department with the tablet being able to use only Windows apps. The downfall of the Windows tablet for me was the fact that all the Windows updates ended up taking all the space and eventually I would have to remove files or even do a complete reset. But I guess it went through too many resets since it stopped connecting to the Microsoft servers and couldn't really do much with it after that.

  • @tparadox88
    @tparadox88 Před 10 měsíci +1

    I definitely noticed the Win8 influences in the start menu and the notification shade when I went from 7 to 10. It felt like the biggest iterative change was backing off the forced touch-first interface.

  • @sdpy15
    @sdpy15 Před rokem +89

    When I went into university, I bought the HP pavilion 360 which was actually quite good. The fact that the computer rotated so you had an "ipad" like touch surface really was the selling point and it made navigating windows 8 so much easier.
    That being said, it took a while to get used to, but ended up being one of my favorite versions of the OS because it was innovative and fresh.

  • @13StJimmy
    @13StJimmy Před rokem +98

    Windows 8.1 to me was effectively a whole new OS… I kept 7 mainly because I loved it and didn’t feel the need to change but I remember buying a laptop that shipped with 8 and after a day updated to 8.1 and dealt with it until 10
    And now I’m afraid to update to 11 😂

    • @rfbeck1
      @rfbeck1 Před rokem +2

      Do the update, Win11 is better than Win10 in many subtle ways.

    • @BalaenicepsRex3
      @BalaenicepsRex3 Před rokem +11

      @@rfbeck1 Did they remove the advertisements on file explorer? That was my main reason not to change.

    • @killerdeamonking
      @killerdeamonking Před rokem +9

      @@BalaenicepsRex3 Nope its just as ad ridden as win 10.

    • @checksandbalences
      @checksandbalences Před rokem +2

      Man, from my experience 10 is awful. 8.1 was/is the quiet "mature" OS

    • @rfbeck1
      @rfbeck1 Před rokem

      @@BalaenicepsRex3I have not seen a single ad. But then I'm using beta build 22623.1245 🙂

  • @AnvilMAn603
    @AnvilMAn603 Před 9 měsíci

    i was working for staples at the time, tons of displays and what not and we were told to push it at the register.
    by god the amount of people trying to return it in the first 2 weeks was astounding

  • @hansmitdergans7879
    @hansmitdergans7879 Před rokem +3

    I have been a very long time Windows 8.1 user and I still use it on some machines. It's was by far not perfect, but with some modifications - with ClassicShell being the most important one - it was basically a Windows 7 facelift. But not only that, it was much faster and much more user friendly. When I started to use Windows 8, I hated it so much, but with the years passing by, I appreciated its qualities and nowadays I hate when people just hate on it for absolutely no reason. I'm actually sad that it's gone.

  • @martinbernath
    @martinbernath Před rokem +529

    8.1 has been to this day my second favorite os after xp. It performed really well, its was better optimized than 7. You dont have nearly as much telemetry or as many annoying updates as windows 10 but from my experience its functionally the same. Color personalization actually makes sense in 8.1 allowing you to set two contrasting colors, unlike 10 which only uses shades of a single color.

    • @schadenfreude6274
      @schadenfreude6274 Před rokem +25

      You have very poor taste in Windows. :)

    • @mikhailshtin2726
      @mikhailshtin2726 Před rokem +71

      @@schadenfreude6274 no he doesn't, 8.1 was really good for the time even though imo 7 is still better. 8.1 definitely wasn't as bad as everyone talks about it

    • @schadenfreude6274
      @schadenfreude6274 Před rokem +11

      @@mikhailshtin2726 You also have very poor taste in Windows. :)

    • @xxg.tester7851
      @xxg.tester7851 Před rokem

      I agree with you

    • @cazmatism
      @cazmatism Před rokem +7

      @@schadenfreude6274 8.1 was the bomb lmfao

  • @chowrites6179
    @chowrites6179 Před rokem +216

    I HATED Win8, but when 8.1 released I feel like it remedied everything that I hated about it before and even made something things I came to love and still use today, like keep all my apps on the Start screen instead of on the desktop

    • @rudeskalamander
      @rudeskalamander Před rokem +4

      How do you feel about 11? I love it and the new start menu but that seems like a hot take

    • @chancepaladin
      @chancepaladin Před rokem +7

      bingo, same here. the start menu is basically win8.1, which is so rad.

    • @Blue-nw3li
      @Blue-nw3li Před rokem +5

      Same here. My favorite windows is Windows Server 2012 R2 wich essentially is Windows 8.1

    • @vilkku792
      @vilkku792 Před rokem +3

      I really miss the ability to run fullscreen applications next to each other in split screen mode. Now that I have a 32:9 monitor, it would be great be able to to fullscreen youtube to fill 1/2 of the monitor but it's not possible anymore with win 10.

    • @-JonnyBoy-
      @-JonnyBoy- Před rokem +3

      It was too late at that point. 8 was done by word of mouth alone.

