Win 8谋杀了我的笔记本电脑

    Windows 8的成长之痛将会让微软（Microsoft）已经缩水的市场价值雪上加霜。公司已经把所有的赌注压在了这款操作系统、Surface平板电脑和冠名Windows的智能手机上。不过用户对此反应冷淡，更新系统的人也寥寥无几。因此微软有可能很快要就Windows 8发布一系列尴尬而又毫无价值的致歉。

    Windows 8上市仅仅三周，便已经产生了至少两位受害者。一个是Windows部门总裁史蒂芬•辛诺夫斯基，另一个便是笔者崭新的联想（Lenovo）笔记本Z580。

    我不是第一个在Windows 7系统升级到Windows 8的过程中遇到问题的人。许多用户已经在Twitter和Facebook等社交媒体上宣泄了他们的失望之情。不少人称他们的系统在升级后已经彻底崩溃了。某用户在自己的“高端”电脑上安装了全新的操作系统之后，发现了一大堆错误和问题，他对此进行了严厉抨击：“你们发布得太早了，我知道你们正在昼夜赶工，弥补这些问题。但是我现在已经没有可用的电脑了，不能用Steam游戏平台，不能用Office办公软件，准确地说，是什么都不能用了。”

    实际上这个用户的抱怨已经非常礼貌了，大多数人都因为显而易见的原因而爆了粗口。与此同时，那些成功安装Windows 8的用户则发现程序（微软似乎创造性地把它们称作“应用”）一直崩溃。另一些人还发现他们的核心驱动不能同时兼容Windows 7和Windows 8——这意味着他们电脑的一部分组件无法使用，比如音频设备和无线网卡。很多升级系统的用户都希望全新的优秀功能会让他们感到惊喜。结果呢？满心期待变成了满腔怒火。这真是让人无比沮丧。

    接下来是我的个人经验。我虽然不是科技博客写手，不过确实对使用电脑有一些心得。几个月前我测试过Windows 8的开发者版本，灰心地发现这个版本在Windows 7的基础上做了一些看似华丽、实则无用的升级。许多程序都不能按照我的想法运行，一些驱动程序也无法响应电脑指令。不过这是测试版——这种情况也在意料之中。

    为了不落后于潮流，我决定在Windows 8发布的时候升级我的电脑，还天真地认为微软已经把所有大的问题都解决了。天哪，我真是想得太美好了。第一次尝试安装时，我就发现我的触摸板和屏幕调光器无法正常工作。声音质量参差不齐，屏幕也不断闪烁。

    我访问了联想的网站，重新安装了电脑中许多驱动程序的Windows 8版本，显然微软的系统不附带这些。不过我的下载进程很快就终止了，因为下载软件的安装程序——没错，安装程序——与Windows 8不兼容。于是我只能手动地、一个个地下载所有的驱动程序。

    Windows 8's growing pains could deliver a major blow to Microsoft's already dwindling market value. The company has bet the farm on the success of its new operating system as well as its new Surface tablet and Windows-branded smartphones. But with a lukewarm reception by users and sporadic issues with system migration, it's possible that Microsoft may soon have to make a lot of awkward, value-destroying apologies about Windows 8.

    It has been just three weeks since the launch of Windows 8 and the new operating system has claimed at least two victims: 1) Steven Sinofsky, the head of the Windows division at Microsoft and 2) the, Z580, my relatively new Lenovo laptop.

    I'm not the first person to have issues migrating from Windows 7 to Windows 8. A number of users have taken to social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration. Many report that their systems have completely crashed as a result of the upgrade. One user went on a diatribe about how, after he installed the new operating system on a "high-end" computer, he found numerous errors and problems, noting "You guys released too early, and I know you are working around the clock to fix issues. But now I'm a man without a functional computer, without Steam, without Office, without even an ability to run ANYTHING correctly."

    That was actually one of the more polite complaints – the vast majority contained expletives, for obvious reasons. Meanwhile, those that have successfully installed Windows 8 have found that programs, (which Microsoft, creatively, seem to call "apps" now), consistently crash. Others are reporting that key drivers are not compatible between Windows 7 and Windows 8 -- meaning that parts of their computer simply aren't working, like the audio or the wireless card. This is extremely frustrating because in an upgrade users want to be "wowed" by all the new cool functions, but instead, many are getting angry.

    Then there is my personal experience. While I am not a tech blogger, I do know my way around a PC. I tested out the developer's version of Windows 8 a few months ago and I was dismayed to see a flashy but overall inefficient upgrade of Windows 7. Programs didn't work as well as I wanted them to, if at all, and some drivers were not talking to the computer. But it was a beta version – this was to be expected.

    Never to be behind the curve, I decided to upgrade my personal computer when Windows 8 was released to consumers, naively thinking that the company had resolved all the big issues. Boy, was I in for a ride. On my first attempt to install, I found that simple things like my touchpad and screen dimmer didn't work properly. The audio was spotty and my screen flickered on and off.

    I went to the Lenovo website where I began to reinstall the Windows 8 version of many of my drivers, which apparently Microsoft (MSFT) didn't pick up. But when I went to download them I was prevented from doing so because the installer – yes, the installer – for the downloads was not compatible with Windows 8. I then had to manually download every one of the drivers, one-by-one.