Windows 8 Is Ready

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Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday August 1, 2012 @05:53AM from the stick-a-fork-in-it dept.

New submitter drinkydoh writes "In an announcement today, Microsoft has finally said that Windows 8 is now complete. Microsoft has begun delivering RTM versions to manufacturers and the general availability of the tablets and computers using Windows 8 will be on October 26th. 'Microsoft's final milestone concludes almost two years of development for its new Metro-inspired Windows 8 software and marks the beginning of the release phase. Microsoft says MSDN and TechNet customers will be able to download it from August 15th. Windows Store will go live on August 15th. Developers will be able to access the final tools and submission process for Metro style apps at the Windows Dev Center later this month.'"

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Let the bitching begin.... by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 05:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Microsoft seems to repeat mistakes don't they? DOS 4.0, Bob, ME, Vista; the public reaction to all should have been predictable enough that somebody in a corporation their size should have been able to see it coming and delay or abort the release of those turds. But no, they dropped em all and took the abuse and ridicule while apparently learning nothing. Now comes Windows 8.
Maybe they will have time to get Windows 9 right, maybe not. That is what has changed, before they were an unstoppable monopoly and now? We shall see. They have offended their OEM partners with the Surface tablet, the Developers, Developers, Developers! with the knifing of Silverlight and apparently the beginning of the end for both Win32 and .NET and I'm not convinced customers are going to be all that happy with what is about to be rammed down their thoat. All at a time when their monopoly is threatened like never before. The desktop PC itself is being questioned for most users, Office is threatened by Cloud apps and even the long standing stranglehold of Blackberry + Exchange is not looking very healthy about now.
Netcraft hasn't confirmed it yet but Microsoft just might be dying. And after hating on them for decades I'm not entirely sure I'm going to applaud when they exit the stage. The PC is likely to go with them, by which I mean the open platform anyone can write programs for and create add on hardware, etc. The post Microsoft future looks like a grim world of sealed media consumption devices for most and a return to 'workstations' for the select who can afford machines costing as much as a car.
Few will question anymore that Apple is a dark force of DRM and lockin. And the release of the Nexus 7 shows Google to be fast getting in touch with their Evil side. The only major difference (other than a model years' worth of hardware refresh) between it and the equally sealed up Amazon Fire is which app/media ecosystem it is bundled to.

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1. Re:Let the bitching begin.... by skaag · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  PC era gone? but wait... Steam is coming to Linux! We're saved!
  
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2. Re:Let the bitching begin.... by gbjbaanb · 2012-08-01 06:08 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I don't think they're killing it off, but it the "new VB". MS has rediscovered native code, so WinRT is entirely unmanaged, the .NET libs have been reworked to simply pass-through to the WinRT functionality and some minor parts removed.
  All native and cloud development is moving towards C++ again, so .NET is left as a desktop development environment. Given the performance fixes are not making it back into the desktop versions of the old libs and I doubt any additional features will be ported there (except security), and that the concept is that your Metro code for the PC can also run on a table or a phone, and the native push for those environments, I think you can see how .NET development is now a 'you can, but...' partner, not the primary focus for development.
3. Re:Let the bitching begin.... by HerculesMO · 2012-08-01 06:19 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Too bad the only games that will follow onto the Linux steam platform are games you've already beaten 5 or 6 years ago on the PC.
  Best of luck getting Valve to convince other dev studios to port games to Linux at a huge expense, when the audience simply isn't there. Linux on the desktop is dead. It's linux on the "device" that has a chance. I know why Valve is pushing towards Linux because the Windows 8 App store will eat their lunch, but realistically nothing is going to change. Windows 8 has gotten more idiot proof than usual, and that's what draws in people that don't already somehow have a PC.
  
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4. Re:Let the bitching begin.... by man_of_mr_e · 2012-08-01 06:59 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  First, Microsoft usually doesn't view much of anything as a total failure. Like many, they view their mistakes as market research. When they do something really wrong, they learn from it.
  Bob may have been a failure, but they learned a lot from it, and it lead to other products like the (also abhorred but largely successful) MS Agent technology (aka clippy, fido, etc..)
  Neither ME or Vista were failures per se. ME was never intended to be anything other than a stopgap. MS had intended to transition Windows 9x users to Windows 2000, but when that got pushed back to XP, MS had to come up with a stopgap for OEM's to provide new hardware support. It was held together with chewing gum and twine, to try and extend the life for just a few months more...
  Vista, likewise, was not a failure either, in that it was never intended to be a success. It was a "hatchet man", that was put out in order to get ISV's and OEM's to follow the new security rules. It was also intended to be really annoying so that vendors would fix their software to be UAC friendly. MS knew Windows 7 would come along and replace it, and by then the issues would be solved both in vendors and software.
  DOS 4 was just a huge steaming pile, though.
  
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This can only mean one thing by l0ungeb0y · 2012-08-01 05:55 · Score: 5, Funny

Lotus wont run!
Nor much of anything else for that matter.
Brace yourselves by Rinikusu · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Funny

Everyone on slashdot is about to become a UI expert.

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1. Re:Brace yourselves by Sir_Sri · 2012-08-01 06:00 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  After using windows 8 for an hour you'll at least know what not to do.
2. Re:Brace yourselves by gmuslera · 2012-08-01 06:02 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  start using it?
3. Re:Brace yourselves by NatasRevol · 2012-08-01 06:34 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  How? There's no Start button. 20 years of memory mapping, down the toilet.
  
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4. Re:Brace yourselves by turkeyfeathers · 2012-08-01 06:35 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Apparently, what is hard is coming up with a sucky GUI... I hear it took Microsoft two years.
5. Re:Brace yourselves by vux984 · 2012-08-01 08:11 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  No sub directories? The whole thing turns microscopic if you install too many things?
  Uh... no... it pages.
  Apps mixed in with what you're actually looking for? Ugh.
  Uh... no... search results are categorized.
  I don't dispute that you are a UI designer, but I seriously question whether you've actually used Windows 8 yet.
Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by jmorris42 · 2012-08-01 05:57 · Score: 5, Informative

Says the account with exactly three posts, all posted today and all praising Windows 8.

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Democrat delenda est
Killing the Start Button... by jdastrup · 2012-08-01 06:09 · Score: 5, Insightful

Killing the Start Button is like building a house without a front door. Sure, I use the garage door 99% of the time. According to Microsoft, this is reason to get rid of the front door.
Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by konaya · 2012-08-01 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative

It's not Windows hatred per se, although that certainly is a healthy attitude. It's just that everytime a Microsoft-related article pops up, a brand new user starts blindly praising whatever Microsoft's been doing this time around. It's getting old, Microsoft.
Re:Windows 8 seems like a solid product by smittyoneeach · 2012-08-01 06:19 · Score: 5, Funny

And then Freddie Mercury came on and I was like. . .scaramouche?

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