Early adopters of Windows 8 believe it isn’t as good as Windows 7, a poll has shown.
Forumswindows8.com quizzed more than 50,000 users about their most- and least-liked features, as well as their opinion of the operating system overall.
“Although Windows 8 Beta has been released with great expectations, unfortunately, it seems that users are not as enthusiastic about Windows 8 as Microsoft had hoped,” says the company.
“According to the survey, the most popular Windows system is still Windows 7 (53 percent), with only 25 percent of users voting Windows 8 as their favorite.”
Windows 8 Surface was pretty popular, though, getting more positive votes than Android tablets or the iPad – over a third of users said it would be their top choice.
And Windows 8 gains approval for its fast boot and shut-down, with 56 percent of users saying it was their most-liked feature. Easy installation came next, at 50 percent, followed by Internet Explorer 10 at 35 percent and restart/restore capabilities at 28 percent.
On the downside, though, were the price and system requirements.
“Users can upgrade to Windows 8 at only $39.99, but without promotional pricing the cost rises to $199.99. 35 percent of the users believe that this price is too high,” says Forumswindows8.com.
Nor is the new Metro user interface as popular with users as Microsoft must have hoped, with only a 22 percent approval rating.
This is bad news for Microsoft, with Windows 8 due to hit the stores on October 26. But it’s worth remembering that these early users are by definition a different type to those that will be looing at the new OS after it launches: more tech-savvy and possibly more picky.
