MS Windows 8 Consumer Beta

[Matt_H]

I installed it under VM Fusion on my Mac, and it's absolutely awful as a desktop OS. I had to install mouse drivers. Mouse drivers! PCs haven't had to deal with that since early DOS. And the driver package left 5 new icons on my metro panel. Such clutter! And if I remove them, the file system is so masked that I don't know where I'd find them if I needed access to them at some future point.  

Also like DOS, there's no multitasking. At least, it's almost impossible to tell from the metro interface what's running. I find navigating within metro programs to be extremely difficult as well. I'll give this another few hours of experimentation, then it's going in the proverbial trash.

On the plus side, it's making me use my Amiga more!

[commodorejohn]

I installed it under VM Fusion on my Mac, and it's absolutely awful as a desktop OS. I had to install mouse drivers. Mouse drivers! PCs haven't had to deal with that since early DOS.

devicehigh = c:\[strike]dos[/strike]windows8\mouse.sys :roflmao:

[mingle]

I couldn't get it to install - despite my PC being more than up to the task. It gets about 3/4 of the way through and then says it can't continue, due to an error - sound like the sort of message a mac would display!

Anyway, remember the Metro front-end is optional and not really recommended for a desktop, unless you have a nifty touch-screen. The standard desktop is much more like Win 7 and pretty acceptable.

Mike.

[Matt_H]

Anyway, remember the Metro front-end is optional and not really recommended for a desktop, unless you have a nifty touch-screen. The standard desktop is much more like Win 7 and pretty acceptable.

Mike.

Metro is on by default, and I haven't figured out how to get rid of it yet. And as Triptaka. Notes, the start menu is gone. Not sure if turning off metro will bring it back. Do I have to manually navigate to Program Files to launch things?

OSNews calls these trends the War on General Purpose Computing. Windows is turning itself into a digital toy like the iPad. I wonder if this will sink them in the business market?

[Faerytale]

Correction correction: Its not Windows 8 Consumer "beta". Its Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Or Windows 8 CP.

[commodorejohn]

OSNews calls these trends the War on General Purpose Computing. Windows is turning itself into a digital toy like the iPad. I wonder if this will sink them in the business market?

That's what baffles me about this. Microsoft had a huge presence in the workplace with Windows XP, because it was easily tweakable (and I mean easily, like your-grandma-can-figure-it-out easy) into the same no-nonsense user environment that was the standard since Windows 95. Come Vista, they started to nerf that capability, and I suspect that may be one of the reasons I see far fewer Vista/7 workstations than XP workstations in business environments (the other, of course, being that businesses don't usually feel the need to upgrade something that already works if doing so will cost money or a significant time investment.)

Still, though, excepting a few changes that annoy the hell out of some people (i.e. me) but probably not most, 7 is still pretty much like XP. 8, though... By all accounts I've seen the classic-desktop mode in 8 is hardly more than an afterthought (no Start menu? Seriously?) I don't know what they're thinking. The home market isn't exactly chump change to Microsoft, but compared to the massive number of business licenses, you'd have to think it'd give them pause to consider who they're more worried about pissing off - are they really going to try and leave business customers without a proper classic environment? That's not going to make anybody very happy...

[Matt_H]

@ commodorejohn

My company is only just now switching to 7. My machine, which I got about 18 months ago, shipped with 7 and IT removed it and put on XP. There is absolutely no way I can do what I need to do with 8.

Good old trends! Just be because someone is doing something doesn't mean that everyone should. Lots of follow the leader in computing these days.

[stefcep2]

this is sounding like Ubuntu's move from gnome to unity.  

I'm still on gnome because it does all that I want it to and I know it well.  I don't want to learn ANOTHER way to do what I now can without thinking.

Some will say thats like the people complaining about going from a CLI to a GUI.  I don't think it is.

Touch screen interfaces have their place where its cumbersome to have a mouse-driven and menu interface.

