Windows 8: Download it, then speak YOUR brains
Got any plans next weekend? Cancel them. Tell your partner to finally catch up with those old university friends, get a cat sitter in, and order a pizza. This week sees the eagerly anticipated first release of Microsoft's Windows 8 to those outside the Redmond circle of friends. Windows 8 is, according to bullet-headed …
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Been using on my laptop since the consumer preview.
I like it. The "metro" screen I treat as a full screen start button. Works exactly the same but with extra functionality imo. ie, click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops. Or use one of the ones that I have sitting as a link. I even like some of the free apps that come with the new UI.
Biggest bonus, I can reboot and be typing in a search box in my browser within 30 seconds. It was at least 3 times that with Win7.
It also feels quicker.
I will be taking the opportunity to upgrade cheaply when the full version hits.
just give it some time, I'm sure Redmond will fix that awfull snappiness eventually, just like they managed with every other windows version so far
"click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
Windows 7 already does this? Without having to clicking anything (Windows button -> type)
(also Launchy provides the same functionality for those still on XP)
Ah .. so you're the one
I have been wondering ... they say that no matter what horrid fetish you can think off, there will always be one on the internet who likes it .
www.metrolovers.com is still free
(although searching for metro lovers also brought this: http://www.torontosun.com/2011/12/13/the-subway-sex-that-gagged-the-world )
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
"Windows 7 already does this? Without having to clicking anything (Windows button -> type)"
That works exactly the same on Win8 as well.
You're not alone!
I'v been using the CP on my laptop and later on one of my desktops, and even when I didn't expected it I really like the new interface. As you say, what-has-been-Metro is nothing than a large Start Menue, so I didn't actually find it hard to move from Win7 to Win 8 (and it shouldn't overwhelm anyone with at least half a brain). Sure, there are some oddities (after all, it's a brand new interface) but overall I have to say Win 8 has been a very positive experience for me. Hyper-V integration is great, too, as are many of the other improvements (like task manager or the new file copy dialogues).
I also tried Windows Server 2012 Essentials and the new Hyper-V Server 2012 RC, and I have to say I'm really impressed. Server 2008 R2 was already very good but 2012 is another huge step forward.
I'm sure that because of not agreeing with the mob the cattle on El Reg will certainly downvote me. I'm pretty sure had "Metro" appeared on Linux then people would discuss the positives and negatives, but just because it's done by MS it's of course all crap. However, outside of El Reg (in the real world) the feedback of those who have actually used Windows 8 (instead of repeating stuff they read on the webs omewhere) is mostly quite positive.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
And it is still the same in W8, Windows Key -> start typing... except you get better search functionality.
Spend less time slagging it off, more time actually trying it.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
Got to love this place. Someone complains that you can't click the Windows key and type the program that you want, they get votes up. I post a single line in reply pointing out that you can do this on Win8 exactly the same as on Win7 and in come the down votes. Bias > Truth, apparently with some people, apparently.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
"And it is still the same in W8, Windows Key -> start typing... except you get better search functionality."
Erm, yes, that's the point. The OP sold it as "additional functionality" of a start menu, when it's existed since Vista. It's not new, and it's not a benefit of Metro.
Plenty of us have tried Win 8, and I don't think we're wrong if we think it's got potential for being a good tablet OS, but not for touch-free machines.
Re: You're not alone!
I disagree about people hating Metro just because it's Microsoft. I'm sure that's true for some OSS purists, but there are other reasons not to like it. I float between Linux and Windows. If it wasn't for a few things (Photoshop being the biggest one), I'd use Linux full-time.
I will probably play with the latest Win 8 preview in a VM soon, as I do support Windows in my job. Before Metro came on the scene, Unity had already made its debut on Ubuntu. There are some similarities between it and Metro (like typing the name of an app you need), and I absolutely hate it. I've switched to the Xfce version (Xubuntu) of Ubuntu, as it has more traditional menus.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I find the notion of having to type an app's name problematic. Being the geeky type, I have dozens and dozens of apps installed on my PC. Some of these I use daily, and typing the name isn't a problem. But what about the many apps that one runs infrequently? Often times I can't recall the name of a specific app I need but if I look through the program menu I'll recognize it when I see it.
If a less commonly accessed app isn't discoverable, it becomes a lot harder to find. I tend to organize my menus into major categories (like Graphics, Utilities, etc) that make it quick and easy to find stuff. The Metro interface seems to buck my organizational habits.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
"Erm, yes, that's the point. The OP sold it as "additional functionality" of a start menu, when it's existed since Vista. It's not new, and it's not a benefit of Metro."
