Welcome to Windows 8

[Uncensored2008]

Rumor has it there will be 9 different pkgs.

I don't know what rumors you're listening to.

There will only be three packages released.

Microsoft Slims Down Windows Range For 8th Edition

 

[Uncensored2008]

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

Put an Apple logo on a dog turd and fan bois will declare the turd to be the most bestist device EVAH.

That aside, the most functional, elegant and effective GUI to date is Aero. I personally like Unity, the more I use it, the better I like it. However, it's inferior to Aero, everything is. Which really baffles me with Metro, it's ugly, blocky, and obscures way too much real estate. For the XBox, where a gamepad without a lot of precision is used, I can understand it, but for a computer or tablet, it is an atrocity.

Microsoft finally had the pinnacle of interfaces, then fucks it up with Metro...

 

[Uncensored2008]

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.

Then buy a real tablet.

Seriously.

I've had two Androids, the Galaxy 10 I have now, and the Motorola Xoom. Both used the same Honeycomb OS and similar processors.

I've never spent a dime on software or other stuff, and I have it loaded with thousands of apps (literally.)

With Citrix, I can and do run the company ERP on the Galaxy. With RDP, I can and do manage my servers.

I love my tablets.

The Xoom was a FAR better device than the Galaxy. The Galaxy is thin, light and sexy, but battery life sucks. The bulkier Xoom had a solid 10 hours, the Galaxy runs about 2. Obviously the bulk in the Xoom was all battery. With ICS it all just gets better.

That the thing about Windows 8, Microsoft has already lost the tablet war. Google will prevail in the end. Apple is too closed and too evil, if they were the only mobility maker, M$ would have a chance, but with Google? It just isn't going to happen.

 

[Uncensored2008]

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

Linux is like Ron Paul.

If you spend your time on message boards, you get the impression that that there is enormous support.

But in real life both are irrelevant.

Linux holds about .9% of the market.

Operating system market share

No major ERP or Accounting package will be moving to Ubuntu. Sure, Oracle will run on SUSE, on the server side, but clients are and will remain Windows.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I did just notice one issue. The standard Windows Games are no longer there.

They will be in the final release.

The Longhorn beta had no games either.

 

[Navy1960]

I installed Win 8 Developer Preview on my system on a VMWare 8 VM Machine. First, Metro if your a desktop user with a mouse its a bit more than "clunky" to use and the interface itself looks like something from Windows 95 amd is poorly done in terms of graphics. I find the inability to overlay one window upon another and size them as I see fit very annoying and not very user friendly. This OS was clearly written with Tablets and Phones in mind rather than desktop PC users, unless you have a a touchscreen monitor. The thing is Windows has what more than 500 plus million users and less than .001% of those have a touchscreen monitor. while I under MS wanting to move towards a more tablet friendly UI this all or nothing sort of gives the finger to to their installed user base. I did however have he chance to see Metro on a tablet and it's a wonderful OS for tablets and very fast and in my personal opinion that is where it belongs. Having said all this, I do believe that MS with Win8 is leaving the door open for some company to step into the OS arena now more so than ever to take up that slack, say Ubuntu, Mint, whatever. As some of you gave me some very good advice to give Mint a try a while back I also installed that and so far am very impressed.

 

[PeteEU]

I installed Win 8 Developer Preview on my system on a VMWare 8 VM Machine. First, Metro if your a desktop user with a mouse its a bit more than "clunky" to use and the interface itself looks like something from Windows 95 amd is poorly done in terms of graphics. I find the inability to overlay one window upon another and size them as I see fit very annoying and not very user friendly. This OS was clearly written with Tablets and Phones in mind rather than desktop PC users, unless you have a a touchscreen monitor. The thing is Windows has what more than 500 plus million users and less than .001% of those have a touchscreen monitor. while I under MS wanting to move towards a more tablet friendly UI this all or nothing sort of gives the finger to to their installed user base. I did however have he chance to see Metro on a tablet and it's a wonderful OS for tablets and very fast and in my personal opinion that is where it belongs. Having said all this, I do believe that MS with Win8 is leaving the door open for some company to step into the OS arena now more so than ever to take up that slack, say Ubuntu, Mint, whatever. As some of you gave me some very good advice to give Mint a try a while back I also installed that and so far am very impressed.

