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Windows 8 Release Preview Now Available To Download
MrSeb writes "Microsoft has announced the immediate availability of Windows 8 Release Preview. Unfortunately there isn't a Consumer Preview > Release Preview upgrade path — you'll have to format and perform a clean installation. After downloading the ISO, simply burn Windows 8 RP onto a USB stick or DVD, reboot, and follow the (exceedingly quick and easy) installer. Alternatively, if you don't want to format a partition, ExtremeTech has a guide on virtualizing Windows 8 with VirtualBox. After a lot of fluster on the Building Windows 8 blog, the Release Preview is actually surprisingly similar to the Consumer Preview. Despite being promised a new, flat, Desktop/Explorer UI, Aero is still the default theme in Windows 8 RP. The tutorial that will introduce new users to the brave new Start buttonless Windows 8 world is also missing. Major features that did make the cut are improved multi-monitor support — it's now easier to hit the hot corners on a multi-monitor setup, and Metro apps can be moved between displays — and the Metro version of IE10 now has a built-in Flash plug-in. There will be no further pre-releases of Windows 8: the next build will be the RTM."
Despite being promised a new, flat, Desktop/Explorer UI, Aero is still the default theme in Windows 8 RP
All right, only they didn't promise the new UI for pre-release versions. They explicitly said it will be in RTM.
I mean, seriously? Starting stuff from the stupid Start screen? Cripple the regular version of Visual Studio to only write apps for this screen?
What the hell is wrong with MS? Does it not realise that a desktop is not a tablet?
Windows 7 is still good, and it's the next "XP" - the version Enterprise customers will be keeping until Microsoft finally shuts the doors on it, so we have a good 10 years or so left - and Microsoft has time to pull its collective head out of its collective ass and being back a GUI that makes sense in a desktop world.
If the Linux world can deliver an operating system that won't give my mother fits to use, maybe it can make inroads while Microsoft tries to shove WinMetro down people's throats, but I gave up holding my breath for that years ago.
look, i'm writing this from a machine running a canonical OS, but if you think people are going to view windows 8 as a reason to go to linux, i think you're in a pipe dream. they're going to view windows 8 as a reason to stick with windows 7.
I'm going to buy 10 retail copies of Windows 7 so that I'll have plenty for any future needs.
That'll show Microsoft they can't jerk me around.
Sadly Linux won't take over anything (at least not now). Think Longhorn revolt followed by the success of W7. You gotta take a shot in the dark sometimes and if this turns out to be a ton of crap, they'll listen and go back to what's right. That's generally been the way MS has done things.
you can still buy vista
Oh god why? Can't they make that against the law or something?
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
Windows 8 : The final triumph of Steve Jobs.
Aha! Procrastination for the win! (I hadn't gotten around to testing out the CP I downloaded a while back).
Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
Of course Microsoft will still get the massive number of automatic installs due to their lock on OEMs and corporations locked into Microsoft tech, but for every single person I know Microsoft has become a non-entity in their lives.
Over the past few years it has rapidly become cellphones and tablets. No one goes home after work to sit in front of their computer checking their email and webbrowsing. They do that all day long now on their Android phones and tablets or iPhones and iPads. Ten years ago I would hear all the time about what computer someone was planning on buying or what they were doing with their computer. Now it is all about what Android or Apple cellphone or tablet to buy. And in the rare occasion someone actually does talk about buying a new computer it is almost universally a Mac to replace their old Windows machine.
you joke but with windows 7 hardware installation requirements you might need 10 copies to last you 10 years.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I installed Win 8, and have the World's BIGGEST Kin - without touch!
KINNING!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Here's a working activation key:
TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
on the contrary... i can plug in some things (such as a USB-RS232 converter cable) into a linux machine and use it without loading any drivers, whereas I would have to install the supplied drivers from CD on a Windows box
Tomorrows sunrise will be at 5:42am.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in the exec meeting where they came up with the idea of turning Microsoft's monopoly desktop product into a cell phone.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
(I hadn't gotten around to testing out the CP I downloaded a while back).
Burn in hell, paedophile!
It's a small link but it's there: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
Simply put, it's so that Metro app developers don't have to concern themselves with supporting anything smaller.
