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Consumers downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview over a million times in less than 24 hours, but we're willing to bet that the majority of those downloads came from the technically inclined rather than, say, your parents. The tech world has already proclaimed what it likes and doesn't like in Windows 8 -- but do everyday people really care if W8 has an enhanced contact app? Can everyday people even locate the contact app in W8? Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo decided to put the W8 interface to the test by plopping his elderly father down in front of the new OS with no introduction.
As you can see, Pappa Pirillo struggled to find his way back to the Metro home screen after opening Windows Explorer. What does this prove? Nothing, really -- it's far from a scientific test. But anecdotally, the video shows that the loss of a Start button and the schizoid Metro/Classic interface will likely cause headaches in everyday non-techie users who think that, say, Internet Explorer is the Internet. Or, as Pappa Pirillo says, "Are they trying to drive me to Mac?"
Thanks to Geek.com for pointing this out!
Comments are closed on this article
Blaze589
March 12, 2012 at 10:17am
The title should be "How an Old Person Reacts to Windows 8." Most old people aren't indicative of how the mass market will react to Windows 8. The old guy was looking for the "boxes." He wasn't looking for the start screen (Metro). Had he known that he would've kept his mouse on the left side instead on the right side near the notification area.
DriZzLe
March 12, 2012 at 9:09pm
My wife would never be able to figure that out, neither would my boss, his boss, most of the our sales & marketing department, my father, my father-in-law, my mother, my neighbors on either side of me, my brother(who just now got Windows 7 last week),85% of the people who work under me, 80% of the people at Walmart(just a guess)....you get the point.
It is NOT user friendly. People that frequent tech sites & blogs, probably would figure it out. We are in the minority.
Svetty Parabols
March 12, 2012 at 12:51pm
Your post should have been named "How a dumbass reacts to older people using Windows 8". The fact that he was older had nothing to do with the fact that he cannot operate the new Windows interface. For years, Microsoft made the interface function a certain way and people got used to that. They now throw everyone a curve ball with this "metro" interface and expect everyone to just know how to use it? Once again this is an example of a company thinking it knows what the customer needs without actually asking them.
Chris Pirillo made a good point with this video. Microsoft has screwed up by introducing the new Metro interface without making it easy to shift to the old, well known interface. I hope Microsoft see the difficulty people are having and make this change before the official release.
Blaze589
March 12, 2012 at 3:13pm
Title: YouTube Video Shows How "Real People" React To Windows 8
My point is that he's a singular person and not a collective (people).First and foremost I didn't say him being old has anything to do with his ability to function in the OS. It's clear he knows how to use Windows OS and he also makes mention of Macs at the end.
The fact is that Pirillo told him to go back to the screen he was on. That's like showing an intermediate user of any OS (lets say Windows in this case), one of a plethora of programs on a stock system, close it and tell them go find it. That's not how it works. In the real world he would go to the start menu (now Metro) and launch what he wants. The fact is that in Windows 8 if you want to go to the start screen you just have to put your mouse where the Start button use to be and a tile will pop up clearly saying start with a picture of your Metro layout. I'm just saying it's unfair how MaxPC phrased the title as opposed to the youtube title "How Real People Will Use Windows 8."
And also mind your language. It's really disrespectful.
Svetty Parabols
March 12, 2012 at 7:27pm
If you want respect, maybe you should earn it instead of criticizing "old people" If you had proper respect, the word "old" would have not been written in your posting.
DoctorX
March 12, 2012 at 11:02am
you are delusional. This is indicative to the majority of adults that use computers. This guy was just like the majority of the people that go to best buy and walmart. those are the ones that take their pc to the Geek Squad and pay $100 or more to fix their pc that probably cost $250.
Blaze589
March 12, 2012 at 3:00pm
Read my reply to S. P.
Copy and pasted comment by me from MaxPc article: How To Try Windows 8 Out Today With a Dual Boot Installation or Virtualization
W8 took me a little while to figure out how everything works. If you have a tablet it's great and even if you're running it on a media center PC with a mini wireless keyboard it is intuitive to navigate the new start menu. It's definitely functional for a desktop user once you figure out how everything works. To be honest I was ready to completely dismiss W8 until I got use to it. Sorry to say it but I agree with Victek. If people don't give metro a chance it's going to flop big time. MS better include a user friendly movie like in XP that explains the basics in 2 minutes or less.
All-in-all it's not bad but definitely not worth it to upgrade if you have W7.
fry
March 12, 2012 at 9:40am
It's pretty sad, really. MS has been coveting that 30% Apple gets from iOS app sales, and made the rash decision to build a PC operating system around the same model rather than listening to what PC users actually want. Greedy, stupid, and ill-conceived. Win8 is going to flop like a dead fish.
Wingzero_x
March 12, 2012 at 1:35pm
If you don't already I would seriously consider some Apple stock in the portfoloio. If MS goes with this this could be the biggest Apple pay day since the Vista years.