Well you dont have to use the METRO look... just saying. I find it far more productive once you figure it out.. easier to access stuff and faster. Only thing that I dont like is the method of shutting down your PC... that is one thing they got to change before the final release. We shall see in June with the Release Candidate version.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Well you dont have to use the METRO look... just saying. I find it far more productive once you figure it out.. easier to access stuff and faster. Only thing that I dont like is the method of shutting down your PC... that is one thing they got to change before the final release. We shall see in June with the Release Candidate version.

Oh come on, Metro is the biggest steaming pile to come along since the Macintosh. It's a UI designed for the XBox. It has no place on a computer.

 

[Navy1960]

I installed Win 8 Developer Preview on my system on a VMWare 8 VM Machine. First, Metro if your a desktop user with a mouse its a bit more than "clunky" to use and the interface itself looks like something from Windows 95 amd is poorly done in terms of graphics. I find the inability to overlay one window upon another and size them as I see fit very annoying and not very user friendly. This OS was clearly written with Tablets and Phones in mind rather than desktop PC users, unless you have a a touchscreen monitor. The thing is Windows has what more than 500 plus million users and less than .001% of those have a touchscreen monitor. while I under MS wanting to move towards a more tablet friendly UI this all or nothing sort of gives the finger to to their installed user base. I did however have he chance to see Metro on a tablet and it's a wonderful OS for tablets and very fast and in my personal opinion that is where it belongs. Having said all this, I do believe that MS with Win8 is leaving the door open for some company to step into the OS arena now more so than ever to take up that slack, say Ubuntu, Mint, whatever. As some of you gave me some very good advice to give Mint a try a while back I also installed that and so far am very impressed.

Well you dont have to use the METRO look... just saying. I find it far more productive once you figure it out.. easier to access stuff and faster. Only thing that I dont like is the method of shutting down your PC... that is one thing they got to change before the final release. We shall see in June with the Release Candidate version.

Well heres the thing Pete, when you go to the so called legacy version in Win8, the start menu doesn't really exist. so if you really wanted to make it like the old one, you would have a lot of work on your hands. If that were the case what does Win8 buy you then? faster start up time? New updates from MS? Seems to me that it would have been smarter for MS to have created a Win8 Desktop and a Win8 Tablet version and let the user choose what UI they wanted to use rather than forcing the use of "metro" with the old UI as an afterthought. I do hope they have fixed some of the issues I have with it in the final release, because if the final release is like the DP version it just means that Win7 and Mint are snug in their home on my PC's

 

[Uncensored2008]

Well heres the thing Pete, when you go to the so called legacy version in Win8, the start menu doesn't really exist. so if you really wanted to make it like the old one, you would have a lot of work on your hands. If that were the case what does Win8 buy you then? faster start up time? New updates from MS? Seems to me that it would have been smarter for MS to have created a Win8 Desktop and a Win8 Tablet version and let the user choose what UI they wanted to use rather than forcing the use of "metro" with the old UI as an afterthought. I do hope they have fixed some of the issues I have with it in the final release, because if the final release is like the DP version it just means that Win7 and Mint are snug in their home on my PC's

Every so often, Microsoft has a release that is best to just skip. Windows 8 is shaping up to be just such a release.

Maybe they could call it "Windows ME - V.8"

 

[Navy1960]

Well heres the thing Pete, when you go to the so called legacy version in Win8, the start menu doesn't really exist. so if you really wanted to make it like the old one, you would have a lot of work on your hands. If that were the case what does Win8 buy you then? faster start up time? New updates from MS? Seems to me that it would have been smarter for MS to have created a Win8 Desktop and a Win8 Tablet version and let the user choose what UI they wanted to use rather than forcing the use of "metro" with the old UI as an afterthought. I do hope they have fixed some of the issues I have with it in the final release, because if the final release is like the DP version it just means that Win7 and Mint are snug in their home on my PC's

Every so often, Microsoft has a release that is best to just skip. Windows 8 is shaping up to be just such a release.

