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.

    安装了几个驱动后，系统的运行状况没有得到丝毫改善。接着电脑崩溃了。重启时，一个新的Windows标志告诉我它正在尝试“修复或恢复”我的系统——我任由进度条在那儿转了一圈又一圈，不过很显然，我这台三个月大的笔记本已经瘫痪了。

    我立即寻求微软的技术支持，并最终获得了一位“三级”客户经理的帮助。没法再要求更高级别的了——毕竟这位先生在达拉斯，而不是印度的某个地方，所以我相信他是个行家。我们俩决定在我的电脑上重新安装Windows 8，这意味着我硬盘上的所有数据将被清空。（教训：在安装任何东西，尤其是一个全新的操作系统前，请务必备份电脑中的内容。）

    不过，重新安装没有效果——使用联想的“一键恢复”紧急按钮同样无济于事。我的硬盘已经毫无反应了。这位工程师说他见过系统与固态硬盘不兼容导致的问题，于是我决定换一块崭新空白的IDE驱动器，再次安装。尝试了三次后（安装程序一直崩溃——难道是真的么？），操作系统终于乖乖待在了我的硬盘里，我的电脑重获新生。

    成功了吗？很难这么讲，因为Windows 8在我的机器上依然不能正常工作——许多驱动程序又无法正确下载。所以我们接下来下载了许多微软对系统的更新包。不过安装更新包时，电脑拒绝执行，提示我们更新包与电脑不兼容。我决定不管了，让微软的工程师们去弄清楚究竟怎么回事。五个小时的交谈之后，我得到了他们的说法，很简单：我的电脑与Windows 8不兼容。

    显然，我电脑上的一些关键组件没有可用的Windows 8驱动程序。他们认为问题出在我的控制器上。那是一家叫英特尔（Intel）的小公司制造的——没错，就是英因特尔。所以显然微软没有让英特尔升级我这种型号的电脑的控制器的驱动程序。解决方案呢？是打电话给制造商，拿到Windows 7的恢复盘，重新安装我以前的操作系统。（之后微软给我邮寄了一张全新的Windows 7光盘。）

    微软的工程师告诉我，我这种情况独一无二，只有和我的电脑配置完全一样的用户才可能遭遇类似的窘境，而他们估计这类电脑在全球共有20万台。我让那些达拉斯的工程师们继续想办法解决这个问题。我很难相信，世界上最大的芯片制造商英特尔和世界上最大的个人电脑制造商联想，目前在市场上还有无法同Windows 8兼容的产品——很荒谬，对吧？

    所以，至今为止，我的新电脑只能拿来当镇纸用。我的朋友们告诉我，我是一个坚持使用Windows电脑的顽固派，都不肯变“酷”一点，换台使用苹果系统的Mac电脑。不过我遇到的这个问题，除去带给我个人的羞耻之外，对微软而言也应该是个巨大的危险信号。一些程序不能在Windows 8下运行是一回事，可是用户无法使用该系统来工作，就是另一回事了。

    After installing a few, there was no change in how the system ran. Then the computer crashed. On reboot I just got the new teal Windows logo saying it was "trying to repair or refresh" my system – I let it run through the cycle many times but it was apparent that my computer, a three-month old laptop, was on its deathbed.

    Microsoft support sprung into action and I was eventually elevated to a "Level III" support manager. You can't get any higher - this person sat in Dallas, not somewhere in India, so in my mind he was the real deal. We decided to do a fresh install of Windows 8 on my computer, meaning that all my data on my hard drive would be obliterated (note: please backup your computer before installing anything, especially a new operating system).

    But just doing a fresh install didn't work – neither did the "one-touch" emergency Lenovo backup. My hard drive was dead. The engineer said he had seen compatibility issues with solid state hard drives so I decided to switch it out for a totally blank IDE drive and reran the set up. After three attempts (the installer kept crashing – really?), the operating system was on the hard drive and my computer was back in action.

    Success? Hardly. Windows 8 still didn't work properly on my machine -- there were a bunch of drivers that didn't download correctly again. So we then started to download the Microsoft update for the system. But when we went to install the updates the computer refused to do it, noting that the updates were not compatible with my computer.

    I then stepped away and let the Microsoft engineers figure out what was going on. After five hours on the phone, the final verdict was that my computer simply wasn't compatible with Windows 8.

    Apparently, certain critical parts on my computer just have no Windows 8 drivers available. The driver that they think is the problem was for my controller. It was made by a small company named Intel – yes, Intel (INTC). So apparently Microsoft didn't get Intel to update the drivers for their controller on my particular model. The engineers went on to blame my PC manufacturer for other compatibility issues. The solution? Call the manufacturer and get a Windows 7 recovery disk and reinstall my old operating system. (Microsoft later sent me a fresh copy of Windows 7 through the mail).

    The Microsoft engineers told me the issues I was having was unique and would probably only impact PC users who have the exact same configuration as my computer, which they estimated to be around 200,000 computers. I told the boys down in Dallas to keep working on finding a solution. I found it hard to believe that the world's largest chip maker, Intel, and the world's largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, had anything on the market today that couldn't talk with Windows 8 – that would be ridiculous, right?

    So, for now, my new computer is one heavy paperweight. My friends remind me of how obstinate I am about sticking with my PC instead of being "cool" and getting a Mac. But beyond the social humiliation, this problem I am having in installing Windows 8 should be a huge red flag for Microsoft. It is one thing if some programs might not run on Windows 8 just yet. It's another if users can't even get it to work.

    令人担忧的是，在这类事件上，微软似乎一直在推脱，而不是承担应有的责任并提供有意义的解决办法。据传闻，微软的工程师责怪PC制造商销量平平，现在又责怪电脑配件的制造商不及时更新接口与Windows 8兼容。微软的发言人对此拒绝发表评论。

    不过归根结底，看起来愚蠢的是微软。如果Windows 8的方方面面都不完美，那么必然会前景黯淡。微软的全新平板电脑和手机都将使用Windows 8系统。如果我们都不愿在电脑上升级Windows 8，我们又怎么会去购买使用Windows 8的设备呢？

    微软在个人电脑领域依旧占据统治地位，不过随着人们逐渐摒弃台式机和笔记本，越来越多地使用平板电脑和智能手机来代替电脑的功能时，这种统治地位正逐渐变得无关紧要。我们还要几周才能知道Windows 8的销量如何，不过起初的几个星期，这款操作系统已经在大家的争议中遍体鳞伤——Windows系统之父已经离开，我的电脑也已经瘫痪。如果微软不行动起来，很快就会遭到用户的反抗，从而与科技前沿渐行渐远。

    译者：严匡正

    What's alarming is that Microsoft seems to be blaming others for these issues instead of taking responsibility for them and proposing meaningful solutions. Engineers inside the company arereportedly blaming the PC manufacturers for its lackluster sales and now seem to be blaming every component maker for not updating their parts to interface correctly with Windows 8. Microsoft representatives declines to comment for this story.

    But in the end it is Microsoft that looks foolish because if everything isn't perfect out of the box then Windows 8 will have a dark cloud over it. Microsoft's is new tablet and phones are running versions of Windows 8. If we're reluctant to upgrade our computers to Windows 8, why would we go buy a Windows 8 device?

    Microsoft still has its dominance in the PC space, but that is becoming less and less relevant as people ditch their desktops and laptops and start exclusively using their tablets and smartphones for much of their computing needs. It will be several weeks before we know how Windows 8 has sold, but its first few weeks out of the gate has been marred in controversy – culminating in the execution of its father and now my PC. If Microsoft doesn't get its act together, it could soon face a revolt that could put the company on the path to technological irrelevance.