From a post I did at kvr but same holds true here - 

 
Just 2 more cents but... I re-animated an old Q9450 desktop recently by downloading the $40 win8 pro upgrade. Yeah, it's a little different and I really have no use for Metro but beyond that it was a good deal for $40 ($30 at a few place on Black Friday I see). No real issues at all... loaded up my old apps after a clean install and everything just seems to work. The new features included in the Pro version are nice too. Definitely a "to each their own" deal but for me not bad (and definitely worth it for $30 on Black Friday).

miguelito

How about just typing the name. It brings up search instantly with the program before you have a chance to finish typing.

 
John not to quibble but this is available in the Win 7 start menu. Many users don't use it because it is unusual to them.
 
I do agree with the assessment that just because a given user doesn't understand the new methodology (I dislike 'paradigm') that does not make it bad. It makes it unfamiliar. I vaguely recall sitting at a DOS prompt trying to understand the syntax of the Copy command...the whole <source>, <destination> really threw me for a loop.
 
Regards,

The same is true for Vista Mike. That is not what I am talking about. In order to use that the start menu has to be open. That isn't the case in Windows 8's Metro. The entire screen is the start menu.

John



There are some things that MS could do to improve win 8 but as a first release its a winner. I think we need to be very careful what quotes we listen to about it. I do remember the Apple campaign to discredit Vista. Don't let that happen again. See if there is a motive for someone bashing it. It may not be apparent but look into their funding. 

John,
 
Sooner or later I'll have to give 8 a try. I'm dreading the whole installation thinggy but what can you do.
 
BUT I will say this about Vista - that system was a piece of doo doo as far as I am concerned. Had experience with 3 laptops (mine and 2 friends) and 2 desktops (mine - custom built & my counsin's HP) - I was the tech guy for all.
 
I know there will be some guys out there that will say something like 'Vista works GREAT for me' and that may certainly be the case... but I know far too many people complaining about Vista.
 
Even though I hate their snobby, whollier than thou attitude, you have to give it up to Apple... you just turn on their stuff and it works. I'm sure that somewhere you can dig up a problem even with Apple - but compared to Vista, their OS at that time rocked.
 
So when you say 'campaign to discredit Vista', its really that Microsoft dropped the ball and Apple swooped in to capitalize on that mistake. I'm sure that if Apple put out a POS OS, MS would be all over it trying to captialize... assuming that MS didn't put out a piece of crap of their own.
 
And this is coming from a long time Apple hater - not the products but the company policies such as outsourcing to China's suicide factories etc...
 
Even installing Win7 on my MacPro 12 core was made easy peasy by Apple - you have a program that goes to the Apple website and dl all drivers needed for Win opperation and writes them automatically on a cd and you pop it in after win install. So even when they drop you off in 'Windows Land', Apple still takes care of you - NO sitting around trying to figure out drivers and system setting!
 
Sorry for going off topic, but Vista was acknowledged as a failure even by MS. 
 
Don't take this the wrong way, because it's not meant to be confruntative but when you say "I think we need to be very careful what quotes we listen to about it. I do remember the Apple campaign to discredit Vista. Don't let that happen again." it sounds like you are an MS fanboy... which is fine, but it's not quite unbiassed.
 
It's like Jets or Mets fans here in NY - they haven't won anything in a LOOOONG time, but God forbid you should say something about their team because they'll come to you with a vengeance with all kinds of obscure facts and articles to document how you and the whole world is wrong
 
When people say that Vista (bloatware) was good..... and then say Win8 (which is lean & mean by all acounts - thank God) is good - it kind of makes you think that MS could put out a toothpick & a rubberband and they would STILL say that it's a fantastic OS.
 
As much as I like MS (when they get things right) I'm not going to drink the kool-aid when they put out crap... but that's just me.
 

vista was an evolutionary step.. driver model.. most of which was improved and not undone

In my experience, the initial Vista release was sketchy, definitely not good for audio, and I ran into driver problems. I kept it on a separate drive and continued to use XP. By Service Pack 2, Vista was actually very good. MS nailed it, to the point where there wasn't that much of a difference going to Win7. I thought moving to Win8 might be the same situation for me as the initial Vista release, where I'd end up booting to Win7 for a while, but it's actually been fine. No driver or application problems for me, performance is good, and the whole Start Menu thing has been a non-issue for me once I figured out how things are set up. Pretty easy transition.

That isn't the case in Windows 8's Metro. The entire screen is the start menu.

 
John, that sounds pretty cool...I want to make sure I understand. Are you saying that there is no particular control (or tile) that has the focus, that is to say, one can just start typing and it immediately starts a search?
 
Thanks,

Mike, right, that's the way it works. And you can switch between Metro and the Desktop just by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard.

I just upgraded today, 

I did a clean install. 4 hrs later I was fully up and running again. 

All program's and hardware installed cleanly. 1 small issue, I couldn't reinstall Sibelius 6 at first, I then ran the installer as administrator and installed perfectly.

First impressions of X2 seem nice and stable and smooth. My processors seem more balanced, I'm running my current projects with lower buffer settings. 

I've not really taxed it yet but SO FAR, no problems. 



EDIT, I've not felt the need to add the start button some have, I find the whole thing very intuitive, after a few mins head scratching. 

I quite like metro, each to their own, but everything I need is right there in front of me after I log on. 

Thanks StepD!

Regards,

 I love this summary from Focusrite about Windows 8 drivers for most products over a year old:

If you are serious about music making or rely on your Focusrite hardware to earn a living, we strongly advise that you wait for at least 6 months or more before updating to the latest OS until any unexpected issues arise and are dealt with.


no support yet for the Saffire Pro 24 so guess I'll wait.