[SysAdmin]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/03/andrew_does_windows8/

[LoadWB]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/03/andrew_does_windows8/

I've always been a huge fan of Andrew's writing.  He's almost always spot-on.

I installed Windows 8 Developer Preview in VirtualBox.  As with 7, it's very snappy and responsive, even using VB's built-in RDP.  I'm going to install it on my "entertainment" PC sitting under the TV stand just for kicks.  But the short, I'm not overly excited about Metro.  Not at all, actually, for my laptop or a business PC.

I can, however, see some keenness on a PC connected to the TV.  I have to use 1024x768 on the TV (yes, it's non-HD over S-Video, wanna fight about it?) is barely readable even using the 150% setting in 7, mostly because many websites over-ride my preferences.  But I can see switching to 800x600 with Windows 8 and it being very usable... at least in Windows terms as most programs simply cannot contain themselves to such low resolutions (even bloody installers) and I'll be luck to find the [OK] button.

So, again, it looks like it will work well for an entertainment environment.  Agreed, get rid of Metro and the performance enhancements would be a boon for productivity apps.  Otherwise, 8 looks like a fancy toy.

As far as 7 goes, personally I absolutely despise, loath, and abhor (not to mention just about any thesaurus word for "hate") the Vista interface.  I can't stand navigating a phone tree to use my computer, and asking "Windows, may I?" to access some of the advanced functions I have to access on a daily basis in the line of my IT duties.  For my business users, and were I a standard user, I would be able to settle just fine.  But I am not, and I have found that many users possessing power user-level skills and above feel the same as I do (not all, mind you, but the majority with whom I work.)

I've been rolling out Windows 7 x64 since just about its release.  The betas and RCs were splendid, so I was quite pleased and ready when the time came.  XP mode works beautifully, in my experience.  Vista, on the other hand, was a nightmare and a disaster -- for a while I was making good money "downgrading" computers which shipped with Vista, and I did not sell a single computer with Vista on it.

Hopefully Microsoft will listen to the business market and realize that they can capture the home and mobile market with Metro without pissing off business.  Of course, business will follow grudgingly into the fold if they have no choice.

[SysAdmin]

@LoadWB

What home & mobile market is left for MS to capture? Apple & Google already own it.

[LoadWB]

@LoadWB

What home & mobile market is left for MS to capture? Apple & Google already own it.

Mobile, perhaps.  But home is still owned by Windows.  For now, at least.

[SysAdmin]

Mobile, perhaps.  But home is still owned by Windows.  For now, at least.

Not my home, Apple's 100 billion $ in the bank and 500 billion $ market cap proves it is not only me.




This

http://www.google.com/finance?client=news&q=apple

Vs


http://www.google.com/finance?q=microsoft

[LoadWB]

Not my home, Apple's 100 billion $ in the bank and 500 billion $ market cap proves it is not only me.




This

http://www.google.com/finance?client=news&q=apple

Vs


http://www.google.com/finance?q=microsoft

Granted, but I am also not the only person with an Amiga on his desktop, but that doesn't necessarily make my platform selection relevant.  So, I'll see your financial data and raise you an equally irrelevant market share research quote.

Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Increased 2.3 Percent in Second Quarter of 2011
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1744216

[persia]

I suspect Microsoft will be forced to put some kind of implementation of the ball (which was called a start button in old (pre-2004) Windows versions) into Windows 8.  The two headed interface is confusing, especially when one of the heads seems to be just an incomplete remnant of what used to be the standard interface. Metro is supposed to be that old start ball spread horizontally in tiles, but I can't see this making a lot of sense on a notebook unless you change some of the functionality of a notebook track pad.  

I'm going to load this up in a Virtualbox on a Mac and see how my Magic Track pad works with it.  So far I've only used it on a tablet and it is far far better on a tablet than Windows 7.  But then Windows 7 on a tablet was akin to Chinese water torture....

[Tripitaka]

Perhaps they should have made a tablet and desktop version. Both tailored to the environment in question. I can see a lot of desktops sticking with 7.