It's the part where they go on to say that they can do this "without having to clicking" (sic). They were responding to (checks subject of discussion) someone who said they could click in the corner and type what they wanted by saying they didn't have to click in Windows 7. Kind of strongly implies that they think in Windows 8, you do. You're reaching here.
Besides, it would be a complete strawman to pick on some random feature that is the same in both OSes and loudly complain that it's not an advantage when to the best of my knowledge no-one has been billing that feature being a selling point.
Re: You're not alone!
"Maybe I'm in the minority, but I find the notion of having to type an app's name problematic. Being the geeky type, I have dozens and dozens of apps installed on my PC. Some of these I use daily, and typing the name isn't a problem"
I strongly suggest you try it yourself rather than trying to work out how it functions from other people's comments. You don't have to type the name of a program. You can just click on it with the mouse. It's just that you *can* type the name if you want. Just as you could in WIndows 7. It's my normal way of launching something in Linux too and has been long before Unity (which I don't use). I've been using Alt+F2 in Linux for years. Mice are for moving windows around, imo. ;)
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
@harmony "to the best of my knowledge no-one has been billing that feature being a selling point."
Except the person who started this thread in the first place?..
"Works exactly the same but with extra functionality imo. ie, click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
In summary they said "I like Metro, because it's like a big start screen except it's better because I can have links and type the name of a programme" - not much of a selling point...
Re: You're not alone!
Except it's *not* a large start menu - it's flat, not heirarchical. Try enabling the administrative tools menu and watch as your screen turns into a complete cluster fuck.
To get to most apps you have to click on the bottom middle of the screen (which you have to find out by accident... whoever thought that was a good UI should be shot. I hope MS have put proper icons in the right places in the final release rather than this 'click randomly until something happens' stuff) - where it brings up a list of applications in apparently random order.. again, not sorted into their correct folders.. and, for good measure, not using any of the application icons... they're all document icons (another thing I really hope they've fixed).
TBH I'm bloody glad I don't have to be one of the support guys on this - it's hard enough for some people to handle start menu -> all programs -> company -> support without having to search a completely flat namespace where your support icon could be *anywhere* and might clash with another companies support icon.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
"Except the person who started this thread in the first place?.."
Okay. So someone was saying that this was something they liked about Win8. Didn't notice that. But I was only posting to correct someone who thought that you couldn't use the Windows key in Win8 as you could in Win7, which you can. The whole thing about it not being a selling point was a point that someone else raised.
Re: "click the corner, type the name of the program I want and up it pops"
Jesus H.
The point is, the start menu isn't "missing", it just looks different, and has added functionality, such as an app store and the ability to use it nicely on a touch screen. And even on a non-touch screen, some of the apps are rather nice. Dare I admit it but I like the recipe app in glorious fullscreeniness.
The only real difference is that there isn't a physical button.
Amazing I got downvoted just for liking it too. MS haters, iSheep? who knows?
Re: You're not alone!
Kind of comment you expect from someone who doesn't see how pathetic it is trying to avoid downvotes by childishly prejudging anyone who might disagree with you.
Re: You're not alone!
Astroturfers. It's part of their job.
Re: HAVING TO CLICKING?
Would you like to change your Internet service providings?
It's 3 times faster than your current providings!
Re: Unity
Unity still has the standard sorting - typing the name is just an additional way of getting to the program, just like in W7/W8. To get to that sorting, though, you have to go through a few steps.
1. With the Unity launcher open, click on the "ruler/pencil/pen" icon to get to programs.
2. Click the "Filter Results" toggle.
3. Choose the category/ies you need
4. If needed, click the toggle for "Installed apps"
Re: You're not alone!
I rather agree with you. I dislike Metro (or whatever it is now) for what it is and how it works, not for who makes it. We also use Linux as our primary OS, but I had to have a look at Win 8 just in case.
As for Photoshop, take some time to get your head around GIMP. It may not have the Adobe cachet, but it does the job phenomenally well. You can also run it in a Win environment if you want to, but it is a lot quicker in Ubuntu.
My "problem" software is Corel Draw, but it is only a problem in as much as I have to run a virtual Win XP session in order to use it. You could do just the same with Photoshop, but note that some Photoshop versions work perfectly well under Wine if you would rather do it that way. Check it out.
The OS is becoming increasingly irrelevant - it's the software that does the work.