DoctorX
March 12, 2012 at 10:58am
those of us that havent switched to mac do want a mac. We want a pc, not an android or ios knockoff for blind people. If they would reduce the font size and tile size, I could almost live with it. I wear glasses, but i still read 8pt font very easily. I set all my fonts to 9pt or 8pt. Other than that... .if i wanted a mac, i would buy one.
routine
March 12, 2012 at 10:23am
Sadly, I agree. I've switched to a Mac and to be honest, I wish I switched sooner.
fry
March 12, 2012 at 11:57am
"Switching to Mac" is something I guess people with one computer do. I have a Windows 7 gaming desktop, a Mac laptop, a Linux file server, and an iPhone. Different tools for different needs.
Microsoft's mistake with Win8 (and, sadly, Apple is also heading in this direction with OSX/iOS) is believing that mobile operating systems and desktop/laptop operating systems serve the same needs.
wintercoder
March 12, 2012 at 9:40am
Ok.. now it's time for the acid test.
Put real people in front of a linux install.
DoctorX
March 12, 2012 at 10:49am
my dad is 65 years old and ran linux mint for 5 years and mom ran it for 2 years. When they were on windows, they would call constantly for help. After I got linux set up on there pc, my calls were so infrequent I had to relearn how i set there system up. In fact, we bought dad a win7 laptop a couple of years ago and he wanted linux on it.
Troll elsewhere.
wintercoder
March 12, 2012 at 2:18pm
Yea thats right... lets reach years back for a comparison... thats the thing to do.
If we're going to do that then why not god waaay back. My parents had no problem using my TRS-80 Model I (TRS-DOS, years before MS-DOS). They ran their basic word processing functions and managed to streamline several business practices with little help (they were in their 50s at the time.)
From my understanding, Windows 8 is intended to establish a common user experience across multiple environments - MS is making progress towards this objective.
I stand by my original statement. Do the same test with non-computer users on current Linux distros.
Oh.. and by the way... the purpose of these comment sections is to generate discussion... and at last count my comment snagged around 12 fish... so go troll yourself.
routine
March 12, 2012 at 10:22am
Hey I gave my mom a laptop with Fedora 16 on it. The guy in this video is more proficient than she is. She's been using it for 2-3 months, now. She loves it. No more problems with crapware that she invariably installs without knowing. The only thing she uses the laptop for is facebook, email and the occasional online video.
Belboz99
March 12, 2012 at 9:55am
While working as photo lab manager, we had a workstation that had a temporary issue with Windows, so I put Ubuntu 8.10 GNU/Linux on it because it only took 30 minutes to get the OS installed and up to date.
We had numerous customers use the machine for various reasons, mostly to grab a select number of photos off their memory cards and put them on a folder in a photos directory.
What I noticed was that people who had very little previous experience with PC's, IE Windows, got along very quickly. In fact, I had numerous seniors who had very little knowledge if any who were able to complete the task on their own once I gave them a few short instructions.
The only people who had any trouble were those who had used Windows for many years, and had a harder time adjusting to a different layout of the menus. Even then however, most got along just fine once I pointed out the differences.
Also gave a copy of Ubuntu Linux to a co-worker who was in his 60's with limited PC knowledge. He had a very easy time using it, as well as installing it on his daughter's laptop when it started having problems with drivers for hardware that was poorly supported by MS.
Dan O.
fry
March 12, 2012 at 9:43am
Using which version of which window manager? For anyone who's used a previous version of Windows, KDE is much more intuitive than Windows 8.
praack
March 12, 2012 at 9:20am
lol - so true though- just trying to shut the machine off takes too much effort
theplustwo
March 12, 2012 at 11:07am
No it doesn't. Hover over the bottom-right corner, click settings and then click Power down. It's not any harder than on Windows 7. Plus, Windows 8 has a lot better built-in power management and hibernation.
The concept of powering down is outdated. Windows 8 functions more like a tablet or mp3 player, where it will automatically enter a very low power sleep state, from which it can instantly be resumed.
mono
March 12, 2012 at 4:42pm
Ha ha. Are you serious? 'Hover', click Settings (why!?) then click shut down is as easy as Start-Shutdown?
iheartpcs
March 12, 2012 at 9:19am
Remember, this is just a preview version. The real release will have a tutorial.
Now, what the heck is that row of lights on the wall??
routine
March 12, 2012 at 10:24am
Why should I have to sit thru a tutorial for something that should be easy?
iheartpcs
March 12, 2012 at 11:04am
You may use the "skip tutorial" button.
Or as someone above posted: they will add some pop-ups to direct users.
(you may turn the pop-ups off also)
routine
March 12, 2012 at 11:12am
I understand... and I apologize for being facetious, but my point is you shouldn't have to use a tutorial. It should be easy enough to figure out with just a couple of clicks.
kevaskous
March 12, 2012 at 11:58am
No brand new PC user with no previous experience would agree with you, they would all appreciate the help tutorials.
philipa25
March 12, 2012 at 9:13am
My dad asked me for the fifth time in the last month for the same document if he should type it up in words. It does matter how good or bad the OS is, it won't fix stupid.
