MS Windows 8 Consumer Beta

[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.

[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.

[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

[LoadWB]

Been playing with it for a day or so, now.  On the TV unit (a Dell P4 2.66GHz with 2GB RAM, 512MB video with S-Video output, 160GB IDE hard drive,) it installed in right around 20 minutes.  It happily output at 800x600, which made everything easy to see, but not a single app would launch, giving me the error that my resolution was too low (including IE, which launched happily on the Desktop.)  I changed to 1024x768 to try a few things only to discover afterward that I cannot reduce back to 800x600.

Firefox 10 runs great, including with Flash.  I have been unable, however, to get Flash to work at all in IE.  Dell's OEM PowerDVD crashes when launched specifically, though its DVD decoder appears to work in Windows Media Center, which launches even when requesting the DVD be played with PowerDVD.  The requirement to use WMC may be due to PowerDVD crashing, though I am not convinced of that.  Windows Explorer sees my Sony Ericsson C905a connected to the network via wireless, and sees its music, video, and photo content just fine, though Windows Media Center refuses to play ACC-encoded M4A files.  Boot time is rather fast, bringing up the Start screen within 30 seconds from a cold boot.  As a whole the system is rather peppy and responsive, surprising given the age of the hardware.  Some videos which were jumpy on the same hardware under Windows 7 run very smoothly with no jitter.  I've attempted to add a few different network library sources (photos, music, videos) to see how the apps work with them, but I frankly lost interest in doing so as time has gone on.  I might dink around with those later.

I also installed the x64 edition under VirtualBox on a quad-core 2.66GHz machine with 8GB RAM hosted by Windows XP x64.  2GB allocated to RAM, 128MB given to the video with 3D acceleration turned on.  Again, performance is surprisingly satisfactory.  Boot up is fast, when it boots: I actually have not been able to get it started since the last shut-down as it attempts each time to perform a repair.  I suspect this might be a problem since I installed anti-virus in this guest, though it's worked fine numerous times since installation.

I suppose my fault in the media PC is that I don't have an HD TV.  I can see it working much better on such a setup.  Things would be readable, at least.  The interface looked very good at 800x600, and the requirement to run 1024x768 or better seems like an arbitrary requirement as the apps could easily be coded to render more friendly at the lower resolution.  But, I'm fighting against progress, here.  I'm surprised at the performance on such old hardware.  Windows 7 runs pretty well on the same machine, and I expected that the latest-and-greatest would put much more strain on it.  Microsoft definitely seems to have learned from the Vista fiasco.

While working with the troublesome x64 virtualized installation I've had the chance to work with some of the troubleshooting options on the installation media (similar to Windows 7.)  Very clean, concise, and easy to navigate.  While it offers simple options for some advanced fixes, I would like to see wording which is a little more description of what each option does, or at least a pop-up which does so.  You can restore from a previous image, refresh the installation, and so on.  The repair also offers advanced options for the advanced used, including a command prompt with the standard set of troubleshooting and configuration commands.  Alas, as I write this I have been unsuccessful in salvaging this installation.  I will play a little with disabling the anti-virus drivers to see if that helps as so far even restoring back to a previous point at which Windows booted properly has failed.

That's all I have for now.  In short, pleasantly surprised at performance, and while I do not particularly care for the interface for productivity purposes on a desktop, I can see where as a media or portable PC it has its place.

[LoadWB]

I dunno... I can clearly see the lowest denominator lapping it all up.  My problem is that while the user interfaces are being dumbed-down to match a massive untapped user base, technically-savvy users are being shat on and told they have to dumb-down.  Suddenly, the technically inept look like uber-users and the rest are made out to be dinosaurs and luddite hold-outs, and made to feel like elitist snobs that don't want anyone else in their playpen.

Kinda like how the term "geek" has been co-opted by gamers.

[LoadWB]

well, then you are well overdue to cough up another 100 bucks.

What?  Did the Apple mother ship release Bengal Tiger, already?

[LoadWB]

Win 7 should have been Vista Service Pack 3.

Trolling, but I'll take a teensy weensy bite.  I've seen this statement made more than a few times, and it's utter rubbish.  The kernel enhancements alone made in 7 are far more than just a service pack.  I made a lengthy post on the matter somewhere and I can't be arsed to find it.  Suffice to say: no, Windows 7 is not worthy of a simple SP moniker for Vista.

[LoadWB]

Well, I can't say you're "wrong" for liking the Start screen (or rather, I can and would go on at length about it, but I don't think either of us would convince the other on that front,) but I will say this: I don't object to its existence as much as I object to the idea that I should have to use it. They say that Metro is "optional," but as I understand it there's no way to turn off the Metro Start and get the old Start menu back, and that's a deal-killer for me. I want my options.

(Hell, the inability to get back the classic, proper hierarchical-folders Start menu is one of the reasons I haven't even moved to 7 yet.)

I'll second the forced-usage angle.  I've seen elsewhere that the RPEnable registry trick was removed from the consumer preview so it could be troubleshot better.  The conjecture is that most people would have just turned it off right away, which in and of itself might say something.

Anyway, you might want to check out Classic Shell

[LoadWB]

Depends on how you look at it:  If you think that the changes to the kernel in Win 7 ( I take your word for it that they exist) are so significant and could only have been implemented at the time when Win 7 was released, well and good.  But most people see the XP-->Vista "upgrade" as a broken failure.

You don't have to take my word on it.  Mark Russinovich, formerly of SysInternals, has written numerous in-depth articles on the matter which you can find on TechNet.

I'll definitely give you that Vista is broken, though I will say that the upgrade process worked flawlessly for the several I did.  Vista is crap, there's certainly no argument there.  Like 7, it does have a number of internal enhancements, like the new security model for drivers, but any gains were incumbered by what some would argue is sloppy programming or over-intricate dependencies.

My  view is that Win 7 is what Vista should have been.

I'll concede that, as well, given Microsoft had over a half-decade to work on it.

And MS knew it, which is why it rushed out Win 7 when sales of Vista were poor, in much less the time that it went from XP to Vista.

And padded their Vista licensing figures, and so on.  Yeah, they know they have a turkey, which explains the very short support life-span of Vista.  What really pisses me off is the obvious "phuq-you" Microsoft gave to people who refused to go to Vista in the form of no direct in-place upgrade path from XP to 7.

[LoadWB]

From Slashdot,  Start8

   - Adds a “Start” menu to the Windows 8 taskbar
    - Enables quick access and searching of your installed applications
    - Adds Run... option via right-click menu
    - Adds Shutdown... option via right-click menu
    - Choose a custom Start button image