News - Windows 8 Consumer Preview to be launched at MWC

[HEXUS]

It's coming, February 29th.

Read more.

[Phage]

I may be a Luddite - but I can't stand the ribbon.

[TheAnimus]

I may be a Luddite - but I can't stand the ribbon.

Burn the non believer!

They've added more keyboard shortcuts, its a damn site better than the hidden (WTF?!) menu in Win7... and will be collapsed by default.....

[Phage]

Sounds a little better. Are they're any linked pics out there ?
having spent the last 20 years immersed in Excel with buttons - I'm finding the transition to Office 2010 very hard. Putting that on every app fills me with dread. Bring back Xtree I say.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I may be a Luddite - but I can't stand the ribbon.

I can't stand the effing Metro tile start page. If I get Win8,it gets switched off on my desktop and a load of people I know are going to do the same thing. I am not interested in getting a touch screen for my desktop as I need a colour accurate monitor.

I wonder if I can get it to run on my TouchPad though?

[crossy]

having spent the last 20 years immersed in Excel with buttons - I'm finding the transition to Office 2010 very hard. Putting that on every app fills me with dread.

Ribbon on Word/Excel/Outlook = Ribbon on OS too = although at least in the latter case you can turn it off.

Windows 8 has had a serious makeover, ..., alternative approaches to authentication, ... most importantly, the new metro UI system and propagation of the Ribbon interface throughout the OS, to allow for a smooth touch-screen experience.

And if you don't use a touch-screen (or tablet) - have they (severely?) compromised the majority desktop "experience" to suit the touch-based minority?
"Alternative approaches to authentication" - any chance of that body scanner shown in "Monsters V's Aliens"?

Many features of the new OS have been highly praised, meanwhile other design choices have been criticised as 'Apple-like' as they look to limit user choice.

Excuse me. I thought Apple was consistently praised over it's UI's. And I thought MacOSX had a decent command line as standard, whereas Windows didn't.

[Boris]

I'm a marketing man's dream: I'm easily sold on a new OS.

I'm particularly looking forward to the 'Reset to factory settings' option. No more lengthy re-installs.

[tickleonthetum]

Hate the Metro look.

Hate Ribbons, I love standard toolbars.

I bought a touch screen monitor, but have disabled after a couple of months as it is too cumbersome to use regularly.

Will never have a tablet or smart phone as I have no need of one.

[miniyazz]

Windows 8 has had a serious makeover, with a redesigned kernel supporting for the first time the ARM instruction set, native USB 3.0 support, alternative approaches to authentication, installation on a USB drive, multiple desktop backgrounds, a host of new management features and most importantly, the new metro UI system and propagation of the Ribbon interface throughout the OS, to allow for a smooth touch-screen experience.

I'm particularly looking forward to this exciting new feature

[Jonj1611]

I can't stand the effing Metro tile start page. If I get Win8,it gets switched off on my desktop and a load of people I know are going to do the same thing. I am not interested in getting a touch screen for my desktop as I need a colour accurate monitor.

Agreed !!!!

[TheAnimus]

And if you don't use a touch-screen (or tablet) - have they (severely?) compromised the majority desktop "experience" to suit the touch-based minority? .

Ah yes, someone who hasn't used it.

Its quite a bit better than the toolbar in Win7 which is ****.

It even has things that help us pros baked in by standard, meaning every time I go to do something on mum's laptop, on her account, I'll have an open in PowerShell option, its not put in such a way it scares her, but its not hard to discover. Thats the balance.

Things like copy, paste, file moves, all better for one handed mousing (i'm a keyboard shortcut man myself).

And for keyboarders more shortcuts tahn ever before....

[Animus404]

I'm looking forward to giving it a try. Admittedly I'm not sold on the ribbon tool bar but I'm still young enough to adapt and change the way I use a computer if it proves to be a better experience.

[TheAnimus]

I can't stand the effing Metro tile start page. If I get Win8,it gets switched off on my desktop and a load of people I know are going to do the same thing. I am not interested in getting a touch screen for my desktop as I need a colour accurate monitor.

Yeah I'm still not sure as to why, why it would make anything better for me.... Thing is it only takes one or two apps, a few great smart tiles and you know what, I'll look at it for like 3 seconds before hitting desktop, and in that time I'd have garnered the info I want!

I wonder if I can get it to run on my TouchPad though?

Not legally.

[crossy]

Ah yes, someone who hasn't used it. Things like copy, paste, file moves, all better for one handed mousing (i'm a keyboard shortcut man myself). And for keyboarders more shortcuts tahn ever before....

Quite correct - I've not used it, other than that "Developer Preview" that came out months ago, which while being very fast (like) also seemed to have some "interesting" UI choices (dislike).

No, what I was asking, (the comment you're replying to was a question), was whether they'd gone hell-for-leather on the touch-driven UI and forgotten that the majority of us use a mouse rather than touchscreen, and while I'm on the subject there's a few annoying dinosaurs who actually prefer that box with lots of letter-labelled buttons (i.e. a keyboard). And before you take offence about that "dinosaur" tag, it's one that I proudly wear (he says with four VT100 terminal sessions going atm).

If, on the other hand, they (MS) have managed to accommodate all three classes of user (touch, mouse and the mad typists) in the Windows8 UI, then here's one *nix botherer who'll be putting in a pre-order for Windows8(Pro?) when it launches.

[Hicks12]

also read that they're bringing back hardware sound support? I.e getting rid of the stupid software level integration(ofc only if the hardware is there).

Im reasonably excited for Win8, Microsoft isnt stupid enough to screw over the desktop market and as always if it does come to that then there will be mods/hacks to change it

[TheAnimus]

Well they claim to be looking at trying to make a system which is usable with all of them.

The problem is I think we've taken a step back, but its differen't to the ones you are complaing about. I think the ribbon makes discovery a LOT easier, no doubt for me, and for the majority of users (at least from the published MS stuff, but they normally don't sugar coat these things! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYFok...layer_embedded).

However you have to re-train, you have to re-learn things, and with the ribbon I find it hard to remember the key combinations, I don't know why! I think its when something is visual, with the frankly "why isn't everything like it" big for frequent, little for less frequent, teardrop for even less, visual approche, I just can't remember the key combinations half as well..... I really don't get why!

Anyway, its apparently collapsed by default, works well with the mouse, works well with touch, works with keyboard. Surely thats all 3?

(also has a good automation aid for those who use alternative input devices and on screen assistants!)