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Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#61

Post by trotsky »

acabal wrote: post #38
nextparadigms wrote: post #17

Engadget's conclusion: "We really liked Windows 7 when it launched. It felt like a big step forward in the short time that had passed since Vista. Now, as we creep closer to a likely release near the end of this year, we can't shake a sense of doubt. Windows 8 still feels like two very different operating systems trying to be one. The potential is hugely alluring -- a single OS to rule both the tablet and the desktop…

Sounds like echoes of the Gnome Shell critisicm... trying to be both tablet and desktop at once leads to neither side being very good.

People mostly hate change, and metro gnome shell and unity all represent that. Why did people like Engadget go from hating Vista to loving Vista SP1 aka Win7? They had gotten used to it and microsoft gave them a good excuse to change their minds. While gnome shell was a bit rougher around the edges as most dot oh open source projects tend to be, you'll emd up seeing the same behavior in n years when people will be screaming bloody murder about giving up gnome 3... or win8/9.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#62

Post by recoiledsnake »

stonemetal wrote: post #41
untog wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they're Microsoft products and the stigma around them is that MS products have no future and become abandoned quickly or go nowhere fast. I really, really don't believe that. What consumer-facing product was abandoned quickly in the Zune era? The Kin was an unmitigated disaster, sure, but when people think of MS they think of Windows, Office and (perhaps) Xbox- none of which have been abandoned.

The ZuneHD released September 2009, pronounced dead October 2011. Then there is the aforementioned Kin. WP7 devices will be shortly. No WP7 device is capable of running WP8(or at least that is the rumor.)

> No WP7 device is capable of running WP8(or at least that is the rumor.)

I thought the rumor was the opposite?

http://www.windowsphonedaily.com/2012/02/rumor-apollo-will-s...

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#63

Post by alimbada »

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #28
nextparadigms wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will Chrome or Firefox even work in the "tile interface"? My guess is it won't.

Native code is still allowed, so it's technically possible provided they write new UI code for Metro. The main issue is "will Microsoft let other browsers in the store?"

That's a non-issue. They've already been through plenty of anti-trust lawsuits.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#64

Post by jiggy2011 »

randomnonsense wrote: post #54
recoiledsnake wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Microsoft is trying to win the few who want a tablet interface at the expense of the vast majority who want a PC, mouse-oriented interface for their...PC's and laptops. Interesting, I thought the wisdom here was that the post-PC era is upon us and PC are going to die? In that case MS is definitely going the right way.

Wisdom "here?" You can do better than to listen to the Y-Combinator-funded "geniuses who are attempting to re-implement poorly the protocols which worked fine 20+ years go. Oh, and they STILL work, too.

Well, I think people are re-implementing everything to run over port 80 with all the baggage that entails to get past firewalls. This will work until somebody comes up with web specific security software, then we'll rebuilt it all to work across twitter or something (think "packets" of 140 characters).

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#65

Post by jmspring »

dasein_phil wrote: post #32
jeromeparadis wrote: post #14

Has anyone tried running it under Parallels Desktop 7? Thanks.

I'm getting a black screen after successful install - I assume its a similar issue to the problem with Parallels Tools in the developer preview.

VMWare or VirtualBox are your best bets. I am seeing issues with Parallels Tools as well.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#66

Post by leviathant »

greedo wrote: post #27
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #3

Competition from Apple and Linux (but mostly Apple) is the best thing to happen to Microsoft in a long time. No, the UI isn't perfect yet, the design decisions (for this beta) not always logical, but Windows is finally going somewhere amazing after many years of going no where. Because some of Microsoft's best products were great but went no where. Take the Zune and Windows Phone 7. People who own them love them, esp…

Of course people who bought the Zune are going to like them. They're a self-selected sampling... Even if they thought that deep down, the Zune was a POS, human nature is to defend decisions you've made, especially ones that involve money. The real question is why was the Zune a failure. It was a failure because it didn't offer what the market was buying. The fact that the few who did buy the Zune liked it in no way c…

I got my first iPod around the time Zune launched, and my wife ended up doing some promo jobs for the Zune - and at the end of that summer, got a Zune out of it as a bonus.

To rank my experience between portable music playback devices:

iPhone > Zune > iPod

She swears by her Zune, and having used both it and the iPod, the Zune is far and away a better device on every front. Having said that, the iPhone's interface is just that much better - and has the benefit of in-depth integration with third party devices.

When I'm listening to music on my computer though, I actually came to use the Zune desktop software. I have a rather silly process of downloading music, tagging it with MP3tag, dropping it into iTunes (to sync to the iPhone, & to organize the files into folders based on artist & album), and Zune Desktop picks up on the changes to my Music folder and catalogs them automatically.