Maybe they could call it "Windows ME - V.8"

I've heard a lot of people making that claim too that and Win-Vista. I have to admit when Windows Vista came out I never used it. I just waited. While I do agree with the theory on tablet computing, since it's development has anyone noticed the new move towards ultrabooks ? I cannot imagine trying to use Metro on a touchpad mouse with a laptop. So your obseravtion is is pretty much in line with what several people have been saying about it that do not like it.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I've heard a lot of people making that claim too that and Win-Vista. I have to admit when Windows Vista came out I never used it. I just waited. While I do agree with the theory on tablet computing, since it's development has anyone noticed the new move towards ultrabooks ? I cannot imagine trying to use Metro on a touchpad mouse with a laptop. So your obseravtion is is pretty much in line with what several people have been saying about it that do not like it.

Vista got the shaft.

I was in the Longhorn beta and loved Vista long before it was Vista. Because Vista was the first truly new OS that Microsoft had introduced since NT 1.0 (OS/2), the existing infrastructure of drivers and peripheral support was lacking. Especially for older hardware. Hardware that was obsolete was not going to get support from manufacturers to produce drivers for a new OS.

Then Microsoft made a massive mistakes. They introduced Office 2007. Office 2007 is probably the worst version in history. Microsoft had the brilliant idea to develop the damned thing in India, using literally over a hundred separate development teams. There was no coordination between various functions which teams writing classes that overlapped and often conflicted with classes from other teams. Office 2007 looked the part as well, a jumbled interface that had zero logic to the placement of icons or functions. Oh, and did I mention that it was completely unstable. Before SP1, Outlook 2007 was virtually unusable in an Exchange environment.

So why bring up Office? Well, because when people went to Costco or Bestbuy and bought that shiny new e-machine, it came with Vista AND Office 2007 loaded on it. To most users, the Word and Excel they opened on the machine WERE Vista. So to them, Vista sucked, even though the reality was that Vista didn't suck, Office 2007 sucked.

Then there was Apple, the sleazy fucks they are, they launched the most effective slander campaign since Goebbels.

Vista was a great OS. Now people love Windows 7, as well they should - it's Vista. The Longhorn OS underneath it all will be used for the next decade.

 

[PeteEU]

Well you dont have to use the METRO look... just saying. I find it far more productive once you figure it out.. easier to access stuff and faster. Only thing that I dont like is the method of shutting down your PC... that is one thing they got to change before the final release. We shall see in June with the Release Candidate version.

Oh come on, Metro is the biggest steaming pile to come along since the Macintosh. It's a UI designed for the XBox. It has no place on a computer.

Again, you dont have to use the metro look.. you can get your start button. Was one of the first things I got.. and only used rarely. Instead pressing windows key gets me the start menu up, a menu I can design as I want it, with the programs and folders, updates and apps I want. And like it or not, the start menu is rarely used in Windows 7 or below as it is, as most people have links on the desktop or the bar at the bottom for the programs they use most often.. you know like with a metro start window.. cough.

And metro is designed for touch tablets.. deal with it. Windows 7 sucks on tablets, just as linux does pretty much (standard installs).. Windows 8 will address this issue.

Now I do hope that Microsoft makes it so you can easily get your Start button back for the "old farts that hate change aka my father" tyep, but to be brutally honest after playing around with Windows 8, the Start button is not needed as long as you get your head around how Windows 8 Metro works...

And the thing is.. it is more about what is below the UI.. the inner workings of the new OS. Some of the things they have changed are freaking amazing, and smooth.. and integration with social media and other programs is amazing. I am especially pleased as a Windows user how they have changed the copying of files in Windows.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Again, you dont have to use the metro look.. you can get your start button. Was one of the first things I got.. and only used rarely. Instead pressing windows key gets me the start menu up, a menu I can design as I want it, with the programs and folders, updates and apps I want.

