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Anybody else tried the Windows 8 preview yet?

Chuck(G) said:
So nothing's basically changed low-level from Win7? Win8 is basically a new GUI over an old kernel? Sigh.
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A lot has changed with the kernel but most won't matter to anyone here; a few years of experience have provided for better handling of the many core/thread CPU with turbo modes plus the need to run on ARM at a decent speed. In my tests, it just seems to have a slight performance increase over Win7 on the same hardware and runs all the software I had been running on Win7. I should test on a server systen with lots of cores to see how it performs on the hardware of the future but $10,000 servers aren't often lying around unused.
 
What "Will" Windows 8 do for me, that Windows 7 "Isn't" doing for me now, that is the only question that needs an answer.

Kicking a can down the street, the only thing I see is, we've replaced your fancy icons with colored boxes, who the F cares?

Would anyone really enjoy touching their monitor at home -VS- percise mouse movements and a nice clean monitor, only a nut if u ask me.
 
Wasn't there an article back when in Byte (Steve Ciarcia, I think) about making your own touchscreen using a frame with IR LEDs and photodetectors in front of the CRT? Pre-PC days, I'm pretty sure.
 
krebizfan said:
I should test on a server systen with lots of cores to see how it performs on the hardware of the future but $10,000 servers aren't often lying around unused.
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Why bother? When that "hardware of the future" lands in my lap, applications will just have gotten to be more inefficient and things will run at pretty much the same speed.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Why bother? When that "hardware of the future" lands in my lap, applications will just have gotten to be more inefficient and things will run at pretty much the same speed.
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The question is whether the systems that can be purchased next year will run better with Win8, or with Win7, or has technology hit a temporary plateau and simply adding more cores or clock speed won't provide benefits. Running Win8 on a system several years old doesn't answer that.
 
I prefer running an older OS on newer hardware, hell XP is the newest MS OS I use.

Ever since Win2k came out and BSOD issues of Win 9x died down I don't go looking for new OS anymore unless some app/game I want to run has to have it.
 
Unknown_K said:
I prefer running an older OS on newer hardware, hell XP is the newest MS OS I use.

Ever since Win2k came out and BSOD issues of Win 9x died down I don't go looking for new OS anymore unless some app/game I want to run has to have it.
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As do I - unfortunately, it's getting harder to find new laptops that run XP...
 
commodorejohn said:
As do I - unfortunately, it's getting harder to find new laptops that run XP...
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As long as the chip makers keep publishing XP drivers, you can retrofit a new laptop with XP no problem (but it takes about a full day hunting and trying the necessary drivers, and it would be impossible without the assistance of Google and internet forums that's for sure!).

I recently got a HP 630 laptop for my brother, and the thing came with Windows 7 Home Premium x64. It is now running Windows XP Prof. x86, and it just flies! I had to use nLite to slipstream the SATA drivers into a customized XP ISO image, as the damn laptop hasn't got an option in the BIOS to set the HBA into IDE compatibility mode... So it takes a lot of work, but it is doable.
 
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I've had both the Win 8 Developer's Preview and the Consumer Preview installed since the first day MS made them available. I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of the Metro interface but it is only 1-click from there to the desktop. Hopefully, when Win 8 is released MS will allow users to configure whether they want to boot into Metro or straight to the desktop.

As far as the missing Start Menu, in reality, the Start orb is simply a link to a folder so you can have a Start Menu of sorts in Win 8 by setting up a Toolbar that points to the Start Menu folder at: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu (you'll need to enable access to hidden system files to see it). Your Start Menu will be on the right side and won't have the fancy Start Orb but it will be functional nonetheless.

w8SM.jpg
 
That's something I'm just not going to be able to adjust to. The Start Menu has always been on the left. But MS will probably let us move it where we want it. Or, someone on the internet will make a theme to adjust it back to the regular Windows scheme. People always make themes of older Windows' styles to make newer computers look older.
 
strollin said:
I've had both the Win 8 Developer's Preview and the Consumer Preview installed since the first day MS made them available. I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of the Metro interface but it is only 1-click from there to the desktop. Hopefully, when Win 8 is released MS will allow users to configure whether they want to boot into Metro or straight to the desktop.

As far as the missing Start Menu, in reality, the Start orb is simply a link to a folder so you can have a Start Menu of sorts in Win 8 by setting up a Toolbar that points to the Start Menu folder at: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu (you'll need to enable access to hidden system files to see it). Your Start Menu will be on the right side and won't have the fancy Start Orb but it will be functional nonetheless.

View attachment 8351
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I see nightmares supporting users... I see nightmares...
 
DOS lives on!! said:
That's something I'm just not going to be able to adjust to. The Start Menu has always been on the left. But MS will probably let us move it where we want it. Or, someone on the internet will make a theme to adjust it back to the regular Windows scheme. People always make themes of older Windows' styles to make newer computers look older.
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Does it actually matter how it is set up out of the box? Why not set it up to right click (like fluxbox) or your-choice click (like KDE) on the desktop to get a start menu, or any menu you want? Sorry about my lack of hands-on Windows familiarity, but surely in this day and age it's configurable.
 
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