  • @Yabba0008
    @Yabba0008 Před 2 měsíci +1

    I think to prefect this OS would’ve been to have a toggle for metro features, like if your on desktop it would be disabled or if you were on a tablet/2-in-1 you could have a toggle for metro

  • @Twintania
    @Twintania Před rokem +1

    while I haven't used windows 8 extensively it's always left a bad impression on me from the start. Yeah it's annoying not having a proper start menu but every time I installed it on a computer I would install all updates and try to update to 8.1 however it would refuse unless I left it alone for a few hours despite the fact I had every available update and restarted the computers and made sure nothing related to updates was running in the task manager. I even manually downloaded the update and it would still refuse, I'm happy to see 8 have support dropped

  • @adesh116
    @adesh116 Před rokem +46

    I genuinely love these series of old windows versions.. its nostalgic and gives an idea how Microsoft viewed the tech industry

  • @doug2434
    @doug2434 Před rokem +80

    I really liked Windows 8 (at least after installing ClassicShell), but one thing Linus didn't touch on that really drove the nail into the coffin was third party support (or the lack thereof). When I upgraded my graphics card to an RX590, I was super bummed to see that due to the low market share, AMD didn't make any Windows 8 drivers - even though they did have ones for Windows 7 and 10. A few forum posts said that the Windows 7 driver would work on Windows 8, but I could never get it to.

    • @profosist
      @profosist Před rokem +5

      Thats due to the new driver model. AMD was also not in a great time around then, especially with drivers and took that as a chance to fully rebuild them. (how many times have they done that now)
      As a Win8 user I also had to switch to chrome because Firefox until it was rebuilt ran like garbage. These are teething things that happen with every major shift and things were seeing now with Win11 even though its built on 10.

    • @DevinEMILE
      @DevinEMILE Před rokem +4

      DoD was pretty big part to. I’ve been working for the military for about 8 years now. And I’ve seen maybe two or three windows 8 machines. And they’re usually standalone and used for very specific programs. While windows 7 stuck around until about 2019. Then windows 10. And now windows 11. Not to mention for some god forsaken reason we’re still using PSTs in outlook.

    • @fynkozari9271
      @fynkozari9271 Před rokem

      Win 7 and win 8 have dx11. Gpu driver should work for both. At least it does for me.

    • @joshjones5172
      @joshjones5172 Před rokem

      @@profosist And to be fair, AMD just bought radeon graphics at that point and that was the reason for the new driver model, AMD took over around the rx400's series and this also took place during the first crypto mining boom and gamers could not even get their hands on the cards.

    • @0AThijs
      @0AThijs Před rokem +1

      Yep, my laptop came with windows 8 preinstalled and the network drivers didn't even support it, i also had a vaio laptop that I accidentally upgraded without the vaio upgrade tool, and instead used a iso which meant that I couldn't install Sony's software anymore (Sony didn't recognize my laptop as a vaio anymore) i also accidentally formatted the whole drive, causing another problem, unable to factory reset it to the vaio defaults.

  • @AspenSavage
    @AspenSavage Před 10 měsíci +4

    I used windows 8 for years and never had a problem with it. I also used the desktop version way more than the tiles (I never had a touchscreen version though)

  • @Vanilla_Neko
    @Vanilla_Neko Před 8 měsíci +2

    Honestly I actually loved the Windows 8 start screen probably even better than Windows 10
    Didn't really care about most of the tile based apps and Metro crap but I loved how everything else was organized
    Getting to view it all on one page with all the important stuff shown organized So neatly was absolutely amazing to me.
    Never really was a huge fan of minimalism I always like having everything right there in front of me and available and it felt So much easier to get around when everything was on one nice screen instead of a bunch of cascading menus or the huge scroll bar that gets longer and longer the more programs you install like Windows 10 has
    I know it's a hard thing for people to grasp but I truly believe it is possible for something to be too organized to the point of inconvenience and I think that that's the best way to describe the Windows 10 start menu
    They took the good concept of the Windows 8 one but overorganized it and simplified it too much to the point where it became actually more complicated to use

  • @cornonjacob
    @cornonjacob Před rokem +25

    The hidden side panel was super annoying when using a track pad: it would open if you swiped to the left in a certain manner, but I could never get it to do it when I actually wanted the menu

    • @oienu
      @oienu Před rokem

      XD sometimes happen, you need to update the touchpad drivers, on Synaptics works fine even using gestures but for not Win 8 Certified (older systems) sometimes get messy.
      I loved that because was really easy to use on the touchpad, on desktop still was awful experience. They focused too much on touch but forgot the mouse. You have to move a lot to do the same, the biggest drawback.

    • @althejazzman
      @althejazzman Před rokem +1

      Touchpad gestures are a disaster as they are more often triggered by mistake than on purpose.

  • @notenoughmonkeys
    @notenoughmonkeys Před rokem +104

    Once you got to the desktop, Windows 8 had quite a few nice tweaks to the explorer UI that we all take for granted to this day. Main one for me was the copy dialog, Windows 7 (if I recall) was basically just a progress bar with a cancel button. Windows 8 onwards is the far nicer "download manager"'' esque version, just having a pause button was a game changer for me in prioritising large scale copies, or seeing the transfer speed. Wasn't enough for me to ditch my classic Windows interface, so I stuck with 7 until 10 came out, but when I did have to use 8, I could definately see the benefits.
    Basically MS didn't forget the classic interface with 8, they just went through a mid-life crisis. Everyone needs to live through a Microsoft Bob I guess!

