Windows 8 Beta out now (aka Consumer Preview)

[steve2470]

Are you tempted to try it ? If you do, be sure 1- to immediately update it with Windows Update and 2- update your graphics drivers so all your apps work as normal.

[Renew Deal]

1. I want to try it.

It looks interesting.

[randome]

2. It's already a failure.

They advertised it as 'no compromise'. Now they're forced to come up with different versions for ARM versus x86.

The main thing against them, however, is the Windows name. If they truly wanted to do something different, they should have named it something else.

People are tired of Windows. That's one of the reason they are moving into tablets and smarter smartphones.

A simple branding decision to use something other than 'Windows' might have made it trendy again. But the sense I get is that consumers have moved on. And soon, so will businesses.

[MattBaggins]

4. Actually it is meant to be a tablet OS

The problem is when this is put on to a PC and used as a PC OS it is downright awful. They took the tablet portion and tried to bolt on a few PC concepts and it just doesn't work.

It is a throwback to the original windows where they created a bastard child of DOS.

I have not tried this out as tablet OS yet but many analysts seem to think it is very good tablet OS.

[randome]

7. Personally, I think the 'Metro Tile' design looks childish.

But I'll wait to hear what people have to say about it post-Beta.

[snagglepuss]

20. Absolutely. nt

[MattBaggins]

21. I can't stand it either

I really really don't care for Windows 8.

[CatholicEdHead]

23. Exactly

I can see it work decent with a pure tablet/touch screen desktop interface but nothing with a keyboard or mouse.

[2ndAmForComputers]

24. Amusingly, you just explained the problem with GNOME 3 and Unity too.

"Ooooooh, we HAVE to go with the new trend! It's all the rage with kids these days!"

[MattBaggins]

28. I was always more fond of KDE over Gnome anyway

[HillWilliam]

43. Gnome 3 is gawdawful fugly

I had coffee with a guy who works for Redhat and his fiance'. It would seem that a great deal of the RH engineers are using Ubuntu; won't touch the new RH. I used KDE for a decade before switching to Gnome. Now they're both busily destroying themselves. Ugly, hard to manage, clumsy. I switched to Ubuntu; it's better but I'm still not thrilled. The themes are goddam ugly. Ubuntu's Gnome isn't quite as ugly as RH's, but its "compromise" paradigm is still awful.

Still, I threw Windows out of the house about 15 years ago and would rather put up with any Linux distro before EVER allowing Windows back in.

That's what happens when everyone tries to out-Mac Mac. The result of trying to out-suck Suck is Suck^2.

[2ndAmForComputers]

53. Strange, Red hat Enterprise 6 still uses the nice old GNOME 2.x.

And it has 10 years support. Why is he not using that?

[Spider Jerusalem]

54. Nah, KDE 4 was buggy and a retrograde step on release..

but now they're up to 4.8 and it's far better than either Gnome 3 or Unity (which is Ubuntu's default these days). If you don't like any of those options there are Ubuntu versions with XFCE and LXDE as well.

[Warpy]

6. That's why they're coming up witn Win 8

because it's not as much of a resource hog as 7 and it doubles as a tablet OS.

[Logical]

29. LOL......wow, you have decided. Are you a expert?

[randome]

33. A self-styled 'expert' in user design.

Windows is horrible. Putting icons that have no meaning in the menus is horrible. The ribbon is horrible.

Microsoft does not look out for the user. They ply their trade of bells and whistles to gin up support for their next OS because it's been trendy so far.

My sense is that it's no longer trendy.

[Logical]

34. Wow, people like you.....

It is like you know more than everyone at Microsoft. And that Microsoft could not afford someone with your knowledge base to help design stuff.

I guess maybe they could not afford real designers. So just threw something together.

[JFN1]

41. It's just an opinion. That is what we do on message boards - offer opinions.

Given this, your attack on the commenter for offering their opinion does not seem very...Logical...to me...ahem...

