WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 What was the worst version of Windows ever? 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:09.880 We've argued it was clearly Windows Me or ME, but there's another version that people love to hate. 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:13.400 Windows 8 may not have been the buggest release ever, 00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:19.520 but it was definitely the most pointless. So let's take a stroll down memory lane back to 2012, 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:24.600 when the iPhone 5 was all the rage. Call Me Maybe was the most overplayed song in history, 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.600 and the end of the world we are embracing for didn't bother to show up. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:32.560 Windows 7 had been out for about three years, 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:37.760 and people actually seemed to like it, but it was built for traditional desktops and laptops. 00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:43.320 Microsoft could sense that a massive shift toward mobile computing on touchscreen devices was imminent, 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:46.600 and the company, understandably, didn't want to be left behind. 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:51.220 So they adopted the attitude that Windows had to be on everything from desktop PCs 00:00:51.220 --> 00:00:55.920 all the way down to smartphones. In 2010, Microsoft released an operating system 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:01.360 for phones simply called Windows Phone 7. It introduced the concept of live tiles, 00:01:01.360 --> 00:01:05.120 which were supposed to distinguish the OS from iOS and Android. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:10.200 Instead of boring static app icons, users would instead get large tiles 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:14.520 which would show real-time information like messages, emails, or news updates. 00:01:14.520 --> 00:01:19.300 This design language, called Metro, was actually relatively well-received, 00:01:19.300 --> 00:01:23.800 with some outlets praising Microsoft for daring to go in such a different direction. 00:01:23.800 --> 00:01:28.220 So what does this have to do with Windows 8? Well, Windows 8 directly borrowed 00:01:28.220 --> 00:01:32.620 quite a few design elements from Windows Phone, possibly due to the positive feedback 00:01:32.620 --> 00:01:36.740 or possibly because they planned for that to happen all along, but regardless, 00:01:36.740 --> 00:01:40.980 Microsoft clearly thought the correct way to get Windows onto every device 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:47.100 was to have it look the same on every device. But it turned out that this wasn't the solution, 00:01:47.100 --> 00:01:54.060 and we'll get into the exact reasons why, after we thank, computers and tablets are not phones, 00:01:54.060 --> 00:01:57.340 yet you'd never know that from the way Microsoft designed Windows 8. 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:02.740 One of the biggest aspects of Windows that Microsoft had emphasized since Windows 95 00:02:02.740 --> 00:02:06.700 was multitasking. If you need to switch to another program, 00:02:06.700 --> 00:02:10.140 just click its button on the taskbar and you're there, 00:02:10.140 --> 00:02:15.340 or hit Alt-Tab if you wanna impress the hotties. This simple and long-standing design convention 00:02:15.340 --> 00:02:19.460 was upended by Windows 8 and its much-maligned start screen. 00:02:19.460 --> 00:02:23.700 Instead of the familiar start menu, you got a start screen, 00:02:23.700 --> 00:02:28.940 featuring a dizzying mosaic of live tiles spitting out often useless information 00:02:28.940 --> 00:02:32.260 and steering you toward full-screen Metro apps, 00:02:32.260 --> 00:02:36.820 which made multitasking a lot more confusing, as when the Metro app took over the whole screen, 00:02:36.820 --> 00:02:41.020 the taskbar would disappear, leaving novice users wondering what the heck was going on. 00:02:41.020 --> 00:02:45.500 Although you could still get back to the traditional Windows desktop pretty easily, 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:49.580 Windows 8 felt confusingly like two operating systems in one, 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:52.860 with a normal desktop experience and a touch-optimized experience 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:58.900 stuffed into a single, bizarre package. Maddeningly, Windows 8 also lacked any option 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:03.100 to restore the classic start menu, a decision that was so unpopular 00:03:03.100 --> 00:03:08.020 that developing third-party tools to restore it became a full-blown cottage industry. 00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:12.140 Windows 8 also debuted a built-in app store, which wasn't bad, 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:16.220 but seeing as how many people were already used to just finding whatever program they needed 00:03:16.220 --> 00:03:19.820 through a quick web search, the new Windows Store raised concerns 00:03:19.820 --> 00:03:24.380 about Windows becoming a walled garden in which users would ultimately have less control 00:03:24.380 --> 00:03:29.060 over their own PCs. But this wasn't to say Windows 8 was a terrible OS. 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:32.340 It was roughly as stable and polished as Windows 7, 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:35.340 and some of the weird UI decisions could have been forgiven 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:40.340 if Windows 8 actually improved in other ways over its predecessor for desktop users. 00:03:40.340 --> 00:03:44.060 There were some useful new features, such as the ribbon in File Explorer, 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:48.420 a new task manager with a performance monitor, secure boot to prevent against rootkits, 00:03:48.420 --> 00:03:53.220 and native USB 3 and NBME support. But all of these features likely could have been part 00:03:53.220 --> 00:03:58.500 of a Windows 7 update, or at least didn't necessitate such a radical redesign 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:02.940 of the user interface. Simply put, Windows 8 didn't give users 00:04:02.940 --> 00:04:06.980 enough positive changes to outweigh the negative ones, 00:04:06.980 --> 00:04:12.460 especially considering that the popular Windows 7 was also a minimalist, unintrusive OS 00:04:12.460 --> 00:04:16.920 that largely stayed out of the way, even on phones where Metro apps and live tiles 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:21.000 seemed to make a little more sense. Microsoft overestimated how much utility 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:26.480 the average user would get out of them. It turns out most people didn't need a bunch of live tiles 00:04:26.480 --> 00:04:31.720 vying for their attention every time they opened their phone. Think of how annoying regular notifications can be 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:34.720 without live tiles. And there simply wasn't enough interest 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.320 from big app developers on the platform, especially the likes of Google, 00:04:38.320 --> 00:04:43.480 who didn't want to help Microsoft compete with Android just by handing them a YouTube app, for example. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:47.960 So the phone version of Windows 8 didn't fare much better, and Microsoft completely pulled out 00:04:47.960 --> 00:04:53.600 of the phone OS market in 2017. On the desktop side, the start screen was completely axed 00:04:53.600 --> 00:04:57.880 in Windows 10, and live tiles disappeared by the time Windows 11 rolled around. 00:04:57.880 --> 00:05:02.480 Yes, they were still in Windows 10. And ironically, the Microsoft Surface lineup 00:05:02.480 --> 00:05:06.960 is doing just fine today without a specific tablet interface. 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:11.680 But if any Microsoft developers are watching this video, please don't feel too badly. 00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:14.840 Windows 8 was far from the most pointless tech product 00:05:14.840 --> 00:05:16.680 we've ever seen. Remember Gibo?