I voted for the best thing since sliced bread. I've been a long time user of Windows and for the most part have loved it since window's 98....including vista (yeah I know I'm one of the few that liked vista). I absolutely loved Window 7 and Windows 8 just makes it better for me. And yes, I have it installed on my desktop pc.
I don't have a touch screen or pad on my desktop. But I'm thinking of buying a touch screen in the future....if I can only find a good 3d touch screen that is....or hopefully they will give us a kinnect that will work with the os.
After reading a lot of users comments I've come to realize that 1. People are not giving it a good try. 2. If they do give it a good try they are doing it in virtualization - which is a poor experience regardless. 3. Are stuck in the restrictive paradigm of the hierarchical start menu. 4. don't understand how Metro aps are supposed to work. 5. would rather have the status quo then embrace truly innovative change.
Giving it a good try means using the os for more then a couple of hours. Don't give up on it just because it doesn't have a start menu...it's there but disguised as the metro ui which is far superior to the start menu. From what I've seen, people who stick with the OS end up finding that they are more productive once they figure out the nuances of the Metro UI.
My issues with most criticisms are everyone thinks they need a start button. Back in Windows 3.0 and 3.1/3.11 work groups, we never had the start button. It was first introduced in Windows 95. And in it's first incarnation was just a nested menu structure that really made no sense. It was stuck in a hieracrhial menu structure that was (on install) based on the vendor. If you tried to personalize it by say creating a folder for types of programs, you would be stuck with broken links when you uninstalled a program. And finding a program was usually a long drawn out process that might work for you but was confusing to anyone else who used the computer. Vista gave us the start icon with the word start. And it gave us better groupings for documents, games, control panel, network, etc. But we were still stuck with programs being grouped by vendor. And if we did create more personal groupings, we would still be stuck with broken links. Windows 7 wasn't much of an upgrade on the start menu, except we lost the word start...which we didn't even have back in windows 3/3.11.
Windows 8 is changing the whole start menu. In the previews we don't have a start icon. It's just a hotspot in the lower left hand corner. When you install a program all the icons are dropped on the metro UI and you can arrange it as you wish. You can group them, order them, pin and unpin them. Your start menu just became unlimited and now has updatable tiles for metro aps. Simply by changing the orientation for a vertical hierarchy to a horizontal 1 level hierarchy, Microsoft made finding your programs much easier. You can group them, order them how you wish. Remove the useless links from the "Menu", and add links to folders and files if you need. I've seen a lot of complaints about the mouse wheel. Metro Apps are designed to flow horizontally, not vertically. So when in the metro UI or App, your scroll wheel goes left to right instead of top to bottom. When you are in an x86 app, the wheel scrolls from top to bottom. It's execution is brilliant since the new defacto standard for lcd displays is widescreen. When I want to check my email, or load a program I haven't already, all I need to go is click on the bottom left corner and the app I want has a tile right there. Click on it and boom I am in Quicken, or playing a game, or checking the control panel.
For those that complain about the size of some the metro icons...you can change the size. Just right click on the icon and select the smaller tile. And while speaking about the Metro Apps, they are not designed to shut down. Most are centered around live feeds. Facebook feeds, email feeds, news/weather feeds. Alt-Tab still works to change focus, and if you want to minimize it, just drag your mouse from top to bottom. If the app is not used for a certain amount of time it is suspended. I have not experienced any issues because a metro app is still loaded. And memory is dirt cheap....I went from 8 meg on my old box to 32meg. And if it really is a problem, I'm sure that a killapp app will be done by some third party vendor like there is for android.
Metro apps are designed to take up the whole screen. It's the only way to provide some sort of consistency between phones, tab's, xbox, and desktops. And I like the unified interface. I know how an app will look and work regardless if I use the ap on xbox, a phone, a tablet, or my desktop.
Another complaint that I've seen is the requirement to have a windows live ID. I've had a Hotmail account since the late 90's, and it transferred over to xBox live. With SkyDrive I can synch all my documents, links, and aps across multiple devices. Come on people, we've already been doing it with iTunes for music, and google for email and contacts. If a windows live ID lets me share my aps among all my devices then awesome!
Honestly, there are some significant improvements in Windows 8 over 7. File transfer information (including the option to suspend a transfer), better bsod screens with information, stability, device support, the ribbon in explorer, and performance (it is incredibly faster at booting and using then windows 7).I was even able to load some games I hadn't been able to use since Win95.
What is really disturbing about the post's I've read is the vast majority are people complaining about the metro ui and loss of the start button. It's like people that really like it and have good experience with the system don't talk. Guess it proves that people who are happy don't talk about it. And people who are unhappy are the most vocal. People also don't get the change in orientation in the Metro UI. Metro is designed for wide screen. It goes from left to right as if you were reading text.
The valid criticisms is yeah, a start button or icon would be nice. At least it would be clearer then to click on the bottom left corner. Shutting down your system should be easier. I'm not sure why there is both IE 10 and an IE 10 metro ap....But all in all these are minor, especially when you realize Metro is a much better solution to the start menu. And yeah, sometimes the hot corners give me issues when I try to close a maximized window - when I go to the top right corner I usually get the slide out for settings and stuff. If I hit the previous button in IE I usually get the task bar. But this is minor and I'm sure works much better in a touch application.
Yeah, I like windows 8, and yeah I'll buy it when it comes out.
), and win7 was useless in tablet mode (well... not useless... just not very good). In Win8 i can go full tablet mode all the time if I wanted, but having the keys and mice are still handy when I need to do 'real' work on it (some audio recording and cleanup, and the occasional typing of documents). Due to resolution restraints on the netbook the metro apps simply will not run, but as I don't use them it is no big deal. I will try to go back to 7 after the customer preview expires, but I may buy win8 for it simply for the much improved touch screen capability.
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