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Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#81

Post by sliverstorm »

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.

No no, the post-PC era has already arrived and the PC is all but dead already. MS is years late.

(sent from my PC)

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#82

Post by Symmetry »

CurtHagenlocher wrote: post #26
udp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't 64-bit processors a little more efficient at running a 64-bit operating system?

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.

For almost every architecture out there the transition to 64-bits made existing code run more slowly for the reasons you describe, but on x86 the 64 bit transition also doubled the number of registers, guaranteed that SSE2 was available, and did some other stuff that actually made most code run faster.

However, I believe Google is working on some program to let people use all the goodies in x86-64 while also using 32-bit pointers.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#83

Post by lloeki »

UnFleshedOne wrote: post #60
jstepien wrote: post #47

I'm intrigued by the 0.8 GB difference between the x64 and the x86 build. It's even more interesting given that this difference must be caused solely by different machine code, which, by its nature, shouldn't pose a big challenge for compression algorithms. Assuming that 32 extra bits per pointer and a different instruction set aren't enough to generate such such an increase in size, I'm wondering what might be the r…

Extra binaries for 32bit compatibility probably take most of the space. On my 64bit win 7 install, C:\windows\SYSWOW64 takes up 1.4 gigs.

> On my 64bit win 7 install, C:\windows\SYSWOW64 takes up 1.4 gigs.

For the uninformed: on a 64bit Windows, SysWOW64 (i.e Windows On Windows 64) holds 32bit binaries while System32 holds 64 bit binaries (whoever pulled that April's fool prank must have laughed out himself to death by now)

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#85

Post by Splines »

leviathant wrote: post #66
greedo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

I feel the same way too. It's weird that for an application that could be a gateway to Apple-dom, Apple doesn't appear to spend much effort. I see it get updated on a regular basis, but I see very little improvements, just feature adds. It's gotten to the point where I don't bother updating unless it blocks me from updated my iPhone.

I suppose Apple thinks that spending those resources on other properties is a better investment, but as an end user that deals with iTunes it's a bit frustrating.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#86

Post by oakgrove »

Symmetry wrote: post #78
roadnottaken wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps for consumers, but enterprise/office-workers will never switch to tablets. Keyboard/mouse is just too damned efficient for data entry and manipulation. And, I always thought that office-work/enterprise was MSFT's bread-and-butter.

I think the idea is that you carry your tablet with you, then plug it into a dock with a keyboard/mouse when you are at a desk.

Yeah thanks. You just took me from having two devices before, e.g., a tablet and a desktop, and gave me one devices that does neither of the previous unit's respective job as well. Yay future.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#87

Post by lloeki »

tomkin wrote: post #68
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.

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 prov…

> 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,

Apple emphasizes that iOS and OSX fundamentally different platforms and will stay so, and says they're borrowing relevant ideas from one and bake them into the other (and vice versa).

Microsoft says their strategy is the Windows Everywhere convergence, and stitches the desktop and Metro side by side with no overlap.

It's interesting to see that their approach is the exact opposite of one another.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#88

Post by jakejake »

molecularbutter wrote: post #84

Has anyone tried using this with Boot Camp on a Mac yet?

Somewhat related but if you just want to play around and you have Parallels, you can install that by going to new virtual machine, and the developer preview version of win 8 is one of the choices. It expires in two weeks.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#89

Post by nazar »

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…

I agree with you. Here in Turkmenistan mp3 market is taken almost entirely by iPod. In contrast, pc market is almost entirely (99.9%) windows. I can't show you official statistics, but I am sure the deviation from my estimations is insignificant.

People love windows in here, they are very eager to try new versions of windows (Majority of them don't even know that something else exists). Many companies with annual revenue above 1$mln usd use Excell as a primary work station. Nobody heard about Silverlight, MS Courier tablet (even me) and other "failed" MS products. Microsoft is regarded as a safe-bet. Thats what keeps many people from buying macbooks.

Thats said, I believe that majority of the world (those who don't follow tech news) think of Microsoft as they think of Windows- stable, reliable, familiar, indispensable product (company in case of Microsoft itself).

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