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Microsoft: Windows 8 To RTM In August
nk497 writes "Microsoft has confirmed Windows 8 will RTM the first week of August, with general availability in late October. Steve Ballmer suggested Microsoft expected Surface to sell "millions" of the 375m Windows 8 PCs expected to sell in the next year — spending much of the keynote talking about partners' devices. From the article: 'Tami Reller, chief financial officer and chief marketing officer of the Windows and Windows Live division, confirmed the release date at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto today, as she showed off a host of Windows 8 devices created by the software giant's manufacturing partners.'"
Were journalists allowed to touch any of them this time?
Question: is there any reason for PC users to consider this OS, or is it only for tablets?
Microsoft has announced that the release date will be pushed out to Friday, December 21, 2012
It will be wonderful.......
Trying to sell a downgrade as the best thing ever is probably not good business sense.
1. Windows 8 was well tested by the masses. And I consistently saw the same complaints from most news shops and users.
2. Microsoft is still releasing Windows 8 on time rather than listening to any of the criticism levied during testing.
3. They have slashed the price really low. I do think they heard the criticism and know that consumers don't want Windows 8, but maybe if it is really cheap, people will buy it anyway.
Here's the problem. Why should I pay money to make my OS worse? Microsoft should listen to the criticism from testing and improve their product and then sell it for full price.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Microsoft has confirmed Windows 8 will RTM the first week of August
So we do not have to read the manual ourselves? That's most cool.
The beginning. The year of the Linux desktop. Not
Track IP - Remotely track the IP address of a machine via email or MySQL.
1000+ posts on how it sucks, how it's a failure.
Perhaps a few dozen saying otherwise.
10,000 posts attacking the "shills"
Oh, and throw in a few spam comments for good measure, and maybe a few libertarian anarchists proclaiming how this wouldn't happen if we had a free market.
Released to WTF sounds more appropriate.
Four stories after a submission asking if grammar matters any more, we find this gem of a sentence in the summary:
Steve Ballmer suggested Microsoft expected Surface to sell "millions" of the 375m Windows 8 PCs expected to sell in the next year â" spending much of the keynote talking about partners' devices.
Comparing Win8 to ME or Vista is unfair to Win8.
The really sad part about Win8 is Metro. There is a LOT to like about the underlying OS (password unmask, much better taskmanager, and many other small improvements), and I have no reason to think that the OS itself will be unstable like ME or Vista.
If Microsoft would fix Metro on the desktop (It may be fine for tablets and phones), Win8 would be something I would like. However, as it currently stands, I won't "upgrade" until I have a good, stable way to disable Metro and use the other features of the OS.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
Windows 8 will RTM the first week of August, with general availability in late October.
Why does it take two months? I'm assuming they mean "release to manufacturing" not something like "register trademark" or "remember the milk" (a shopping list app, maybe it'll be released on winderz 8 then, I donno)
Do they mean general availability as in boxes printed in China on shelves in the US which means they're cheaping out on the shipping which at least makes sense, or general availability as in manufacturers gold copy chock full of bloatware is ready to be shoveled out / I mean imaged onto new device hard/flash drives, in which case 2 months is pretty pitiful, or ready for download from .torrent sites in October (oh wait, I think they'll do better than that)
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
finally someone will Read The Manual
Since when "RTM" has become a verb? ... techie!
Was it that difficult to write " Windows 8 will be Ready To Market the first week of August"? Or even "Windows 8 will be RTM the first week of August"?
But, yeah! "To RTM" sounds much more
Please, mod this down to "-1: Offtopic" and not "-1 Off topic".
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
but the unix desktop has been viable for quite some time now. Went mac, not going back. OS X gives me what i want in a unix desktop, and I don't mind paying for it.
Windows 8 is a clusterfuck. Yes, i've run it. The UI has no value, it doesn't work on the desktop without touch, and it hasn't set the world on fire in the mobile phone space either. I suspect Microsoft "bet the farm" on this shit, and it's all going to end in tears.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
... of the discussion. You're as predictable as everyone else.
