- [Narrator] Thank you
to World of Warships for sponsoring this video. In 2012, Microsoft was getting ready for what was going to
be one of their biggest product launches in a long time. After quite a productive year, they were ready to release
a product so flexible, it would even put an emphasis on platforms outside of the PC market. It may have been outside of
Microsoft's comfort zone, but such bold decisions had proven to be successful in the past. Of course, we are talking about Windows 8, the product which launched
worldwide in October of that same year with
an all new UI design that saw the removal of the Start Menu. Something that had never been seen before. This was the future of Microsoft. Although, plan to be the most intuitive release of windows yet, Windows 8 was met with intense criticism, overwhelmingly bad reviews,
and found itself at the hands of many angry customers, what happened? It wasn't just a matter
of some public opinion. The failure of Windows 8
was actually much worse than it looked. Strictly talking numbers,
Windows 8 actually did worse than Windows Vista, despite
even having the advantage of being released during
the holiday season. Columnist John Dvorak of MarketWatch even described the OS as
an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt
Microsoft and its future. Now, with several more versions
of windows succeeding it, it's almost as if Windows 8 has become one of those
products that Microsoft just doesn't want you to remember. I mean, support for it ended
much earlier than usual. Windows 8 never happened. But now that this one's
ambitiously marketed OS has since been kept in the past, we can now answer this question. Was Windows 8 really that bad? Or was it just another victim of its time? Were these radical changes
justified in any way? Now, before we begin discussing Windows 8, here is a word from this video sponsor. World of Warships is a
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interesting about the story behind Windows 8's failure is that it oddly reflects the factors which killed Windows Vista. These include the big design changes that Microsoft implemented,
the popularity of Windows 7, objectives being focused
on the wrong industries and demographics, forced
implementation of apps, and lastly, simply the long
term damage of the bad press. I would like to preface this by saying that there is a lot to
talk about with Windows 8. For the sake of time, I will not be going into great detail on Windows
8's development history in this video, we would be here all day. Instead, I will also be
making a future video on Windows 8.1 and in that video, I will be talking about
the development history, as I think it ties
everything more together. Lastly, if you haven't already, be sure to like this video and subscribe. It really does go a long way. With that said, let's continue. Giving windows a new look was
clearly not the right call. It's easy to say that
Microsoft totally screwed up with Windows 8's design changes because they just had no idea what they were doing,
but an opinion like this fails to take into account
the technology of the time. In 2012, the direction that computers were going into was uncertain. The future was not bleak. Computers were only going
to become more popular and more powerful, but
no one was quite sure what they were going to be like. The tablet industry was
just starting to grow. Tablets had been around for a while, but with the iPad's released
just two years prior in 2010, it had undergone a
complete transformation. All tablets were going
to be just like the iPad from then on and it was now a continuously and rapidly growing
market, but not only that, there was some speculation
that tablets would make the computer, as we knew it obsolete. The tablet would become the new PC and everyone was now in
on it, except Microsoft. They did have the advantage
in the traditional keyboard and mouse PC market,
but that was about it. With this new growing
industry, they were falling a bit behind and their current market was being threatened competitively and it was time to change that. It seems that their only option was to make their most popular product, more inclusive to these other platforms. Compromises had to be made. It was time to change windows into a tablet-friendly operating system, even if it's at the expense
of their already iconic setup. And that's what they did with Windows 8. It wasn't just the next
update for your computer. It was something that
would also be bundled with windows phone and
the brand new Surface RT, essentially to show off the
new windows versatility. It didn't matter what you were using. Windows 8 was the right choice, but as you would have probably guessed, touchscreen and non-touch
screen-based computers require different setups
and fulfill different needs. It's going to be a lot
harder to create a file and give it a name using your fat fingers, as opposed to just using
your mouse and keyboard. If you're going to appeal to tablets, things have to be bigger more in your face in a less cluttered environment. This led to single-handedly
the most controversial and hated decision that
Microsoft ever made, removing the Start Menu. People anticipating a
fresher, more updated version of the windows experience
wanted something that was more of the same, more or less a
better version of Windows 7. Instead they got something
that was so foreign, it felt like learning another language. Not only was the lack of
familiarity a problem, but the buttons were
