Windows 8 Discussion and Support - Release October 26, 2012

[v4moose]

Have to agree. The App Store model doesn't work in a desktop environment.

I'm pretty happy with the simplicity of mac store on my lappy. I don't care if my free apps start costing a dollar, it means the companies get more support and push out better products... plus if there's a clear revenue stream to devs on windows PC, more devs are likely to buy in, increasing competitiveness and ultimately better applications.

Plus I'm fairly confident all current windows 7 programs work under 8 - so just install all your necessities the regular way

[Schikitar]

Microsoft Store is only relevant if you wish to purchase sandboxed apps (aka FischerPrice-apps as found on iOS and Android, usually for those with short attention spans). You can still download and install any number of win32 applications, nothing has changed except this is an ecosystem where two platforms now function as one! Think of it as owning Windows and iOS on the one machine, then you'll use it as best suits your needs. I only ever use the Start Screen to search for applications, other than that my Win8 install just sits at the Desktop running all my 'real' apps and 'real' games - it's not a big deal!

Those waiting for Windows 9, give up and buy a Mac or something (oh yeah, Apple is beginning to 'merge' their OS's now too if you didn't get the memo). Microsoft has already said they won't let another 3 years go by, you are more likely to see annual releases which simply evolve on the last, so Windows 9 won't be giving you back you're precious little Start Menu and ditching Metro - it will more likely be refined instances of those themes, be assured that MS are in this for the long haul!

Build a bridge and get over it.

As I'm an MSDN subscriber and Technet beneficiary I'll be downloading W8 on Aug 15th, can't wait! Personally though, I'm mor interested in the 2012 server line!

[Nightstaar]

^ nb.

This thread, and most threads about Windows 8 just scream 'OMG NEW THINGS AAHHHH D:'. It's really disappointing to see tbh.

[The Null]

I love new things. it makes me all gooey inside.

then I spend the rest of the week figuring out how they work.

as for Win8, my only real gripe is with dual monitors, it's hard to get to that right hand side menu thing. I hope that will be fixed before release though.

[SaNE]

Think of it as owning Windows and iOS on the one machine, then you'll use it as best suits your needs. I only ever use the Start Screen to search for applications, other than that my Win8 install just sits at the Desktop running all my 'real' apps and 'real' games - it's not a big deal!

The start menu is crucial to windows, replacing it with only a taskbar is a **** stupid idea (there's no other words for it).
Your taskbar will be full of your 100 programs and your desktop will look like;

Windows 9 won't be giving you back you're precious little Start Menu and ditching Metro - it will more likely be refined instances of those themes, be assured that MS are in this for the long haul!

If it's another Vista they will...

Build a bridge and get over it.

I don't know how to build a bridge, it's complicated and requires a lot of engineering, material, and builders.

As I'm an MSDN subscriber and Technet beneficiary I'll be downloading W8 on Aug 15th, can't wait! Personally though, I'm mor interested in the 2012 server line!

I will be downloading it to see if they've come to their senses, are you also hoping windows server is metro? It's rumoured to be.
I know that people running servers would find Metro to be very fitting, you know, they are touch devices after all.

[MaddMoose]

Having used Server 2012, it has some Metro styling to it, but not anywhere as much as W8. The compartmentalisation of S2K12 is a big improvement. It's been designed to be installed and setup with a GUI and then you can completely remove it.

[SaNE]

Having used Server 2012, it has some Metro styling to it, but not anywhere as much as W8. The compartmentalisation of S2K12 is a big improvement. It's been designed to be installed and setup with a GUI and then you can completely remove it.

Didn't even know they released it, shame on me.

[SaNE]

Well the RTM was leaked and Metro is no more, it shall be now called "Windows 8-style UI".

What's new, some nice lock screen images (wow really?!) and some nice metro Windows 8-style UI backgrounds now with color on top of shapes! You do have to have an activated copy though, so unless you have a licence from VLSC you can't get them yet. Which is disappointing because I want to get metro Windows 8-style UI so I can have Microsoft made images and not use my own!

You can also use your mouse wheel to scroll the metro Windows 8-style UI backwards and forwards, however you still can't right click anywhere on the metro Windows 8-style UI interface (apart from to get into 'all aps'), so to access device settings like network, you have to go to the metro Windows 8-style UI interface, right click to see 'all aps' which happens to be the things you want to see from a start menu and then find your way to network settings (very simple and easy :/).

