Windows 8 beta (Consumer Preview)

[RealClifford]

So just under a week now is the expected release of the Windows 8 Beta or what they are calling the 'Consumer Preview'.

I'm not sure if any of you guys have seen the 'Develpoers Preview' that was released in the middle of last year, but Windows 8 has been flying around now for around a year in a pretty solid state. The Dev Preview allowed most IT businesses and IT savvy people to get a hold of it pretty easily. There were many many torrents of it, as it was leaked quite early and was just basically given out in the end by Microsoft.

I was wodnering how many of you have played around with it? As I now work in the IT industry I will be getting my hands on the Consumer Preview as it is officially released. So will be posting my thoughts ont hat as I begin trying to break it. aha

Any thoughts on Windows 8?
Make sure to leave your comments and I welcome open discussion on any topic Windows orientated on this thread.
Personally I think it is a nice improvement, but I will let you guys discuss it a bit before I provide my deeper thoughts on the actual Operating System itself.

Cheers, Clifford

[xxMATTGxx]

I did download the developer preview and used it for a couple of days but due to it still being early days back then I didn't use it that much and didn't really have a view on it. I will be getting the consumer preview/beta and would be using it a lot more and using it on a regular basis to see what Windows 8 is all about, how it runs/performs and basically trying the new features and also seeing what improvements they have brought over. I would say I'm excited but also worried because of how Microsoft have adapted the two UI's into one operating system sort of speak.

I don't have a real view about Windows 8 until I can try it fully, I'm excited to see where Microsoft are going and is probably a good decision to start thinking about touch in this way. The metro interface is fantastic for touch devices and I think the tablets with this installed on would be great to use.

So I guess I will be back in a few weeks time to share my real views!

[RealClifford]

Ahh awesome!
I only used the Dev Preview very sparingly as it wasn't extremely solid when released. Now that the OS is a bit more stable and up for a larger official 'beta' release. I will be running it in a virtual environment to play it safe.

I am quite excited about the changes they have made but am a bit sceptical the fact that seem to eb aiming primarily at tablet's and touch devices which currently is not practical to the majority of the general consumer population which are still adapting to faster computers and normal desktop PC's...

Although I do enjoy using some of the new touch screen laptops that are popping up. I do agree with you in the fact that the metro UI is incredible for the new touch generation Operating Systems but I'm not sure how it will go on older styled desktops.
I am interested to see how all the 'improvement' speculationt hat has been flying around will be integrated into the OS and how it runs. Hopefully not a flop like Vista. Vista had some great concepts but wasn't practical.
Shall be interesting to see.

[HotelUser]

Hopefully an illegal release of the ARM varient of Windows 8 will be kicking around soon and someone manages to get it running on the Touchpad. Aside from that I'm not really going to use the preview much because I don't really have any uses for it really. The metro apps in Javascript looks cool, it will be cooler if Microsoft frequents the updates to Internet Explorer from now on though. If not we will end up in a place where everyone is using terrifyingly old and horrible releases of IE like we see now where people use < IE 9 still.

[RealClifford]

Yeah, but IE is quite terrible in comparison to the likes of the new Chrome and Firefox. Firefox is lagging behind a bit at the moment, but since Chrome updates it looks quite sexy and runs incredibly better than any other Internet Browser out there that I have seen.

[Chippiewill]

Yeah, thankfully both IE and FF have been bleeding market share, for the first time in many many years IE only has a 10% share over any single other browser (It bled out 6% over the past ~8months so in around a year and a half Chrome could be ahead), also Chrome has just started beating FF in usage shares.

[RealClifford]

Yeah, thankfully both IE and FF have been bleeding market share, for the first time in many many years IE only has a 10% share over any single other browser (It bled out 6% over the past ~8months so in around a year and a half Chrome could be ahead), also Chrome has just started beating FF in usage shares.

Yeah, I like this a lot. Never was a huge fan of IE. Chrome has been taking browsers to a new level for quite a while now, but was never quite as stable until it's recent update. Now it's solid, fast, and efficient in what it offers. My prediction is that within a year Chrome will be the top dog unless IE and FF can pull something big out of their bums and compete.

[Chippiewill]

Windows 8 will probably boost IE a little as many people won't see a need to install another browser since they'll stick to Metro UI and never know. But Firefox as far as I am concerned has just devolved into trying to gain back market share by releasing new version every month. The rate at which they're losing market share is increasing though so they're basically stuffed.

[Recursion]

I don't see IE losing the majority share anytime soon, too many corporates use it.

[Chippiewill]

I don't see IE losing the majority share anytime soon, too many corporates use it.

In the past seven months IE dropped 6 percentage points, Chrome gained 6.5 percentage points. IE is currently 8 percentage points ahead of Chrome. Do the math.