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Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

windows.microsoft.com

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Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#3

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

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, especially the Zune. My neighbor had an iPod and Zune and always stood up for his Zune despite loathing Microsoft. But everyone else refuses to touch them. Why? 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. A reputation that's going to take consumers at least a decade to forget about and move on. So hopefully MS keeps these "revolutionary redesigns" going at a constant rate and not just kill them once profit comes in and market share returns.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#7

Post by rplnt »

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?

If you are running the dev preview from last summer then yes, there are noticeable changes. If you have some more recent build (from this year) then probably no.

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#9

Post by podperson »

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 points to a fairly major underlying technical legacy in the current stack. So they need to go through another major revision (as in DOS -> NT) or hope 32-bit disappears (at least on the Intel side; it looks like they're planning on making the ARM side embedded/pre-installed only, so it won't matter so much).

Re: Windows 8 Consumer Preview released.

#10

Post by joebo »

Maxious wrote: post #5
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?

For one, the dev preview expires in 10 days.

Microsoft extended it to Jan 15 2013: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2671501
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