Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been released

[Kuron]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... er-preview

[nco2k]

suddenly linux doesnt look that bad anymore. seriously though, win8 is the biggest fail since windows me. it may be good for tablets, but for desktops it sucks big time! metro kinda reminds me of the days when pcs only had like 16 colors. the performance is a joke too. even vista runs smoother on my vm than this crap.

c ya,
nco2k

[Danilo]

the performance is a joke too. even vista runs smoother on my vm than this crap.

Running the Consumer Preview: system recommendations:

Our recommendation for the Consumer Preview is to run it natively on hardware
if you intend to run Windows 8 on hardware when the product is final.
Some of you will run virtualized environments for enterprise workloads or specialized purposes,
but we strongly recommend that you experience Windows 8 on hardware

Especially the graphics hardware is very important for the hardware accelerated GUI,
should work fine with a recent DirectX11 card if you run directly on hardware.

[luis]

it may be good for tablets, but for desktops it sucks big time!

Should be almost identical to win7 on the exterior, with a lower memory footprint.

[nco2k]

@Danilo
i know but why?!?! vista/7 runs rather smoothly with all its fancy gfx on a vm, but win8 doesnt. i dont see much improvement in that. besides, on modern hardware every os will run smoothly if you run it natively, but that doesnt tell anything about the underlying efficiency.

@luis
thats what i thought too, before i tried it out. if i saw it correctly, you have to swipe to the right and open the settings menu, so you can shut down the system?! thanks but no thanks!

c ya,
nco2k

[MachineCode]

The Metro desktop is so basic, and so unlike Aero... why is Microsoft stepping back from Aero all of a sudden? They made such a big deal about it for Vista and 7, as though it were a "must-have" feature. And now it's gone by default? And since the display is so basic now, shouldn't the performance should be BETTER than an Aero-based PC? I don't get Microsoft's thinking with all of this. Very strange business decisions.

[Kuron]

Very fair review:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/micr ... pressions/

[Paul]

I tried Windows 8 on a Dell Duo flipscreen and running it like a tablet it is actually quite amazing. Multi finger guestures work just like an iPad and the OS is quite snappy and responsive compared to Windows 7 on the same laptop. Win8 recognized all devices and no additional drivers needed.

That being said I also tried it on a desktop and it is quite a joke. Certainly not meant for using with a mouse... this is definitely a touch screen OS.

[MachineCode]

Win8 recognized all devices and no additional drivers needed.

This is partly why Windows is a bloated OS. It has file drivers for every bit of hardware in existence. Seriously, the OS could lose about 1 GB of files if we just used driver discs for what we bought instead.

[Num3]

Since MS doesn't have anymore ideas to steal, sorry i mean innovate, they came up with the brilliant concept of creating a new UI and sticking it into a very decent OS (Win7).

Metro = Brilliant UI for Xbox, Tablets and Mobile Devices
Metro = Total fail on desktops


And why in hell does this OS require DX11 and a mid/high end machine ???
Common it's just a bunch of rectangles tinted in solid color with a white icon, how hardware intensive can that be?

Did they at least read the Purebasic docs??? They could have done it with the canvas gadget

[Foz]

Meh, my laptop can't run Windows 8 as the BIOS is too old...

[Danilo]

Metro = Brilliant UI for Xbox, Tablets and Mobile Devices

Yep.

Metro = Total fail on desktops

They already said on //build/ there will be 2 different desktops, so i think
you will get your desktop with start menu etc.
This is not a final release, do not forget. They want feedback for specific features
now, so they removed the start menu that was easily patched in the dev preview.
It does not mean you don't get a desktop mode in the final version.

And why in hell does this OS require DX11 and a mid/high end machine ???
Common it's just a bunch of rectangles tinted in solid color with a white icon, how hardware intensive can that be?

Did they at least read the Purebasic docs??? They could have done it with the canvas gadget

The canvas gadget is too slow for realtime zooming complete screens and everything.
This hardware accelerated GUI for many platforms is top of the line today. Check out
WPF where everything is vector graphics and the whole GUI is zoomable without pixelation
in realtime. This is not some static icons scrolling like other tablet UIs, it has much more power
for smooth h/w accelerated animations and user experiences.