Welcome to Windows 8

[Ringel05]

Overview of a whole new look for Windows. The main change is a whole new start screen and touchscreen functionality.
Don't worry, you can click or touch the "live tile" that will bring up the old familiar interface.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD7UHLfmj-A&feature=related]Windows 8 Consumer Preview: New Start Screen; Beta Version Released to Introduce Microsoft's New OS - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Ringel05]

This one provides a much more in-depth overview.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og0BbYErv-s&feature=related]Windows 8 Consumer Preview Official Demo - YouTube[/ame]

 

[PeteEU]

Been playing a bit with it, and have mixed feelings.

First off.. I miss the start button. I know you just have to go to the lower left corner, but it is annoying for now any ways. Thankfully you can install a small program to get the start button back, but still... they need to make it optional.

The metro view is actually not that bad. It is going to be brilliant for a tablet that is for sure, and even for a desktop it is not half bad. The idea that the tiles are updated all the time with relevant information is actually quite useful. That you can fully customize the start screen is very cool.

The cloud enabled parts are very nice feature.

There are many changes (maybe too many) that will take time to understand and learn. It will take time to get use to I suspect, but the productivity gains can be huge.

 

[Ringel05]

I'm assuming you have the developer version. I haven't tried it out but figured it was a good idea to let people know what to expect when new computers are eventually shipped with Win 8, at least they'll not freak out when they start up their new machine, if they viewed this or similar previews.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Rumor has it there will be 9 different pkgs.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

It will be interesting to see the response to the new interface.
Will it be like Ubuntu 11 - where users overwhelmingly hated it?
Or Mac OSX - where the interface saw resistance, but quickly became accepted and today is considered the most elegant of gui's

 

[Skull Pilot]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

 

[Ringel05]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

I'm happy for ya.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

This is interesting.
This is truly unlike Microsoft to take chances on their core business. This is...what Apple does....not Microsoft.
No other business on earth comes close to the success of Microsoft at selling repackaged core products. Not even close.
They are taking a big risk...something Microsoft is not good at. Their ability to project consumer wants and needs is legendary...as in...awful.
We'll see.

 

[Ringel05]

This is interesting.
This is truly unlike Microsoft to take chances on their core business. This is...what Apple does....not Microsoft.
No other business on earth comes close to the success of Microsoft at selling repackaged core products. Not even close.
They are taking a big risk...something Microsoft is not good at. Their ability to project consumer wants and needs is legendary...as in...awful.
We'll see.

They recognize much of the market is moving to small form factor, portable computing while also acknowledging large form factor (desktop) computing isn't going away anytime soon. It may be considered risky by some but the move into the next century has already begun and those who do not adapt will be left behind.
The good news for consumers is Microsoft is no longer in a position to dictate only what they offer as a product if they want to stay competitive, they are finally realizing the need to adapt to consumer demands and current market trends.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

This is interesting.
This is truly unlike Microsoft to take chances on their core business. This is...what Apple does....not Microsoft.
No other business on earth comes close to the success of Microsoft at selling repackaged core products. Not even close.
They are taking a big risk...something Microsoft is not good at. Their ability to project consumer wants and needs is legendary...as in...awful.
We'll see.

They recognize much of the market is moving to small form factor, portable computing while also acknowledging large form factor (desktop) computing isn't going away anytime soon. It may be considered risky by some but the move into the next century has already begun and those who do not adapt will be left behind.
The good news for consumers is Microsoft is no longer in a position to dictate only what they offer as a product if they want to stay competitive, they are finally realizing the need to adapt to consumer demands and current market trends.

And it would be about time if they did. They missed the boat at every consumer electronics business other than gaming consoles in the past 8 years:
Cell Phones
Music
Online Movies
Social Media
B2B Social Media
It is kind of amazing when you think about it that the then largest computer company has been sidelined on all of these opportunities.
Personally I am not sure that the desktop platform as a social media device is going to work. The biggest social media users are of course the under 25 crowd...who don't want their social lives to be plastered on the home computer for everyone in the house to see....I don't know.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Hmm....I just realized a significant threat.
Since Win8 has native access to everything you do...that means if you are hacked or compromised - they have that same access - all at once.

 

[Ringel05]

Hmm....I just realized a significant threat.
Since Win8 has native access to everything you do...that means if you are hacked or compromised - they have that same access - all at once.

With the way computing is going that's an obvious potential danger no matter which system one is using.

 

[Oddball]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

Will only use the newer versions of Windoze for as long as it takes to downland Ubuntu, and as a backup for things like some games and downloading my Go Pro videos.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Hmm....I just realized a significant threat.
Since Win8 has native access to everything you do...that means if you are hacked or compromised - they have that same access - all at once.

With the way computing is going that's an obvious potential danger no matter which system one is using.

Not so sure about that....is it easy to hack into someones iPad? I really don't know. Or a Kindle Fire...or whatever. I would think it would not be.
I especially took note of how the email client has access to all the other apps without having to log in to them. I would think people would have learned how that can be a really bad thing from Outlook Express. Not trying to be nonobjective - since my M$ dislike is obvious to anyone - but this IS Windows. And Microsoft has a looong history of placing security a far distant 2nd to ease of use.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

And they never seem to get ease of use right, either.

They are finally getting caught up to leopard in some places.

I really hate the password function.

 

[FireFly]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

I am also still on WinXP because I hate Vista & Win7. There are also no good drivers for those versions for any of the equipment I run. I have downloaded Win8beta but have not installed it yet because I know there are not many drivers available.

I used an iPad for a couple of days but it is like a foreign language, I had to download to many apps just to get it to do anything. The thing is nothing but a consumer advertizing machine that keeps trying to sell me more iPads & stuff. What a scam!

I am getting ready to set up Win8 on a new 3.6-GHZ Quad-Core. I need a bad -ass video card lots of RAM, multiple RAID array drives running in high speed parallel stripe mode.

 

[Ringel05]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

I am also still on WinXP because I hate Vista & Win7. There are also no good drivers for those versions for any of the equipment I run. I have downloaded Win8beta but have not installed it yet because I know there are not many drivers available.

I used an iPad for a couple of days but it is like a foreign language, I had to download to many apps just to get it to do anything. The thing is nothing but a consumer advertizing machine that keeps trying to sell me more iPads & stuff. What a scam!

I am getting ready to set up Win8 on a new 3.6-GHZ Quad-Core. I need a bad -ass video card lots of RAM, multiple RAID array drives running in high speed parallel stripe mode.

I have Win7 Pro running on my old test machine, a Dell 4550, Pentium 4, one GB of RAM and a half a GB NVidia card, it runs fine just turn off Aero.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I used an iPad for a couple of days but it is like a foreign language, I had to download to many apps just to get it to do anything. The thing is nothing but a consumer advertizing machine that keeps trying to sell me more iPads & stuff. What a scam!

Yeah...welcome to the tablet scam.
I purchased a Kindle Fire...which as it turns out is nothing more than a conduit for 100 ways to buy something from Amazon.
I played around for several hours on a buddies iPad and found it to be a conduit for 100 ways to buy something from Apple store.
Also - they both make buying something a little too easy and it doesn't feel like you are actually spending money.

 

[Skull Pilot]

I'm still using XP and don't want to change

Will only use the newer versions of Windoze for as long as it takes to downland Ubuntu, and as a backup for things like some games and downloading my Go Pro videos.

My business network and management software doesn't support Linux yet