Thoughts on Windows 8

There has been a good bit of talk about Windows 8 recently (some positive, a lot negative) so I was just wondering what was everyone's take?

For those that missed it, Gabe Newell with Valve came out and said "I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space." because of the way it tries to close off and tighten up control on Windows similar to Apple. Blizzard supported Gabe with a tweet saying "not awesome for Blizzard either"

It seems like Windows is trying to be more like Apple by ditching the open system. In the process it seems like they are going to frustrate desktop users, gamers, business users, etc.

What are the impressions of those of you that have participated in the beta testing?

[TDub]

I haven't played around with it as much as I wanted to due to family, health and the site. But I can say I like it. I think some people are just scared of change. I welcome it. The thing is it may end up like ME in the end but that also means something better is coming afterwards. That is the scenario with MS. Something good then something crappy and so on.

TDub

I have noticed the cycle of good OS/bad OS with Windows. Windows 7 was pretty solid so I guess it is time for a "bad" OS. I don't think I am going to like the Metro interface since I like to keep my desktop space clean but I can understand the progression since this OS is largely aimed at mobile devices. I just hope MS doesn't forget about the gaming community and business users with 8.

[ryandigweed]

I like the look of Windows8 to a limit. Maybe they'll have a good thing going, and screw it up. Dislike the start icon, it seems too weird. Although i did dislike the superbar of windows 7 at the start but now I can't do without it.

I love the new BSOD, lol looks better than that old ugly blue screen that looks like DOS. I love the new task manager. It's full of details. Better than the stock task manager.

But i dislike the fact that the UI is mostly as if its designed for a tablet..

[Hellfire]

Under the hood, I like what Win8 has to offer.

However, that only goes so far. The user experience is what will help make/break it. The "Metro" interface is designed way too much for tablet or phone. I haven't played with it for several releases, but I plan to. On the last release I did play with, on a large monitor the tiles were HUGE and I couldn't resize them down to get more on the screen. Hopefully that'll be fixed.

Then, if I remember right, software has to be coded in a certain way to work on the Metro interface, what about older/legacy software? Now you have to go to another interface to get to those?

They should've left it as a toggle on/off and let the user decide what to do. They did this originally with XP and I believe Win7 has a XP look option to it as well. People do fear change, but eventually they'd get use to it.

I've been playing with windows 8 for the last week and really can't complain about it. My only gripe was the fact that I had to install a 3rd party start menu. Performance has been rock solid and 99% of the applications I run have not been affected. My only gripe is with Google Chrome. There are separate versions for the desktop and " Metro ". Running a metro app and then switching into chrome will launch a new browser window instead of bringing up the one I have loaded already. But over all everything has worked well and have had zero crashes. My favorite thing so far has been the improved task manager.

[Hellfire]

I got the TechEd release of it this past weekend and spent several hours with it (I plan to spend many more on it). For me to be comfortable with it, it seems to take a lot of getting used to, and customization. I think once I get used to it and get the customization figured out, I'll be able to live with it. I don't like that MS is going the Apple direction and forcing things down our throats.

Metro IE SUCKS big time. Give me the tabs back there and some of my complaints go away.

Tiles are too large on a 27" screen.

I hate the "desktop" window feel, just seems like Windows 3.1 and 95 all over again.

I have a list of things I have to customize to get it usable but I'm sure that list will get smaller over time.

Its a pity because they seem to have really improved the core os in terms of performance etc but then have gone and ruined it with metro, it would be much better imo if they offered an option to still have a windows 7 style start menu and not be forcing metro on everybody.

[Hellfire]

I found it really funny that they want you to use the "Metro" interface, but if you plug in a USB flash drive/hard drive/memory card and choose to browse the files, it drops you down into the desktop mode to open the file explorer. Really? There's no "Metro" file explorer included? Seems like a fail to me.

On a side note, I REALLY like the new "details" section of the file copy process. It provides a graph along with the speed of the transfer.

Originally Posted by Jayster

Its a pity because they seem to have really improved the core os in terms of performance etc but then have gone and ruined it with metro, it would be much better imo if they offered an option to still have a windows 7 style start menu and not be forcing metro on everybody.

Hope that developers will add an option just to disable it and not completely remove it.It's a new era for Windows and they clearly want people to forget the Start Menu.