Zune Desktop blows away iTunes for music playback. iTunes is perhaps a better music/app/video store, but the interface sucks, it's laggy. It looks out of place because it's using dated Mac aesthetics in a Windows environment. For a company that prides itself on style, it sure screws that pooch in the software department.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#67

Post by hrktb »

podperson wrote: post #9
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #3

Competition from Apple and Linux (but mostly Apple) is the best thing to happen to Microsoft in a long time. No, the UI isn't perfect yet, the design decisions (for this beta) not always logical, but Windows is finally going somewhere amazing after many years of going no where. Because some of Microsoft's best products were great but went no where. Take the Zune and Windows Phone 7. People who own them love them, esp…

I don't think the problem was the zune itself but the zune ecosystem. Apple more than any competitor understood this. If all you want is a player for your existing music library, an iPod offers little advantage over any other decent music player, and the zune UI was very polished. That said, the first thing that struck me about Windows 8 is that there's still a hard line between the 32- and 64-bit versions, which poi…

>or hope 32-bit disappears

sadly, this might take another 10 years or so...

For the legacy problems, I found a VMWare + old OS in virtual machine solution really usable. Especially when some magic is applied to window management to have it seamlessly integrated in the host OS.

It would free MS from so much pain if they'd bless this setup and get rid of the administrative hurdles (licenses, registration, genuine check etc.).

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#68

Post by tomkin »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #42
nextparadigms wrote: post #17

Engadget's conclusion: "We really liked Windows 7 when it launched. It felt like a big step forward in the short time that had passed since Vista. Now, as we creep closer to a likely release near the end of this year, we can't shake a sense of doubt. Windows 8 still feels like two very different operating systems trying to be one. The potential is hugely alluring -- a single OS to rule both the tablet and the desktop…

>Microsoft is trying to win the few who want a tablet interface at the expense of the vast majority who want a PC, mouse-oriented interface for their...PC's and laptops. Interesting, I thought the wisdom here was that the post-PC era is upon us and PC are going to die? In that case MS is definitely going the right way.

Heh. I think they are going the right way, too, but they're up against the types of those who think Facebook or YouTube should never change the UI and leave it alone forever.

Apple is slowly converging OSX and iOS into one platform, "inspired by iPad", etc. Microsoft isn't doing that. They are smashing the two together at once, when they should really have created an OS that ran alongside the PC market until the proverbial train tracks merged. This way, everyone melds into a comfort zone rather than being shoved into it (not comfy).

I don't know if Apple initially figured this out intentionally but they are surely proud of it today, because people want iOS features on OSX – least to a degree. Apple incentivized the experience through the needs created by developers. Microsoft is not answering these needs (API) directly, instead, just supposing they should exist and that will translate into useful applications.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#69

Post by dhawalhs »

Permit wrote: post #4

I'm currently running the Dev Preview, and I was curious if anyone knows if there are any differences worth switching for?

I would like to know if there is a way upgrade from the developer preview to the consumer preview? I have been using Windows 8 as my primary OS for last 4 months and don't want to do a clean install...

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#70

Post by msg »

untog wrote: post #57
msg wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After Vista, PlaysForSure, Silverlight, Windows Live all killed their brand/device/service? I think the lesson for consumers is that Microsoft has not been able to expand beyond its cash cows (Xbox/Kinect the notable exception). If you google [microsoft flop] you will get many overlapping examples. Kin shows up, of course. As does Vista, as does Zune. And that latter day tablet product that never was. And the other p…

Windows Live isn't dead, by any stretch. It's been rebranded as "Microsoft Account", and actually extended a ton in Windows 8. Vista wasn't "killed" any more than Snow Leopard was "killed" by Lion. PlaysForSure and Silverlight are actually great examples of what I'm talking about- consumers have zero idea what they are. Developers are angry that MS dropped Silverlight because they spent a lot of time learning it and…

Fine, they are "undead" products. I reiterate that the consumer is aware of them as failed experiments, not as "subtle redirections forming the core of a new flagship product".

I don't know how many google searches you want me to provide you with. Here is the top result for [Microsoft brand]. Admittedly it is from 2010. However, it is not an isolated example.

"Microsoft is a dying consumer brand"

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/27/technology/microsoft_pdc/ind...

Consumers have turned their backs on Microsoft. A company that once symbolized the future is now living in the past.

Microsoft has been late to the game in crucial modern technologies like mobile, search, media, gaming and tablets. It has even fallen behind in Web browsing, a market it once ruled with an iron fist.

Here's something from a few days ago reinforcing my position.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/microsofts-branding-crisi...

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