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2012/07/09/upcoming-windows-milestones-shared-with-partners-at-wpc.aspx/
If people can't seem to let go of XP, and Win 7 is still relatively new and quite stable, what reason is there to get Win 8? Mind, if I want a tablet, i'm probably going with Android or iOS not the 4th or 5th player to the game (after blackberry and web os and others).
I mean who uses the GUI to do much work in Windows anyway? Pfffft , cmd.exe is all I need!
I mean really. People get Windows on their PC's because the have no choice. In the tablet market they do. Why would anyone choose to be under Microsoft's oppressive thumb if they didn't have to be?
* Carthago Delenda Est *
There's a small problem in the way of Microsoft having success with their tablet: Apple.
Well they aren't going to read the manual until august. That may account for why no one in the QA dept of MS has noticed how terrible the new start menu is yet. I'd imagine delays are inevitable to give them time to fix that rubbish.....
Having dropped the Start Menu in the initial release, and cluttered the desktop with boring tiles, the first Windows 8 maintenance service pack will replace those tiles with a host of animated sprites. Click on the Pearly "Gates" to access the Cloud. Click on the lie detector sprite to verify your CD has been paid for using the Microsoft Trusted Customer Media Player. Click on the flying chair to register a bug report.
You must be a pirate then..
Seriously, a number of ISP's think that any DPI that shows a torrent and bingo, you are pirating 'stuff'.
So if you legally torrent Windows 8 and get dicsonnected from the internet for your troubles.
No one I know wants Windows 8. No one I know is even talking about it. I don't want Windows 8. I don't want Windows RT. I don't care about Microsoft products anymore. No one I know does. The last time I paid for an MS product was a promotional copy of Windows 7 Ultimate for $30 from one of their retail partners I worked at. I got a copy of Office 2007 from my University for $10. I will never purchase another MS product at full price. The only way they could get me to upgrade is by knocking 90% off the retail price.
I have decided to stop giving them my money, and I've switched almost entirely to Apple. I'd much rather use Mac or Linux, since nowadays there is more support than ever for comparable programs to run on those platforms.
MSFT will slowly fade into obscurity. Consumers, and even businesses, don't care about them anymore. The only people who will buy their products are big businesses, OEMs and college students who can already get the software for 90% off. And heck I don't even know any big businesses who have upgraded their systems from Windows XP. I know a small handful who have gone to Windows 7.
Ballmer is a clueless prick, and he doesn't care about providing good products so much as he cares about playing political games with Microsoft employees. Plus, he's an egomaniac, who refuses to believe that MS ever does anything wrong.
Metro is the result of a few "powerful" interests at MS protecting their collective asses. It's easier for them to just shove Metro out there, and then start pointing fingers when everyone hates it, than it is to risk the wrath of idiot managers like Ballmer and his cronies.
Ballmer needs to be replaced if MS wants to be relevant in the future.
Anyone else reading that as "Windows Millstones"? Just you, me, and all their "partners", I suspect.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
If Win 8 bombs, word will get out that ppl should avoid even-numbered Windows releases.
So after Win 9 we'll have Win 11, 13, etc.
I have been testing Windows 8 on my tablet PC for months now, and it's been a horrible experience. The interface is very cumbersome. It's difficult to find your programs and settings without a real Start Menu, and why have two different browsers (Metro and Desktop)? Also, any computer with an Intel Chipset of 865-965 is not fully supported (most PC's from a few years ago). Startup is fast, but some applications will not work properly unless you do a full restart. Oh, and the stylus keyboard only shows up when using the Metro Apps, you have to manually bring up the keyboad when using the desktop apps. And who thought of making it so hard to access the shutdown menu? What were they thinking?
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Around Windows 7, Microsoft said it would speed up the pace of releasing OSes (so you wouldn't get 10 years of silence like after XP), but I'm not sure it was a good decision. It seems the point of Windows 8 is just to release something for release sake. Maybe it would instead have made more sense to milk Windows 7 longer and hold next release until you have something cool to bring on the table. Instead of a clunky and ugly tablet interface with some Explorer tweaks. :)
Ur... yeah, I misread that. The actual article is much less useful.
