ActiveWin.com has just posted their 45-page, 40-screenshot review of Microsoft Windows 8. The review covers many different aspects of the OS including performance, security, application compatibility, and more. "Is Windows 8 a hit or miss? It's a hit, it is clearly Microsoft's most bold development in years, it probably beats out the transition from Program Manager (Windows 3X) to Windows 95, the move from Windows 9x to the NT Kernel. The Windows 8 platform represents so many things: truly touch centric, support for modern processor architectures, fast and fluid as Microsoft puts it and also represents where the majority of the world is heading when it comes to computing, entirely mobile."
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Member since:2007-08-27
Mixed bag is kinda over egging the positive, IMHO. True, one can almost forget 'metro' after installing a start menu app though, however, if the option didn't exist 'metro' and the desktop are so unintegrated to make 8 unusable as a desktop. 'Metro' is irrelevant and just a pain in the ass and after puzzling over it for a bit one just wants it gone.
Even 'metro' on it's own, as tablet etc using touch is, I fear, not fit for purpose. Initially, while puzzling over it's use on the desktop and the bizarre decision to shove it down our throats come what may I had thought it would work well on a tablet but the more I played around, admittedly not on a tablet, the less it made sense. Most of the major 'apps' dealing with the nuts & bolts of being on the net and consuming stuff don't actually work well enough that I'd be reluctant to use it. Pretty sure this will improve with time but it's puzzling why MS is risking so much on something so half-baked.
The more I use it the more puzzled I become. What, underneath, would be a no-brainier update to 7 is wrapped in an ill-thought marketers 'bright-idea' to 'Appleise' Windows and is just a mess. Can't imagine this is how 8 was envisioned and just wonder when the 'bright-idea' was tacked on. Maybe, it'll all come together in 9 but for now it's a disaster.
8 without 'metro' a positive yes, as it is...ho hum, a risk in being dependant on an app to make 'metro' go away and Microsoft not somehow forcing it back on the user.
Edited 2012-09-26 22:10 UTC
Member since:2005-11-13
Well, of course metro is irrelevant to *us*, but it wasn't made for us either. When the iPad came out, geeks around the world turned their noses up at it and said, 'This isn't OSX... it's just a big iPod Touch. It'll never sell.' Well, that shows how much we know 
The real test of metro is when tech tards and soccer moms get their hands on it. If they take to it, then it'll be a success as far as MS is concerned. If the computer-illiterate masses don't like it though, then MS is in serious trouble.
For this reason, I pretty much ignore metro as it is now, as you should too. Don't fall into the trap of having your geek sensibilities offended just because it is there. Benchmarks have already proven that Windows 8 is faster than 7 and more memory efficient, so it's not slowing down the system. And it doesn't really get in your way either if you don't seek it out.
The one obvious exception is the start screen; since MS removed the start menu, there's pretty much no getting around it without a start menu replacement. However, after having gotten familiar with it, I'm not entirely convinced that a start menu replacement is absolutely necessary, depending on what you used the start menu for. Once I figured out that I could pin desktop apps to it, I was pretty much good to go. In fact, I find that since I can resize tiles and separate them into logical groups, it's actually an improvement over the old start menu. And you can do searches as well, just hit the Windows key and start typing.
Member since:2011-12-19
Member since:2005-11-13
In a broad sense, I classify users into 3 different categories:
- Tech tard: How does this f**king app work?
- Power user: What are the shortcut keys? How do I customize the toolbar? Is it scriptable?
- Geek: What toolkit was this app written in? Is it open source?
Member since:2007-11-11
Let me ask you a question though, what makes it worth upgrading from 7? What feature is so "wow" you feel its worth that $40 or after jan 15th $100?
If they had made metro optional? Then I could see it IF they kept the $40 upgrade price. after all a faster boot would probably be worth $40 over the long haul, but come Jan 16th when you can't get it for $40 and are faced with win 7 and Win 8 for the same price, what's the selling point? Why should I put up with the fugly start screen or have to hack it if I can get 7 for the same price?
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN.""Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2005-11-13
I can appreciate what MS was trying to do with this release, but I think they really screwed up the integration (or lack thereof) between 'classic' desktop and metro. No self-respecting power user is going to have much to do with metro, and I can't imagine it not confusing the hell out of tech tards (esp when they're randomly thrown into desktop mode), but that remains to be seen.
That being said, I have been playing around with the final release, and other than the new start screen (which is ok once you get used to it), metro pretty much stays out of my way, and I find that there's enough new features besides metro to make it worth the $40 upgrade price that MS will be asking for when it's released.
For a broad overview of new features, see here:
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/480432_10151089355403527...