I don't really think that Microsoft is aiming for businesses with this though, I think that they're trying to get a much more broader audience with the general population. They seem to be leaning much more towards the entertainment industry.

-Hopefully- It won't be included in the Professional edition, but:

fact: most small businesses get PCs with Home Premium on them to save money.

Edit: Safe money? I didn't know that safes had their own type of currency :facepalm: fix'd

I must admit this doesn't look awfully good for a desktop.

A bad enough UI will make for a bad OS. If you can't get anything done due to the stuff that's there to make it easier to get things done, and have cannot rectify the problem, someone has screwed up very badly.

There's a lot of things a command line interface can do -and often quicker and more easily than a GUI- but a CLI is vastly inferior when you want to, say, watch a Flash video. In the same token, there's a lot of things a tablet aimed OS interface can do quickly and easily and well... but it'd rather type in "yum update" and hit enter than navigate a menu and half a dozen buttons.

I think Microsoft is heading in the wrong direction.

What they should do is drop all backwards compatibility and create a brand new OS. (Written clean, but still Windows)

Windows 7 seems very bloated to me...

If Windows 8 can get more than a new hairstyle they might have something.

But as a Personal Computer owner, I don't see the market shifting to tablets. And as a college student in a small dorm, I only need a laptop, not tons of cumbersome devices.

Why can't Microsoft create software and hardware! Make a device that works well...

What's the point in Windows without legacy software? (this is also why I see Windows on ARM as useless)


It's only 50 or so million lines of code, that's not significantly more than Windows XP and is significantly less than most Linux distros (of course Linux distros can do a lot more)


Everyone on this forum and on their own personal Internet connection are Personal computer owners *promises to not go on a rant about this*


No... just... No.

Most mobile phones are PC's. And that's not restricted to 'smart' phones.

This is what really concerns me. Windows was never known for being lightweight, and adding more bloat to the pile isn't going to help things. I want to know if the UI and all of its "features" are going to still eat up system resources even when not in use, because if the UI is "swippable", then that means that various processes are going to be on standby for the user.

Windows 8 is coming out? When? Windows 7 just came out. The only reason I have it is because when I first bought my laptop, (wich came with Vista) everyone who bought a PC at theat time was getting Windows 7 upgrade for free. So will we get the same upgrade for free or have to pay for it? I don't like the idea of buying a new OS every 2 or 3 years. Is this the new way things are going to be now?

Yup. I hope to god they change their mind and make the UI completely disable-able.

If they do that, I actually look forward to Windows 8 on the desktop, as many of the features so far that have leaked out do appeal to me, but if I'm not able to disable Metro, it's gonna svck (All could have been solved be keeping the tablet version separate from the desktop version )


Some time in 2012, probably with an RTM in late spring/early summer with a Retail release in late summer/early fall (to make the back to school and holiday sales). It may be even earlier since MS probably want's to put fuel under the burner to get a tablet out ASAP right now. I'm expecting a beta release by the end of the year (M2 came out sometime late last year and it was only a year and a half after Win7's M1 before it was RTMed)


They'll probably do the standard "bought in the the last 6 months before retail release" free upgrade, but that's only true if you go through an OEM (it's solely to keep sales from dipping between announcement and release of the next version of Windows 8).


That's the way Microsoft wants it to be. Microsoft REALLY never wants a Windows XP to happen again.

Same here. Maybe there will be some sort of UI hack that allows it to be turned off and any related processes killed.


I don't follow. What was XP's problem?

It lasted too long I guess. :shrug:

It really needs to be official to be of much use in the workplace, unfortunately I don't want to go around having to disable stuff in services just to have functionality.


Microsoft makes money by selling Windows licenses, they can charge more for new licenses (in other words: when you have an long time between OS releases, MS doesn't make as much money). Also it's creating a support headache in the Enterprise for them. This was partially why Vista didn't do well, and also the sole reason Windows 7 has Windows XP Mode (to get people using legacy software to buy a new OS). By speeding up the release cycle they earn more money, can drop old products faster, and minimize the chances of any OS becoming too big in the Enterprise that it forces them to support it for a longer time.

... which reminds me, I still need to talk to my boss about buying a new XP PC

Basically, Microsoft has to be fast with their releases or risk actually having a good product on their hands to actually support for once.

Well, if you want to put it simply

I had joked with a friend that Microsoft's App Store that's gonna be included in Windows 8 is the precurser for Windows Update Advantage (similar to Windows Genuine Advantage) and'll go something like this:

"Windows has detected that you are using an outdated version of Windows. The newest version is currently being downloaded and the credit card information you provided in the Windows App Store is being billed. Your system will reboot shortly"

:P

(BTW: when Microsoft does do that I'm totally taking them to court for my cut of the profits)

Having to be a hacker to get a working system? Has the discussion suddenly switched to GNU/Linux? :huh:


:P

Well, if the updates keep coming ever 2 years, maybe it's time to get a Mac then. When I bought my laptop, they tried selling me a Mac but I didn't want to dish out $1500 for a computer or laptop. They told me it will last 8-10 years so in the end it would be like a PC. Now I am starting to think they maybe right now.

This is another reason why I went to console gaming. I am sick and tired of buying a new graphic card every years so now if it's to the PC now, I may as well get a Mac and stick to console gaming. Just when I was about to come back to the PC for gaming this is going to happen now. :toughninja:

:whisper:
1. You don't have to update every release

2. Versions of Mac OS X come out even faster than versions of Windows -- 3 versions in 4 Years come this Summer.

3. Versions of Mac OS X become obsolete faster than Windows -- the 2005 version is already virtually unsupported

4. Macs are PCs, so of course they are like a PC. Don't fall for marketing
:whisper:


:whisper: Upgrading your graphics card every few years is cheaper than buying a new console every few years :whisper:

You know Mac OSX gets an "update" like every year that you have to pay for, right?

No I didn't. Well now after reading yours and Defrons post I guess I have nothing to worry about.

Damn it was nice for once in my life to have the lates MS OS system and not be behind an edtion or 2. Oh well, back to the old days again where I am behind again. LOL. At least I am not with Vista so I should be greatfull for something at least LOL.

Personally, I consider it "not advancing backwards".

If only the DX10 on XP project had gotten somewhere!

Ah yes, but that all depends on the card. And I say that because my newest card was an overclocked GTX 580.

$400 USD. Yeah, 360's are cheaper.

The more I think about it, the more interested in this whole "Same OS on tablets and PC" thing. There was a scene in Avatar where one of the technicians swipes a brain scan off from a holographic "desktop" onto a holographic "tablet." Something about that is just neat. We can't do that now, but maybe by having the support for the same OS on both could bring that sort of thing to life later on.

That's why I don't buy state-of-the-art cards. Prices go down so quick anyways, I think it's a waste to buy the expensive ones.

It's very nice though, cutting-edge and all that. Plus full DX11 support. :wub:

360s are also a hella lot weaker than a GTX 560

Then you have to factor in the savings from having just a PC instead of having to have both a general-purpose PC and a console, but I really don't feel like getting into TCO right now


That has nothing to do with same OS on tablets and PCs, that's NFC tech.