[Renew Deal]

38. So you haven't tried it

[DJ13]

3. Reports from people who downloaded it say to be sure and save a backup of current system first

It completely over rights the existing OS, leaving you with no way back if you dont like Win 8.

[MattBaggins]

5. Partition your hard drive and dual boot

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2012/03/01/quick_guide_to_installing_windows_8_consumer_preview_in_dual-boot

[slackmaster]

8. I'll bravely venture to install it on a virtual machine

Thanks for the tips!

ETA my hard drive system has a RAID 0 partition just for experimental stuff.

[CatholicEdHead]

22. I have tried that on Virtualbox

with the 64bit version and I get nothing but crashes with it. It is even worse than the amount of crashes with the Developer preview.

I will probably get a extra box with Server 2008R2 and give it another shot on Hyper-V.

[slackmaster]

26. I'm using VMware Player and the 32-bit version of Windows 8. So far no luck with the NIC.

Other than that, it does run.

[HopeHoops]

9. I'll wait until enough machines flame out that they release a stable version.

[steve2470]

10. So far so good on my machine

No flames, no smoke, no sparks yet

But seriously, the only problem I've had so far is I neglected to update my Nvidia drivers before I ran an app. Everything is fine now. I don't like the Metro UI but meh I can adapt.

[HopeHoops]

12. ALWAYS throw a simple VGA monitor on before upgrading. The boot screens are on the VGA.

[steve2470]

14. It booted up just fine

Then I tried to run an app without updating the Nvidia drivers. That's where I had the problem. Your advice is good, thanks

[HopeHoops]

15. Well, to be fair, even HDMI monitors have a VGA cable. It's just easier with two.

[IDemo]

11. I suspect Win 7 will become the new XP

in that it will be used by consumers and business for a very long time before upgrading.

[steve2470]

13. I agree

So far W8 seems to be W7 with the Metro UI bolted on, for the most part. If you want to use it on a tablet or smartphone, cool. The rest of us can live without it.

[Yavin4]

16. I'm Still Running Windows ME

Then again I am a masochist:

[Sea-Dog]

17. I've been using Linux for to long

if it wasn't for a few games id wipe Windows on my dual boot and never look back. it'll take something very special for me to start using windows as my main OS again.

[Logical]

30. Linux is not a real OS for an end user. Hackers and Servers.

[HillWilliam]

44. That's your opinion

I've been using Linux for 15 years because I got tired of fixing Windows problems day in and day out. I'm neither a hacker and I don't run servers at home. True, I am a developer but I develop apps for InterSystems Cache' and PHP code. I threw Windows out long, long ago and haven't looked back. My Office apps just work and I have complete compatibility with Word and Excel.

I set Linux in front of my totally non-computer-literate partner and he gets along just fine; better than he ever did with Windoze.

Obviously, you know nothing about Linux. It's a perfectly fine -- an even more-workable environment -- for an end-user, QED. If my computer-hating partner is more comfortable with it than Windows, your statement holds no water at all.

[TroglodyteScholar]

48. The poster never did bother to support that opinion.

I also put my significant other, a smart lady but certainly no computer geek, on Ubuntu when Vista took a shit on her system. She's been running it for two years now without problems.

[TroglodyteScholar]

49. P.S.

When Vista was refusing to boot for my lady, I was able to boot Ubuntu from CD, mount her HDD, and recover all her important files for school before installing Ubuntu. It was remarkably easy to do this. If Windows had been her only option, she would have been absolutely screwed.

I guess an "end user" is someone who doesn't mind failing classes because of an inflexible OS.

[HillWilliam]

60. HEHEHEHEHE

Roight!

I'm running Ubuntu 11.1 now. It's remarkably friendly. I'm not a fan of the menu paradigm, but I'm getting used to it. It's a little more difficult to find my seldom-used apps than having a nice, friendly menu, but it's still not bad at all.