Or better yet, stick with Windows 7 and ignore the M$ cash grab.

And metro is designed for touch tablets.. deal with it. Windows 7 sucks on tablets, just as linux does pretty much (standard installs).. Windows 8 will address this issue.

ROFL

Android is a Linux build. Far from "sucking" or being unstable, it dominates mobility apps.

Tell me, if the Metro UI is so great, why is it that Windows phones are less than a tenth of a percent of the smart phone market?

Three possibilities;

1.) They suck
2.) They suck
3.) They suck

Now I do hope that Microsoft makes it so you can easily get your Start button back for the "old farts that hate change aka my father" tyep, but to be brutally honest after playing around with Windows 8, the Start button is not needed as long as you get your head around how Windows 8 Metro works...

What functional improvement does Windows 8 add?

I've been playing with it for a couple of months, and have yet to find anything that I would consider an improvement.

And the thing is.. it is more about what is below the UI.. the inner workings of the new OS. Some of the things they have changed are freaking amazing, and smooth..

Yeah, bullshit.

It's Longhorn v5.2 - essentially SP2 of Windows 7 at the Kernal level. What, is Microsoft paying you to spread bullshit?

and integration with social media and other programs is amazing. I am especially pleased as a Windows user how they have changed the copying of files in Windows.

After all, drag and drop is such a chore...

Windows 8 is what we call a "revenue refresh." There is no reason for it to exist except as a means to bring some money into Microsoft.

These ALWAYS blow up on M$.

 

[PeteEU]

Again, you dont have to use the metro look.. you can get your start button. Was one of the first things I got.. and only used rarely. Instead pressing windows key gets me the start menu up, a menu I can design as I want it, with the programs and folders, updates and apps I want.

Or better yet, stick with Windows 7 and ignore the M$ cash grab.

Sure, we shall see.

And metro is designed for touch tablets.. deal with it. Windows 7 sucks on tablets, just as linux does pretty much (standard installs).. Windows 8 will address this issue.

ROFL

Android is a Linux build. Far from "sucking" or being unstable, it dominates mobility apps.

Did I say Android? No I say standard Linux build.. aka Mint, Ubuntu and what not. Try installing that on your tablet, and see how "great" it is in touch.. it utterly sucks donkeyballs .. even more than Windows 7.

Tell me, if the Metro UI is so great, why is it that Windows phones are less than a tenth of a percent of the smart phone market?

Three possibilities;

1.) They suck
2.) They suck
3.) They suck

Have you even tried a Windows Phone?

What functional improvement does Windows 8 add?

For you or the average user? I would say integration with Facebook and twitter and other services is a big improvement.

I've been playing with it for a couple of months, and have yet to find anything that I would consider an improvement.

Well you are far from the average user, and a linux geek no?

And the thing is.. it is more about what is below the UI.. the inner workings of the new OS. Some of the things they have changed are freaking amazing, and smooth..

Yeah, bullshit.

It's Longhorn v5.2 - essentially SP2 of Windows 7 at the Kernal level. What, is Microsoft paying you to spread bullshit?

So you are saying that being able to pause copying natively in Windows is not an improvement?

Seems to me that you feel threatened that Linux yet again will get the short straw if both iOS and Android get wtfpawned by Windows 8 in the mobile market (not saying it will happen but it could).. else why on earth would you be rambling on about how bad Windows 8 is, if it is Windows 7 with a few improvements targeted especially for the tablet market?

Like it or not, the reason iOS devices are popular is other than design (and the I want to be part of a group thing), it is ease of use.... Metro means ease of use on top of the most popular OS out there.. why be against that?

and integration with social media and other programs is amazing. I am especially pleased as a Windows user how they have changed the copying of files in Windows.

After all, drag and drop is such a chore...

