Delivering the Windows 8 Release Preview
blogs.msdn.com
blogs.msdn.com
They provide the convenience of everything in one place, ratings/reviews, one click, quick download, auto update etc. And yes they have DRM but exactly how is that different from me having to enter a license code for apps bought elsewhere ?
I haven't owned a Microsoft product in many years, but the store is, to me, one of the best moves they've made...like, ever. Not sure what possible disadvantage there is to having it.
App Store seems to have a lot of advantages but nobody knows the long-term effect of this.
I'm an avid Apple user, and I'm not a fan of the direction Lion went, and the continued direction Mountain Lion is going. I use a notebook because I want a notebook: a keyboard for easy terminal usage and more efficient browser hunting, a mouse or touchpad for manageable selection tools, drawing, etc. I don't think I've ever pressed F4 (Launchpad, I think it's called?) on purpose, especially when Alfred or even Spotlight do the exact same thing much faster.
Windows took this in a stranger direction: let's make it two completely different experiences, but make the unifier the most difficult thing in the world to find. I haven't played with this release yet (played with the previous 8 preview), but if there's an easy switch button (probably is the Windows key), I'm all ears. Otherwise, let's move on. I'm not quite sure who they're targeting here.
The Chromebook/box announcement that came recently is, I think, the most interesting take. Seems like Google's idea was to build Ice Cream Sandwich with the desktop in mind. But here, we lose real apps. I'll tunnel and use Vim when I need to, but Sublime is too powerful for me to pass on. If I want to play Diablo 3 or Portal, forget about it. Then again, Google's looking at a completely different market than OS X or Windows 8.
Windows key brings you to the start screen or from the start screen back to the app (or desktop) you were viewing. Winkey + D displays the desktop.
I hope they get it right. Would love to see Windows becoming a true alternative to Android (if its not such a walled garden as crApples).
Because now, it's Apple's job to bring into the Macintosh family the 50 million iOS users who expect a device from Apple to work at all times and for a large variety of software which is vetted by Apple to be at a mouse click. No installation, no malware, no fancy configuration necessary.
It just works is migrating from iOS to OS X. Power users had better get used to it.
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/microsoft-windo...
"Related to this second point is information I’ve received that Microsoft has been furiously ripping out legacy code in Windows 8 that would have enabled third parties to bring back the Start button, Start Menu, and other software bits that could have made this new OS look and work like its predecessor. In fact, I’ve seen that several well-known UI hacks that worked fine with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are no longer functional in the coming Release Preview. And those with hopes that Microsoft would allow businesses, at least, to boot directly to the desktop should prepare for disappointment. That feature not only isn’t happening, it’s being removed from Windows Server 12 (Windows 8’s stable mate) as well."
This may be the last OS they release ever, isn't it?
Beyond that I think the Metro UI is way more suited for administration tasks than the 'Start' UI. But we'll find that out won't we?
That activates the start menu, which no longer exists in Metro. It has nothing to do with the Start button itself not existing as a little circle in the lower left -- it's that the whole launcher / hierarchical list no longer exists.
Microsoft is a usability disaster. They have gone through so many aborted abandoned half-efforts that this adds another cluster-f to the mess. But never all the way (Metro most certainly isn't. The half-baked shell is missing the enormous bulk of core functionality that requires you to delve through the history of abandoned prior efforts. And in Windows 2015 you'll have to fall back to the Metro interface to do the small amount they implement in it), so you'll still have the control panels and the MMC consoles and the managed consoles in the server manager and the metro consoles and the.... jesus, that company is a catastrophe, desperately trying to solidify inertia, but only turning it to jello.
"We’ve talked in depth about building Windows 8, including the features, the designs, and the background behind these. We’ve done so in over 70 posts totaling over 500 pages if printed out and 34 videos totaling over 90 minutes"
It's like, if you asked people what they wanted in a car, they would have said a faster horse.
This is going to a huge kitchen-skin, designed-by-a-committee disaster.
