Valve’s founder Gabe Newell made some faces frown after he made a comment last year about Microsoft’s latest OS release Windows 8, referring it as a ‘catastrophe’. He has again followed the same path and chastised Windows 8 one more time.
In a recent interview at CES 2013, Newell called Windows 8 “a giant sadness” and regarded it as one of the reasons for the decline (20%) in PC sales. He made the following statement:
“The thing about Windows 8 wasn’t just [Microsoft’s] distribution. As somebody who participates in the overall PC ecosystem, it’s totally great when faster wireless networks and standards come out, or when graphics get faster. Windows 8 was like this giant sadness. It just hurts everybody in the PC business. Rather than everybody being all excited to go buy a new PC, buying new software to run on it, we’ve had a 20+ percent decline in PC sales — it’s like “holy cow that’s not what the new generation of the operating system is supposed to do.” There’s supposed to be a 40 percent uptake, not a 20 percent decline, so that’s what really scares me. When I started using it I was like “oh my god… I find [Windows 8] unusable.”
Gabe Newell also discussed in detail about Valve’s hardware plans, including their own “Steam Box” PC plans, but made clear that its version of the computer would not be running Windows but Linux. “That it be a Linux box, [and] if you want to install Windows you can.”, he told Verge. Among other topics, Newell talked about biometric control setups, and the changes to Valve’s game design structure.
Who is this turkey anyway. He says it’s “unusable” but doesn’t say he’s used it. Had he done so he would have looked past the surface change and recognized the true power and smoothness under the hood.
I am a senior citizen. I installed it on three of my systems and I love it. It beats the heck out of Windows 7 which I have used since it was released.
Way to go Microsoft too bad you need to put up with idiots that are too lazy to keep up with the times.
Jeff Shickele
You genuinely made me laugh. Thanks Jeff.
Gabe is the head of one of the most successful US software companies (Valve). He also used to work for Microsoft and has pretty good inside knowledge of how MS operates.
He doesn’t like Win8 because for desktop pc users it is clearly and demonstrably a giant step backwards. Shoehorning a touch-oriented UI onto a desktop pc OS that needs to support keyboard+mouse as the primary interface is just simply ridiculous.
Productivity plummets when trying to do any serious work with Win8. Switching back and forth between Metro and the desktop is just wasted time.
Trying to get Metro apps to work with a mouse is more wasted time. Many things now take ten clicks instead of one or two.
Win8 is commonly derided by techies because it is a horrible desktop OS, but it does make a good tablet OS. Surface tablets are great, and Gabe is not arguing that point. He clearly talks about desktop pc’s and you failed to read that part.
I hear the same nonsensical rubbish you are spouting from forum trolls all the time. I wonder how long you have worked for MS and how much they pay you to repeat the same BS on every forum. “Keeping up with the times” and “the true power under the hood”. What a load of garbage.
Incorrect.
Windows 8 is a good operating system, it’s just the standard same old people who are just resistant to change. To the standard user, Windows 8 is just Windows 7 with a new start menu, which granted is clearly made for tablet, but once you get over yourself you realise it’s just getting used to a few things being in different places.It’s just fashionable to hate Microsoft right now. They could cure cancer, but all the militant anti-MS crew would still complain about it.
I’m using Windows 8 and i’m not very impressed. And Pete, you are wrong. There are people that likes changes and this is one of them that at the end it was not good.
At my age it pleases me to make you laugh.
Gabe is playing public corporate politics at the considerable expense of his own customers. That makes him a dumb turkey because he got caught crapping on us common folk.
As for agooddecision I experience none of the problems this user describes. The statements indicate a lack of personal experience and a willingness to express personal opinions derived from undisclosed sources.
Without any third party software my systems boot directly to the traditional desktop. They have a Microsoft start menu and quick launch bar. The instructions are all available at The Windows Club.
Jeff Shickele
Yes, we should welcome the change from Microsoft!