The Windows 8 UI is atrocious and probably will kill Microsoft, as well as Microsofts announcements they are going to screw over users from upgrading from older versions of Windows by deleting their settings. I think people would have to be insane to consider upgrading to Windows 8 considering the UI is unuseable and a disaster and so on. Microsoft is really committing suicide with this and is basically telling its users "fuck you" and deterring users who would actually buy an upgrade.
I would like to say Linux is a better choice, but Ubuntu has the same problems with its atrocious Unity interface. Yes, it can be disabled, but that sort of misses the point that Ubuntu is supposed to be user friendly, most users when encountering Unity will just give up on Linux right away as this is what they will think Linux is like, its those first impressions.
The start menu and task bar model "just works", is easy to use, makes sense, etc. It is clear, it is simple, it is not too obtrusive, it is categorized and easy to find things and so on. There are just things which you cannot improve on, where things have gotten to such a point of perfection that messing with it can only make it worse. I think start menu and task bar is such a point of perfection and trying to mess with it invariably makes things worse. Both Microsoft and Ubuntu appear obsessed with novelty, for change for the sake of change, which is very bad design motivation. They are more concerned with trying to be edgy than they are about being concerned with what the users need.
Return The Mayonnaise?
Rent To Muslims?
Run Towards Montana?
But I thought they said the PC was dead. Assuming "tens of millions" would have been stated, had it been the case, that's 1 tablet-like device for every 37 PCs. I guess even they don't believe their idiotic predicitions.
By the way, much more importantly (since Win8 is Vista 2.0 or even ME 3.0) how long will Windows 7 be available and from where? Anyone know?
They thought they wrote TFM years ago.
Have gnu, will travel.
No, no, I'm special and unique! I'm a snowflake!
My commentary is biting and insightful!
But if they don't make some fancy GUI changes, then I'd be willing to bet that a *lot* of people are going to say "what's different about this? Why would I spend money on a new windows that looks the same as the old one"
Sadly, "it runs better" seems to be second-place compared to "fancy eye-candy" for many consumers, but the two are often mutually exclusive when you want it to run well on older machines.
It would be nice if Joe Average Windows User would indeed fucking RTM instead of just doing the usual PEBKAC thing.
Disclaimer: I didn't RTFA.
When Windows 95 was running late BillG was alleged to have said: "Windows 95 will be released before Xmas, but we may have to delay December for a couple of months."
I know, I will disagree with 90% of you but here is why;
Like it or not the PC market is shrinking, and becoming less significant. No matter how much most of you want something, no one cares. The Apple tablet IS the future of personal computers, with smart phones becoming a huge market as well. Anyone who does not recognize this is a fool. Microsoft HAS to change, there is no choice if they want to keep any resemblance to their profit history. So someone made a decision (yes I know how hard it is for American's to do that, re the current state of government) and decided to make an attempt for future significance. If it fails, it is no worse than the path they were already on.
Windows 8 IS a tablet OS, using many components that were designed and usability tested for many prior years, such as XAML. They alo hedged a bit on the open but as of yet unsuccessful HTML5/JS craze. Microsoft offers a developer experience second to none. And to top it off, they include a 7.1 version of Windows, the successor to a fairly successful Windows 7, alongside of their new tablet OS, for desktops. What is wrong with that? Has anyone written an iOS app for an iPad lately? Horrible developer experience with a horrible dated convoluted and proprietorial language, But they have been successful anyway because there was no competition. The Android market is a mess, the true nature of open source. Apple, who is able to capture 5 times the profits, with 1/10 the market share (that tells you something right there) is able to suck enough of you along to stay in business.
Well Apple got a couple of things right; build your own hardware, eliminating 90% of the compatibility bugs (and costs) with various other hardware vendors. Tightly control what is distributed and allowed to run. Microsoft will go this route now, with a far superior product. The only thing that can get in their way is a brainwashed consumer, and Apple is pretty good at that, so who knows?
slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
Why not look at this as an opportunity to write your own desktop? MS's failures in the past have served a a chance for smart developers to fill in the holes with anti virus software, disk management software, etc.
Windoze is finally going to RT(F)M? Does this mean they are finally going to learn how to write an operating system?
