The Windows 8 Beta Could Leak Early 2012

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Reliable rumors are starting to surface about the early completion of Windows 8 beta that could be ready by the end of the year. You know the drill with any big release….the whole thing gets leaked to the Internet as soon as possible and half the world is running an unofficial beta release the first week. It’s often been speculated that big time leaks are orchestrated by the companies themselves for the feedback and publicity, but who would do such a thing? :D

If this rumor bears out, and the beta is completed by the end of the year, Microsoft will have to attempt to keep a lid on the code for a huge stretch of time; I don’t think it will be able to.
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after playing with the pre beta I may skip win8. I looks like Ms is making a OS for tablets and touch systems. I have a feeling we may have a windowsMe coming again.
 
p05ta1 said:
after playing with the pre beta I may skip win8. I looks like Ms is making a OS for tablets and touch systems. I have a feeling we may have a windowsMe coming again.
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Not that I'm thrilled with the direction it is heading in either, it would absolutely have to not work in most scenarios including simple tasks to earn the WIndowsME award.
 
I think tablet like interface Win 8 should pretty good knowing that Microsoft is throwing money at kinect developers. Kinect + Win8 + HTPC = Awesome.
 
ButchCassidy said:
I think tablet like interface Win 8 should pretty good knowing that Microsoft is throwing money at kinect developers. Kinect + Win8 + HTPC = Awesome.
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Wow messed that up. New to the forums and didn't realize that edit function is disabled here.

I think the tablet like interface of Win 8 should be pretty good knowing that Microsoft is throwing money at kinect developers. Kinect + Win8 + HTPC = Awesome.
 
This OS has the potential to completely take over. If it's successful, Android and iOS could be in big trouble.

I'll be getting my filthy mitts on this beta as soon as humanly possible (just like I did Win 7).
 
I really don't think i will bother running the beta copy, whats the point, windows 7 runs beautifully and M$ seems to be going in the completely wrong direction with this version of windows. I will have to see if they allow you to disable all that metro crap before i decide.
 
prtzlboy said:
This OS has the potential to completely take over. If it's successful, Android and iOS could be in big trouble.

I'll be getting my filthy mitts on this beta as soon as humanly possible (just like I did Win 7).
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I happen to think that the Windows Phone OS is mostly pointless. With the way phones are going there will be no need to use a phone OS. It will run a regular copy of desktop Win8 for x86 or ARM and you will simply use the Metro interface exclusively.
 
I'll try it....but so far not impressed at all....i might for the first time skip a new windows upgrade.
 
The comments here all seem to suggest that there's only a tablet style touch screen interface. I highly doubt they'd release an OS like that for desktops. At least try out the official beta when it's released before you dismiss it as something completely useless.
 
Derfman said:
Not that I'm thrilled with the direction it is heading in either, it would absolutely have to not work in most scenarios including simple tasks to earn the WIndowsME award.
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Yeah WindowsME crashed about twice a day for me on average (not to mention all the other problems). Win8 still has the same basic kernel/etc underneath as Windows 7, which doesn't really crash.
 
I hope that they fix the backwards compatibility in Windows 8. Some MMO's which user a browser window running a flash interface disguised as a game client did simply not work at all with it.
 
niconx said:
I happen to think that the Windows Phone OS is mostly pointless. With the way phones are going there will be no need to use a phone OS. It will run a regular copy of desktop Win8 for x86 or ARM and you will simply use the Metro interface exclusively.
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What? Windows 8 won't work on a phone. With that said, the Windows Phone apps will work on WIndows 8.
 
I don't get how anyone has actually tested Windows 8 when there aren't any apps to play with. That's not how you'd use it in a real environment when it comes out next year. At least wait for the beta when the Windows Store is open before passing judgement.
 
p05ta1 said:
after playing with the pre beta I may skip win8. I looks like Ms is making a OS for tablets and touch systems. I have a feeling we may have a windowsMe coming again.
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They're on the "suck" part of their cycle so this makes sense.

Win 95 - Suck
Win 98 - Good
Win ME - Suck
Win XP - Good
Win Vista - Suck
Win 7 - Good
Win 8 ...
 
SparkedFire said:
What? Windows 8 won't work on a phone. With that said, the Windows Phone apps will work on WIndows 8.
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Why not? Most of the desktop related services and libraries don't need to be installed let alone loaded in ram. Microsoft has said they have focused on just that with Win8. Desktop Win8 is up and working inside 512MB of RAM which is way less than the 1GB some smartphones we have. If you stick to Metro on the phone everything will work just fine.
 
Maybe im off on this one, but i bet the software companies are doing the same with the torrents.....would be a ton cheaper way of distribution....ya know 30-60days pass, your so called software stops working, hehe wonder y?
 
Cobalt35 said:
They're on the "suck" part of their cycle so this makes sense.

Win 95 - Suck
Win 98 - Good
Win ME - Suck
Win XP - Good
Win Vista - Suck
Win 7 - Good
Win 8 ...
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First of all, Windows 95 was one of their most successful product launches EVER, so you've immediately started off on the wrong foot.

Second, your list is far from complete. Here's the COMPLETE Windows family tree, in order of release. DOS based versions are in red, NT based versions are in blue.