just in confusing places, and it set up seemed counterintuitive. The desktop wasn't totally gone. You could still access it and
actually wasn't all that bad. If anything, the desktop on its own looked like a significant
improvement to Windows 7, both in aesthetics and capability. But getting there was annoying. People using their desktop
had to go back and forth from this weird screen, which made multitasking very difficult. Something that windows had been praised for mastering almost 20 years prior, there were third-party
workarounds for this, programs you could download such as Classic Shell, for example, that would solve this problem,
but that was just extra work. And a lot of everyday
people were not aware of these alternatives. People didn't like Windows
8 because it was extra work and confusing and it didn't need to be. The disadvantage of Windows 8 being a complicated operating system, coincided with these strong success of Microsoft's predecessor, Windows 7. It was essentially just a
cleaner, more stable version of Windows Vista, which
had already been out for almost six years. This stud didn't do
great as we talked about. But the visuals were
excellent and by 2009, people were somewhat
familiar with its UI set up. Little things like the Search
bar made it much easier to navigate files than say XP. It was Vista's capability
that was the problem. And when 7 came in and
got rid of those problems, this is what they pictured
when they thought of windows, Windows 7 had all those
factors and its favor that contributed to its success. People loved Windows 7. It was exactly what a
windows update should be, an improvement on the setup, Microsoft seemingly
perfected with windows 95. So when people saw all
these advertisements for this almost completely
unrecognizable piece of software, they had no reason to change. It didn't seem like an improvement. It seemed like a step backwards. Not only is Windows 7 not
broken, but it's also great. There's no need to fix it. By 2012, the majority
of people were already using Windows 7 and subsequently,
most people felt this way. And this is reflected in
Windows 8 sales long-term. History really does seem to rhyme. Just like we discussed earlier, Windows 8 had its sights
focused on the wrong industry. If tablets really did end up taking over, like a lot of people thought
they would at the time, Windows 8's approach might
have worked somewhat, but that's not what happened. Microsoft made the wrong call. They made this arrogant assumption that everybody was going to
move over to using tablets. Windows 8 was better
optimized for tablets, but this was at the expense
of being more exclusionary to traditional PC users. If they had focused on just
satisfying the tablet audience, things might've ended up more smoothly. Instead, they made everyone
their target audience, which is often a high-risk
or high reward approach. As a result, Windows 8 was
basically forcing people to use a tablet when many
of them didn't want to. Microsoft failed to realize
that keyboards and mouses weren't becoming antiquated. Most people were still fine
with the original system of doing things and actually preferred it. And as we demonstrated earlier, a more touch screen oriented OS on a non-touch screen computer is just a recipe for disaster. While Windows 8 might have done better if tablets did in fact end up taking over, it's still had some big problems anyway, like we just talked about,
multitasking was confusing regardless of what kind of
platform you were using. It might've been just slightly
less confusing on a tablet, but still excessive. Navigating the system was just difficult. It wouldn't be until
Windows 10 where Microsoft would finally figure
out how to create an OS that worked for both
tablet and traditional PCs. Windows 8 was trying to move people over to a new environment
they just didn't want. And this didn't just apply to tablets. It also applied to apps. As the mobile market continued to grow, so did its programs. Traditional PCs were figuring out a way to be more compatible
with these mobile devices and implementing apps was
a big way of doing that. But apps on a desktop or
laptop seemed a bit weird. People using traditional
PCs were already used to just downloading .exe
files to their computer and doing the traditional
method of installing. You could still do that, of
course, but the little things like web opening this random window called the Microsoft store
and showing the app version of what you wanted to download, just fell intrusive and annoying. An example of this would
be the program Skype, which was now an app
built in to windows 8.1. Rather than just downloading
an exe from the company website and having a little
shortcut on your desktop, you now had a version of
Skype that was just too flashy that took up the entire
window, that also had a new UI, that was also confusing. Having this setup that needed all of your undivided attention did not make sense as
being the replacement of just having a little Skype
window set on your desktop and was likely actually
one of many factors, which led to Skype's downfall. But that's for another video, Skype is just one example though. Many apps were obnoxious
like this and it made people start to not like apps in general. On top of that, the Microsoft
store also gave companies an excuse to now charge
people for programs that were once free. It also often required users
to create a Microsoft account, just to download a program. What might have looked more
convenient at face value, just ended up being more complicated than what it replaced. Apps are made for mobile
