I have to say that on the whole I like it. It wipes the floor with Vista, which I never liked really - always preferred xp to that.  The search function is improved beyond belief and the desktop is still there if you want to use that, so don't really understand what the fuss is about there. As for the start button, that's still there too. The whole metro screen is your start button - don't see the big deal about pressing the windows key rather than clicking on the bottom of your screen - how difficult is it really ? The location of the "Off" button was the only thing that reaally bugged me to start with - took a while to even find it, but did a little research and learnt how to make custom tiles and now I have an OFF tile on the metro screen. Press windows button, click OFF tile and the job is done - actually quicker than before. For that matter so is the start up. The charm bar is a minor annoyance as it comes up by accident at times, so if there is to be a mod, I would like the abilty to disable that as there really is no need for it the way I use it.

It's refreshing to see proof that push marketing can not effectively force people to adopt a bad idea.

+1 1/2

Rain

Zo


nope my friend , windows make the world work , osx makes it have fun ....lol i'm talking pro's , i can choose what ever os i want to use on my computers .....and this alone is pricelless ... 

Ok, obviously this is going nowhere if you get down that road. I don't know how one could even suggest that. A pro uses whatever works, for what it's worth.

Anyway, I could have sworn that all the pro recording studios I've seen were using Mac. I'm not talking about little independent pro studio here whee DJ/Producers make "beatz", but big studios, you know, where people record and mix music for record labels - the Palms here in Vegas, or Avatar in NY and such... 

Absolutely 100% correct ol pal. But that's only due to who established the footprint first. Who initially bought the real estate. Not who had or has the best platform. Apple initially appealed to the "artist" "creative" types upon first release and established a beachhead. It could've just as fortuitously been the PC model. Luck of the draw combined with appealing design. And so it goes.

here is the BBC's take http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22439496

As I understand it, PC sales are down.  Laptops are down.  Tablets sales are up.  Draw your own conclusions

@

  I used Windows 8 first as the user preview version. While I was not that enthusiastic, it seems to me to be a reasonable, albeit small, progression to a new Windows version. 

Then came the shock of the completely tiled start interface of the final version. I could not believe they done that at first, but soon learned it was no joke but reality.

Sure - there where work-arounds like classic shell, and for most times that worked. However - the new interface is really hurting my eyes. Gone is transparency and smooth edges. It is replaces by sharp dull edges. It has a dossy Windows 3.11 look, and to be honest - I think it is ugly as hell (yeah - I kown that's personal). I like a interface that is smooth on the eyes. Do not forget you have to stare at it sometimes for long sessions. And Windows 8 is not giving me that because the whole "Air" is just ripped out of it.

Then there are things like applications that just "disappear". As an example: I used VLC to play some music and made the mistake to switch to the tiles screen for a short moment. When going back to the main screen the complete VLC interface was gone. It was playing music on the background, but I could not find a simple(!) way to stop that application, because the interface was nowhere to be found. That is just one of the irritating little things that spoils the experience. And there are more.

Those where my first impressions for the final version of Windows 8. Do not forget those first impressions are really important, so Windows 8 did not made a good start with me.

To make things clear, I am no beginner with computers. I started in the gray old days with the Super Elf Micro Computing Board, programming in machine code. Then used the Acorn Atom, BBC computer, Acorn Archimedes, Risc PC, Sun workstations and servers, IBM-compatibles etc. I used several operating systems like Micosoft Windows (server and workstations), Linux, OSX, RISC OS, UNIX, Novell Netware and servers etc (I have been trained and certified as administrator on most of them). I certainly have nothing against Windows and, as you can see, I certainly have experience with a lot of desktop environments, and am a "easy adapter" to them.    

I Liked Windows 98SE, NT, 2000, XP. Did not liked Visa that much, but did not hated it either. I really like Windows 7, but for some reason I cannot seem to like Windows 8. I tried several times and it is still on my computer (as dual boot with several other types of OS). But every time I do another try run I just cannot seem to feel "at home", and do not enjoy the experience. Yes I know it's a personal thing, but using a desktop environment must be something to enjoy or been neutral about, not something you get the feeling it has been forced upon you - if you like it or not.  