If you had actually tried Windows 8, then you would know what I meant.

Windows 8 is what we call a "revenue refresh." There is no reason for it to exist except as a means to bring some money into Microsoft.

These ALWAYS blow up on M$.

Ahh the truth comes out... Microsoft hater and Linux lover.. answers all the questions before they are asked pretty much. Nothing Microsoft does can ever please you,

 

[Ringel05]

I've heard a lot of people making that claim too that and Win-Vista. I have to admit when Windows Vista came out I never used it. I just waited. While I do agree with the theory on tablet computing, since it's development has anyone noticed the new move towards ultrabooks ? I cannot imagine trying to use Metro on a touchpad mouse with a laptop. So your obseravtion is is pretty much in line with what several people have been saying about it that do not like it.

Vista got the shaft.

I was in the Longhorn beta and loved Vista long before it was Vista. Because Vista was the first truly new OS that Microsoft had introduced since NT 1.0 (OS/2), the existing infrastructure of drivers and peripheral support was lacking. Especially for older hardware. Hardware that was obsolete was not going to get support from manufacturers to produce drivers for a new OS.

Then Microsoft made a massive mistakes. They introduced Office 2007. Office 2007 is probably the worst version in history. Microsoft had the brilliant idea to develop the damned thing in India, using literally over a hundred separate development teams. There was no coordination between various functions which teams writing classes that overlapped and often conflicted with classes from other teams. Office 2007 looked the part as well, a jumbled interface that had zero logic to the placement of icons or functions. Oh, and did I mention that it was completely unstable. Before SP1, Outlook 2007 was virtually unusable in an Exchange environment.

So why bring up Office? Well, because when people went to Costco or Bestbuy and bought that shiny new e-machine, it came with Vista AND Office 2007 loaded on it. To most users, the Word and Excel they opened on the machine WERE Vista. So to them, Vista sucked, even though the reality was that Vista didn't suck, Office 2007 sucked.

Then there was Apple, the sleazy fucks they are, they launched the most effective slander campaign since Goebbels.

Vista was a great OS. Now people love Windows 7, as well they should - it's Vista. The Longhorn OS underneath it all will be used for the next decade.

Vista got what it deserved, a good spanking. My wife's had Vista on her HP Media Center m7760n, no Office 2007, (I had Office 2000 and loaded it on myself). Vista was a resource hog and slow as molasses not to mention buggy. I was so happy when her mobo died and I could build her a new one and load 7 on it, Windows 7, what Vista was meant to be.
Hell, I had a Vista Pro install disc I gave away with a warning, that's how much I hated it.

 

[freedombecki]

I've heard a lot of people making that claim too that and Win-Vista. I have to admit when Windows Vista came out I never used it. I just waited. While I do agree with the theory on tablet computing, since it's development has anyone noticed the new move towards ultrabooks ? I cannot imagine trying to use Metro on a touchpad mouse with a laptop. So your obseravtion is is pretty much in line with what several people have been saying about it that do not like it.

Vista got the shaft.

I was in the Longhorn beta and loved Vista long before it was Vista. Because Vista was the first truly new OS that Microsoft had introduced since NT 1.0 (OS/2), the existing infrastructure of drivers and peripheral support was lacking. Especially for older hardware. Hardware that was obsolete was not going to get support from manufacturers to produce drivers for a new OS.

Then Microsoft made a massive mistakes. They introduced Office 2007. Office 2007 is probably the worst version in history. Microsoft had the brilliant idea to develop the damned thing in India, using literally over a hundred separate development teams. There was no coordination between various functions which teams writing classes that overlapped and often conflicted with classes from other teams. Office 2007 looked the part as well, a jumbled interface that had zero logic to the placement of icons or functions. Oh, and did I mention that it was completely unstable. Before SP1, Outlook 2007 was virtually unusable in an Exchange environment.

So why bring up Office? Well, because when people went to Costco or Bestbuy and bought that shiny new e-machine, it came with Vista AND Office 2007 loaded on it. To most users, the Word and Excel they opened on the machine WERE Vista. So to them, Vista sucked, even though the reality was that Vista didn't suck, Office 2007 sucked.