Determining what the general public wants is a crap shoot. the only reason we're even talking about Apple is because they got lucky a few times. What about the countless companies that were creating the future only to fizzle out for lack of interest? Microsoft can't take those sorts of risks on their core cash cows.
Also, nautilus is easily the worst file management utility on any platform currently, most especially the gnome3 variant. Let me know when the Favorites, you know, actually work the way they do in every other file manager (including the gnome2 variant)
I'm used to Marlin, I mean "Files" (in Elementary), and Finder's column view. The Bookmarks that most file managers have make the lack of column browsing a bit more tolerable, but it's still lacking in a great number of ways. But no, not Nautilus's.
>This is going to a huge kitchen-skin, designed-by-a-committee disaster.
Err what? You're taking the PR spin at it's face value. The reality is that people have been hollering for the old Start menu and MS just went with what they think is right and the put up a few blog posts after they implemented things as they liked.
The blog posts are really explanations of what they alread designed. Look at how they started appearing only after the Beta came and not for the 2 years Windows 8 was actually being designed?
Every time I see it I picture my father in front of a computer running windows 8, scratching his head :))
People are going to bitch and moan about this - with good reason - forever.
My other peeve is that you can type in to Win7 search start menu for everything, but in metro start menu, you type 'sound' for example, it doesn't appear, you have to select 'settings' first.
Otherwise, love the new design, super snappy too, but that could always be the fresh install smell.
This is the moment i choose my future platform.
More details here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/03/28/touch-hardware...
I'm personally looking for something like the Ideapad Yoga,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jnrRRAcZc&hd=1
My 5 year old Sony ultraportable still runs well with Windows 8, but have to move on. Might get a Windows RT tablet(maybe Nokia's) along with it, but I barely use the HP Touchpad with Android I have, so that's there.
What? For life? Why choose one? And why base it on a non-final release? o_0
My mind is not finite - don't want to waste my grey matter on crap.
The release preview is good enough to make a decision and avoid the massive job shift fallout when it hits RTM.
I've been in the industry for 22 years. I can spot a turd coming miles away.
You seem to have your mind made up. Good luck.
The middle sentence is the only part that makes any sense to me, and even then, not really. You're implying that you're choosing the platform you're going to support? Good luck choosing a single one to support and being successful. Further, if you think that Windows desktop mode is going anywhere, see my other post, and you might want to check the stats for how many apps are already in the just-released Windows 8 RC Store.
I don't understand what you're saying, at all. For the next 10 years? Are you honestly telling me that you're using Windows XP currently? Or a Palm Pilot?
I'm choosing the platform I'm going to bet my paycheque on for the next 10 years.
I have no problem with Metro (I use a Windows Phone and rather like it) and I know the Windows desktop is not going away but the deep cloud integration and training cost is what worries me. It's severing corporate interest if it's not un-configurable and is going to require retraining. There are cheaper solutions now.
My father did fine from ARM/RISCOS in the 80s, I did fine from UNIX in the 90s and Microsoft in the 00s. There is definitely a 10 year cycle and it's about to roll over.
There are no changes to domain/group policies whatsoever and if you don't enable Skydrive, the "cloud" features of Windows 8 have no impact on the end user experience. I've seen this criticism all over the place and I don't buy it.
The training I can understand. The Start Menu has been a staple for a very long time. It will be awkward for users to adjust to a different "start screen" instead of a "menu", but I don't see it being a big hurdle at all.
Any other comments I might make run the risk of repeating the sentiments I've expressed elsewhere. People really need to start thinking about Metro Apps as "complementary to desktop Windows" instead of "OMG MS abandons Windows and Corporate support".
I guess you might be in different work than what I perceive to be the normal crowd of HN who would likely be wanting or needing to support applications on every major platform. If you are doing managed corporate environments, I can understand the need to "pick one", but it's not like the alternatives to Windows have superior corporate control/configuration.
My first observation - to code/debug any Metro apps, you need two monitors.