Feb 18, 2012 17:01
This is finally the transitional operating system we needed. Meaning, this OS is designed to work on Desktop, Laptop and more specifically the huge wave of new Touchscreen tablet/laptops about to hit the market at the end of 2012.
If you are a company and avoided the Vista debacle and have started the transition to say Windows 7, right now I would say stop and wait, unless you are just so deep into the transition that it just makes financial sense to finish the transition from XP/Vista to Windows 7. (> then 78% transitioned)
Memory suck should be a thing of the past.
Compatibility issues? So far based on the W8DS1 Microsoft has gone out of the way to allow XP/Vista/7 programs you have already purchased to run, this is very important regarding legacy drivers. Will this change?? possibly and yes. Here is why. Windows 8 security wise is going to lock down the system even tighter then Vista tried too. This is in regards to signed drivers and user installed software. Again, this is the transitional OS that Vista was supposed to be and better security is always a good thing. Basically prepare yourself for programs that are not compliant/signed and may never be depending on that software's company decision not to make it so.
W82 is seriously designed for Touchscreens. No longer will you have a desktop, a laptop and then an iPAD. Windows 8 will create a device that will do all these things and more. This is the direction we really all want to go and Windows 8 will make that happen. A device you can use at the work desk, take to a meeting room, on the road and take home for telecommuting.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR WINDOWS 8 BEING A SUSCESS.
W82 will only work if hardware manufactures get it right from the start. The Touchscreen laptops must be like a transformer. Having enough power to go from desktop, to laptop and then to touchscreen, if this fails to happen. Windows 8 will fail transitionally as the next OS. A good example here is the old HP TC1100, it did everything OK with XP and touch functions, it just lacked the hardware power to do everything really well.. this is not a problem today. So, really manufactures must get this transformer thing down perfectly from allowing one device to go from Desktop, to Laptop to Touchscreen and there is zero reason other then lack of innovation or foolish short sighted greed that this will not happen.
Microsoft please go back to the older marketing model. Believe it or not users like it simple, we never had to wade through Windows NT Basic, Advanced, Mega, Ultra, Ultra Mega, Super Advance, Mega Super Silver Advance, Gold, Mega Gold Advance or any thing like this crap. It's marketing crippleware and it's Bullshit. Please just make 2 versions, Home and Pro and be done with it. Also, don't do crippleware shit like you did in Vista that you had to have the business version to store passwords for mapped drives on the network... I mean really are you serious? On a network, every user today has some form of network and access to this thing called the Internet.
Lots of shiny touchscreens from manufactures with minimal of dual-core power and nice/swanky docking stations should be the future for everyone. True locked down Desktops will be fewer as touchscreen laptops have gained sufficient speed and tons of memory options.. yes even Gamers should be happy with W8 at the end of the day. Especially with all the new touchscreen games that will blow the iPAD away.
Get rid of all CD/DVD installation. It is 2012 already please use USB ROM thumb-drives, especially with the new USB3 standards. Again at this point no manufactures should be building anything that does not have USB3 as standard. If they do they are trying to save penny’s, makes me wonder what else they cheaped out on... USB3 is the standard, USB2 is the legacy hardware at this point. Also, other then old legacy equipment everything should be bootable VIA the USB ports.. Again it's 2012 not 1984. Let's start buying new hardware folk's.
During the Installation add an option that ask directly if you wish to boot into the Metro UI3, or into the antiquated XP Desktop screen. Use a picture option like they have at McDonald’s for people who cannot read to show the user what the difference is. This should help avoid those users that go nuts when things look different. Lets all keep in mind that people have been using the XP style desktop interface since October 2001 and XP still holds over 40% of all desktops. Give them this boot user interface choice or you'll regret it.
Even as a development snapshot this version has performed extremely well. I have purposely crashed it many times just to see how it recovers, doing things such as system reset and it performed amazingly well compared to previous operating systems (98-XP-Vista-7). Drivers were easily reloaded and the system recovered back to a nice clean install status. I noticed it did require me to place the DVD into the drive, so the development version is obviously not creating a restore partition on the drive with all the DVD contents. I'll assume that's just a quirk at this point of it being a development version? Users should never have to dig out CD/DVD or USB thumb-drives to reinstall the OS to a new/clean/repair state. Exception naturally is having to install a new HDD, SSD or Hybrid on the system.
64-bits folks, ask for it, demand it on everything new that you buy. 2-4 CPU core laptop touchscreens the standard by the end of 2012 and 4-6 cores by the end of 2013, that is what I would love to see and I think we have a good chance at it.
iPAD killer? Not a slight against Apple BTW, I happen to love my iPOD.
Depends on what you are really looking for. But I'll say this. Why would I buy an iPAD for $700 when I will be able to soon buy a Toshiba touchscreen with 400x the spec's of the iPAD for the same price, or even less. Personally and from any business point of view the iPAD is what we will and are using as the limbo stick and no offense. What's really new with anything from Apple? The embedded device (iPAD) has reached a plateau that every manufacture has and will far exceed by the end of 2012. I'd relegate the iPAD to being the device that started it all in the history books and that's a great place to be, Apple has many spots in the history book. But history is supposed to march on, not stand still and that's what is about to happen with Windows 8 and all the hundreds of new touchscreen devices about to pounce onto the marketplace.
Apple has a fan base and it may remain, but only due to new devices in the pipeline and the innovation to steal pieces from others, putting all those pieces together into one clean looking device and then to patent the hell out of every damn part of it. Sad, true and we all know it, Jobs even admitted to doing it.
China may be the future for Apple iPAD?!? The lack of fire control over patent rights will mean that Apple has to actually innovate like a sled dog on a treadmill with a flame thrower shooting up it's ass. Not sure they are up to doing that, or even willing to put themselves into that kind of meat grinder and besides wages for Chinese workers are going up (Yeah), means lower profit margins unless Apple is heading to Africa to build the next new thing?
After all look at how many actual products has Apple brought to market in 10 years, iPhone, iPod-iTunes and the iPad. Just because you make the device in a new color or add a new feature (iSri) does not make you innovative and people will catch on and get board. Features and price will make the sale at the end of the day and so far the iPAD has faced little if any competition, that is about to change and all the little Patent trolls will be working overtime to block everything that comes to the marketplace, even if it's just intended to hold their market share for a few extra months (Apple vs. Samsung). The patent system failure is just the beginning of the touchscreen Patent wars that will drag the entire patent system and electronics innovation down into the mud fight for several years to come until real changes come to the patent system.
Oh Jesus yet another Microsoft fan-boy, Apple hating MF.
Nope, actually anyone that knows me is aware I use Linux Mint & Ubuntu every chance I get. However, I am not stupid to the fact that as of January 2012, Windows is used on 92% of all non-phone and non-tablet computers and that's just a damn well documented fact.
Windows 8 will be and is going to be the huge move forward we have all been waiting for, pending the hardware manufactures willingness to support it and from the early peeks from them, they will do a great job. The disclaimer here naturally is a few manufactures will go the cheap route (flimsy plastic cases, crap connectors, easily damaged touch screens, poor CPU power, minimal memory and not upgradable, low battery life and so forth, just look at some of the shitty Android devices from China) and thus making W8 look like a horrible piece of crap. Hopefully these cheap guys will be the oddball and not the norm starting out the door for Windows version 8.
So, basically a big Cheers and Good Luck to Microsoft on a good looking product so far. I'd buy stock prior to the release of Windows 8 but I would get into trouble.
Windows 8 Developer Snapshot
Windows 8
Metro User Interface
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