devices so keep them on there. And of course, Windows 8
ended up being a failure because of its bad reputation. The mob mentality present
with Windows Vista was coming into play a little bit. A lot of people who could
upgrade chose not to because they were scared
of the bad reviews. As we've seen before,
Microsoft tried to resolve this with its release of Windows 8.1, which brought back things like a Start button on the desktop. While Windows 8.1 was a
success within its own merit, it was not successful in
repairing the already tarnished Windows 8 name, like we saw with the Windows Mojave experiment. A lot of people were just
closed minded to the idea of having any association with Windows 8, no matter how much better it got and people who already
downgraded back to Windows 7 or some other previous windows version had no reason to go back to 8 after their terrible experience with it, the damage was already done. While Windows 8 may have
seen like this thing that should have just never happened, there was a lot of good
that came out of it too. If anything, Windows 8
can be looked at as the OS which sacrificed itself so
that future windows versions could improve upon its
features without facing as much backlash. For example, Windows 8,
introduced Windows Defender. It had existed prior, but
Windows 8 was the first OS to have it built in, as someone who always had to shop around for the right antivirus
software for my computer, prior to Windows 8, this
saved me a lot of time. I no longer have to worry
about which antivirus program was most trustworthy. Windows Defender and a
few freeware programs did just enough, at least
because I'm not going on too many shady websites. It also introduced File
History, a Backup system, very similar to time machine on Mac OS 10, a program introduced not
too long before the release of Windows 7. Surely such an innovative feature seen with their competition,
motivated Microsoft to include something similar on Windows 8. Additionally, despite being
subject to strong criticism, even apps made a positive difference. Windows apps would get better with time and people would start to
get accustomed to them, sort of like Apple removing
the headphone jack in 2016. It was a culture shock for many people, but now several years later, people don't really care anymore. All these other companies ended up making the same move anyway, because they accurately saw
where technology was going. Apple faced very similar
backlash with the first iMac back in 1998, when they decided
to remove the floppy drive. But by 2001, virtually no one was even using floppy disks anymore and it was a problem that was forgotten. People might not have
liked apps at the time, but we've now come to a point
where regular executables and apps can coexist peacefully. The ride was bumpy, but Windows
8 did set us up for that. What's also remarkable is that Windows 8 was able to accomplish all these things while keeping the system requirements about the same as Windows 7's. In terms of hardware,
upgrading was not going to be an issue. Of course, there were bugs on Windows 8, but not nearly on the same
level as Vista or Windows Me, that was not the main problem. While this just further demonstrates that Windows 8's failure was
purely tied to aesthetics rather than being technology, it also showed significant
growth on Microsoft's end. They were learning from the
problems seen in Windows Vista and making sure to avoid
them for the most part. Windows 8 walked so that other
operating systems could run. Was Windows 8, really that bad? Yes, it arguably was. Its weakness was its overconfidence. It boldly stepped into a direction that most computers ended
up not really going into. As one Reddit comment, eloquently states, it solved problems that didn't exist. Unlike with past versions of windows, it wasn't that everyday
people did not have access to the resources necessary
to run Windows 8, it was the fact that the OS
itself was just poorly executed. It's hardware requirements
were not intensive at the time. The main problem wasn't
that it wasn't too slow or that it didn't
support enough computers, people just didn't like the
operating system itself, but rather than only
regarding it as some disaster in Microsoft's history, Windows
8 should be given credit where credit is due. It did help set up for windows 10 success, as 10 was able to learn from
the things that 8 did wrong and make sure to circumvent them. Windows 10 did what
Windows 8 wanted to do. It became an OS that could be
easy to use on both tablets and regular PCs without
having to take away windows' ease of use. And regardless of how you
feel about Windows 10, it was much more successful
in terms of sales and upgradability. A lot of the features
we take for granted now were introduced in Windows 8 and while it may not have been a milestone on Microsoft's end, Windows 8 now serves as a sort of life lesson that will only make windows
stronger going forward. What was your experience with Windows 8? Loved it? Hated it? Let me know your thoughts
in the comments below. Don't forget that if
you use the code FIRE, when registering for World of Warships, you can get access to all of the features shown on the screen. Be sure to check it out. Thank you so much for watching. If you enjoyed this
video, please subscribe and hit the notification bell so that you never miss a future video. Also be sure to check out my
brand new Beatles channel, Retrology, providing content
all about the Fab Four. Hope to see you there.
