To 8 or to hate?

[scaryjim]

I would of kept the start button and had the charms bar come up with a click on a button far right on the taskbar - these are two concessions to touch that were pointless.

+1 for this - would've supported touch interaction with the buttons for people who didn't get the slide concept, but would've also supported desktop users much better than smart corners.

FWIW, I managed to get a play with a Samsung Series 7 earlier this week at an ehealth conference, and once you stick a touch screen on it (and an i5 under the hood ) almost everything becomes more intuitive (I say almost because app switching in Metro is, IMNSHO, borked. But that is very much an opinion). But the experience was smooth, intuitive, and it felt like I was using a touch screen device. Not convinced it felt like I was using Windows, though! But for a few very minor concessions to mouse navigation (see above), I think they could've made an OS that everyone could, at the very least, get along with - even if they didn't like it.

I wonder if it would be possible to make a laptop touchpad recognise swipe-in and swipe-out gestures - I can't think of any reason it shouldn't be, and that would mean on laptops you could easily bring up charms by just swiping onto the right side of your touchpad, close windows by swiping all the way down, bring up start by flicking up the bottom left corner - still wouldn't help mouse users, but would make Win 8 much more accessible on laptops...

[homerhassall]

Hate, hate, hate, hate. Bought a new 256Gb SSD and took the plunge as I've always been up for a new version of windows since Win 95. Did a fresh install which went fine till I went to install some updates for Win 8 which kept failing as they could not be configured. Had a play around with metro/desktop and general feel and layout of the OS but after a hour or so I pulled the plug on it, reformatted and reinstalled Win 7 and to be honest won't be giving that POS another look. IMHO a backwards set from Microsoft which I hope will reflect in some seriously crap sales....... if a want apps and a touch screen, I'll use my smartphone!!

[saraRqp]

Haven't try 8 yet. Win 7 works OK.

[fuddam]

win 8 = much faster on my 2006 C2D 2.4ghz, upgraded from XP. Very pleased with general speed improvements, search speed, like the apps. Don't see what all the fuss is about the Metro interface since I usually use the desktop.

my 2c

[scotty0100]

Ordered Windows 8 yesterday for my new machine, will give feedback later, but let's say I'm not looking forward to the change at the moment ;x

[badass]

I've got it on a spare sandybridge based laptop. Bit irritating TBH currently. The fingerprint reader has drivers but no software currently works with it. I hate typing the password.
Secondly, trying to love the metro but hating it. I'm gonig to wait at least 6 months before considering putting it on anything else.
Forgetting the annoying interface, it is much faster to actually do stuff once you've found what to click. Reboots are waaaay faster than Windows 7

[Willzzz]

win 8 = much faster on my 2006 C2D 2.4ghz, upgraded from XP. Very pleased with general speed improvements, search speed, like the apps. Don't see what all the fuss is about the Metro interface since I usually use the desktop.

my 2c

This.

It's fine, if you don't like Metro who cares? Just one click and you can stay safely on the good old desktop. There are plenty of good new features and it seems easy enough to ignore the stuff that you don't like.

So what if the start menu is full screen? Does that really matter? Not like I often use the start menu anyway.

[Jonj1611]

The more I am using Windows 8 the less I am using the "start" screen, and am thinking to myself its just a waste of space for me. I hardly ever use it now, probably 95% on the desktop and 5% of the time in the start screen launching something that loads on the desktop lol

[fuddam]

This.

It's fine, if you don't like Metro who cares? Just one click and you can stay safely on the good old desktop. There are plenty of good new features and it seems easy enough to ignore the stuff that you don't like.

So what if the start menu is full screen? Does that really matter? Not like I often use the start menu anyway.

lol, you not likey-likey, eh?

[TheAnimus]

The more I am using Windows 8 the less I am using the "start" screen, and am thinking to myself its just a waste of space for me. I hardly ever use it now, probably 95% on the desktop and 5% of the time in the start screen launching something that loads on the desktop lol

It is funny because you have the windows key. I never normally click start anyway, and for people with new machines they have a button, heck even some monitors now have windows buttons built in.

If you still use the mouse its actually an easier guesture in single monitor setups, just bottom left.

My complaint is that from an API point of view, there is nothing to tie together a desktop and metro App.

[directhex]

The more I use Windows 8, the more I realise my major issue with it is it's not radical *enough* - the disjoint between Metro and Desktop is absolutely dreadful.

[Jonj1611]

It is indeed, one of the reasons I said when the first metro threads started was in my opinion while keeping the underlying changes in Windows 8, at the install screen it would have been better to have a classic windows option, a touch screen/tablet option or combination as it is now. I don't think it would be too hard to implement but the start screen is just there now when I start up and nearly everything I use goes to desktop mode to work anyway.

[directhex]

Also hilarious:

Office 2013 is not a Metro app

also hilarious:

Non-Metro apps on Surface. Because a ribbon-based Explorer for file management is exactly what will pull consumers away from the iPad

[Willzzz]

Why hilarious?

Would you expect Office to be an app?

[directhex]

Why hilarious?

Would you expect Office to be an app?

I'd expect the flagship version of Office, being paired with Windows 8 in marketing, would look and feel like a Windows 8 app.

Any time you see Desktop on surface, that's Microsoft saying "lollerskates we don't know what we're doing ¯\(°_o)/¯"

[Willzzz]

The desktop is for the powerful stuff like Office, the 'modern UI' is for simple apps.

Using the desktop is not in anyway a cheat or cop out.

If you want an Office app in modern UI then I'm sure someone will make one, just don't expect it to be as powerful as Microsoft Office.