Monday, March 5, 2012

More on Windows 8

I've been using Windows 8 CP (Beta) for a week now and am getting used to it.  In reality not much has changed except for some visual and under-the-hood improvements.  But it still plays like / feels like Windows 7.

As I mentioned, there are some definite bugs, so unless you are bold and daring and have other ways of getting around issues, don't install and use this just yet.  It needs a few more months of brewing.

While I love metro on my phone and no doubt would love it on my tablet, I am coming to the conclusion that they should find a way to keep the start orb and only enable metro full-screen mode on specific devices.  I think that some of the metro apps show promise and if they could make them more windowed, less full-screen they would be great.  I also DO have to admit I like seeing reminders, social updates and my weather on the metro start panel... but...  I spend 99% of my time at the desktop and appreciate the small, pop-up start button/panel of Windows 7.

Even so, it isn't HORRIBLE like some people might have you think.  It is quick (the transition from desktop to metro to desktop happens as quickly as you can click your mouse).  You can arrange your most used apps in such a way that they will be close to the switching corner.  You can also still pin items to the super bar at the desktop level.

I will be monitoring updates and all the feedback on the Windows blogs with interest, to see how this progresses.  Meanwhile, since I can run 7 in a VM I can continue to use 8.

Finally I want to mention that 8 is stable at a system level.  You don't see crashes.  At least I haven't.  There are just some driver issues but they will sort themselves out over time.

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