Good on you
Loving the downvotes you get for liking something from Redmond. Or liking something they don't like. Boo!
I hear Microsoft have put effort into streamlining the OS, so it's not just faster boot times but faster operation in general. That's progress.
Seriously?
I don't know of anybody eagerly awaiting this....Win 8.
Even my son, who is a total Windows fan will give it a miss because he thinks it's unnecessary, irrelevant and pig-ugly.
I'll spare you my own, rather prejudiced (having switched to Linux a few years back) opinions.
But I do wonder where on earth this "Eagerly awaited" comes from...
Re: Seriously?
It's eagerly awaited by those who hold shares in popcorn industry.
The flamewars on various forums will be epic
how I see it panning out....
If you don't like the non-existant-start-button-hot-corner loading Metro/Modern tiles garbage, you'll just have to try Classic Shell or any other freeware that restores sanity - or start your apps via shortcuts on the classic desktop or pin them to the taskbar. Then it's more or less like Win 7 and the Metro/Modern new rubbish won't bother you most of the time.
I can't see the Metro/Modern full-screen touch nonsense catching on with business app developers whose users live in the classic desktop all day, want overlapping multiple windows etc.. .especially if the New Way apps can only be distributed via a new MS AppStore. I think/hope/expect MS will be seriously dissappointed on that one.
And with luck, the remaining Rest of the World who have managed so far not to realise why most of us despise MS tactics, will understand at last what a dick move this new interface was - forcing it on us and doing their best to make it impossible to circumvent.
Re: how I see it panning out....
".. .especially if the New Way apps can only be distributed via a new MS AppStore."
MS have already stated that enterprise versions of Win8 will have the ability to "side load" apps so that inhouse apps can be written and deployed.
As to dick move, making a look and feel for phone, tablet, laptop and desktop is more likely to get the approval of non techie directors than 3-4 different interfaces. Add to that the costs of supported one set of integrated devices on your system as apposed to 3-4 different OS's and this could be what MS are looking at rather then comentards posting in forums that only they go to.......
Re: how I see it panning out....
"MS have already stated that enterprise versions of Win8 will have the ability to "side load" apps so that inhouse apps can be written and deployed."
And there's no problem with the notion that MS is moving the window of "normal" OS behavior to "here are the new, tighter caveats under which you may create or obtain software to be installed on your computer, restrictions you did not ask for but rather we are imposing you, unasked."
Amazing how people's concept of what's normal and acceptable can be slowly and subtly shifted beyond any recognition.
Do a mental exercise, imagine it's 10 years ago and Microsoft was launching whatever it was they launched back then. With that announcement, they drastically restrict how you may obtain software, where you may obtain, dictating even that you'll pay for the "privilege" of loading "unapproved' software at all. Would you have been ok with that?
Apple is author of the real-world implementation of this evil, of course. Goes to show that "think different" doesn't always mean "think well."
If Windows 9 is blue, is this red?
I seem to remember the last OS that had colour themed editions was OS/2 Warp. I wonder if Windows 8 will do as well as that did...
Hopefully there's a switch to classic mode option some where for the UI.
BURN THE HERETIC!
(why on earth would you want a classic look?)
Windows 9
Should return the Start Menu and move the "Modern UI" active tiles to the TaskBar instead???
How long does it last?
I used the Win 7 preview until it timed out.
Re: How long does it last?
The Developer/Consumer Previews time-out on 15 January 2013. The Release Preview will time-out on 16 January 2013.
Whether you feel able to use the preview until then, that's another story... sounds an awful long time to me.
Re: How long does it last?
> Whether you feel able to use the preview until then, that's another story... sounds an awful long time to me.
There is that. A previous preview got deleted very quickly. But a lot of the time I use windows (XP) via RDP, so it'll be interesting to see how it works. (I also fancy a 64 bit OS)
Until there is a way to get rid of that tablet interface I am not even touching windows 8 regardless of what MS do.
I would rather loose out on being able to play all my games and move to Linux than turn my pc in to a tablet.
Yeh right........
Until the next outing from your favorite title is only available on Windows or a console at which time you will put it as a dual boot on the PC.....
Its only a big start button for fucks sake, not the complete UI. don't use apps and stay on desktop and you will forget its not 7 almost stright away......
"Until there is a way to get rid of that tablet interface I am not even touching windows 8 regardless of what MS do."
But then you won't be ABLE to touch it?
Re: Yeh right........
