I am admittedly a much bigger fan of the Apple desktop and mobile operating systems than the Windows counterparts.  However, that does not mean I don’t care at all for Windows offers, especially in the desktop space, and I actually do like Windows 7 quite a bit.  That has all changed with the release of Windows 8.  I honestly think that Windows 8 is the worst software released in a long time, and it is certainly the worst version of Windows I have used.

I remember playing with the beta, and after about 10 minutes I completely gave up.  It was obvious that Microsoft was trying to tow the line between a touch and desktop UI, and it ultimately ending up satisfying neither audience or need.  This video was shared on Twitter, and it summarizes my sentiments perfectly on Windows 8.  Even though the video is a bit long (about 24 minutes), I highly suggest watching until the end.

Jakob Nielsen also posted his usability findings on Windows 8, and it is worth the read.  With both the article and video you can get a sense of what went so wrong with this OS.  Was this the reason Steven Sinofsky was fired?  I would’ve imagined that Ballmer signed off on this mess.

There is also news that Microsoft is taking another page out of Apple’s book and moving to a yearly release cycle with their desktop operating systems.  Whatever they might be doing, I hope that they manage to fix Windows 8.  Everyone was in an uproar over Windows Vista back in the day, but I always thought those criticisms were overblown.  But this time all criticism about Windows 8 is warranted.