Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 25th Oct 2012 20:50 UTC
"Microsoft today announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8. Beginning Friday, Oct. 26, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a beautiful new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store." I'm still not clear on what '12:01 AM local time' means, but if it means it goes on sale in every country on 12:01 AM, I'll be buying in a bit over an hour!
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RE[4]: I'd rather put my head in an oven.
by WorknMan on Fri 26th Oct 2012 03:32
in reply to "RE[3]: I'd rather put my head in an oven."
Member since:2005-11-13
Personally, I won't be upgrading to Windows 8, and I'll be buying a copy of Windows 7 for my next PC build too. To me buying a copy of Windows 8 is one vote to devalue the "legacy" desktop in favour of a tablet focussed UI and app store.
Or it could mean that you'd rather use an OS that runs faster, boots faster, and is more memory efficient than Windows 7. Not to mention sporting some other features like native USB 3 support, a much improve task manager, hyper-V virtualization, native mounting of ISO files, taskbars on multiple monitors, etc.
The nice thing about Metro is that it is completely optional to use. The one possible exception is the Start Screen, which really doesn't suck as bad as people thing it does. IMHO, it's actually an improvement over the old Start menu, and I find it the one aspect of Metro that is tolerable to use. You can pin desktop apps and bookmarks there. So hit the Windows key, and it's basically the same as the start menu. You can install Metro apps like Wikipedia if you want and search those right on the Start screen. You can size app tiles and sort them into groups. So don't decide you hate it until you spend some time getting acclimated with it.
And don't worry about the 'classic' desktop being gone in Windows 9. MS needs to do a lot of work before Metro even becomes a viable replacement so they can port 'real' apps to it like Visual Studio. We're at LEAST 10 years away from that happening.
Edited 2012-10-26 03:37 UTC
RE[5]: I'd rather put my head in an oven.
by Lorin on Fri 26th Oct 2012 03:42
in reply to "RE[4]: I'd rather put my head in an oven."
Member since:2010-04-06
"Or it could mean that you'd rather use an OS that runs faster, boots faster, and is more memory efficient than Windows 7. Not to mention sporting some other features like native USB 3 support, a much improve task manager, hyper-V virtualization, native mounting of ISO files, taskbars on multiple monitors, etc. "
A great description of Linux which has all those features.
Edited 2012-10-26 03:43 UTC
RE[5]: I'd rather put my head in an oven.
by Dave_K on Fri 26th Oct 2012 16:05
in reply to "RE[4]: I'd rather put my head in an oven."
Member since:2005-11-16
Or it could mean that you'd rather use an OS that runs faster, boots faster, and is more memory efficient than Windows 7. Not to mention sporting some other features like native USB 3 support, a much improve task manager, hyper-V virtualization, native mounting of ISO files, taskbars on multiple monitors, etc.
All relatively minor improvements that to me are outweighed by the "Modern UI" kludge.
So don't decide you hate it until you spend some time getting acclimated with it.
I've spent quite a bit of time with it.
I don't care about the Start Screen. I don't think its much of an improvement over the old Start Menu, but I can easily live with it.
It's the thought of having to use Modern UI apps alongside my desktop software that I have a problem with. No amount of acclimatisation is going to convince me that full screen mobile apps work well on my 30" 2560x1600 monitor.
And don't worry about the 'classic' desktop being gone in Windows 9. MS needs to do a lot of work before Metro even becomes a viable replacement so they can port 'real' apps to it like Visual Studio. We're at LEAST 10 years away from that happening.
I don't think that the desktop will be removed completely in the next version of Windows. Just like support for DOS and Windows 3.1 software, I'm sure it'll hang around for quite a while in later versions of Windows.
That doesn't mean that all the software I use will continue to be produced for the desktop. Something like Visual Studio may not be switching any time soon, but what about web browsers, media players, file viewers, utilities, and other relatively simple apps?
Writing for modern UI, developers can create one app that runs on both RT tablets and Windows 8 desktops. I can see that appealing to developers if Windows 8 and its app store are a success. Once apps and utilities that I need start moving to Modern UI it'll no longer be so optional and easily avoidable.
In my opinion, the longer Windows 7 stays a popular OS, the longer it'll be before I have to suffer Modern UI apps. Maybe by then Linux will have turned into an OS I can happily use (although I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen).
RE[5]: I'd rather put my head in an oven.
by ze_jerkface on Fri 26th Oct 2012 18:16
in reply to "RE[4]: I'd rather put my head in an oven."
Member since:2012-06-22
The nice thing about Metro is that it is completely optional to use. The one possible exception is the Start Screen
Oh just that one exception, the exception being what people hate in the first place.
When people talk about metro they are talking about the start screen. Even after applying a bunch of hacks there are still areas where you are forced to use it. You are also forced to boot into it which causes problems for companies that use complex autologon scripts. But f--k them I guess, which seems to be the overall theme of Windows 8.
Stop defending Microsoft's decision to artificially remove choice. If Metro in W8 wasn't a POS then they wouldn't be trying to force it. Good software can be sold on merit and doesn't require force along with a fanboy army to defend it. Metro in WP7 makes sense but in Windows 8 it is screen rape. It's worse than a lot of full screen adware.
Oh and here are customers lining up in droves to get metro on the desktop
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2220288/currys-and-pc-worl...
Wait for more news from retailers over disappointing sales over this goddamn dumb plan called Windows 8. Microsoft fanboys better get over to retail stores to help them move some units to minimize the embarrassment.
Edited 2012-10-26 18:21 UTC
RE[4]: I'd rather put my head in an oven.
by modmans2ndcoming on Sat 27th Oct 2012 17:42
in reply to "RE[3]: I'd rather put my head in an oven."
Member since:2005-11-09
Features
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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.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
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.More Features »
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Member since:
2005-11-16
I'd agree with that. "Modern UI" is fundamentally decent as a tablet interface, and should be a pretty good platform once the apps are mature, but they really aren't up to scratch right now.
Unfortunately, as someone who's primarily a desktop user, I think it's a lot less likely that "Modern" will ever stop being such kludge ridden crippleware on a large screen PC.
Personally, I won't be upgrading to Windows 8, and I'll be buying a copy of Windows 7 for my next PC build too. To me buying a copy of Windows 8 is one vote to devalue the "legacy" desktop in favour of a tablet focussed UI and app store. Thankfully Windows 7 is good enough that I'm not missing out on much.