Windows 8 Is Horrible. There, I said it.

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I'm calling timeout from airplanes and computer forensics to make a few comments on Windows 8.

Hey, I'm so sick of Windows 8 that I've decided to write a few short paragraphs about it.

First of all, let me make a recommendation:  Your decision to buy a computer should include whether or not it has Windows 8 installed.  If it does include Windows 8, reject that computer and move on.  That's how I feel about Windows 8.

I put a game face on with my recent purchase of Windows 8 laptop from HP.  I really hadn't studied Windows 8.  I knew it was different, but hey, if Microsoft was willing to risk it all, I'm just a sucker consumer and willing to give it a play too.

It had the new interface style --- "Metro" I think is what Microsoft calls it.

I was able to load my old apps and run them without difficulty.

Then I began to realize the quirks and oddness.  I had to keep 'passing' through the Tile Screen, for lack of a better word, to get to a way to launch my apps.

Okay, that's annoying.  I might have been able to live with it.

Then more Windows 8 irritants popped up.  When running apps, I would scoot the cursor over the screen, and suddenly ****POOF**** the screen would switch from an app to something else, like a PDF file or a picture.  I have no idea why.  I've seen it happen now dozens of times, and every time it does, I have to move the cursor to the upper left corner of the screen and drag back what I was working on.

More on cursor movement.  Often, in applications (think Adobe Lightroom) I rapidly move the cursor to the right side of the screen so that I can utilize controls.  In Windows 8, if the cursor happens to hit the upper or lower corner of the screen, it pops up an annoying bar of controls from the right side of the screen.  You then have to shuffle the cursor back to the left, make the annoying bar go away, and then more carefully move the cursor back to the control you were trying to manipulate.

I hate it.  I hate it.  I hate it.

Then, at some point, it will ****poof**** you to an application you weren't expecting.

I chatted with HP on the issue, and threatened to never buy a HP computer again.  They indicated I could downgrade to Windows 7, "but is never recommended" or some such BS, and told me I'd have to buy my own copy of Windows 7 to make my computer appropriately functional and not the productivity sucker it has turned into.

I then chatted with Microsoft -- more of the same.  They said I needed to talk to HP if I wanted to downgrade, and that Microsoft would not provide a copy of Windows 7.

I didn't save the chat session texts.  I should have.  Oh well.

I hate it.  I hate it.  I hate it.

My $.02 on Windows 8; your mileage may vary.

I hate it.  I hate it.  I hate it.