Any takers on Win 8?

[James]

I will be upgrading all of my systems except for my HTPC when Windows 8 comes out. (I don't want to have to pay extra for Media Center)

Honestly I've been using it on my laptop for about 4 months. The start screen is useful if you customize it. But I haven't even done that. I don't know about anybody else, but my main interaction with the start menu is "Windows Button + start typing to find something". That works just the same as it did before. So I don't lose or gain any functionality from that particular feature. I love the new metrics (file copy, network, CPU speed, task manager, etc.) that are involved in the new system. I love the new wireless menu sliding in from the side, it's actually extremely useful and more informative vs. the Win7 version. On the server side I am impressed that almost every single server technology has been redesigned from the ground up to supported clustering as a native rather than a hacked-in feature set. (We desperately need this at my job, but we won't convert to Server 2012 until probably 2016 sadly, our loss.)

I like the faster boot times, I like that my entire laptop has native drivers in the OS, including the fingerprint reader. Caveats: Not having a touchscreen I have done nothing in the "metro style" programs and applications. I do everything from the desktop as I do now, and Windows 8 has not changed my workflow at all.

The one negative: I use as complex a password as Microsoft will let me. (In this case, 12 characters randomly generated. Limit caused by GFWL client). Using the Live sign in means typing that password every time I unlock my computer. (I could disable this, but it's good security). Right now, I love it because I use the fingerprint reader to sign in. If I didn't have the fingerprint reader to auto-input my password, I might not use the whole Live account sign-in thing.


TL;DR version: Yes, I'm upgrading. I like the speed improvements and small changes that make things easier, and nothing they've changed negatively impacts my workflow.