Any takers on Win 8?

[vertices]

Dell is wheeling and dealing left and right and with all of the new acquisitions, I think they are on the right track. Can't say the same for HP. Dell is hurting for sure (as they all are), but they seem to me as having the best shot of coming out of this. I don't think it's the death of the desktop as much as it is the death of the horizontal markets.

[Steven P Jobs]

One pretty damning thing about Dell is how terrible all of their new laptop concepts have been. HP has been doing much better on that front. Despite the laptop equivalent of crapboxes running the low end and Apple running the high end, I think there's a spot for premium Windows laptops somewhere in the middle.

[Timman_24]

I installed Win 8 on my MBP through bootcamp a few days ago. I messed around with the Dev Preview about a year ago (damn was it really that long ago?) and came away apathetic to the OS. I was able to snag a copy free as an alum and gave the release copy a whirl. I've been using it for about 3 solid days and do not really have any complaints. I'm actually kind of surprised how little I used the old start menu. A lot of people are up in arms about there not being a start menu, but having been without one I don't really miss it all that much.

I usually make a few task bar launch icons and use those, so I hardly ever interacted with the metro UI after browsing through it initially. I could probably get away with never opening it altogether. As for the OS, I like the sharp corners and the neon-like colors. It seems magenta is in this year or something, I've been seeing it everywhere. Boot times are snappy and everything seems to work quicker than before.

I applaud MS for being able to include all the touch screen features without disrupting the desktop experience too much. I'd say they are quite a bit ahead of Apple in merging the two eco-systems. What's great is Win 8 pulls down my Windows Live and Xbox Live account information and surfaces that information in handy spots. Overall, it seems well integrated. I think people's dislike for the Metro UI system will quickly wane once they become more engrained in what online functionality the OS offers.

Seems like a step in the right direction and you really can't beat the price that they are blowing Win 8 out with. My only gripe is that I wish I could opt out of Metro and those apps as there doesn't seem to be a lot offered there that I would want and it just takes up space.

[kujoe2002]

I can see it being useable for my ASUS tablet but not as my primary desktop OS. They are making it worse and worse to navigate. For my desktop, I'll stick with my Win 7 as primary, Ubuntu as secondary and Win 8 as a tertiary boot - but just to tinker with. Once I am able to convert my Asus tablet, then I'll probably install it onto that.

[ImaNihilist]

Seems like a step in the right direction and you really can't beat the price that they are blowing Win 8 out with. My only gripe is that I wish I could opt out of Metro and those apps as there doesn't seem to be a lot offered there that I would want and it just takes up space.

If Microsoft thought that the desktop was going to stick around, they probably would have had two different UIs. Touch and mouse/pointer input are just too different. Windows 8 essentially has a fallback for mouse input, but it really doesn't seem like it's designed for it. I suspect they didn't bother because they see no long term return, when 90% of consumer interactions will happen without a mouse 3-5 years from now.

It's designed for touch. And when you dock a tablet with a display the tablet becomes a giant trackpad.

I moved to a notebook full time in…2007 I think. I carried a mouse with me until the beginning of this year. I thought I need it. Turned out I just needed to learn how to be without it. Somewhere around January/February I stopped carrying the mouse. I lug a small Wacom around from time to time, but the mouse sits idle on the desk now. The mouse is quickly becoming obsolete. The trackpad, as we know it today, isn't quite up to the task of replacing it. But as trackpads and the tablet merge into a single pointing device, Windows 8 will be well positioned to handle the transition.

IMO, Windows 8 is now far ahead of OS X in terms of touch support. OS X is impossible to use with touch input outside of a virtual trackpad.

In 2013 consumers will face a unique choice. You can purchase an $800 iPad, which (as much as I like it) is an $800 toy, and a desktop/notebook, or a Windows 8/Surface Pro device that does it all for around $1,000. Even at $1,500 it will compete head-to-head with the $1,500 MacBook Air, and the choice is clear, because the Surface is a FAR superior device…and this is coming from someone who is typing this on a fancy MacBook Air. It's lighter, higher resolution, more portable and removes the desire to carry both a MacBook Air and iPad.