Or, more precisely, you'll eat the dogfood that is put in your dish by your master, once you're sufficiently famished.
"It's only a big start button..."
Put another way, "it's only a big turd you didn't want, need or ask for, in the middle of your screen. Get used to it!"
Hmm
I want to like it. Competition is a good thing; it drives innovation. I do think (based on the preview) that there's been too much compromise in some of the design fundamentals: If MS wanted a tablet UI they could and should have designed one separately; 8 feels like two different ideas that simply don't converge for the desktop user.
A keyboard and mouse are still a fantastic way to get input to a PC, and are well suited to human dexterity. Touch is a solution to a packaging problem that works really well, but pretending it is the better way to do things is a bit daft.
Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
Speaking as someone who installed Windows 8 at least twice over the past 6 months and proceeded to rip it off again and go back to Windows7 within less than 1 day...
I really couldn't see the point of Windows8 thought it was all about touch, and wondered why had they f**ked up Windows 7 which was actually now really stable for me.
That was until I found a couple of my colleagues who were using it everyday had become real converts to the new way of life so I thought I must be missing out on something here. I decided to spend 20 mins with them so they could walk me through how they use it, how they have it all setup. I then went and did the same, this time I decided to stick with it for more than a day.... that was over a month ago. I am now completely converted and have no intention of going back to Windows 7, cant wait to get my hands on the RTM bits.
I thought the start button thing would annoy me, but I don't even notice its missing now, I realise that I only used to use it to bring up the search box anyway which is still achieved by clicking the bottom left hand corner and bringing up the start screen or by pressing the windows key. With regards to putting the mouse in different corners of the screen, again once you have used it for a couple of days it becomes second nature and all makes sense.
The Microsoft guys have actually put some thought into it, and once you understand what they were trying to achieve it all makes much more sense and you actually enjoy using it... and yes, I am talking about with a mouse and keyboard. I cant wait to give it a go on a tablet or touch enabled laptop.
If you just want to be a troll or follow the 'its cool to hate M$' crowd then you carry on and enjoy your XP or Linux laptop, I am sure you will have many more happy years together. But if you have not tried it, or did so for a day and thought 'screw this' I would say give it (another) go, but make sure you invest some time in learning about the new experience and don't just try and think of it as mangled Win7, if you get it... it will be worth it!
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
Interesting. We've seen EXACTLY THE SAME arguments for WP7, and it still is a major failure and a pita to use for anything too complicated for a featurephone. "Try it out, learn the new, enlightened way, you'll love it after you drink the kool-aid for a few weeks."
Is that a script, a press release, or is it really your experience? Because it is such a blatant copy of the WP7 zealotry that one wonders. Or maybe it was you all the time, first evangelizing for WP7, nor for W8.
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
"Interesting. We've seen EXACTLY THE SAME arguments for WP7, and it still is a major failure ...." - and in the same vain, its also those that haven't actually used one that slag them off, whereas the majority of those that ACTUALLY own one like them!
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
So you're saying "Buy it, you might like it".
And what, sell it at a loss when you don't? Throw it in the river?
Shove it up someone's arse?
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
Enough of highfalutin about 'the majority of users like it'. We'll see what happens at the next Microsoft earnings call.
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
"So you're saying "Buy it, you might like it". And what, sell it at a loss when you don't? Throw it in the river? Shove it up someone's arse?"
There is a free preview available at the moment. You can use this without any risk to your finances or the backsides or those who know you.
Re: Win8 for those that bothered to learn about it...
WP7 doubled its market share in the last year, gained the world best mobile phone manufacturer in Nokia as a sole agency, and reached 100,000 apps faster the IOS or Android. Not bad for a V1.1 OS.
WP8 comes out next month. I wouldnt count your chickens on WP being a failure until that hits the market....
@jbernardo
"Interesting. We've seen EXACTLY THE SAME arguments for WP7, and it still is a major failure and a pita to use for anything too complicated for a featurephone."
I don't quite agree there. Yes, WP7 certainly has its limitations, but also plenty of stronger points as well. For example I can easily use it to logon my Window servers through use of the ConnectME application. Full RDP support, even allows for file transfers.
Using SSH to logon to my Linux servers? No problem either; using the 'The SSH client application. Works pretty fast, good keyboard and both applications can keep running under the lock screen.
I'd say those are specific issues which I don't see people do too easily on a feature phone.
And to be honest.. Although I don't quite like the commercials the most you hear about the WP7 setup is that it "smokes" the competition when using social media.
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