Once in every few years, I have this moment when I start to use something new and I realize that this thing will stay with me and I cannot go back anymore to the old stuff!
A couple of days ago I had this moment with Windows 8, because of a keyboard shortcut!
I clearly remember when I first installed Google Chrome and realized that is far superior to the browser that I was using before Chrome. The moment for me when I realized that I will not be able to switch back to IE was when I discovered that I can create shortcuts out of websites such as Gmail and when launching Chrome it will present the site for me as an app!
Before that, I had such moment, when I discovered Gmail and the way Gmail is using labels instead of folders. I instantly said goodbye to Outlook and Hotmail and Yahoo Mail! Whenever I had to use Outlook at work it was such a pain afterward and I just could not understand why I was putting up with this slow beast for so long!
Years before that I discovered IE4 is much superior to Netscape and I do not remember what was the tiny feature that pushed me over to use IE, but I never turned back!
The Kindle ditched the PDF. iPod with iTunes decimated Windows Media-based no-name portable player in my life. Because of Instapaper, I stopped using RSS readers.
They all had tiny features that pushed me over and made me never look back. Kindle had seamless syncing. Instapaper allowed me to read longer articles in a clutter-free format. iPod and iTunes were far superior, but the final straw for me was the seamless podcast experience!
I started to use Windows 8 as my full time operating system since the consumer preview. I generally liked this newest operating system and its new start screen, but what pushed me over finally was a keyboard shortcut.
Windows + Spacebar
This shortcut is for switching input language in Windows. OS X had the Apple Key and Spacebar shortcut since I started to use Macs and it was one of my favorite shortcuts on that platform.
When I discovered this keyboard shortcut to switch languages and started using it on Windows 8, I found myself more and more annoyed when I needed to switch from English to Hungarian on my Windows 7 desktop at work. That one clicks on the language not tolerable anymore.
Since that moment I found more and more new stuff to like in Windows 8 every day and less and less I could bear Windows 7. In my eyes, these small moments that make the difference between a great product and a good one!