Aero has been removed and there's no options to turn it on (unless you need to activate, but I doubt it), there's also no metro Windows 8-style UI settings tile, so you need to click your account name and get to settings through that.

I also played with pinning programs to the taskbar, which I may say is even worse than I thought it would be as hard as that is to believe. Meanwhile desktop icons are even worse, to add icons to your desktop you're going to have to use the file explorer and find the exe's to send to desktop.

Will wait for a license to try the special background images to make my final judgement, I can always be swayed by licensed images that rock my eyeballs.

[PalZer0]

A skunk by any other name still stinks.

[Clontarf[X]]

A skunk by any other name still stinks.

This. MS from the reading and hype that I've seen haven't really tried to say "this is the user experience of the future", which worries me because it means they aren't thinking of the user experience as first priority, instead trying to figure out how to make a tablet UI user-experience friendly when placed on a workstation which historically has a certain way of functioning.

From a SOE environment point of view, this would be horrific to implement to a large organisation, but at the same time I can see the added benefits, especially if you can lock down the user interface in order to not rely so heavily on group policy to limit a user's access to the system. I would be very interested in learning of any large organisations moving to W8 in a SOE.

Personally, I'm giving it a miss. Nothing stands out as added-value or added-functionality over Windows 7, and as such I'll wait till the next hotness comes along (or, until Steam is released on Ubuntu/Debian/*Nix) to make a change to my desktop environment.

[AzzA82]

I've been playing with the Consumer preview for the last week, i don't see myself making the move
After the "novelty" of metro wore off the extra steps to my useful everyday windows functionality is becoming a real pain.

I like my unsimplified / customizable traditional desktop, metro on desktop begins to feel like a giant waste of screen real estate

You can have 2 apps side by side.......umm i can and do have more then 2 apps on 1 screen more often then not with less effort then metro allows.

Win 8 is trying to be like Mac which is great for average non tech savvy people, Im sure there will be people who will never see the traditional desktop, this is who windows 8 feels designed for.

Plus for some reason Win 8 destroys my network drivers on windows 7

Everytime i go back to windows 7 i have reinstall my network drivers to get net access, have no idea win8 is on a vhd stored on an entirely different hdd.

But anyway im trailing i just feel i can do a lot more in less time in Windows 7

[Auld]

I dont get it personally. At least when Apple started introducing iOS fluff to OSX it was always optional and very easy to not use. You didnt need to turn it off, just forgo using it.

Why couldnt this be the same for Win8? Surely during setup you just say "Would you like to start in Metro?" and if the answer is no you get a traditional desktop.

Microsofts motto should be "We could have had something really cool, but we missed the point".

[Otto-matic]

Looks like Microsoft is continuing their tradition of every second OS being a bit ****.

From Slashdot it now looks like turning not-metro off is being made harder for the RTM version. Appears that they want their way or the highway, that long road is looking mighty tempting.

[Makena]

The start menu is crucial to windows, replacing it with only a taskbar is a **** stupid idea (there's no other words for it).
Your taskbar will be full of your 100 programs and your desktop will look like;

Sure, if you don't use metro at all, but that would be rather odd if you're using windows 8.

[Nekosan]

If I was a developer, I'd be taking advantage of any store platform I could get my hands on. Especially OS level stores. A number of apps on the mac app store are actually cheaper then when the devs sold them via their own website/payment system.

Purely because of the dramatically expanded audience. While this isn't "free" marketing, I'm sure it helps raise their marketing budget from 0 to something.

Will be interesting to see if people begin to "struggle" after moving their products to only be available from the new MS store. I'd love to know if this has been the case for developers selling their games on Steam or for applications/software sold via the Mac OSX/Ubuntu stores .

My issue with the app store being a part of Windows and the other changes is that they're just the latest in a series of decisions (by developers in general) that are moving things towards a new business model. It might just be tinfoil hat speculation on my part but I can easily see a chain of events similar to what EA started to do with their game distribution ie: windows with options>windows with less options>windows with less options and an app store>windows where you have to pay to do anything that didn't come in the default package.

We're all going to end up using machines running a shopping application instead of a real operating system, want to install an mp3 player that wasn't made by Microsoft? That will be $4.99 thanks. People will just say "switch to Linux then" but how far is that going to get you if all the software/game developers support a locked down OS? There's a reason why they prefer to develop for consoles.