Windows Developer Preview (Win8 demo) - Did you try it?

[Sarge]

Hello to all, have anyone tried the developer preview of next version of windows yet?

I did, I'm on it right now, and I am surprised how come it's so stable even at this stage. I mean, sure, they had to make it a bit stable to give it to people, but this is insane, I haven't had a single problem yet. At least that's my experience.

Loving the new features, usage of RAM is even better than than Windows 7, it now kinda works like on mobile OS', when you close down an app, it doesn't shut it down, it keeps it in the RAM as long as there is room for it. Metro style UI is going to be really good for touch enabled devices, but its not bad at all even for everyday usage on all other types of computers. New start menu is better, but I'm not sure does it have something to do with me liking things that are new and fresh or it is really that good. I like the feeling that finally I can have clean desktop (without 97 shortcuts on it); now they are available just a click away with no mess all over the place (desktop).

Maintenance of the system is way better than in windows 7, it's more, again, like mobile device type. There's a Refresh System and Reset System, for bringing Windows to its factory settings without losing your files and complete system reset. All that without the need to reinstall whole system.

In everyday use my Windows Developer Preview was completely stable but what kind of tech geek would I bee if I didn't try to bring it down and crash it. Thanks to multiple hard resets during the short boot time (about 8 seconds!) I did manage to stop it from working correctly. Windows tried and succeeded in fixing the problems I made, but after I did it again and again, it no longer wanted to fix itself without a proper System Repair from installation disc. I let it try fixing itself whole night, the HDD was busy all the time but it just couldn't do it.

Viruses and other danger little animals who crawl the internet swamp mainly wasn't the problem. I had no such problems. It looks like Windows Defender now works like Microsoft Security Essentials and does the job decently for average user. Windows Action Center does not recommend you to install additional antivirus/internet security software so I'm guessing they did the job even they are happy with this time.

System takes less of RAM than Windows 7. It's faster than Windows 7 on a netboot - where speed matters because the processors aren't exactly built to deliver maximum speed (Intel Atom, AMD C-50 and such). It will also be possible to get Windows running under ARM processors, so they had to make sure it's not that intended to torture processor core(s) to the death.

One thing: I don't think I'm going back to Windows 7, I will probably just using this build and next ones that come until I have problems with it. So far, I am happy.

I'm Sarge, and you just heard the news. This article was sponsored by me and can be used only for information-purposes Also copyright and stuff like that nobody cares about... or in other words: God bless America. [joke]

So, did you try Windows Developer Preview and how did you like it?

[Terry60]

All the mods have had it installed since day 1 (It's replaced Ubuntu on my PC as the 4th OS).
So far the score is 1-3
Mak loves it, the rest of us hate the metro screen for a desktop and have taken steps to hack it back to a seven-like experience.
I want all my shortcuts available on the desktop and accessible even when 3 or 4 windows are already open. I don't like the enforced full-screen experience. I'm not a mobile-device user and I don't want the GUI designed for such on my desktop monitor.
So far it's been stable, but switching back and forth between 7 and 8 does seem to throw a lot of chkdsk auto checks at boot, so something about its disk handling seems a bit iffy.
I tried viewing a W7 MC TV recording on W8 and it was sound only, so there are a few backward compatibility problems.

[JustinW]

I haven't given Windows 8 a go, but have been following its progress. Its about time MS put some cloud connectivity+sync of settings into Windows. Only problem is its still a year away from release and they're playing catch up with Apple who well be launching iCloud soon.

[Terry60]

Sorry Jus ! my "all" was rather remiss.
I overlooked that you hadn't contributed in the mod thread on W8.
The "boot redesign" link that Mak gave has a comments section which degenerated into a pro v anti metro argument, much like the one in our own thread, with a number of voices expressing the same concern as me about the appropriateness of having a phone GUI as the entry point to a desktop environment.
Let's hope the RTM has an intelligent detection of the environment, or at the very least, a simple option switch.

[Mak 2.0]

I personally like it. I have found several programs that give issues with the DP at this point. But nothing that a quick reboot into Win7 wont fix. Some burning programs dont work that well. created at least 3 coasters cause of it. But no big deal. All part of trying to use a DP as a main OS.

It has sparked such an interest in me that I have turned my Android phone into a WP7 clone and am looking into getting a full blown WP7 device that I can update to Mango to see how Win8 operates with it.

[Sarge]

It has sparked such an interest in me that I have turned my Android phone into a WP7 clone and am looking into getting a full blown WP7 device that I can update to Mango to see how Win8 operates with it.

