News Lenovo Win 8 systems to bundle Start Menu replacement

Or: company gives customers what it thinks they want. More bloatware! Yay!

 

I just got a Lenovo laptop with win 8 and there's not to much bloatware but It will get a clean install when I get an SSD in it.

 

lol, you can see this as bloatware, or as the first piece of extra that's useful I say well played Lenovo. I think it makes sense they are the ones doing this first as most of their laptops aren't touch oriented (and I don't think the thinkpads need it).

Now they just need to fix the damn durability issues of some of their line and they'll have my money for the next upgrade

 

Pokki is a pretty decent start menu app. I use it myself on Windows 8 and I use Metro apps as well. Better to have apps in a start menu rather than tons of icons cluttering up the start page or having to manually search

 

Conservative numbers put Start Menu replacement software at 10% to %20 of total Windows 8 users, a more speculative assessment could double that. For a feature that Microsoft claimed no one uses that's a lot of people.

 

Where are you getting these numbers? 10% variation is a large margin of error.

 

RocketDock and ObjectDock (an OSX-alike dock) have been hugely popular since 2007. Does that mean Windows 7 Start Menu was a bit useless?

People want choice; they've got it. Good times.

 

Well its kind of difficult to be more exact, as Microsoft don't release numbers of how many people are using Windows 8, some people put it at 60mil, some at 100mil+

So i was going on very rough ball park figures claiming Two Windows 8 Start menu apps bring in 8 million total downloads and other numbers claiming 20 million Windows users who have downloaded Pokki. As well as statistics of Classic Shell downloads

Then take into account there are 20 odd Start Menu replacement programs available, and i think its easy to see why i had to guesstimate these numbers and there is so much variance.

 

I don't see the need to include bloatware just for the idiots that don't know how to use the Start Screen. It's a bad move because it has the potential to split the Windows userbase out into fans of different interfaces, so we end up with another GNOME/KDE/XFCE/etc-like situation, which in turn makes it a pain for those supporting the desktops to do their jobs.

I don't know, it just seems like a step backwards to me, and if Lenovo don't like the Start Screen (or are just catering to those who don't), then they should just stick with deploying Windows 7.

 

While I think this is stupid I can see why they are doing it.

Lenovo is hugely popular in the business sector. Businesses don't like using Windows 8 as it is new and requires training for the useless people that can't figure out Windows 8 on their own. Lenovo would prefer to use Windows 8 as much as possible so they come up with a solution to make businesses happier.

 

Ars Technica reports that it will bug you to purchase apps from it's own app store for it.
http://arstechnica.com/information-...o-windows-8-pcs-will-nag-you-to-install-apps/

So it's not about not believing in the Start Screen, it's a just a quick cash in.
I guess they hope that you buy a bunch of apps from them, and then you are "locked" to Lenovo systems.\, because you'll lose them if you switch manufcature.

 

I don't really see why there's so much fuss about the start screen. Its different yes, but if you know what you're doing its much faster. I was on a windows 7 machine the other day and didn't the whole start menu once, just the search functionality and it was way quicker than how I used to work in win 7.

 

You're wasting your time, people won't let facts get in the way of their resistance to change.

 

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

 

No resistance to change; fact is people are different.

I prefer the Win 7 UI. It's faster for the tasks I need to accomplish. Win 8 tries desperately to hide or make difficult to access all the bits I'm looking for.

Actually, a full Start Menu with all the options nested in a single location would have helped when we were trying to integrate hybrid machines on our work system. However, it quickly became an exercise in frustration. The final straw was when parts of the MIS failed to talk to the server. We purged 8 from the machines, installed 7 and everything was fine.

 

God I wish PC manufacturers would forget the crapware.

 

You know, "if it's not broken, don't fix it"?

 

It was broken.