Windows 8 upgrade price is set to go up starting February 1st. Really? Does Microsoft think that that it's, "slow to move off the shelves new operating system", is going to move any faster at $119 than it has been at $39.99? I don't think so. If anything, I think Microsoft will let it's upgrade price go up so that they can blame the slow adoption rate of Windows 8 on price, rather than quality.
By now, even Microsoft surely has to admit that with their Windows 8 user interface they've left desktop users behind. I've had the RC build of windows 8 on an old PC since it came out. It was a horrible experience which is why I've never even considered purchasing it. Now the RC build has entered it's phase where it shuts the PC down every hour and re-starts it, to basically make you upgrade or remove it from the PC. I'll be removing it and putting a Linux build back on it, thank you very much Microsoft! I have no interest in keeping a "touchscreen dependent" operating system on a desktop computer that has no touchscreen capabilities. All that Microsoft has to do to salvage Windows 8 is to make it a hybrid OS that will cater to both touchscreen devices and non-touchscreen devices. It would surely not be too hard to have the OS detect whether or not a touchscreen is available or not, and tailor the interface to match the capabilities of the machine it's installed on.
Beneath the hood, Windows 8 is little more than Windows 7 with a few new dressings. Unfortunately, it's those very "dressings" that make it such a horrible experience on a traditional desktop. The next iteration of Windows is going to have to address this problem, or there will be a very big reason for computer users to start adopting Linux. One of the main reasons keeping Linux from being adopted widely by computer users is the fact that gamers have needed a windows operating system to enjoy playing games. That may be changing soon though since Steam, a game store/service, provided by Valve is pushing it's service now on Linux. They are also actively encouraging game developers to port their existing games to Linux and to begin developing new games exclusively for the Linux operating system.
As long as the base of Linux users keeps growing, developing games for Linux could actually be a boon to game developers as there would be fewer licensing fees involved. The open source operating system may yet prove to be the underdog that swoops in and claims the huge desktop market that Microsoft seems so ready to drop like a hot potato!
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