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I don't doubt Win 8 demand is "weak", but I understand that app store activity for paid apps more than doubled after Christmas. So I suspect that a better measure will be to see where we are in January after all the folks who got new PCs and other Win 8 paraphernalia begin to be counted.

Not to mention, unlike the reaction to Vista, I don't hear folks asking for their machines to be retrograded. IOW a reaction of - I may not hurry up to upgrade, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to avoid it.

Obviously just my .02 on the matter.

2 comments

I haven't piled on the Win8 hate bandwagon in the past, but I'm actually liking it less the more I use it. The start screen, while not as terrible as some say, has not proved useful in any way for non-touch devices and is at best an annoyance. Microsoft have clearly gone out of their way to make it more difficult than before to switch away from the default Bing/IE combo (the latest annoyance is that "Microsoft Update" uses a hardcoded link to IE instead of your default browser, and IE nags you to change your default browser once it's open). For DirectX development Microsoft has downgraded their SDK by adding non-optional integration with Visual Studio and charging money for parts that used to be free (PIX); plus they removed the DX9 debug runtime so it's harder to debug DX9 apps.

If I was going to reinstall Windows right now, I definitely would choose Windows 7 over 8. There's nothing in 8 that's a must-have for desktop use, and there are many things about 8 that are more annoying than 7. Plus, hardware/app compabitility with 8 is still spotty (I've had a lot of problems with Boot Camp).

I've been trying to avoid moaning about win8 too because I came pretty late to the party and I get the feeling it's talked out. But like you, I get more annoyed the more I use it . The start screen is tolerable (though I never use it), but I find the "swipe" gesturing and charms bar very irritating. And more irritating still, I find the fact that there's no obvious way to turn them off just obnoxious.

That sounds like people were just more likely to buy apps around Christmas, like I'm sure happened on all platforms.