this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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Not sure why it would be unexpected? 8.1 was not a good OS from a UI perspective, but it was the last version before Microsoft went all in on making Windows a service and not a product you paid to use.
They still had the incentive to make the OS better and faster. I remember videos from Microsoft at the time showing how fast Windows 8 could get to the desktop compared to 7. They don't really even try to work on stuff like that anymore.
Windows 8 also had to run on atom CPUs with dire CPU performance and even more dire memory configs. So even once it was booted it needed to be relatively slim and quick. I actually preferred it at the time because it was faster than 7.
I miss the Intel Atom, not because I wanted to use it, but because of the positive impact it had on big tech and software bloat. I wish we could bring it back, but it seems nowadays, even Chromebooks have 16 GB of RAM and an i5.
That is extremely far from the truth. Yes, there are a handful of Chromebook with such specifications, but the vast majority has an underpowered ARM chip and 4gb of ram
Current RAM shortage will bring good old days back :)
For Linux maybe, MS is part of the data center funding circle jerk and doesn’t want you to compute anywhere they can’t scrape it for training data.
Yes, but computers are still made and computers need ram
The atom is only gone in name. It’s now just “intel processor”. The N100 CPUs are in a ton of neat machines. And the E cores of Intel CPUs are just Atom cores.
Those 2 in 1 baytrail laptops were so underpowered, but damn, they're so cool
I actually really liked 8.1, preferred it to 7 once I got used to the Start Screen. Surprisingly well designed, actually found myself preferring the menu over 7's
10 had the best start menu in my opinion, but the quality was just an ever advancing downward spiral.
Now, I can't even stand it, deal with it at work as much as I have to, but at home, the only Windows machine left is only still on it because simulator peripherals are a pain to get working right on Linux sometimes, so my dedicated simulator machine still uses that, but it's used for nothing else
Windows 8 was where Microsoft went all-in on optimizing Windows to run on low-power tablets to compete with the iPad. It's mostly remembered for the terrible tablet-first full-screen "start menu", but also continued the work to trim away all the Vista bloat that had started with Windows 7 (where the motivation was to make it work on netbooks so they could finally stop shipping XP)
The fuck?? Vista predates Win7, that sentence makes no sense
Windows 7 was based on Vista, and started the job of trimming away Vista's bloat, which 8 continued.
Aha, well it's a very ambiguous phrasing that is used.
Ambiguous, yes; very ambiguous, though, sounds like you're preemptively dodging any blame for misreading :P
Could be phrased better but it makes sense to me
You're getting downdooted, but I was stuck on rereading that nonsensical sentence, as well, and I'm glad it was clarified.
I basically jumped from XP to 8.1 and I was amazed at how much of an improvement 8.1 was on a technical level. Yes, the UI was horrendous, and any usability expert should have been able to tell you it was a terrible idea, but apparently they weren't listened to. Luckily there was Classic Shell that restored a proper Start Menu, so I never had to use the horrible touch interface.
8.1 was the last good Windows (with caveats). When support ended I went back to Linux, because 10 and 11 are enshittified to all hell.
I agree, 8.1 with Classic Shell was good. I also liked Windows Media Center.
I hung on through 10, but last year, as I learned more about Win 11, I decided to finally bite the bullet and figure how to switch to Linux.
Windows Media center was an amazing money saver! I cancelled all my cable boxes, bought a server to run 8.1, bought some used xbox360's for every TV in the house, and everything was paid for in 9 months compared to the cable company rental fees. So I not only got 3 xbox360s and a server for "free" but was saving money for the next 3 years until I cancelled cable completely.
Plus I had unlimited TV show storage and could transcode anything I wanted to keep permanently to mp4.
Yeah I think Windows 8 in general is just what happens when you don't have proper user testing and go entirely based on what the shareholders think the next big thing in computing is going to be.
At the time everyone thought that touchscreens and tablets were going to take over everything, at this point though it's become pretty clear that tablets are for media consumption and some creative work. For productivity they just aren't as good as a full on desktop environment.
I never understood how anyone thought touch screens were going to take over for productivity. Back when they were being hyped, it seemed plainly obvious to me that even multitouch didplays couldn't outpace a physical keyboard and mouse for input speed.
I can't find it with a cursory search, but I remember seeing marketing back then for a laptop that was just two touch screens with no touchpad/keyboard. Color me shocked that it didn't become the new norm...
The underlying work on Win 8 was really good... Just not the front end