The Frutiger Aero Archive Forums

Windows 8 / 8.1, a pretty unpopular operating system.
The change from Aero to the Metro design language played its part, but the real culprit was the mobile-first approach to their user interface. It was more optimized for tablet users than computer users which was the majority of their audience.

I actually have used Windows 8.1 from 2013 up to around 2020. My computer shop installed it on my PC when I upgraded my GPU. Once I had classic shell installed, it felt and behaved almost exactly like Windows 7, except the occasional Metro-UI popup that I would accidentally trigger. I was very reluctant to upgrade to Windows 10, but some apps started to behave weirdly, so I had no choice. It was actually a pretty fast and lightweight OS, all things considered. Boot times were superior to Windows 7.

So I'm wondering, have any of y'all used it? What do you like or hate about it? Personally, I think it was overall a downgrade from the consistent feeling of Windows 7, but once customized to your liking, it felt like a pretty good experience, and I have good memories of it.

I've only used default windows 8.1.
The start Menu UI was a pain but i've never knew that classic shell existed.

admin wrote:Windows 8 / 8.1, a pretty unpopular operating system.The change from Aero to the Metro design language played its part, but the real culprit was the mobile-first approach to their user interface. It was more optimized for tablet users than computer users which was the majority of their audience.

So I'm wondering, have any of y'all used it? What do you like or hate about it? Personally, I think it was overall a downgrade from the consistent feeling of Windows 7, but once customized to your liking, it felt like a pretty good experience, and I have good memories of it.

never used it, i only saw my dad use it and i loved the start menu.. yeah

admin wrote:Windows 8 / 8.1, a pretty unpopular operating system.The change from Aero to the Metro design language played its part, but the real culprit was the mobile-first approach to their user interface. It was more optimized for tablet users than computer users which was the majority of their audience.

So I'm wondering, have any of y'all used it? What do you like or hate about it? Personally, I think it was overall a downgrade from the consistent feeling of Windows 7, but once customized to your liking, it felt like a pretty good experience, and I have good memories of it.

I used it. I remember hating it so much when it 1st came out, mostly because I hated the confusingly tablet-like UI & the switch to flat design (altho I didn't know much about design trends at the time). I'll admit I can see why people are nostalgic for it even if it's not my cup of tea. The UI design was innovative at the time & I do use Square Home (an app launcher with a similar design philosophy). Plus like you said it ran better than certain other Windows operating systems (I'm looking at you Vista). But I still kinda dislike it for some reason.

I personally almost never used it, I only used it on public computers like in library for example, so I can't really judge about performances, and yeah I never really liked the "tiles" style, something they still used after with Windows 10 (but I always liked the daisies original wallpaper from 8). But if I remember correctly, 8 and 8.1 still got a kind-of aero window/page style

I've never used it before but admitedly the UI doesn't look that bad