Microsoft Windows 8

It's absolutely brilliant. It's a little annoying that the tap-click function on my mouse is too sensitive, but the Start Menu is GONE. It's a whole friggin' Start PAGE now. Not to mention how fast it is, though that could just be the partition being practically empty.

It was a pain to install though, but that's mostly because I made a 31 MB partition, forgot to format it, formatted it, then realized it was 31 MB, not GB like I planned. Then after it finished installing, my computer rebooted a couple times for reasons I don't know. After that though, it's amazing.

 

I still can't believe they're releasing a new OS this quickly. Something seems strange about it to me, but I'm not exactly sure what. I can't see myself using anything other than Windows 7 just yet. I'll probably do what I did when Windows 7 came out, when my father gets a version of it I'll give it a shot.

 

... Wiping Ubuntu for a Windows partition? What!?

Some respect has been lost for you this day.

I highly doubt I will be impressed, but I suppose I should see for myself. Considering how little I liked Windows 7. Eh...

 

I love Windows 7. I'm really excited to see the improvements and features they've added, but if I install the preview will I lose everything on my laptop? Because that is not okay with me, and I don't feel like dual booting. :T

 

Here's a pretty unbaiased review of Windows 8 Developer Preview by an individual who values productivity and usability.

As mentioned in the link above, after the developer preview, there's probably gonna be a beta release aimed at common users before the final.

One of the beauties of free operating systems like Ubuntu is that you're free to reinstall it at anytime you please. After installing Ubuntu 11.04, I quickly switched back to Ubuntu 10.10....

In my experience with updating a Windows OS, all personal files are preserved, and installed programs and system settings are overwritten, but this is no excuse to not make a backup.

 

Eh, that review continuously mentions that Windows 8 is slower and more sluggish than W7. That alone is a major turn off. Windows 7 is so fast for me, I never lag or freeze up, ever. Everything is seamless and swift. I don't even like Metro, I never really did. I might just skip Windows. It seems like something for people who like 'cool' and 'social' things. Not for me.

 

It's actually much faster for me. The only other problem I've noticed is that I can't find the exit button anymore. But that's alright because as Misty mentioned, the Task Manager is gorgeous.

 

And I use 10.04. Always go for LTS versions.

Or just use a different distribution if you are down for that.

But, alas. I am not particularly willing to test out a new proprietary operating system. KS, if you can provide actual results regarding speed (processor and usage, time it takes to load up programs, etc.), I would appreciate it.

 

Will this suffice?

Spoiler

As for opening programs, they open near instantaneously, though I can't exactly prove that very easily. It's about as fast as Windows 7 was before I put the stuff from my old computer on it.

 

I guess I would have to use it to tell. How much space does it take up on a default install?

 

A little over 12 gigabytes, though I heard from a friend (still need a source) that it'll be smaller once they compress more things. The downloadable ISO is about 4 GB.

 

That's honestly impressive. Doesn't the default w7 install take up something like 21?

 

A clean install of Windows 7 Professional from a DVD ISO gave me about 5 GB of used disk space. ISO size, 2.6 GB.

 

Wikipedia says otherwise.

HDD free space
32-bit: 16 GB of free disk space
64-bit: 20 GB of free disk space

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7#Hardware_requirements

Was yours an official release?

 

I tried the Windows 8 developer preview and I have to say . . . it completely sucks. It's whole layout is based on a design for touch screen users. Now unless they have made another version for regular users, then it's safe to say I won't be upgrading to windows 8 anytime (ever) soon. Honestly it's seemed to me like another Windows Vista finish (a half made OS thrown together at the last minute) We'll just have to wait and see.

 

Ever occur to you that that's because at the moment it IS a half made OS? It's still in development after all. Yes, it's mostly based on touch screen functions, but it's currently based quite a bit on the Windows Smart Phone OS. And besides that, you CAN use the keyboard and mouse to navigate the Start menu very easily once you figure it out. The main thing is that since it's not even really a beta, there isn't a user manual yet.

 

The release was a free for non-commercial use version given to students. I'm unsure if there's any difference with other official releases.