I also personally like it and, in my opinion, W8 is a good step forward for Microsoft.
Phone OS and Desktop OS will become the same thing, its just a matter of time, in my opinion at least.

Mak, I like connecting the phone and TV via HDMI and playing games or surfing the web on the TV, a phone replaces so many devices these days, no?

[Terry60]

"Phone OS and Desktop OS will become the same thing"
That's the whole point Sarge, the devices are not the same thing.
One has 6 sq" and the other has 200. a GUI designed for one just isn't right for the other.
There's no reason not to converge the OS code, but it should interface with each device in an appropriate manner.
One size does not fit all, in clothes or in GUIs.

[Ex_Brit]

I agree with Terry. I'm rather underwhelmed by it at the moment, but to be fair it is early days yet.

When all is said and done, right now it is Windows 7 re-labelled.....under the hood once you are past that Metro screen.

I'm one of those wierdos who thinks Vista is the best thing since sliced bread and to me 7 is a watered down version of it, 8 being no different.

[Sarge]

When all is said and done, right now it is Windows 7 re-labelled.....under the hood once you are past that Metro screen.

I'm one of those wierdos who thinks Vista is the best thing since sliced bread and to me 7 is a watered down version of it, 8 being no different.

In my experience, Windows Developer Preview is the most optimized Windows OS yet. I read about it often on Softpedia where, a few days ago, I saw they managed to run Win8 on 128MB of RAM (in virtual machine).

Mr. Peter, I thought of a question for you, outside of context: How does the real Windows revolution look like, or, how Windows 8 should look like and behave in your opinion?

And anyone else is welcome in answering this question, I'm curious about your answer(s).

[Ex_Brit]

I'm not sure I can answer that question Sarge as I'm a traditionalist. All I want is a system that works, does all the things I want and looks good and Vista Ultimate fills all those requirements for me. I guess 8 is good if it can be installed on a pinhead but really I don't care.

Now if someone would make a computer that never needs the use of a keyboard or touch screen ever, I'd go for that innovation. In other words - one like you see in the Star Trek movies.

[Sarge]

Yeah, a device that would let people type using their mind would be awesome. Something like this: A Device That Lets You Type With Your Mind

While instead of a mouse, touchpad or touchscreen, I would rather use pointing fingers trough the air, like xbox kinnect can recognize the movement. Moving windows, maximizing, minimizing, scrolling etc, with minor movement of fingers would be much better.

[Ex_Brit]

Yes, that's the idea ;-)

[Terry60]

We've all seen CSI and similar where people wave their arms in front of glass screens and move pictures around. (all available in W7 with the right hardware) and I can see a theoretical point to it in a conference, multi-user environment.
However I can see absolutely no point for a home PC.
Just sit at your monitor and use your imagination, reach out your arms and wave them around making gestures in front of the glass, and look at all the movement and effort you expend.
Then repeat the exercise with your mouse and see how much more efficient it is.
In my case, my wrist is on a gel pad, my thumb and pinky grip the mouse and movements of less than an inch in any direction cover the whole screen real-estate in a fraction of the time that arm-waving achieves and with virtually no effort.
My maxthon mouse-gestures cause little more than a twitch of the little finger, and I'm skipping around between tabs, and pages within tabs, and all so effortlessly.
The point of new technology, if it has any, is to improve on what went before.
If it makes it slower and harder, it's worse than pointless.
Doesn't matter how pretty you think metro is, nothing it does is faster or easier than you can do on the desktop with a twitch of your multi-button mouse, quite the opposite. Everything needs more interaction to achieve the same result as the earlier tech.
The only point I can see for an arm-wavy UI is to help reduce the western world obesity epidemic by giving the end-user a physical work-out at his PC.

[Sarge]

Terry is right. It's true... It's going to be difficult to say "keyboard and mouse are past" for a while. I tried controlling the whole PC via voice commands in Windows 7, while the system works, and you can't say they didn't do a good job, still, it can't be faster than mouse and keyboard, no matter how hard you tried.
I don't like the idea of waving my arms around, maybe fingers at the most.

[JustinW]

I like the mind control concept, but our mobile devices overtaking PCs all together is something I could see more realistically becoming reality before we get to that point. Mobile is nice, but too simple though. Compensating though, I would like to see a phone transform to a fully usable desktop OS when hooked up to a big screen (ie You've got the mobile version of Windows and the desktop version of Windows on your phone, and it adapts depending on the display(s) available to it). This would eliminate the need for laptops.