[Timman_24]

I wouldn't put it past Apple to have a direct competitor in a year or so. Apple has long been the type to wait until the tech is fully ready before launching a device. The Surface is on the edge of not being a good experience due to lack of power.

I do not agree with your point of Window 8 not having good mouse support. Perhaps I am ready your post wrong, but I've set up my Win 8 build to never go into the Metro UI and I do not feel limited at all. I was surprised by how little I actually used the Start menu. I absolutely agree that the Metro UI is completely designed around touch and is a poor experience with a mouse. Win 8 as a whole is just as capable as Win 7 with a mouse and keyboard.

What I am interested in seeing is how this race to a full fledged tablet PC bodes for the professional developer, content creator, scientist, and gamer. All those people need specialized computers with peripherals, console access, and powerful hardware. Apple's closed design philosophy with iOS will not work and a tablet can not physically connect to all the devices content creators, scientists, and gamers need. I guess a dock could do it and fast network access for dedicated compute servers, whether they be on the net or local. Maybe I'm already an old timer, but I do not see how a tablet will run next generation games at 4K resolutions. I would think the forefront of compute tech will not be able to fit into a tablet design, at least in the short term.

It will be interesting to see where this goes in the next 10 years.

[Steven P Jobs]

I moved to a notebook full time in…2007 I think. I carried a mouse with me until the beginning of this year. I thought I need it. Turned out I just needed to learn how to be without it. Somewhere around January/February I stopped carrying the mouse.

I've been using laptops almost exclusively since 2005. I stopped using mice in late 2007, a few days after I got my first MacBook Pro.

IMO, Windows 8 is now far ahead of OS X in terms of touch support.

Touch support in OSX is basically non-existent, presumably because Apple doesn't make any touchscreen Macs. I don't see it coming anytime soon either.

What I am interested in seeing is how this race to a full fledged tablet PC bodes for the professional developer, content creator, scientist, and gamer. All those people need specialized computers with peripherals, console access, and powerful hardware. Apple's closed design philosophy with iOS will not work and a tablet can not physically connect to all the devices content creators, scientists, and gamers need.

I think iOS is going to improve somewhat in this regard. That being said, it seems like Apple is planning to stick with the "PCs are trucks" thing in the near future.

[Geforce255]

I just pray that the Surface Pro has the power to run major applications well. If it does, it will be a game changer.

[James]

Core i5 and HD4000 iGPU onboard, 4GB of RAM and an actual 64GB SSD (not soldered on eMMC flash) for around $899

Should be decent.

[Steven P Jobs]

About 4 hours of battery life. This is going to be a hard sell to anyone except those in need of legacy software.

[vertices]

I'm switching today at work to Win8. New system coming in (32GB RAM and i7-3770k, watercooled, with an SSD ) and since I need to stay current on things regardless of how I feel about them I am going with Win8 as the host OS on this new system. Wish me luck.

[Geforce255]

About 4 hours of battery life. This is going to be a hard sell to anyone except those in need of legacy software.

It's a 42 Wh battery, it should run about 10 hours with normal use. Video probably will drain it in 4 hours, like the iPad.

[vertices]

What a POS. Already ran into a major bug where it can't properly make the partitions if a USB or SD card is in the system. So in 2012, I can't install my shiny new OS from USB. I have to go and burn a disk. Wow.

[ImaNihilist]

What a POS. Already ran into a major bug where it can't properly make the partitions if a USB or SD card is in the system. So in 2012, I can't install my shiny new OS from USB. I have to go and burn a disk. Wow.

a wat?

[vertices]

If you put Win8 on a USB drive to use as install media, it can't properly install.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdX6OVs2i8U

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...-6cb231e435f4/ Check his response, "remove all other disks"

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...=1908&bih=1092

I need to let let it create the partitions automatically so that it makes the 100mb bootloader so I can use BitLocker. It is too stupid to do it with a USB drive in, which happens to contain the install media.

So the options are:

1. Install from USB, make your own primary partition, which will allow install but no BitLocker.
2. Don't install from USB, use DVD instead and let it create partitions, have BitLocker.
3. Figure out how to manually make the BitLocker partition, I haven't even looked into this yet.

Either way, if you want a basic install that will work with BitLocker, and you want to install from USB, Go Fish. Pretty sad if you ask me.