I struggled with the USB wireless-N dongle and the built-in wireless-N adapter in my laptop with Fedora. I flung Ubuntu on both and voilà! each came right up. I threw the key at it and boom! I was on my wireless network. No screwing around with weird third-party drivers like I had to do on Windoze (I have one antique box with XP for doing Caché development) or makefiles on Fedora. Shit just worked.

Another thing: all my movies work great on Ubuntu. No loading XVid after the install (or having to load DivX on Windows). Nothing to know, nothing to do; it just works. The surround sound works... again, no loading extra drivers like Windoze. Shit just worked.

Any of the development work I did on Fedora I can still do just fine on Ubuntu. VMWare is easy and works so if I have to port Caché code over to work from the comfort of my La-Z-boy, I've got everything I need under my fingertips. That wasn't always the case. Apt is mighty nice and I love the slick interface to the marketplace. Gawd, there are endless apps.

Ain't it nice to be able to recover a mess Windows made without losing everything or having to reinstall the world! Ubuntu is terribly friendly and helpful like that.

[TroglodyteScholar]

18. I truly don't care at this point.

I got tired of being alienated time ans again by M$. Does Linux always do everything I want with the greatest of ease? No. But at least nobody's charging me through the nose for the products and support.

[Sea-Dog]

19. my hardware runs the newest ubuntu like shit off a shovel whereas its slow as hell running just xp

it does everything I use a computer for.

[madokie]

25. Autocad2000 runs on ubuntu 10.10 using wine better than it does on xp.

It was written for win98. I'll never give up my linux computer ever.

[TroglodyteScholar]

27. Yea...I'm running Xubuntu on a 5 year old high-end laptop...

...Linux Mint 12 on a low-end laptop of about the same age, and Bodhi on a low-end laptop that's more like 7 years old. They all run faster than they ever did under Windows.

They don't do *everything* I want to do with a computer, but they do enough that I only have one machine with XP on it...and that's my 9 year old desktop that I usually boot into Xubuntu as well.

I'll get Windows the next time I buy a new machine since support for XP is ending in 2014, but it will never be my primary OS again. My first move will be to set up dual boot, probably with Mint as the primary.

[Logical]

31. Linux is free. And it shows. Not a real end user OS.

[TroglodyteScholar]

35. And when was the last time you installed a Linux distro?

What does a "real end user OS" involve? Am I not an end user?

If, like 90% of end users, all you do is browse the web, blog/use social networks, check email, and create some basic documents, virtually any modern Linux distro will do all those things quite simply, and much better than Windows in a lot of cases.

But you're probably the same person who thinks the $150 bottle of wine must be something really great simply because it costs so much. Good luck with that.

[Logical]

36. I write embedded code for devices. So I love the idea of linux. But it is not for 90% of end users..

sorry I hit a nerve. The wine comment I guess was because I hurt your feelings?

[TroglodyteScholar]

37. No, the wine comment was because you falsely equated free with poor quality

Feel free to point out the flaw in my analogy if you can truly find one.

And if you think Windows is the best platform for embedded systems, I can only assume that is because your experience with Linux is extremely limited.

[TroglodyteScholar]

39. Also, you didn't bother to answer my question.

When was the last time you installed Linux on a computer?

If you don't answer this time, I think it's fair to assume the answer is either "a long time ago" or "never."

[HillWilliam]

45. That's what I'm hearing, too n/t

[TroglodyteScholar]

61. Yep...in the lack of an answer we have our answer.

How can someone hold firm beliefs on something they're clueless about? I just don't get it.

[Occulus]

57. Haven't installed or used linux in a while, huh?

It shows.

[MichaelMcGuire]

40. Hand on my hart.

Despite a few niggles, my fav OS is Linux in the favour of Ubuntu.

