slartabartfast, I'm not sure I understand why you keep focusing on Metro in your critique of Windows 8 and multitasking.

slartabartfast

Windows 8 is a multi tasking OS just as Windows 7 was.

Of course it is. It will run a bunch of applications that are more or less accessible at once. So could Windows 1. And for the record, Win8 pro 64 is what I use on my current DAW.

There is a difference between an operating system that will maintain multiple open programs, however and a human interface that is designed for the kind of work I am describing. Forget about metro--seriously. The Aero interface was relatively easy for the user (not the operating system), to manage multiple windows in multiple open programs. Classic view in Windows 8 is a step backward as far as my workflow is concerned.

Your fondness for defending your current OS (see a gazillion posts about the wonders of Vista), is fine. But your repeated implication that no one who offers criticism of the interface design has any experience with it, or is somehow prejudiced against it, is not consistent with the generally helpful and amiable tone of your posting history. In fact it is taking on the somewhat rancorous tone that I tend to employ.

I have literally used every version of MS DOS and Windows except Vista (no disrespect, I just did not find it useful to install a new OS during the Vista window of opportunity), and from a user interface standpoint they were not all equally compatible with my work style. Of course you can adapt your work to the interface you are offered, and of course you need to allow for the frustration of learning a new interface when critiquing something new. But the truth is, that the design decisions for the Windows 8 interface did not place keyboard based, multi-window user interaction at the forefront. That results in some trade offs that I do not personally consider to be improvements. It is possible to type on a virtual keyboard with a mouse, but that does not mean that I would consider such a virtual keyboard an advance in interface design for work that requires extensive writing. 

It is also not germane to the criticism of the design that you can sneak behind or kludge around the interface that is served up by adding third party "fixes." You can do this to some extent, or you can switch to Linux or or OSX or stick with Windows 7 until Microsoft retires it. That does not make the design of Windows 8 any less subject to criticism. I am not whining that I can not use Win 8, I am offering a critique, and some reasons why I am not installing it on every machine in sight. Before someone nukes their current OS, or makes a choice among several viable options, they may want to consider the points I raise.

[rancor]Windows 8 is certainly a usable OS. It is particularly well suited to users who need to be cognizant of every tweet or Facebook page modification, or who has an expensive touch sensitive tablet that follows them into the bathroom stall. I liked the Aero interface in Win 7, and I do resent the fact that Microsoft used its monopoly power to force the changes that will make selling its hardware easier onto the computing public at large. It would have been a trivial and inexpensive (divide the development and support cost by the revenue over the life of the product and round to the nearest cent and I expect it will be close to zero) task to make a more usable interface available as an option.[rancor]

Beepster


Running fine on Win7 64 Pro here. It's gonna be supported until at least 2018. Manufacturers are more than likely going to continue writing drivers for it for a very long time as well just like they did with XP. Still too early to tell what's gonna happen with Win8.