So, after spending a little while using Windows 8 x86 on this Tablet PC (Slate) I have started to restore the Windows 7 image backup I took before installing Windows 8.
The *main* issue I have is the seriously reduced functionality of the "Desktop" in Windows 8 - there's no Start Menu any more and clicking on what appears in place of the Windows 7 Pearl just takes you back to the (currently - this is pre-beta) almost totally non functional Metro UI. If this is what Microsoft relegates the desktop to, then I can't see anyone except personal (home) users and tablet users looking at Windows 8 - Enterprise and SMB clients will not be able to function in a barely usable desktop environment as I can *guarantee* you that very, very few of the LOB vendors out there will release their apps through the Microsoft Win 8 App Store as full-screen (Metro-style) apps. And the "just use search, not the Start Menu" response Microsoft gives is a crock - especially on a Slate!
Obviously, as all of the tiles in the Metro UI are place holders except "Explorer", "Desktop" and "Control Panel", it is next to useless right now - however that aside, it *does* seem to be an interesting way to handle a Touch UI and I'm sure when devs start releasing apps that will work, it will become quite nice. Right now, however, there's nothing useful in it at all.
So, back to Windows 7 I come. This is disappointing as this is the fastest I have ever returned to a previous OS when starting to beta test the next one. :(
Regards,
The Outspoken Wookie
11 comments:
But its not a Beta... This is a Developer Preview only... no one is saying that the OS as it is right now is ready for daily use.
Install it... play with it... but it is not ready for prime time at all yet.
It works well using Oracle Virtual Box
G'day Alan,
I did (clearly) state that this was a Pre-Beta release. I never stated it was beta.
What I was offering was my first impression of Windows 8. And there's some stuff that will need to be re-thought for it to be functional.
The UX is a work in progress. The Metro APIs are supposedly complete. That is, until the Dev community give their feedback, which is what this Preview is all about.
Just wait for the CTPs for functional UX.
Considering I've beta tested every Microsoft Windows release since Windows 95 (except Win 98 ME), I'll most likely also be beta testing this new release.
Now, Microsoft learned a *LOT* from the poor experience we all had with Longhorn/Vista and they will most definitely be listening to what the devs and beta testers have to say, as they did with Windows 7, so I imagine that there's likely to be a few changes to how the dev preview works (as there needs to be if they want to sell this in the SMB/enterprise world).
Well we can only hope so.
Interestingly there's already two updates for the M3 build - one for an RTL language bug and the other for the CRL update. That's a promising start already.
I would point out that you said "This is disappointing as this is the fastest I have ever returned to a previous OS when starting to beta test the next one. :("
You cant be beta testing an OS if the OS is NOT in BETA!!!
"(currently - this is pre-beta)" is pretty clear. Most people call any pre-release testing "beta testing" as it is a generic term.
What I said was clear enough for the average non-koolaid drinker to clearly understand!
I was poitning out that it was NOT a beta when you were implying it was by using the term "Beta"...
If you are using terms for as you put it "average non-koolaid drinker" then you should be accurate as you are making the missconception that this product is a Beta where it clearly is not...
Have an opinion... that is fine But be clear... be accurate... dont use the term Beta Testing if it is not a Beta Product... call it testing... call it pre-beta testing... but don't confuse thoes "average" people by using the wrong terms...
Alan, I *CLEARLY* said "currently - this is pre-beta" which clearly (to non-koolaid drinkers, at least) means that "currently - this is pre-beta".
So, in case you missed it, I did say that currently, Windows 8 is pre-beta.
Which it is.
Clearly.
And as I stated.
Except is was not clear as the last line of your article says you are "starting beta test"... You embed in the middle of you post "pre-beta" but the last line of the article which is summing up your experience you say "beta"...
Did you say "pre-beta"? Yes
Clear that is is a Beta? NO!
It might be clear to the person writing it that you dont mean beta... but it is not so clear to the average person weather they are kool-aid induced or not...
Alan,
All I can say to this is "There is none so blind as he who will not see" — Anonymous.
Clearly, you will not see. Wanting to make clear things unclear and ranting over a common usage of a term that's quite understandable to pretty much everyone else, well, means that you do not want to see.
Waste your time all you like - I've got *much* better things to do than trying to teach a blind man(1) to see.
(1) And by "blind" here, I mean someone who does not want to see, not someone who can not see. There's a big difference.
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