I think a lot of people are missing a few really smart choices it would appear Microsoft is intentionally making. First, they realize that corporate customers like their long term anchor software. They have done that with Windows 7 as the successor to XP as frequently mentioned. Second I think they are going to a release plan of Experiment followed by a Refinement release.
Consider first that Microsoft supports too many customers with too diverse of requirements to be doing miniscule yearly feature releases as with OSX and Linux. OSX can because they have fixed hardware to support and a vastly smaller software library. Linux can because the community doesn't have anywhere near the hardware support of Windows and software is not binary compatible a requires recompilation.
Faced with this issue, it only makes sense that Microsoft will release an OS filled with experimentation to find out what users and customers do a don't like and then make the next version the refinement, enhancement, and trimming of those features. Vista was full of UI experiments which were great ideas but only marginally implemented or just didn't flow easily. I couldn't stand Vista and only used it a few hours before going back to XP. I know I am by far not in a minority in having this experience. Windows 7 was taking all those features and fixing them, making them flow and interact together and getting rid of the development cruft. Windows 7 is great for many users, myself included.
Windows 8 is filled with great ideas. It's filled with original ideas and people are complaining. Sure, Metro came from WP7 development, but nobody else considered using the metaphors for desktop use or how to adapt them. Again the number one complaint is incompleteness or not enough UI interoperability with the manners in which users have become acclimated. If Microsoft continues the pattern, then sure, some consumers will be forced to be guinea pigs with Windows 8, especially if the Windows tablet market takes off appreciably. In the same stroke, Windows 9 could easily come as the refinement stage where it all makes better sense.
Who cares if Windows 8 is a dog. Vista was a dog and it led directly to 7. Give some credit to a company that could sit on it's old style of business like IBM in the late 70's, but instead challenges itself with products which can fail and are interesting and different.
Linux by comparison has no consistent desktop metaphors. You have to test drive at least 3 different distros before you are sure which one will work. The only nearly consistent interfaces are the ones released at the same time as XP in stripped down distros. Unity is not bad, but it's just not for me. The more recent release is really getting there though. It's great experimentation in a different direction for fusing the desktop, laptop, and tablet UI segments.
OSX is the opposite of where Linux and Windows have been experimenting. There is an extreme lack of interesting change since 2001 and only very small incremental refinements. Oooh, we just got a notification system, but really it's the one from our phones because we couldn't stand the thought of using a functional desktop one like in Windows 7 or Linux. You could actually load identical machines with OSX from 10 years ago and the latest Mountain Lion side by side and the average user wouldn't notice that they were different. If you think I am full of it, check this out: http://macgateway.com/featured-articles/a-decade-of-mac-os-x-a-retrospective/
The link was there, it's just not up in your face the way web installer is.
Windows 8 RP: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
Windows Server 2012 RC: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx
Visual Studio 2012 RC: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=247147
The last time I got the call to fix my parents computer I backed up all their data and installed ubuntu I think it was version 9 or 10. Installed Open office and copied back their data. Set up their email, tested a few things that I didn't test before I went there. They thought they were on windows for about 4 months. They did not like having to use a password at first. But for what they do, ubuntu worked fine. The hardest part was finding an application that let them do what print shop did.
If your mother has no computer experience, she will easily use linux. That's my experience. asking some other thing to look and behave as windows will not happen.
We all knew this would happen. Alas, we did it anyway.
Huh? Active Desktop was awesome. Active X allowed for really power distributed applications that were web based. I'd love to have channels for my phone today. PointCast which is still the best screen saver I ever had kinda like news360.
You know what would be funny?
Let's assume (okay, state) that Windows 8 is a direct, reactionary response to the iPad and the whole "Post PC" thing.
What if Apple did it as a fake-out? What if, say, they pushed on tablets, but knew it would only go so far, yet pronounced that it would be the end-all, be-all? Microsoft spends all this time and treasure in a panicked reaction, turning their monster ship around to sail towards the mobile UI, overreacts (well, they already did IMHO), and commits irreversibly to the Metro UI thing. Once Windows 8 has been out for awhile, Tim Cook mounts the stage at the next Apple event, and proclaims that from here on in OSX would be sold retail for use on select Dell/HP/Lenovo OEM models, at reasonable prices. Furthermore, let's say that Apple would (from its rather massive war chest) pay OEMs more than Microsoft pays (at a ratio of 2:1 or perhaps 3:1) in "co-marketing" money in order to promote OSX over Windows.
Any takers on how big of a brick Steve Ballmer would shit out at the news? As an alternate bet, how much time do you think it would take him to call those OEMs with dire threats?
(I know - impossible, etc etc... but now with Jobs gone, maybe not so impossible? It would certainly liven up the OS wars a bit, and would be fun to watch. As a bonus, I could stop having to bother with the PITA efforts I usually expend in hackintoshing each new machine I get...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
No source, just a long track record from Microsoft of releasing "The Next Big Thing" in a very broken state. Also, This Guy wants to make a bet with you.
Bits of code, random ramblings: jakimfett.com
That's... that's just... My God.
I'll be in my bunk.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
I have yet to see what's "good" about Windows. XP became a corporate standard and a necessary evil. Yet even the new features in Vista, 7, and now 8, offered nothing to warrent corporate shops rushing to upgrade, and all the MS FanBoi's rushing to upgrade at home "oh, I've been running it at home for such and such... I'm fully versed." Pretty colors and more warnings... I don't see the purpose of the upgrades other than its the same as the purpose of Adobe software upgrades, namely, to keep the company in business because they had saturated the market and the software sales were slowing. To a large extent, I feel the same is true of Apple's OS X... after it had reached a certain level of stability and features, upgrades to new versions didn't really offer much to users regardless of the hundreds of new features listed. I see the same problem with other MS Software. What the Hell was the POINT of any version of Office and Server past 2003, other than to match the look and feel of the parity flagship OS? Ubuntu seems to be suffering from the same feature creep... its as though devepment has no sense of restraint... if they can add some feature, they apparently must.
The Admin and the Engineer
Metro: good idea for touch-oriented systems, such as tablets and phones.
Having Metro available on desktop systems: Good idea.
Metro as default UI on desktops: Good idea for newbies, so they have a recognizable interface across multiple form factors.
FORCING Metro on people who don't want it: WHAT THE FLYING HELL WERE YOU THINKING?
My sig can beat up your sig.
Yeah, they sure did go out n their own with Zune. And with the WinPhone7. And with Windows, itself. Boy! That Window imaging model introduced with Vista, what a brilliant departure from Quartz!
I think the use of touch and gestures that was an original in MS labs really schooled Apple on how to make a human interface work - after years of "struggling in the dark" over at Infinite Loop.
Microsoft's pioneering work on App stores is also not to be overlooked.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The majority of businesses do, but they really don't need to.
Sure, you'll always have engineers who need top-end rigs to run their CATIA and what-not, and there will always be jet-setting VPs who need their laptops ... but the vast majority of business-class users could easily perform all of their tasks on a dumb terminal connected to a VM server somewhere. We have users in my office with towers sporting core i5 and i7 processors, 4+ gigs of ram (on XP *le'facepalm*) and dual 24"-inch monitors, who do nothing but access Citrix terminals all day. There is practically zero activity on their $1,000+ tower that couldn't be handled by a $30 Raspberry Pi. Other users have laptops that haven't left their docking stations, ever.... but I digress.
Back to the point, most of what drive business's IT needs is habit. People have always had a desktop, and so they insist on continuing to have them. They've grown accustomed to XP, so they insist on continuing to have XP. Also, the lock-in you've mentioned is a big issue: corporate offices are nearly universally on MS Office formats, which will not transition smoothly to an open/libre office suite. Add it all up, and the process of change become a VEERY slow one, if it occurs at all. We've only recently begun to sneak Win7 into the environment here, with every possible modification made to keep the desktop environment looking exactly like it did in XP. If Win7 ever becomes a corporate mainstay, it will be at least a decade before the next OS darkens these doors.
This signature is false.
Memory support,and about 1000 other modern abilities
Memory support...my XP machines do max out at 2.0GB to 3.25GB depending on the mobo. But this isn't a problem. The OS and many services easily run in a couple hundred MB, without virtual memory. My biggest memory consumer is a web browser, which may exceed 1GB with lots of tabs and plug-ins, but that usually only happens on my main work machines. So 2GB is far more than enough for most of the machines.
What are the "1000 other modern abilities" that you seem to think are provided by Windows beyond NT/2000/XP?
Since many people actually run new software, XP is won't work for them.
Strange and funny. I have heard many people complain about their old software not working on the recent windows versions, but I've heard absolutely no one complaining about software not running on XP. Do you have any example? Even just a single, oddball, unusual example?
OTOH, you can't even manage your XP machines correctly, so I'm not sue upgrading is a wise thing for you to do.
Can you explain what, exactly, you think that I am not doing to manage my fleet of machines correctly? Imaging and periodic updating/reimaging are standard practices in any major IT organization I've encountered. As are replacing hard drives at regular intervals. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Thanks!
Jesus fucking chris! misinformation everywhere. Maybe if you gave a rats ass you'd be better informed.
The secure boot was only for arm based devices (TABLETS) that will carry windows 8.
I wonder if the anti-MS bias at slashdot will ever die down.
Sometimes this place make fox news look like a legitimate place to get news from.
Steam is doing great, and vendors selling games through Steam are very happy with it. EA copied Valve with it's own system, and they're doing great guns too.
WTF are you smoking?
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
I ran the CP in my shop for nearly a month and that is what my customers said as well. in fact I've NEVER seen such a negative reaction, not even with Vista. with Vista they were curious about it but after 5 minutes with Win 8 the ONLY question I got asked is "But YOU will still be able to get me Win 7 if I need it, right?"
I have a feeling this is gonna make WinME look like XP, hell I wouldn't be surprised if this is the release that FINALLY gets the board to punt the sweaty monkey, its just a giant fail. Why oh why didn't they just improve Win 7 for the desktop and keep Metro for mobile devices? because it seriously sucks ass on the desktop and laptop. Even Gabe from valve said "Not just the worst Windows MSFT has ever come up with but the worst software PERIOD". When a guy that is making a fortune off your OS not only slams it but is seriously looking at going to all the trouble and expense of making a "Steambox" Linux to avoid it? you KNOW you're in trouble!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Oh please, what a stupid comment. I can understand where you're coming from, but it's still pretty stupid. Linux needs more users; that's how you get more mindshare, and more willingness by hardware mfgrs to provide specs or even drivers so we Linux users can use their hardware without a lot of trouble. With most things except for (Nvidia and ATI) video, Linux is pretty much "plug and play": you just install a mainstream distro and everything just works, without having to go hunt down drivers like you do for Windows. There's still problems, however, namely video drivers as mentioned before, and a few other things (all-in-one print/scan/copy devices, etc.). To rectify this situation, we need more mindshare and more users. More low-end, "grandma" type users is helpful here.
The key to keeping both grandma and the geeks happy is to have different distros aimed at each, or different distro versions at least.
However, the main problem the Linux world is having right now is all the UI changes in the forms of Unity and Gnome3, which are supposedly to be easier for the grandmas, but in reality aren't easier for anyone, not for power users, and certainly not for anyone who's familiar with Windows. Add in the fact that most distros use one of these UIs and the situation isn't looking good. With more users moving to KDE and distros that use it, however, this hopefully will get better.
The secure boot was only for arm based devices (TABLETS) that will carry windows 8.
Partially correct. It's also for x86 devices, the only difference is that it's mandatory with no ability to disable for ARM.
Have you used Win8? Does your opinion differ? I tested the consumer preview and was astonished that Microsoft would consider this a serious OS for most people. They have made a terrible mistake, as most reviewers note.
I'm not someone to bash Microsoft whenever they come up. They've had good software and bad software, made good moves and bad moves, and Windows 8 strikes me as solidly in the bad move, bad idea column. I keep thinking they must have something else up their sleeve.
I love my sig.
You wanna see how REAL people deal with Win 8? Well here you go and as a retailer that set up a Win 8 CP for customers to try I can say that is pretty typical...the only difference I saw was more frustration and cursing.