In times of universal deceit, telling the truth gets you modded -1 Troll
I don't really see how people can say Metro is a bad design, it's actually very visually pleasing and modern; Apple pushes together design elements that don't even make sense together, look at their calendar; it looks awful. Where Windows 8 fails is that it forces so much color in the interface with little to no purpose. The idea of a live tile is a good idea, but I think where the divide happens between the good use of Metro and the bad use of it, is that some things don't need live tiles, some things need something more or less...and Microsoft has yet to figure out what the balance is. For all intensive purposes Metro has HUGE potential, and it will be copied, like it or not, not because Microsoft is the key player, but because it's genuinely a beautiful interface if it's done right. Metro apps are far and above better looking than the iOS counterparts, but there is -something- missing from it, and I can't really put my finger on it. It's really that sometimes, it's just too simple. I don't think Microsoft's flaw is Metro, I think it's too undeveloped at this point to know how to make it really stand out. The new start menu is pretty ugly, but then some of the apps are simply amazing to look at. How does Microsoft balance this? I don't know, but saying it's ugly is just stupid; don't judge Metro on the start menu, look at the apps.
Isn't that the point of shoving Metro down our mouth?
One GUI to rule them all!
Apple's Mountian Lion Gold Master was released today as well.
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/07/09/apple-releases-mountain-lion-gold-master-to-developers/
It will probably SHIP this month too.
"with general availability in late October".
I can almost guarantee this will be on torrents either before the release, or the same day. This is what I consider general availability and is now the recommended way to acquire all Microsoft products.
Still i can't sure that terms of windows version
RP is surely beta version, and MS said they will offer bargain to RP user.
My confusion is about RTM.
Is that also beta? i mean, can i use RTM like freely using RP?
Or should i pay to upgrade RP to RTM?
I've been using Windows 8 on a desktop for development for two months now.
I'm usually using Linux and was more than a little concerned, but so far it has been a very pleasant experience.
Once you are on the desktop, you can use it like any other windows before, with the exception of the lack of a start menu. And that was a pain to use anyway.
You want to launch a program? Hit the windows key on your keyboard, enter a part of the name of the program you want to use, hit enter et voila, there you go.
The rest of the desktop stuff is just like before *shrug*. I've been told that serious users of windows have been avoiding the start menu like that for ages.
The thing many people seem not to realize is that you can use Windows 8 like a traditional desktop if you need it. Or you can use it as a tablet OS, if you need that. Don't try to use the tablet part when you are using it with mouse and keyboard. What would be the point of that? Conversely, don't use the desktop if all you have are your fingers.
I've stayed clear of tablets so far, because I consider them pure consumption machines. The Surface Pro, on the other hand, looks like a real ultrabook that you can use as a tablet as well. Now if I can dual-boot it into Linux quickly if need be, then I'm sold.
One little anecdote: At one point the screen flickered and then froze. I already started rolling my eyes, muttering things about unstable windows drivers. Then the screen went black for half a second and came back, everything normal. A small box told me that windows detected that the graphics driver stopped working and that the driver had been restarted.
I agree, but with provisos.
A great deal of the interest we are seeing in tablets has to do with the innate human fascination with new and sparkly things. Tablets are a great deal like the hoola-hoop, the Rubic's Cube and the digital watch.
And they are really pretty cool.
But I'm typing this now on a real keyboard at my desk in a comfy chair with my back straight and all my resources close at hand. I can get real work done here because I'm not spending half my awareness and energy just trying to find a non-awkward position to tap glass from while trying to filter out the noise, crap and distraction of some random environment.
What I see as a distinct probability is that the desktop computer will eventually no longer require a big humming box. I'll be able to drop my tablet into a keyboard dock or something similar so I can have the advantage of "anywhere computing" while still being able to sit down and really concentrate on what I am doing.
Tested and proven. I've had a tablet for years longer than most. I simply get more done, better in the office, but being able to take my desktop with me is also really useful.
I think the Microsoft "Surface" system might prove to be a step in that direction, and of course, Win8 was needed to accommodate this.
... of the discussion
What about of the discussion?
Who cares about Windows 8 ? It's just more bloated garbage from Microsoft - a company that is now becomming increasingly irrelevant in todays IT domain. Google has seen to that.