For now Windows 7 stays firmly on my music computer. If "blue" is going to be any better remains to be seen. For now I remain slightly optimistic, but cannot get rid of that drowning feeling it is going to be a disappointment. I can only hope Microsoft will listen to their users. 

once you have a PDF open in it its there until you reboot. You cant minimize it in the traditional way. Alt-Tab seems to be the only way to deal with it.

Alt + F4 will close an open app.

As I understand it, PC sales are down.  Laptops are down.  Tablets sales are up.  Draw your own conclusions

For the casual general-purpose user (surfing the Net, Facebook, Email), a tablet is small/inexpensive/convenient.

As I noted in my previous post, althouigh I have Win 8 - primarily for doing client support for my Win 8 clients - Win 7 remains my "production" system. 

Jclosed, I use to be a Novell CNE on 3.12.  I'm a retired Regional LAN/WAN Network and Hardware Help Desk Manager.

JClosed


  I used Windows 8 first as the user preview version. While I was not that enthusiastic, it seems to me to be a reasonable, albeit small, progression to a new Windows version. 

Then came the shock of the completely tiled start interface of the final version. I could not believe they done that at first, but soon learned it was no joke but reality.

Sure - there where work-arounds like classic shell, and for most times that worked. However - the new interface is really hurting my eyes. Gone is transparency and smooth edges. It is replaces by sharp dull edges. It has a dossy Windows 3.11 look, and to be honest - I think it is ugly as hell (yeah - I kown that's personal). I like a interface that is smooth on the eyes. Do not forget you have to stare at it sometimes for long sessions. And Windows 8 is not giving me that because the whole "Air" is just ripped out of it.

Then there are things like applications that just "disappear". As an example: I used VLC to play some music and made the mistake to switch to the tiles screen for a short moment. When going back to the main screen the complete VLC interface was gone. It was playing music on the background, but I could not find a simple(!) way to stop that application, because the interface was nowhere to be found. That is just one of the irritating little things that spoils the experience. And there are more.

Those where my first impressions for the final version of Windows 8. Do not forget those first impressions are really important, so Windows 8 did not made a good start with me.

To make things clear, I am no beginner with computers. I started in the gray old days with the Super Elf Micro Computing Board, programming in machine code. Then used the Acorn Atom, BBC computer, Acorn Archimedes, Risc PC, Sun workstations and servers, IBM-compatibles etc. I used several operating systems like Micosoft Windows (server and workstations), Linux, OSX, RISC OS, UNIX, Novell Netware and servers etc (I have been trained and certified as administrator on most of them). I certainly have nothing against Windows and, as you can see, I certainly have experience with a lot of desktop environments, and am a "easy adapter" to them.    

I Liked Windows 98SE, NT, 2000, XP. Did not liked Visa that much, but did not hated it either. I really like Windows 7, but for some reason I cannot seem to like Windows 8. I tried several times and it is still on my computer (as dual boot with several other types of OS). But every time I do another try run I just cannot seem to feel "at home", and do not enjoy the experience. Yes I know it's a personal thing, but using a desktop environment must be something to enjoy or been neutral about, not something you get the feeling it has been forced upon you - if you like it or not.  

For now Windows 7 stays firmly on my music computer. If "blue" is going to be any better remains to be seen. For now I remain slightly optimistic, but cannot get rid of that drowning feeling it is going to be a disappointment. I can only hope Microsoft will listen to their users. 

Maybe I'm missing something here, but the desktop is still there just as it always was if you prefer to work that way. Mine still looks identical my previous one, as my intial reaction was to try and make evrything like it used to be, though I find myself hardly using it now . I also don't understand why amyone would be staring at the metro screen for long periods - it's just a big start button so that you can navigate to what you really want to do isn't it ?  I don't know how toggling between open apps works on a desktop mouse, but on my laptop it's a simple swipe of the mouse and to close and open app is just a question of pointing the mouse anywhere along the top of the screen and click/dragging it down to the taskbar and it closes. Seems quite simple to me.
 
I'm not trying to be antagonostic or anything here, just don't understand some of your issues.