Then there was Apple, the sleazy fucks they are, they launched the most effective slander campaign since Goebbels.

Vista was a great OS. Now people love Windows 7, as well they should - it's Vista. The Longhorn OS underneath it all will be used for the next decade.

Vista got what it deserved, a good spanking. My wife's had Vista on her HP Media Center m7760n, no Office 2007, (I had Office 2000 and loaded it on myself). Vista was a resource hog and slow as molasses not to mention buggy. I was so happy when her mobo died and I could build her a new one and load 7 on it, Windows 7, what Vista was meant to be.
Hell, I had a Vista Pro install disc I gave away with a warning, that's how much I hated it.

I had and hated Vista. It was totally, thoroughly horrible and had no equal. To further the annoyance, it was a Sony, and the first time I called for assistance, I was ordered to pay $70 up front after shelling out 2 grand on their stupid computer. And I took a tongue lashing and a hangup from a foreigner who couldn't make herself understood except to demand money, when I refused to pay. She let me know she could fix it with the touch of two buttons. I put it away, and it's still sitting on the shelf. I got a HP instead. I know they will help newbies if something goes wrong.

 

[Ringel05]

Vista got the shaft.

I was in the Longhorn beta and loved Vista long before it was Vista. Because Vista was the first truly new OS that Microsoft had introduced since NT 1.0 (OS/2), the existing infrastructure of drivers and peripheral support was lacking. Especially for older hardware. Hardware that was obsolete was not going to get support from manufacturers to produce drivers for a new OS.

Then Microsoft made a massive mistakes. They introduced Office 2007. Office 2007 is probably the worst version in history. Microsoft had the brilliant idea to develop the damned thing in India, using literally over a hundred separate development teams. There was no coordination between various functions which teams writing classes that overlapped and often conflicted with classes from other teams. Office 2007 looked the part as well, a jumbled interface that had zero logic to the placement of icons or functions. Oh, and did I mention that it was completely unstable. Before SP1, Outlook 2007 was virtually unusable in an Exchange environment.

So why bring up Office? Well, because when people went to Costco or Bestbuy and bought that shiny new e-machine, it came with Vista AND Office 2007 loaded on it. To most users, the Word and Excel they opened on the machine WERE Vista. So to them, Vista sucked, even though the reality was that Vista didn't suck, Office 2007 sucked.

Then there was Apple, the sleazy fucks they are, they launched the most effective slander campaign since Goebbels.

Vista was a great OS. Now people love Windows 7, as well they should - it's Vista. The Longhorn OS underneath it all will be used for the next decade.

Vista got what it deserved, a good spanking. My wife's had Vista on her HP Media Center m7760n, no Office 2007, (I had Office 2000 and loaded it on myself). Vista was a resource hog and slow as molasses not to mention buggy. I was so happy when her mobo died and I could build her a new one and load 7 on it, Windows 7, what Vista was meant to be.
Hell, I had a Vista Pro install disc I gave away with a warning, that's how much I hated it.

I had and hated Vista. It was totally, thoroughly horrible and had no equal. To further the annoyance, it was a Sony, and the first time I called for assistance, I was ordered to pay $70 up front after shelling out 2 grand on their stupid computer. And I took a tongue lashing and a hangup from a foreigner who couldn't make herself understood except to demand money, when I refused to pay. She let me know she could fix it with the touch of two buttons. I put it away, and it's still sitting on the shelf. I got a HP instead. I know they will help newbies if something goes wrong.

You Sony sounds like a perfect platform for Linux Mint or Ubuntu.........

 

[Quantum Windbag]

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.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview: New Start Screen; Beta Version Released to Introduce Microsoft's New OS - YouTube

No it won't.

There is no start button, and the start screen is buried in the options. People who don't have touch screens are going to hate this.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

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.

The consumer preview has been available for months.

Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview