Talk about windows 8

[BuzzKillington]

Already...

http://www.windowsette.com/

http://msftkitchen.com/2010/06/windows-8-plans-leaked-numerous-details-revealed.html

[pcclan]

there this video too
http://techtoday4u.blogspot.com/2009/07/windwos-8-concept-video.html

[Konrad]

I realize that development of Win8 has hardly begun, but I'm generally unimpressed with these videos. It's all eye-candy, snazzy bling demos of about 3 different ideas they could've fully explained in one paragraph. It would've taken less of my time and not exposed me to their bad music.

I realize it's all marketing. Particularly since this early in the project they really haven't got a lot of product to show. I certainly hope that once Win7 irons out and debugs into a more mature product, MS will be able to shift people to focussing on Win8 ... and I really hope these people will actually work on real OS improvements instead of just banging out pretty icons and general GUI bloat. I'm hoping it'll be substantive, not cosmetic.

Having said that, does it seem likely any of these "improved" components/features will become available in Win7 as add-ons or service packs? I am impressed by the ability to transfer things around on the Taskbar, but I'm not gonna shell out $300 for another OS upgrade (especially after spending $350 this year on Win7) to get it. In all fairness, Win7 is actually (surprisingly) a fine product, quite stable and pleasant. It has plenty of problems but is - IMO - more lightweight and stable than XP. Certainly a thousand times better than cursed fat Vista.

[x88x]

I realize that development of Win8 has hardly begun, but I'm generally unimpressed with these videos.

Actually I first started seeing stuff about it floating up a couple months before the release of Windows 7, so they're already a fair bit into development...which is good given their estimated release schedule (2011/12).

As for the videos, I gotta say...user-switcher-cube? How very Compiz of you Microsoft...you're a bit late to that party though. :P Oh, and it's nice and all that you're finally pushing through dynamic program rearranging in the task bar...we've only had that in Linux for what, almost a decade now?

Oh, and does this thing give anyone horrible shivers of early 2000's Sony crossed with the 'fruit' eMacs?
http://msftkitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Windows-8-Machine.png

[Konrad]

You'll get no argument from me, linux is superior to Windows in virtually every measurable capacity. There may have been debate back in the days of slackware and Win3.x when both products sucked, but linux has clearly spanked Microsoft from about Mandrake onwards.

Only 2 little drawbacks with linux which still force me to keep cursed Windows going:

1) All the best games are written for Windows. When they're already topheavy and I wan't to squeeze every drop of fps I can get then running Windows (as bloaty as it is) is still a much lighter and faster load than running Windows in VMware on linux.

2) All the latest/greatest hardware drivers are written for Windows. A few are released for linux, though typically some months later as an afterthought. Sometimes drivers are simply unavailable for years before somebody ports them across or just writes their own. Plus, Microsoft is in no hurry to provide non-Windows support for DirectX.

I'm a linux longtooth; ie, I used slackware back when it was the only distro available, then clung to debian for about a thousand years (Redhat sucked even before it was called Redhat) then finally mandrake and ubuntu (among others).

Still, it's quite nice of Microsoft to start actually working on integrating real OS functionality into Windows these days. Doesn't quite justify the $$$ price tag (linux is basically free). Win98/XP/7 were the "core" versions; WinMe/Vista were the "intermediate" versions (and it showed). I wonder if Win8 will pan out to being a core or intermediate version, or just really something more of a Win7 "Second Edition" or Service Pack?

I fully expect MS to continue bloating the OS with Registry hives full of data for hardware/software you'll never use, terrible integrated browser, more terrible integrated media player, .NET framework, Office APIs, Admin hierarchies, "management" consoles, useless apps, 3000 running services, and all that other bloody nonsense ... instead of just using a modular "install only what you need" linux-style approach or having the apps install (and uninstall) their required software ecosystem as needed.