Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

windows.microsoft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 209 posts

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#131

Post by jakeonthemove »

OK, the latest beta version of Dexpot works - I'm good!

Metro is also surprisingly intuitive - I've picked up everything on the first try (the corner actions are cool, too).

Now, what I don't like:

- All of the advanced settings (Control Panel and everything) are hard to access;

- WIN-TAB shows only Metro apps, but ALT-TAB shows Metro and the normal apps, cluttering the interface.

- While I like the Metro apps and will probably use them, the desktop should be loading by default on a laptop/desktop - there's no reason not to do it, and it looks like it's easily doable with some tweaked settings;

- The dumbed down everything feeling of Metro is cool at first, but gets annoying on a laptop after a while;

- I had to register a LIVE account to login to the OS - what if I don't have an Internet connection?

But that's about it - Windows 8 looks like a great OS, I like it. I still don't get why Microsoft had to make it an all-in-one OS for tablets and desktops when they could've packed Metro only for a tablet edition, but whatever...

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#133

Post by abraxasz »

Lewisham wrote: post #102
tjoff wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, I don't get what everyone is on about. The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. "Cool" but useless for real work. And there seems to have been numerous improvements to the windows experience (outside metro), the ability to pause file-copying etc. pro…

The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. I don't know if you're trying to troll or you're just incredibly short-sighted, but I'll bite. Windows 8 is clearly designed as a hybrid OS, in the same vein that Ubuntu on Android is, even if Microsoft's marketing team…

>> It's fills the use case of "I love my iPad, and I love my Mac, but I really hate that I have these two devices."

It's an interesting point, but if this is the target, then I think it's hopeless. Indeed, I don't think that people are ready to ditch there Mac/iPad setup for a unified windows setup. And if MS wants to conquer the tablet market, then I'm not sure that the "unified" argument is a key selling point. People won't buy any tablet over the iPad just because you tell them: "hey, you can find everything you (don't) like about windows on your tablet too!"

Note: I'm sorry if I sounded anti-windows, that's not the case, although I'm not a big fan either

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#135

Post by georgemcbay »

hkarthik wrote: post #125
Lewisham wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. I don't know if you're trying to troll or you're just incredibly short-sighted, but I'll bite. Windows 8 is clearly designed as a hybrid OS, in the same vein that Ubuntu on Android is, even if Microsoft's marketing team…

The idea of a single device that does both mobile and desktop work well is a nice idea, but in practice the few attempts at this have failed, mainly at the hardware level. See the Motorola Atrix, previous Windows Tablet Laptops, etc. If Microsoft was serious about building this as the future computing experience, they should have built the hardware and controlled both the hardware and software. But then they'd be no…

"but in practice the few attempts at this have failed, mainly at the hardware level. See the Motorola Atrix, previous Windows Tablet Laptops, etc"

I am typing this response on an ASUS Transformer laptop, which I don't see as a failure at all at the hardware level. The only downside of the ASUS Transformer is that the Android software ecosystem has a long way to go to catch up to the idea of being run on a laptop-like device. This is something Windows 8 should have a big advantage on, which is one of the primary reasons I'm really looking forward to Win8.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#136

Post by recoiledsnake »

jakeonthemove wrote: post #131

OK, the latest beta version of Dexpot works - I'm good! Metro is also surprisingly intuitive - I've picked up everything on the first try (the corner actions are cool, too). Now, what I don't like: - All of the advanced settings (Control Panel and everything) are hard to access; - WIN-TAB shows only Metro apps, but ALT-TAB shows Metro and the normal apps, cluttering the interface. - While I like the Metro apps and wi…

>I had to register a LIVE account to login to the OS - what if I don't have an Internet connection?

I believe there's way to create a normal user account as well. Also your live credentials are cached for use when the PC is offline.

>I still don't get why Microsoft had to make it an all-in-one OS for tablets and desktops when they could've packed Metro only for a tablet edition, but whatever..

Because you'd be able to dock the tablet or connect a monitor mouse/keyboard and have the full Windows desktop experience on a x86 tablet. Metro only will limit its power.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#137

Post by herge »

stephanimal wrote: post #35
CurtHagenlocher wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. And for most programs, 64-bit code is probably less efficient than 32-bit code. Pointers are twice as big and instructions are generally longer, so less stuff fits into cache.

This is one disadvantage, yes. However all registers are now 64 bit, and in general, there are more of them. Furthermore, the 4GB limit does not just concern physical RAM, it also applies elsewhere, like memory mapped files. In general, it is unlikely that you will see poorer performance from 64-bit code compared to its 32-bit counterpart.

Most of the memory used by programs are pointers, and if you double your pointer size, it has a negative impact on the efficientcy of the L1 and L2 cache.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#138

Post by recoiledsnake »

hkarthik wrote: post #125
Lewisham wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first thing a power user will do is to go to the old-desktop and stay there, basically not interacting with metro at all. There is no point, it's about as useful as the winkey+tab is on Vista/W7. I don't know if you're trying to troll or you're just incredibly short-sighted, but I'll bite. Windows 8 is clearly designed as a hybrid OS, in the same vein that Ubuntu on Android is, even if Microsoft's marketing team…

The idea of a single device that does both mobile and desktop work well is a nice idea, but in practice the few attempts at this have failed, mainly at the hardware level. See the Motorola Atrix, previous Windows Tablet Laptops, etc. If Microsoft was serious about building this as the future computing experience, they should have built the hardware and controlled both the hardware and software. But then they'd be no…

>If Microsoft was serious about building this as the future computing experience, they should have built the hardware and controlled both the hardware and software. But then they'd be no different from Apple and they'd alienate their hardware partners.

Windows On ARM tablets do exactly this.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#139

Post by freehunter »

stonemetal wrote: post #114
untog wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ZuneHD released September 2009, pronounced dead October 2011. I don't know what you mean by that exactly- have all the ZuneHD devices out there stopped working? No. Is the Zune desktop software still being updated? Yes. And 'Zune' wasn't killed, it was integrated into Windows Phone. MS are just responding to the market in that regard- no-one wants to carry around a dedicated media player any more- they use their…

Is the Zune desktop software still being updated? Yes. That is rather like saying the iPod mini wasn't killed off because iTunes is still updated. You are unable to build software with the current sdk that will run on a Zune. Zune device software hasn't been updated since before it was discontinued. So no Zune devices were not integrated into windows phone, they were dropped in the dust bin.

Considering the Zune never had an app store or any official way to distribute Zune apps, I don't see it as a net loss. Microsoft even said that the only officially distributed Zune apps would be from Microsoft themselves.

You're talking about the Zune as though it were a single product, like the iPod Mini. It's not. Zune is a product line. Windows Phone is a continuation of the Zune product line.

By your reasoning, Apple must have killed the iPod line because the older iPods are not being made. You ignore that they're making new iPod (Zune) hardware. The only thing that has changed is Microsoft is not making Zune-branded hardware anymore, rather hardware that runs the Zune software.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#140

Post by freehunter »

recoiledsnake wrote: post #62
stonemetal wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

By "rumor" he meant "I'm starting this rumor".
Post reply on HN