I don’t understand how a company like Microsoft is consistently out of touch with its customers. For a while there it was looking like Microsoft were back on track releasing great products and repairing the damage to their credibility, brick by brick. But when they released Windows 8 they missed the mark and today they’ve officially announced a free upgrade for Windows 8 purchasers in the form of 8.1.
While there are a couple of nice features in there for us desktop users, Microsoft have once again botched what could have been a triumphant comeback for the failed operating system.
They’ve added in some new home screen backgrounds, made changes to the tiled start screen, added more gestures, an option to share a screen of the desktop and even ability to disable the annoying charms bar and app switcher hotspots. But at the end of the day, Windows 8.1 is still a fucking touch screen driven user interface in a desktop operating system.
After the controversy surrounding the removal of the start button, Microsoft have brought it back, but in true style, it’s still useless because it doesn’t actually address the concerns that desktop users had about its removal in the first place. There was no point adding it back in, now people are complaining about the now useless start button they have.
It’s good to see Microsoft releasing an update a mere year after Windows 8 was released, but unless you’re a tablet or mobile user it’s hardly anything great for desktop users who once again get shafted. Anyone would swear Microsoft are making us purchase their tablets where Windows 8 is far superior…