In reply to a post by yarwell:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Maybe someone could explain this fervour for a desktop?

Many people think it's a place to store things so they can find them, sadly. By "things" I include folders full of documents, photos, etc.

I guess they haven't discovered the Desktop toolbar on the taskbar

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I dont see my desktop much either, but the entire windows system itself I consider the desktop. So consider eg. is a desktop version of IE and a metro version of IE, they 2 different types of code bases.

Well, the desktop, taskbar and Windows explorer are all provided by explorer.exe. If you want Win 8 to boot to the desktop, you run explorer.exe at boot time.

So to me, the entire windows (pre-win8) system is Windows explorer and the desktop is a simple window on the desktop folder.

The desktop gives a good graphical presentation of everything that's available...so for me its primary function is to remind me of what I actually have even if it is only used once in a blue moon.

For me it's like the difference between the 'Favourites' bar, which I use 90% of the time and which has about 30 items, and the Favourites dropdown, which has over 1000 items all nicely arranged in folders....most of which I will probably only visit a few times a year.

Millions spent on aesthetics by the sounds of things but is it any quicker in a day to day scenario for the billions of users that type letters, browse the web and send a few dozen emails?

I have and they were fun and EASY to use!

In reference to www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22446754:

Microsoft has announced it will offer a preview version of its first major update to Windows 8 next month.

Oops

The tech company has issued a statement taking issue with the report.

"It is unfortunate that the Financial Times did not accurately represent the content or the context of our conversation about the good response to date on Windows 8 and the positive opportunities ahead on both Windows 8 and Windows Blue," it said.

"Our perspective is accurately reflected in many other interviews on this topic as well as in a Q&A with [chief financial officer] Tami Reller posted on the Windows blog."

The FT told the BBC it stood by its story.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Maybe someone could explain this fervour for a desktop?

Many people think it's a place to store things so they can find them, sadly. By "things" I include folders full of documents, photos, etc.

They learn the folly of this when the desktop gets deleted or corrupted with a user profile.

Of course the user profile has the default My Documents, My pictures etc etc etc sitting in it.

People stupidly assumed that as MS actually put these default folders in the user profile that they might want to put their data there.

Myself I don't use any of the folders in the user profile I prefer making my own folder tree on an external drive.

"What in effect they've done is compromise the desktop experience to create a great tablet and mobile experience. The problem is that it's the desktop buyers that pay for everything right now."

Pretty much sums up my previous post.

In reply to a post by billford:

I knew several people who had Lisa's, how many do you know who had a Xerox Star?

It's like saying that Cray Inc commercialised supercomputers.

i know someone who still got one.