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Microsoft Releases Windows 8
Orome1 writes "Microsoft today announced the global availability of Windows 8. Beginning Friday, Oct. 26, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store. Launching at the same time is a new member of the Windows family — Windows RT — designed for ARM-based tablets and available pre-installed on new devices. In addition to Microsoft Office 2013, Windows RT is designed exclusively for apps in the new Windows Store. In addition to the range of new Windows-based devices available, consumers can also upgrade their existing PCs. Through the end of January, consumers currently running PCs with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 are qualified to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of US$39.99." Also at Slash Cloud, where Nick Kolakowski writes: "If the operating system and its associated hardware capture the attention (and dollars) of mobile-device users, Microsoft will have successfully expanded the Windows brand to a new and rapidly growing market segment. But if it fails, and Apple and Google continue to rule the mobility space, then Microsoft is left with few alternatives."
Posted using Windows XP Technology
Confession: I'm a Windows/PC user. Win 7 works fine for me. I use it at work. I use it a home. I can run pretty much anything I want on it. It's stable and mostly trouble free for me.
I've yet to see a single compelling reason to move to Windows 8 for desktop/laptop. Maybe it's OK for tablets? I don't know... I use Android and I'm happy with that. Is there *any* "ohhh... gotta have that" feature in Windows 8? Looks like a usability step backwards from Windows 7 to me. Am I missing something?
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
something something linux something something it works for me something something micro$oft tax something something free beer something something
It is a better OS from a technical standpoint. It is faster (Cakewalk found it sped up Sonar X1 in all heavy load cases) and some of the tools like the task manager are much better. However it isn't major.
On the down side its UI is ugly, and the metro stuff is crap. You don't have to use the metro stuff. Start 8 or Classic Shell will get you a real start menu and you can then ignore the tablet crap.
I'm fine with it, I use it at work since Windows support is my profession and I need to be familiar with it and it works well. However it is not a major update. Internally it calls itself Windows NT 6.2, 7 being NT 6.1. It is improved some, uglied up some, and has tablet bits it tries to shove down your throat.
In general I would say don't worry about it. If you've a reason to get it or a system comes with it, it'll work fine. You'll want to get a start menu replacer but it'll be fine after that. However I wouldn't rush out and upgrade. 7 works fine and 8 really does have an ugly UI.
Dear Astro, believe it or not, we get it. Many of us get what Microsoft is attempting to do. And many of us think that parts of it are not even half bad ideas. Not particularly original - but then, who is? This thing is, we just have very little faith that Microsoft is going to get it right. Why? Because of Microsoft's track record. Microsoft has tried it again and again and again, and the one thing they're left with which is really solid and stands for itself is the OS - which works best when it is not perceived. See, people don't actually enjoy using WIndows - it's just there, and it runs all their software. It's still quite annoying, but then so are all OSs. Windows does a worse job than others in keeping out of the way and acting as a platform for actual productive stuff, but also better than some. Office? Format lock-in. Xbox? Good stuff. Wouldn't actually sell if not at a loss, though. Zune? Dead. Kin? Never got to the stage of being alive I think. "Plays for sure"? Isn't playing anymore. And that last one is maybe the best - They actually succeeded in branding something "Plays for sure" - and then knock it down? That takes a *special* kind of talent. Silverlight? Microsoft really appreciates that you attempted the switch from Flash and became a stakeholder. Remember? "Developers developers developers"? But now not so much anymore. They thew it at the wall, it didn't stick .. next! ... W8. Good stuff. Good concepts. Now if I somehow managed to get the feeling that, say, MS employees were actually eating their own dog food, and not only that, that they actually had some kind of influence of any kind to say what might be improved, what is inconsistent, a wording, a button, anything ... then you might actually be on to something. Trouble is, we don't get that feeling. It's going to be another buzz-word compliant three-quarters finished piece of work built by a group of people where those who have vision have no influence, and those who call the shots have their eyes firmly fixed to the bottom line with complete disregard for anything else.
So yeah
So yeah, again. It's not that we're not going to use it. Microsoft still has enough money at the moment to make sure there isn't much of a realistic alternative. The sales numbers are going to look good on paper. But that's doesn't mean that we actually like it. It's going to be an OS which is slightly more annoying than the last one. And it certainly doesn't mean that it's actually any good.
Isn't being 'stuck in your ways' the point of continuing to use Windows? I know a good number of people who got unstuck in their ways and moved to OSX about the time Vista came out. Microsoft stands to lose as much as they gain from that thinking. Maybe a new Mac to compliment that iPad you have, rather then a new Surface to compliment the Win8 PC you bought.
It's not that 'Metro' can't be figured out, it's that Metro is a backward step in usability on the desktop. Here is an example I posted on another site...
"You are surfing the web and click to read a PDF file. It opens the 'metro' default PDF viewer which takes up the entire screen (no viewing the webpage and pdf unless you have multi-monitors). When you are done reading the pdf, what do you do now? There is no X. You can use the hot spot in the upper left to go back to the desktop, but the pdf doesn't close. Or you can ALT+F4 which closes the PDF viewer, but now you are at the metro interface not your original webpage so you have to take an extra step of going back to the desktop."
How the defaults work out of the box are very different from what people are used to. Yea, you can install foxit/adobe and default that, but that first impression of suck is going to stick.