[RebelOne]

32. I have a Mac, so I doubt that I will be trying it.

I am very happy with my Mac. I have had PCs and have used Windows, but will stick with Mac/

[steve2470]

42. kick for today's crowd nt

[Motown_Johnny]

46. I'm happy with Windows 7. It will be many long months

before I worry about upgrading

[Javaman]

47. I never do operating system beta's.

that's just asking for headaches and frustration.

[FarCenter]

50. Windows 8: Sugar coating on Microsoft's hard-to-swallow tablet

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/02/win_8_consumer_technology_preview_review/

Preview review How do you bring legacy-encrusted Windows into the mobile era? Microsoft's solution is to take all that baggage and place it into a compartment labeled desktop, while reinventing the Windows user interface in a second compartment called Metro.

Metro is primary, and conceptually the old desktop is now an app in the Metro Start menu. You can think of Metro as loosely equivalent to Apple's iOS, whereas desktop is like OS X. A key difference is that in Windows 8 they are side by side.

The snag with this plan is that there are no Metro apps, aside from what comes bundled with Windows plus whatever Microsoft can persuade third parties to come up with in time for the launch later this year. A second issue is that touch screens are not the norm in the Windows world - hardly surprising given that the user interface of Windows 7 and earlier works so badly with fingertips - so most users will need new hardware in order to get Windows 8 running as designed.

I have been using Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a Samsung Series 7 slate since the launch of the beta on 29 February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The story overall is that on this third attempt (counting the Tablet PC as the first and the ill-fated Origami as the second) Microsoft has made an excellent tablet operating system.

The problem area is the combination and interaction between the old desktop and the new Metro-style platform. It is a complication, since most desktop apps still do not work well with touch alone - though we have yet to see how Microsoft will modify Office to work better in that respect - and if most Windows 8 machines end up saddled with add-on or built-in physical keyboard and pointing device, then they will not compete successfully with Apple's iPad or Android tablets on convenience or price.

[randome]

52. They use words like 'reimagining' and 'reinventing' but they don't mean anything.

They still just paste and tape new interfaces onto their existing code, making the entire thing as cumbersome as a one-legged Frankenstein monster.

They haven't made a fresh start in years, just changed the menus around and added some bells and whistles.

[FarCenter]

51. Ubuntu 12.04 hits beta, brings smooth Unity for marching masses

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/02/ubuntu_12_04_beta_review/

Review The beta for Ubuntu 12.04, or Precise Pangolin as Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth would have it, is upon us.

This is the fourth major Long Term Support (LTS) release and the first featuring the Unity desktop: LTS.

That means that while the rank-and-file Ubuntu users may have already made the leap to Unity, many of Canonical's actual customers have likely been waiting for the LTS release before dipping a toe in the Unity waters.

LTS editions of Ubuntu are delivered every two years and have extended support from Canonical. They also set the look of the coming years' releases.

[Spider Jerusalem]

55. Comparison images:

Windows 8:


Ubuntu Unity:



GNOME 3:



All of which is nice if you want a UI designed for touch screens; I don't and neither do most of the people I know.

[randome]

56. Touch for a desktop will never work well.

People don't want to be flailing their arms about. It's silly to think they do except at presentations. Unless some radical new device replaces the desktop PC.

As an aside: one of my 14 year old daughters just discovered my Transmetropolitan comics and is getting a kick out of them.

[FarCenter]

58. The question is what 360 million PC, 300 million tablet, and 500 million smartphone buyers want

UI design is driven mainly by what the mass market media consuming, social networking, information sharing masses want.

They have nor idea nor incentive to use any metaphor that relates to the function of a computer or computer software.

Linus is rumored to use Mint, possibly with xfce?

For comparison of Linux UIs, see:
The best Linux distro of 2011!
http://tuxradar.com/content/best-distro-2011

[Spider Jerusalem]

59. I use KDE on Linux

and it's understandable that there are people who want to streamline to share UI's between devices but what works for a tablet doesn't for a desktop...and Microsoft and GNOME and Ubuntu need to realise that.