Windows 8?

[Arjuna]

I've read reviews and seen pictures, but I haven't played with it myself. Nor do I know anyone that has.

From the looks of it it's going to be strange and unfamiliar at first, but maybe we'll warm up to it after a while. After all windows 95 was a big leap ahead in functionality and most of the other OSes they've churned out has been from that template...

...except millennium I guess, but dear god I hope windows 8 is not done with that as a base...


What are your thoughts on the next OS from micro$oft? Personally, as it looks now, I refuse to buy it...

[KysenMurrin]

I really don't know. I'm not a fan of the big chunky button look they're bringing over from mobile devices (fine on a tiny screen, odd looking taking up a 24" monitor). I'm also wary of the new internet explorer, which I've read (not sure of accuracy) is always full screen - I never use web browsers full screen on a PC, it wastes space and makes multitasking more annoying.

Apparently it will have an old-style desktop hidden away inside it somewhere.

But I'm really not sure what to think until I've actually tried to use it.

[Fetzie]

It just looks like it was designed primarily for tablets (ok, because it was). I'll be sticking to Windows 7. If you really need the new functionality you could always wait for Rainmeter to make a Win8 compatible version and design your own GUI.

[lythac]

Have no view on it. Still -

[Flex]

Windows 8 is a huge potential fun nightmare ball for MS based on what they want it to accomplish. Win 8 Pro, Win 8 RT, ARM, X64, Metro, Classic desktop and all the confusion that can bring.

[Skye1013]

I haven't played with it myself, but one of the guys I work with has. He says he doesn't like that there is no longer a Start button. He did comment that IE10 was running faster/smoother than his Chrome currently is (but that could easily be from everything that's currently connected to Chrome helping to slow it down, versus a brand new browser that hasn't had time to save cookies/preferences/whatever a browser saves.) That being said, it doesn't mean he'll be switching over to using IE10, but at least it has the potential to be less painful for those of us forced to use it at work.

[Koatanga]

Windows is a bit like Star Trek movies - it's best to skip every other one.

3.11 = good
95 = unstable
98 = good
ME = crap
XP = good
Vista = crap
7 = good
8 = ?

[Fridmarr]

That almost works, but it's one heck of a stretch to call 98 good...or even more stable than 95. 98 second edition fixed most of the really terrible memory leaks, but before that...ouch.

[Arjuna]

Well, fortunately windows 7 is stable enough to keep it for a while(heck, this computer I'm writing this on still runs XP and works just fine). I think they are thinking a bit backwards here though, they should be adapting their handheld OS to interconnect with the desktop ones, not the other way around. Desktops are still their biggest market, they most likely should look to satisfying those customers first...

[fuzzygeek]

I have Win8 preview running on an old tablet. It's surprisingly good for a tablet, and runs well even on old hardware.

I will, however, never in a hundred years use it for any serious work in its current incarnation. It is horrible for speed. Pretty transitional frippery that looks neat in technical demos that just eat seconds between common tasks and slows you down.

It's like someone thought of a phone and thought, hey, everyone wants all their devices to look and feel the same, whether they are on a tablet, phone, or pc, right? right?

[KysenMurrin]

I think that at the current time, their philosophy of designing for touch screen and then releasing it to the desktop market doesn't make sense. It works in the emerging area of tablets-replacing-laptops that they're helping along with their Surface tabs, but it'll be years yet before we might see desktop users adopting touch screen interfaces, if they do.

[tullock]

During the early trial, you could modify the registry to disable metro, microsoft blocked that from happening with the release candidate. Whether that means they intend to cram metro down our throats, or build in an appropriate way to shut it off will be the deciding factor of whether i would even install windows 8 for free, nevermind pay for it.

[gibborim]

I'm certainly not going to pay money to move from a stable, quality build of Windows like 7 to something so questionable.

[gibborim]

Hrm, it looks like they are putting a stable, enhanced version of Drive Extender into Windows 8.

[Skye1013]

If you order a copy prior to the end of Jan 2013... it'll only cost you ~$40 US. Or if you buy a computer with W7 and upgrade it, I think it's only ~$15 US. Seems they're really trying for an initial push with this one so app makers and whatnot will actually make things for their new tablet (since if people decide they like W8, and want a compatible tablet, they'll be more likely to buy the new MS one as opposed to an iPad.)