I'm sure Win 8 is GREAT for cell phones and tablets, along with touch screen PCs...the problem is that is less than 5% of MSFT's market. in fact if you take out POS and Kiosks last numbers I saw had touch enabled X86 units at less than 2% of the market.
So you take a giant shit on 95% of the market.,...for 5% of the market and around 2% of the touch screen X86 units because POS and Kiosks run their own custom software. yep, no chance of a flop at all here. BTW Win 8 DID help my business, i had a lot of folks that were sitting on the fence buy Win 7! Thanks MSFT! Oh and thanks again for the year and a half of extra money as I get paid to wipe it off like i did Vista, that was a GREAT time for me, Thanks MSFT!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
One could always argue that Windows 8 is a real-world testbed for Microsoft to experiment with and gauge opinion as to what works and what doesn't, so that Windows 9 refined the good and ditches the bad. Kinda like they did with Vista and then Windows 7.
Of course, to do this people have to be suckered into using Windows 8 and Microsoft runs the risk of pissing off a great many people. Plus those who paid money for Windows 8 won't like being thought of as guinea-pigs.
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
I keep thinking they must have something else up their sleeve.
You may be right - they do have a history of using Queen's ducks to distract reviewers.
There was the mandatory Vista startup sound http://slashdot.org/story/06/08/31/2347201/vista-startup-sound-to-be-mandatory, 3 app limit for W7 starter http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/04/21/1356245/windows-7-starter-edition-3-apps-only, etc etc.
It's vaguely possible Microsoft is floating the horrible W8 desktop interface in front of reviewers to generate the buzz, but then release an (expensive) "Enterprise" version that works exactly like a cosmetically enhanced W7. They'll release it with a fanfare saying "we listened to our adoring fans, and this is the result.".
MSM "journalists" will lap it up, comparing it favorably to the Metro'd atrocity doing the rounds now, and conveniently forgetting they'd just been presented with a lukewarm rehash of the OS they'd already paid for many years earlier.
Of course, the alternative view is that sales of Android rocketed past Windows licenses last year, and are looking set to double W7's sales figures well before the end of this year. That's got to be terrifying to a company structured so heavily around lock-in. Maybe W8 is the result of raw panic after all...
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
A couple of hours isn't enough time to decide that something is conclusively good, but it is enough time to be convinced that something is crap.
Thanks but frankly Metro just pisses me off. hell it doesn't even follow cell phone UI conventions as you point out with iPad and Safari, and I watched time and time again as normal users, smart people that do complex tasks on and off a PC daily, ALL ended up just frustrated and upset. Upset with themselves that they couldn't just "pick it up" which i told them the thing is so screwy and unintuitive NOBODY is just gonna "pick it up" without a HELL of a lot of trial and error, and frustrated with the OS that tasks that they have found trivial to do for years and years were suddenly as alien to them as if I dropped them in front of a CP/M machine's blinking cursor.
For another good take on metro just read this article where he goes step by step through what is wrong with the UI, but his number one reason i agree with completely, the entire OS is made for touch and touch above all...when was the last time you saw a touch screen desktop in the average home? How many touch screen laptops have you seen lately? Is YOUR desktop or laptop a touch screen? Mine isn't yet without a touch screen it feels like you are fighting it every damned step of the way. Hell I wish I had the link because one of the articles praising Metro started with "And here I'll show that you can even use it on old hardware! Right now i have loaded it onto this touch screen AMD Athlon laptop and I had to LMAO because even when he was plugging metro he had to dig up a laptop with a fricking touch screen!
In the end if you aren't one of the 3-4% that have a touch screen desktop or laptop Win 8 is pointless and will just irritate the living hell out of you. I honestly tried to like it, I really did, in fact i used it as my main OS for nearly a month. But the constant switching between metro and desktop, the constant feeling of fighting the OS, the major step backwards in multitasking...it was just too much. I've run the beta of every MSFT OS since Win2K and I even fought Vista for nearly a year before giving up (I was one of those bit by the file transfer and the lost network shares bugs) but Metro is just too much of an unintuitive PITA for me to deal with anymore, I'll pass MSFT and so will my customers.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.