    • @Nothinglastsforever
      @Nothinglastsforever Před rokem +1

      Everything changed in the explorer shell was for the better, including centered title bar text that finally mirrored Linux and MacOS. They reverted it in 10 because they were still desperate to capture the touch interface market and that resulted in oversizing the window controls which truncated the centered title bar text.

    • @rodryguezzz
      @rodryguezzz Před rokem +3

      True. It also brought us the task manager we all use today. People need to go back to windows 7 to see how shitty it used to be.

    • @contra7631
      @contra7631 Před rokem +1

      @@rodryguezzz wht u mean shtty I actually like windows-7 task manager more than 10.Cause when u open win-10 task manager specially in a hard drive it takes so much time.Even sometimes lags in 7200rpm hdd.Thats how much shtty the task manager is.

    • @Crystan
      @Crystan Před rokem +1

      @@Nothinglastsforever The centred title bar was actually more annoying than beneficial imo. I read left to right, so that's how I want my text thanks.
      As for task manager, it sucks. I love the features, but let's not pretend it isn't a pale shade of what it once was. Task Manager should run with absolute seniority, but it doesn't. Can you really call it a task manager if it can be man-handled by the very tasks it's meant to manage?

    • @Nothinglastsforever
      @Nothinglastsforever Před rokem +1

      @@Crystan That's cool bro, good for you. Hopefully you never encounter Linux or MacOS. Windows is the outlier.
      Sounds like you're talking about task manager post Windows 10's release? and5 yes it runs abysmally in 10 and 11.

  • @mariusjoachims6866
    @mariusjoachims6866 Před rokem +1

    The Surface 3 with Windows 8.1 was my absolute favourite machine of all time. Had a Nokia Lumia to go along with it, and it was so awesome.

    And because I took it with 2 GB RAM and 32 GB eMMC, I could toss it out two years later.

  • @JibplayzYT
    @JibplayzYT Před 8 měsíci +2

    Windows 8.1 was the most amazing os i ever used. I didnt use the start screen much, but with classic shell, it was the best. I was managing 7 second boot times on an old toshiba disk drive...

  • @TheKaleb503
    @TheKaleb503 Před rokem +230

    I really hope Linus makes a video about his switch to Windows 11 and how to make it more bearable. I'd love to see the types of changes he will make for his daily usecase.

    • @finnley24
      @finnley24 Před rokem

      windows 11 is shite

    • @loen9591
      @loen9591 Před rokem +40

      tbh i dont see why windows 11 is so bad, i kinda like it

    • @RoyanStudio
      @RoyanStudio Před rokem +35

      What do you mean by 'more bearable'? It's one of the cleanest Windows I've ever used and basically Windows 10 with a much better and fresher UI. If you don't like the start menu you can always use Start11 and such

    • @WS12658
      @WS12658 Před rokem +9

      What do you find unbearable about it? If you could provide examples then I'm sure people, and Linus, could make a video helping with those issues.

    • @Paronak
      @Paronak Před rokem +35

      @@WS12658things hidden behind several clicks in the context menu. I think Copy and Paste are hidden behind the Edit option.

  • @Daggerhead69
    @Daggerhead69 Před rokem +127

    I really loved the Lumia line-up and the metro tiles layout of Microsoft phones way back in the day and i still hope something like that will return . Ahh good times :((

    • @jothain
      @jothain Před rokem +2

      Microsoft shouldn't have left the mobile business. I've always been Android user. I tested couple Windows phones briefly and I was immediately ready to switch, but one thing kept me. Lack of messenger apps and especially that it didn't have application for banking I really would've needed. Banking app and ie. Facebook messenger back then. Just those would've been needed. I think they just should've done something better, like paying devs or something to get more apps into their system. I'm absolutely certain that it would've prevented their mobile disaster. Oh and MS should've fired Elop and never let that man touch mobile systems.

    • @genesisfan029
      @genesisfan029 Před rokem +7

      I had a Windows phone back in the day and I'm not going to lie, I loved it.

    • @Daggerhead69
      @Daggerhead69 Před rokem +3

      @@genesisfan029 Same man , my family owned one and I loved it .

    • @kR-qj7rw
      @kR-qj7rw Před rokem

      I didn't even care about the app stuff it was just a good phone with the Lumia aesthetic

    • @Daggerhead69
      @Daggerhead69 Před rokem +2

      @@jothain I was a Android user for the longest time and I loved it until the UI got so janky that made me move to IOS . Anyways , I always admired the Microsoft phones and would still in 2023 trade my iPhone in for a lumia if that could be an alternative to the current phone I own .

  • @ihaveacoolhat1
    @ihaveacoolhat1 Před rokem +1

    I got WIndows 8 cheap as I was a student at the time. Initially, I loved the new look as I had a Windows Phone, I was all-in on Metro. The windows store wasn't that great, and I knew it'd fail compared to the App Store and Google Play Store. And it didn't make sense on a desktop, but once I got a Surface, it was nice to use. Not to mention, the little nips and tucks under the surface.

  • @mh_dot_fm
    @mh_dot_fm Před rokem

    as a cg professional, which here means lots of different apps and need to launch them quickly - tiles of win 8.1 was a bliss. when you remember all your work pipeline by where tiles are on the start, you drag your mouse to a location and not wasting any time press win key and click. the whole process takes than around 1-2 secs, for like 20-30 apps total. Then, on win 10 this habit of "windows key for everything" turned into searching by first 2 letters of app name and using tiles like that still, but on 11 i exclusively use search now and taskbar. Taskbar was devoid of any pinned apps until win 11, desktop still is.

  • @Hartbreak1
    @Hartbreak1 Před rokem +58

    Initially I hated Windows 8 but after the user tweaks started to arrive (which was very early) it turned into my favorite version of Windows. Since with the tweaks you could go directly to the desktop and have the start menu I repurposed the start screen as a launcher for my favorite apps and games and it did wonders as a launcher. I think if MS would’ve used the start screen as an on demand launcher instead of trying to replace the desktop a lot more people would’ve liked Windows 8. There was also the initial issue of some drivers not being compatible with it but it was solved fast. After those initial hiccups Windows 8 became very fast and usable. I loved it more than Windows 10.

    • @Phantogram2
      @Phantogram2 Před rokem +1

      Same. I miss Win 8

    • @Tribulation88
      @Tribulation88 Před rokem +1

      Yes! Launch to windows, install start is back and you've got all the things you love about Windows 7 + some performance boosts in certain games. If I remember correctly 8.1 gave Battlefield 4 players around a 10% boost in FPS, I was already capped at 200 FPS at the time, but it meant my temps dropped a nice amount during the summer months =D

    • @konzo5942
      @konzo5942 Před rokem

      my first laptop came with win8, after start is back i dont think i ever used the tiles menu at all afterwards. for whatever reason though it ran very well on my cheap amd apu laptop, when I put windows 10 on it many years later I lost a lot of fps in many games.

  • @alphaedrum
    @alphaedrum Před rokem +24

    I actually recommended 8.1 for my clients with more modest devices that couldnt run windows 10 properly. Installing a 3rd party start menu was enough to make it usable for your average user that only needs to use office, the file explorer and dp some web browsing.

  • @williamnettleton3413
    @williamnettleton3413 Před rokem

    When I first used this it was 2014 I was entering college for the first time, and got a new laptop. I only went for a semester then took a nice long break but I remember that desktop and being so confused where my stuff was. Finally figured out how to add tiles of my apps.
    It was a nightmare that I have since repressed.

  • @WlatPziupp
    @WlatPziupp Před rokem +2

    The huge glaring unavailable intrinsic design flaw is moving away from the whole thing the OS has been built on from the beginning. Windows.
    Why would I ever want my desktop computer to use only one program at a time instead of having however many I want? With that being the default the first experience you're likely to have is just so much worse than what you were used to

  • @xXBeefyDjXx
    @xXBeefyDjXx Před rokem +34

    I've daily driven every Windows version since 98, I got 8 Pro for free with my Nokia Lumia as a bonus for getting the phone from the store, and drove it for a good 3-4 years before switching back to hybrid Windows 7 and 8 Dual Boots, and finally moving to 10 in 2016!
    8.1 Wasn't all that bad. 8 however, was extremely clunky for a general desktop user. Thank god for StartIsBack back in the day :P
    Also, RIP Windows To Go. Gone but never forgotten for the techies who used it.

    • @aeroragesys
      @aeroragesys Před rokem +2

      StartIsBack gang!

    • @LordOfNihil
      @LordOfNihil Před rokem +1

      used 95 forward myself. i really liked the simplicity of win2k and even in xp i disabled themes so i could get a more 2kesque ui. vista and 7 never really did anything i didnt like as far as the ui is concerned. i certainly liked it better than the skinned interface xp was using. i think i may have skipped over 8 entirely for 8.1, but used classic shell. later windows 10 with now open shell. 11 is still completely unusable. open shell doesn't seem to work as cleanly in 11 and i had to employ a plethora of registry hacks, the command line and other 3rd party software to get it usable, then i was grossly dissatisfied with its performance on hardware that really wasn't that old. that was for evaluation purposes and it never made its way to my daily driver.

  • @makinggeologyfun8968
    @makinggeologyfun8968 Před rokem +66

    I am nostalgic for 8.1 because my first laptop in high school was a cheap Walmart laptop with Intel Celeron, a DVD drive and a touchscreen. I also had a Surface RT and later a Pro 3 that I got for college. I even had a windows phone. I really liked 8.1, and when 10 came out I had to switch back as it used more system power and that little Celeron struggled. I still have that laptop and still use it for old games- as 8.1 is the last OS that a lot of old CD-ROM games still work on.

    • @aman9das
      @aman9das Před rokem +1

      Zorin lite will run fine on it.

  • @snaketv1715
    @snaketv1715 Před rokem

    I actually had a surface pro 2 a few years back and enjoyed it a lot. My biggest gripes with it were that it couldn't run apps out of the windows store, disk space was small, and it had very small amount of ports. Had a decent rear camera though, kickstand, came with this pen. If I were to get another one I would get one with a minimum of two usb ports, windows ten pro, ability to run any apps, usb type c, different touch pens for drawing, and 1 tb of storage and 16gb+ of ram. Anything come close to those specs? Bonus points if I can attach a standalone gpu to it via nvme or a superior method.

  • @MilesLoden-vn6wr
    @MilesLoden-vn6wr Před 8 měsíci +1

    Glad to see that some people still appreciate what is meant to be appreciated in tech

  • @mph8er
    @mph8er Před rokem +57

    Overall hated it. The missing start menu, particularly when dealing with Remote Desktop, was a huge pain. It's like nobody expected anyone to manage an enterprise environment from Windows 8 (even though Server Manager was installable at this point to do so). The unusual metro apps (and the new start menu with tiles) were probably the thing that bugged me the most about it though.

    • @Phantogram2
      @Phantogram2 Před rokem +2

      Classic start menu essentially turned it into a faster, upgraded and more stable win7. Overall I loved it far more than Win7

    • @mph8er
      @mph8er Před rokem

      @@Phantogram2 I disagree on the 'faster' part, but I think it really depends on how you use your computer. I didn't use the start menu in the traditional sense. I opened it and started typing a search query (you could simply type and it would search). I never touched the tiles, just typed the first couple letters to find what I wanted, then clicked on it. This is what I did in Windows 7 and is what I do in Windows 10 and 11 still. One of the issues was that it wouldn't find stuff frequently because it would pick a seemingly random app category, finding nothing until you clicked the right category that the item you wanted was in. Windows 7 didn't do that. Windows 10 and 11 don't do that either. I don't even remember 8.1 doing that.
      And again, not being able to click the bottom left pixel reliably because I'm in a nested remote desktop session managing Windows Server 2012 (the server version of 8) was stupid. Half the time, it also didn't recognize which window I was in, so even pressing ctrl+esc didn't consistently work on the right RDP session, same with the windows key.
      It was great for someone like my mom or my grandparents who have very little computer experience, but it was a terrible experience for a power user who had preexisting expectations. Windows 10 did it right by making all the options (searching, list view or tiles) feasible and in their best iterations even if I overall preferred Windows 7.

    • @alanlee67
      @alanlee67 Před rokem +6

      Let's be real. Microsoft really just wanted windows phone to be a thing...and it never was.

    • @mph8er
      @mph8er Před rokem +1

      @@alanlee67 And tablet (Surface), cant forget about that. But yeah, I felt like they were prioritizing a niche they thought was going to overtake computers without realizing that both exist and both have their users. For a certain subset of computer users, that did happen, but they shouldn't have basically tried to force everyone to tablets, touchscreens and phones.

    • @jankees4037
      @jankees4037 Před rokem

      There is still a start menu, but just lock programs you use often to the taskbar. That is one click and open. Start menu is two clicks.

  • @mustafa_sakalli
    @mustafa_sakalli Před rokem +97

    I was directly jumped windows xp to windows 8, while missing start menu was felt weird but I 've customised the metro UI based on my personal needs such as control panel, file explorer etc. After a short period of time getting used, my experience was maximized in windows 8. I think people going little bit rough on windows 8

    • @LRM12o8
      @LRM12o8 Před rokem +10

      No, it really sucked that badly for desktop. It deserved all the hate it got and then some!
      I had to use it at work and going to the start screen to find a program was just so incredibly unproductive. There's way too much wasted space between the programs in the list, making it so I had to scroll up to three pages just to get to it.
      And I can't tell you how many effin times I accidentally summoned the charms bar.
      It was nothing but a pain in the ass to use on a desktop setup and it had no place in any kind of professional environment!

    • @ecko5541
      @ecko5541 Před 5 měsíci +2

      @@LRM12o8homie that’s just a you issue 😭

    • @beni5149
      @beni5149 Před 4 měsíci

      I tried really hard to like windows 8, i just couldn't, after like 8 months of using it i switched back to 7, then a few months after i tried 8.1 on my laptop and i used it for a couple of months, it went from absolute trash to trash pretending to be windows 7, it was usable but i still didn't like it, it felt similar to using a controller for first person games after years of using mouse and keyboard, i just couldn't do it, then window 10 came and it took exactly 2 days to get used to the layout and how it worked so i switched immediately on all my systems, it felt like windows 7 but better.

    • @Muhluri
      @Muhluri Před 3 měsíci +1

      Yeah it honestly wasn't that bad

    • @allison6883
      @allison6883 Před měsícem

      I used 7 8, 10, and now 11, but 8 is the one I miss the most, it's got problems, but most people refused to ever even try

  • @Solitaire001
    @Solitaire001 Před měsícem +1

    I used Windows 8 and I didn't think it was that bad once you got used to it. My main problems with it was that: (1) it was designed for a touch screen which I didn't have, and (2) the UI had a number of changes that were not explained. Due to that, it took me a while to figure out how the UI actually worked. As an example, for the first time I ended up with several windows open until I figured out how to close them with my mouse.
    That convinced me that what Microsoft should have done with Windows 8 is when you boot up your computer for the first time it asks you a series of questions (if you decide to bypass the questions it will just take you to a default Windows 8). The answers to those questions would configure Windows 8 specifically for you. Questions such as "Do you have a touch screen? (Y/N)" "Do you want a Start Menu? (Y/N)" and "Do you want the standard icons for minimizing, maximizing and closing the window in the right-hand corner of the windows? (Y/N)" When you finished answering the questions it would configure Windows 8 according to your answers. If you later choose to change things you can run the initial questions again or just go through the Settings (where all of those setting are in one place).

  • @lukey333
    @lukey333 Před 9 měsíci +4

    this is how i feel about each newer macos version; it’s trying to merge ios and macos but since macs aren’t touch screens, the new settings, control bar, etc, are SO bad and take 2-3x more steps than they used to

  • @MaethorDerien
    @MaethorDerien Před rokem +114

    Yeah, I actually used it right at launch and it wasn't nearly as bad as people made it out to be. It took a bit of time to learn the weird quirks but once you learn them it actually was nice to use. It definately had some weird issues though. 8.1 actually made it into a surprisingly good OS but by that point everyone had been so turned off by 8 without even trying it that it didn't do much.

    • @LordSwagtron
      @LordSwagtron Před rokem +4

      see, “it wasn’t nearly as bad” isn’t exactly much of a testament to it not being just a universally worse experience to Win 7, lol. and that’s coming from someone who’s first ever laptop *was* one that came with a Win 8 OEM license, and I hated every second of me using 8 until 8.1 came out and made Metro UI marginally less shit lmao

    • @katanah3195
      @katanah3195 Před rokem

      It was what I had in middle school after the XP machine I'd had since my dad first trusted me with a crappy cheap computer finally died. Can't say I miss it now that I use 11 but it definitely had some nifty features and there was one app available for it I really liked.

    • @ziggybadans
      @ziggybadans Před rokem

      @@LordSwagtron The main thing for me was actually how fast it was. I had a VERY underpowered HP laptop at the time, and Windows 7 was really slow on it, Windows 8 by comparison was like getting a new computer. And once 8.1 came around, I actually really liked the interface, it had a certain charm to it that never really returned in Windows 10 or 11. Windows 10 kinda killed that laptop unfortunately, and anyway I was never the biggest fan of Windows 10's interface, I can never put my finger on it.

    • @martinrapavy9815
      @martinrapavy9815 Před rokem +1

      @@ziggybadans Alright, but for the price of Windows 8, you could have bought a fairly good second-hand laptop that ran Windows 7 really fast. Windows 8 was a fugly abomination that forced everyone to use full-screen windows without controls, supposedly for better concentration, except they forgot to account for the distracting claustrophobic feeling of no escape which it evoked.

    • @ziggybadans
      @ziggybadans Před rokem

      @@martinrapavy9815 I was only like 7 or 8 back then, and my parents weren't big on buying second-hand hardware then so yeah. But yeah, I agree, it did feel claustrophobic at times, especially in the original version.

  • @PorscheRacer14
    @PorscheRacer14 Před rokem +12

    On the ten year anniversary of Surface Pro, that my mom still uses, I got Windows 11 working on it. A heavily modified and stripped version, but it works. I still miss Windows 8 on that device and how my Lumia 920 worked seamlessly with it. I could have my headphones on and place and take calls within Windows, send a text, sync my music with SkyDrive. Good times, simpler times. I guess it was a flash in the pan. Solid gaming OS though, really solid. I guess Server 2012 will be retiring too. I've gotten used to seeing that familiar look in VMs and servers for so long. The time flies...

  • @RAYNE0912
    @RAYNE0912 Před rokem

    I got lucky when I got windows 8, it was on a pc that I was using as an HTPC. So I had a wireless keyboard with a touch pad and a search button on it. I never new the windows 8 start menu existed, just did everything from the universal search that my keyboard had a button to bring up. And touch features kind of worked with the touchpad, but everyone that used the computer complained because it was based on the position of the mouse, so they usually accidentally switched apps while just trying to use the mouse.

  • @gowther6419
    @gowther6419 Před 11 měsíci

    That charms thing sounds like one of the things I actually hate about macs, where you either have to have your windows adjusted every time you open them, or you could choose to have it hide while you are in an app, but you have to fight with it to get it to open when you want it to, but when you’re trying to get something at the bottom of the screen, it always would open over it and make you accidentally open other apps

  • @theearthisflat21
    @theearthisflat21 Před rokem +106

    Waiting for the water-cooled raspberry pi video Linus!!!

  • @FransVerhoef_lala
    @FransVerhoef_lala Před rokem +16

    I started using windows 8 after some experience with Ubuntu's Unity interface. I quickly realized it was not bad if using short cuts (just like I taught myself on Unity). After that realization, the usage of Windows 8 was pretty good (especially after the 8.1 update).

  • @hellslayer9638
    @hellslayer9638 Před rokem

    When i got my laptop for my accounting works , i was lost it was so frustrating to go through all the shit because my multitasking needs , it was like using a tablet but on a monitor with mouse and keyboard which are not really suitable because os was made in a way that touch screens have an major advantage but if you don't wanna use it you are basically stuck i just format the laptop and installed Linux distro called zorion os it was a breeze i was like back in windows 7 and with even better user interface it was like i went back to my college days when i learned everything on windows 7

  • @imark7777777
    @imark7777777 Před rokem

    5:40. yeah having a taskbar for every screen is great unless that's a giant projector used for a presentation. I wish the projection P+windows key had an option to choose between projector or display in extended. one of those would have the bar and one of those wouldn't it would be so simple. Not everybody would probably figure that out but it would be enough for me to say oh just put your laptop in presentation mode like this…
    Rather than having to go into taskbar settings every time, and then maybe change a feature that they wanted to have I don't know. Multi monitor support is still rather niche but is more common nowadays.

  • @Korvmannen
    @Korvmannen Před rokem +10

    I had 8.1, and after much grief and frustration I came to like that odd screen _slightly_ but loved being able to just click on the Windows key and then type in whatever and get results I wanted. Maybe it was possible before that, but to me it was a new experience that heavily outweighed the cons of the terrible touch interface as a m&k user. Other than that, I'm still in the "XP was peak Windows interface" camp. I hate the different new settings windows on Win11, I just want to use my good old Control Panel.

  • @TheHatMan69
    @TheHatMan69 Před rokem +60

    NOTE: Metro UI started on November 13th, 2008 with the second generation of Zune. Come 2009 with the introduction of the Zune HD, tiles were introduced.
    Metro started on the Zune, NOT on Windows 8.

    • @blackphoenixfamily8477
      @blackphoenixfamily8477 Před rokem +8

      If you're gonna be THAT pissy about it, then TECHNICALLY the earliest MDL principles were present in Encarta95 and MSN 2.0 and XP Media Center Edition....besides, all he mentioned was the Live Tiles aspect of MDL, nowhere did he say that Metro started on Windows 8.

    • @GuyGamer1
      @GuyGamer1 Před rokem +6

      Zune HD was so far ahead of its time. Buttery smooth UI... And renting your music for $10 a month. Who would ever do that?!

    • @lands1459
      @lands1459 Před rokem +2

      that explains why the windows 8 UI looks so similar to my Zune HD

    • @XielefR
      @XielefR Před rokem

      @@GuyGamer1 so far ahead? spotify already existed.

    • @TheHatMan69
      @TheHatMan69 Před rokem +2

      @@XielefR Spotify launched in 2011. Zune launched in 2006

  • @joetheman74
    @joetheman74 Před rokem +1

    Still have one machine running Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell. The combo essentially makes 8.1 work the way you would expect and for me was the last good version of Windows. My main machines have been running Linux since about 5 or 6 months after Windows 10 came out and I have now been running the same install of Manjaro KDE on my primary laptop for over four years now. I have been totally happy with Manjaro as my daily driver. Still have a Win10 machine for games but even that has minimal use these days as Steams Proton allows me to run most games I like well under Linux. Unfortunately there are just some games that force me to go the the Win10 machine.

  • @saladgreens912
    @saladgreens912 Před rokem +48

    I loved windows 8.1, nostalgia blind I may be. But I just miss it so much. It was what ran on my laptop through school and it never failed me. Quirky yes, but functionally flawless.

    • @normal47712
      @normal47712 Před rokem

      Reminds me of the song

    • @jole9000
      @jole9000 Před rokem

      Windows 8.1 is a tinkerers dream. It's a Windows 7 ricer edition. Before Windows 10 telemetry and before going Unixlike.

  • @Kathlanus
    @Kathlanus Před rokem +48

    I'm fairly convinced to this day, that win 8 would have been a succes with the win 10 startmenu instead of the start screen. Jumping between worlds was what kept me from using it on Desktop. On the Surface Pro 3 I had at the time, it wasn't half bad tho

    • @ChristopherPerrin
      @ChristopherPerrin Před rokem +2

      Windows 10 still has a tablet mode that looks similar to 8.1

    • @CheapBastard1988
      @CheapBastard1988 Před rokem +6

      @ChristopherPerrin Yes, but he meant it the other way round: W10 start menu on W8.

    • @WolvenSpectre
      @WolvenSpectre Před rokem +1

      It would have been a greater success if it had both a standard Windows Menu with maybe new features but not necessary, and the Metro UI and you could use one, the other, or both. I used ClassicShell, and on 10 I use a newer fork OpenShell, and 8 and 10 become great to use.

    • @5british5
      @5british5 Před rokem

      You could disable it.

    • @mojave5661
      @mojave5661 Před rokem +2

      if you weren't a Windows Insider back in 2014, look up screenshots of Windows 10 builds 9841 or 9860. those are the perfect blend of both

  • @VoyVivika
    @VoyVivika Před 8 měsíci

    I actually used 8 on the laptops I was given by my parents (laptops always seemed to break in my hands, damn things are too fragile lol)
    Windows 8 (more specifically 8.1) was in my usage, pretty much just windows, for a good chunk of time I figured out how to navigate my machine avoiding the start menu, before switching to Classic Shell (and my usual shortcuts by right clicking on the start icon stopped existing for Classic Shell options, I didn't like that classic shell would do that cuz I used those.)
    It was pretty alright all things considered, wasn't as egregious with adware and bloatware as Windows 10 was.

  • @Beeping_Beeps
    @Beeping_Beeps Před rokem +2

    My main problem with Windows 8 was that I did not really want any of these innovations. Some I don't mind, but feels like instead of focusing on delivering a more stable, performant base for a user to build their desktop on, msft went for a scattershot approach to innovation. And now, 2 windows editions later, we still don't have a coherent ui experience....

    • @conchobar
      @conchobar Před 10 měsíci +1

      It's crazy how in Windows 11, you have the Settings menu UI of Windows 10, The Control Panel UI from Windows 7, and the Device Manager UI from XP. I'm sure there's more than that.

  • @cavegamer5989
    @cavegamer5989 Před rokem +6

    Windows 8 is weirdly nostalgic for me as it was the first modern OS that i really used. My Parents didn't update our old early 2000's behemoth till 2012-2013..... right when new PC's started shipping with windows 8. long story short i used it for many years and grew kinda fond of its quirky-ness. But they eventually updated to windows 10 and i got my own PC which came with windows 10 shortly later. I always wished it could have been more. Sometimes i still remember with fondness the jany full screen start and the odd settings menu.

  • @babykill21
    @babykill21 Před rokem +8

    i had a first gen surface with windows 8 RT and a windows phone at the time. I really loved the windows phone so when i got the Surface it wasnt too foreign, also had a desktop menu that you could use as well and worked good for simple college work.

  • @pluckybard
    @pluckybard Před rokem

    Ohhhhh this is explaining so much. I didn't pay attention to any of the information/features of 8 and kept getting frustrated bc it was laid out for a touchscreen but I was a typical laptop user.

  • @wexmell
    @wexmell Před rokem

    I really liked the swipe thing with the mouse tho.
    Getting back to the desktop and the little menu thing felt really smooth to me.

  • @jdsco37
    @jdsco37 Před rokem +39

    One of my favorite memories of Win 8 is using the beta, opening a metro app, and immediately going "How the heck do I close this app?", and then tinkering for way too long before realizing I had to bring my mouse to the left side of the screen, scroll down, right click on the window, and left click "close" on the menu that came up. ah memories

    • @profosist
      @profosist Před rokem

      on original launch the only way was to drag it down from the top. Got far too used to that to kill initial setup prompt to get to the desktop.

  • @Gogeta70
    @Gogeta70 Před rokem +3

    At 9:52 ... Dude, that was a *SMOOTH* transition to advertise for LTT underwear. Well done.

  • @saturngd_
    @saturngd_ Před rokem

    I remember trying to download I think it's called Minion Rush on my 8 or 8.1 laptop and I recently installed 8.1 on my main PC which now runs a heavily optimized version of Windows 11 called Revi OS 11.

  • @extremeifier
    @extremeifier Před rokem +2

    3:09 I think the reason control panel is still here is for the more advanced user that wants to adjust every tiny little setting they can, whereas windows settings was made for the more common user that just wants to change their mouse pointer speed, or their wallpaper, etc. Since control panel can probably be very confusing for a person that isn't computer savvy or understand computer terms that much.

    • @animeloveer97
      @animeloveer97 Před 11 měsíci +2

      I still don't like how some things force you to use the settings app because to me it is much more annoying to use than control panel that I've used for the last like 20 years or whatever

  • @brookrichardson1373
    @brookrichardson1373 Před rokem +5

    My first experience with Win8 was trying to follow a guide and switching between using IE in the Metro interface and the desktop interface, and couldn't see both at the same time. It was like the removed multitasking from windows.

  • @mantrachhaya6835
    @mantrachhaya6835 Před rokem +7

    Well Linus as you said, multiple apps of same use exist is more of a feature for me, I don't use the settings app but the control panel one coz I know where to go in it and many classic windows users might prefer that over the new apps, like me whose first desktop operating system was vista

  • @-dimitris
    @-dimitris Před 7 měsíci

    I loved the start full screen of windows 8.1. I pinned everything I wanted, programs, apps, folders, sites and pages. Wherever and what size I wanted. Really convenient. No searching, no typing, no scrolling (scrolling was available, so I could pin even more tiles). The same goes for early windows 10, until they introduced the ugly theme aware, and the start screen became a monochrome monotony.

  • @PhoenixWrong_
    @PhoenixWrong_ Před 11 měsíci +7

    I'm gonna be real: at 0:54 only the task manager updates and refresh and reset were the only good things introduced.
    -SkyDrive is annoying adware at this point.
    -Chocolatey and winget absolutely face stomp the windows store into oblivion.
    -Ever seen a live tile outside the "showcase" apps from the store? Yeah me neither.
    -Literally everyone I know wants search back to the way Windows 7 had it and the current "universal search" is still dog shit on Windows 11.
    -Settings synchronization? Sure I guess but at the cost of the massive data succ MS wants? Hell no.

    • @darkjanggo
      @darkjanggo Před 11 měsíci +1

      yeah, this dude is bugging if he thinks 8 had more than the smallest sliver of improvement in any area