SubJeff on 29/2/2012 at 22:37
Yes. From gizmodo one can find links and instructions for downloading Windows 8. It's going on a partition this weekend if I can find instructions (hint hint) for reclaiming it back when/if I dint want it anymore.
Renzatic on 29/2/2012 at 22:43
Damn! You beat me by one minute!
Beta? Downloaded. Installed on my old laptop I barely use. Fired up. These are my first impressions.
1. New Start Menu.
Okay. In my opinion, the good ole start menu of days yore has depreciated a bit. I only barely used it in XP, and the only time I'd hit the start menu in 7 would be to shut down my computer, or do a quick search for a file. It's a rare day I actually launch a program from it. Why should I, when I can pin programs to the taskbar or do a quick search for this?
MS' answer was to replace the little bitty start menu with a big ass, full screen tablet looking thingy filled with a bunch of giant icons that flick around doing stuff. It's not vastly different to the Gnome 3 setup. And just like Gnome 3, it almost works. There are quite a few good things about it, but it's also got a few goofy problems that keep me from loving it.
First off: Metro. Surprisingly. For the first time in...ever, someone managed to do minimalism right. The start menu and apps easy to navigate, partitioned nicely, and everything is right where you need it. Even with the big ass tiles, you can fit more onscreen than you could the old start menu. It's a good example of density of information without being too overcrowded.
The search menu is far more robust now. Allowing you to drill down easier, and see more results arrayed in an easier to read layout than the one big stack in the Windows 7 start menu.
...though all isn't perfect in Metro land. It's very much a weird marriage of touch design and kb/m interfaces. While it works better than I thought it would, it's still not exactly what I'd call perfect. And since we're now in beta, I'm guessing we're stuck with what we've got until Windows 9 shows up in 2-3 years.
And now for my biggest complaint. When you're in the start menu, the desktop is treated about like a Metro app.
Say I'm on my new Windows 8 desktop. Goofing around with the ribbons on the explorer window, and making the "charm bar" appear. I've got about 10 windows open, and I go do something in the start menu. I do my thing, and want to head back to a specific program on the desktop. Guess what? I CAN'T! Why? Because the desktop is just one program in the Metro taskbar! I have to go back into the desktop and select my specific program there. An extra, totally unnecessary step that could've been solved by KEEPING THE WINDOWS TASKBAR VISIBLE AT ALL TIMES. Metro apps, Win32 programs, everything could be launched from the taskbar. Regardless of their fullscreen design. Hell, it worked for the Zune desktop marketplace. Maximize it, and...there you go. That's what a Metro app should look like on a desktop PC. Fullscreen. Taskbar still visible. Bam. Fun is had by all.
We don't need an An Android ICS style popup taskbar on a damn desktop PC. It's not an environment starved for screen space like a tablet. There is no reason to hide anything. What the hell were they thinking? I understand wanting to marry your various platforms together so the transition from one to the other is as smooth an experience as possible, but this is just taking it one step too far.
So, summary.
-Metro is quite nice
-The new start menu is (almost) pretty good.
-Windows 8 does consume a goodly bit less resources than Windows 7.
-Boot times were shaved by a good 15 seconds on my laptop. And this is from an upgrade install, not a fresh reformat.
-WHAT THE FUCK? WHY STUFF TABLET GESTURE SHIT ON A PLATFORM THAT USES A MOUSE? YOU CAN HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO IF YOU JUST FUCKING KEPT THE TASKBAR VISIBLE AT ALL TIMES AND DIDN'T NEEDLESSLY PARTITION THE METRO APPS FROM WIN32 PROGRAMS! GAWWWWW
...ahem. Anyway. Yeah. Benefit of the doubt, maybe MS couldn't have Metro apps play inside of the old Win32 playground, and had to separate them into their own environments. This might be true, considering they've been wanting to update Win32 since the Longhorn days. Which failed miserably because they couldn't do that and keep backwards compatibility intact. If this is true, then it means Win8 is a transitional OS. In and of itself, that isn't bad...but damn, they could make the transition a little smoother. It feels like two OSes in one at the moment.
Renzatic on 1/3/2012 at 02:50
Let me add a little more hate to the pile.
The fact you're running two separate set of apps means you've got two separate taskbars to deal with. The regular Windows 7 taskbar, and the hidden, pops up when you get near it with a mouse Metro taskbar.
There's a problem with that. Say I want to click on my leftmost pinned tab in Chrome. I move the cursor over to it, and boomp, up pops the previously run Metro app thumbnail, blocking me from clicking on my tab. Bottom left, like I want to click on my explorer folder? Opens up the new start menu popup. At least they were wise with the settings charms, they pop up whenever you move the mouse to the top or bottom right corners, but they don't become active until you swipe the mouse cursor down. They pop up, but don't get in my way.
And logging out? Now I have to click on my name from the new start menu, click lock screen, go to that splash, scroll it up, then hit the power button. WHAT THE HELL?
I don't think I like it. As much as I was interested in it, as much as I wanted to give it a chance, it's just too damn annoying. Too slapped together. Sure, Metro makes for a beautiful tablet interface, and the improvements they've made to Aero are great. The new task manager is a geekily beautiful thing. I even like the damn ribbons. But Windows 8 is basically MS jamming these two UIs together in an uneasy marriage, and hoping they play well together. Guess what? They don't.
At least it runs well.
SubJeff on 1/3/2012 at 20:53
Installed.
How do I get the frigging thing to connect to the net? I don't have a wired connection.
Renzatic on 1/3/2012 at 21:22
If it's a bog standard wired connection, you should be online immediately after install. If not, then while you're inside the new start menu, type network, select the "settings" menu, and go into the network and sharing center. See what it says there.
Erp. I misread that.
On the desktop, drag the cursor to either the top or bottom rightmost until you see the charms bar. Swipe up or down depending on your cursor orientation, and choose the settings button. You'll see the little wireless signal bars. Click it, and choose your network.
lost_soul on 2/3/2012 at 21:28
I'm going to check this out. Even if I don't run it on my desktop, I will put it in a VM. Chances are more than likely I will end up fixing users' machines with this new interface sooner or later, so I had best get used to it. Chances are it will eventually become your only option as well. e.g. Remember the simple control panel in XP, which was replaced with a more obscure and larger mess in vista/7?
Also, there will be NINE editions of Windows 8 this time. (
http://betanews.com/2012/03/02/9-windows-8-editions-is-7-too-many/)
I'm looking forward to see what features they go out of their way to disable, like background changing.
As for Gnome 3, I'm not going there because I play games. LXDE is in my future, as soon as Debian 6 is EOL.
The Windows 8 "to go" feature sounds interesting. I wonder how it works and how updating its drivers will be done. For Linux, we just obtain a new distro every six months or so. This is necessary when users bring in newer hardware whose network card isn't supported by an old live system.
june gloom on 3/3/2012 at 09:19
Quote Posted by lost_soul
As for Gnome 3, I'm not going there because I play games.
No you don't, you complain about them :p
Ulukai on 3/3/2012 at 22:16
hahahaha, I actually lolled
I'd like to try it on a machine with a touchscreen.
SubJeff on 3/3/2012 at 22:18
I agree with Renz's misgivings. Don't like it.
I suppose I should provide feedback.
Renzatic on 5/3/2012 at 03:12
Alright. I figured I might as well take...The Plunge. I want to use it for more than a couple of hours, and see if it grows on me at all. So I'm cloning over my Win 7 install, and I'm gonna install it on my main machine.
Lets see what happens.