DOS
- Windows 1.0
- Windows 2.0
- Windows 2.1
- Windows 3.0
- Windows 3.1
- Windows for Workgroups 3.1
- Windows 3.2

NT 3.1:
- Windows NT 3.1 Workstation, Advanced Server

DOS
- Windows 3.11
- Windows for Workgroups 3.11

NT 3.5:
- Windows NT 3.5 Workstation, Server

NT 3.51:
- Windows NT 3.51 Workstation, Server

DOS
- Windows 95

NT 4.0:
- Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Server, Server Enterprise Edition, Terminal Server, Embedded

DOS
- Windows 98
- Windows 98 SE

NT 5.0:
- Windows 2000 Professional, Server, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server, Advanced/Datacenter Server Limited Edition

DOS
- Windows ME

NT 5.1:
- Windows XP Home, Professional, 64-bit Edition, Media Center (original, 2003, 2004 & 2005), Tablet PC (original and 2005), Starter, Embedded, Home N, Professional N

NT 5.2
- Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003 (for intel itanium)
- Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Storage, Small Business Server, Compute Cluster
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, Storage, Small Business Server, Compute Cluster
- WIndows Home Server

NT 6.0:
Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate, Home Basic N, Business N
Windows Server 2008 Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server, HPC Server, Itanium-Based Systems

NT 6.1
Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate
Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server, HPC Server, Itanium-Based Systems

NT 6.2
Windows 8
 
Just the fact that Windows 8 will have full on Hyper-V is enough for me to upgrade at least my workstation.
 
Cobalt35 said:
They're on the "suck" part of their cycle so this makes sense.

Win 95 - Suck
Win 98 - Good
Win ME - Suck
Win XP - Good
Win Vista - Suck
Win 7 - Good
Win 8 ...
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As someone who is not a sheeple, and who has used nearly all of these operating systems in a home and business setting I must say this is a pretty poor list.
As another as pointed out your a missing a few, even skipping the pre-95 releases you left out Windows 2000 entirely.
All of these have had their faults, some worse than others.
In my opinion though:
Windows 95 was a great improvement over Windows 3.11, Windows 95b fixed many issues
Windows 98 was a great improvement over Windows 95, Windows 98 SE fixed many issues
Windows ME never should have seen the light of day
Windows 2000 was a great implementation of NT level security for desktop users
Windows XP was crap until Service pack 2
Windows Vista was a great improvement over Windows XP, as with previous releases there were issues and SP1 fixed many things (in my case however i switched on day one of RTM and never went back)
Windows 7 probably could have been called Windows Vista SP2, but regardless was a an improvement over Vista

I look forward to Windows 8, but I dont plan on using Metro... time will tell
 
What's with all the negativity here? I won't be so naiive that thw Win8 road will be completely smooth, but it IS something to look forward to and see if MS can actually break their awesome/suck cycle. WP7 was just revolutionarily awesome, I hope W8 is the same.
 
not impressed with windows 8 so far, but it could work well if they have the option to turn off the tablet features completely for users that are using a traditional desktop. I find no functional usefulness in it and prefer having the normal desktop and normal start menu over these big icons that take up half the screen. There is a registry entry to turn them off.
 
niconx said:
I happen to think that the Windows Phone OS is mostly pointless. With the way phones are going there will be no need to use a phone OS. It will run a regular copy of desktop Win8 for x86 or ARM and you will simply use the Metro interface exclusively.
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You may actually be right. As new OSes get lighter on specifications, it wouldn't surprise me if MS ends up dropping off the phone OS completely in some several years away. I can't see then happening anytime soon though.
 
BDS23 said:
What's with all the negativity here? I won't be so naiive that thw Win8 road will be completely smooth, but it IS something to look forward to and see if MS can actually break their awesome/suck cycle. WP7 was just revolutionarily awesome, I hope W8 is the same.
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damn near every post for every news story these days seems negative on this site. Nothing new. I myself never get excited for new os releases, as long as the programs I use work I could care less what the shell is or what it looks like. With that said I am happy to see arm support. Hopefully nvidia gets something going and makes a decent desktop cpu.
 
stockwiz said:
not impressed with windows 8 so far, but it could work well if they have the option to turn off the tablet features completely for users that are using a traditional desktop. I find no functional usefulness in it and prefer having the normal desktop and normal start menu over these big icons that take up half the screen. There is a registry entry to turn them off.
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The thing that people who say this miss are Metro apps. Until we see the number, quality, and suitability of these apps on all form factors, laptops, desktops and tablets, there's just no way to get a feel for this. It's easy to say "no one wants phone apps on their desktop" but Metro apps can have considerably more capability and power than typical tablet and phone apps, Metro can be used to develop DX games for instance.

Metro can create some very beautiful and refreshing programs that are currently rare on the desktop. It may not catch on, but there will be a lot of things you see in Windows 8 that are very slick and fresh.
 
Aaron11 said:
You may actually be right. As new OSes get lighter on specifications, it wouldn't surprise me if MS ends up dropping off the phone OS completely in some several years away. I can't see then happening anytime soon though.
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This will NEVER happen. If anything, the phone is going to merge into the other form factors, indeed the ways apps are written for Windows Phone and Windows 8 is VERY similar, and with Windows 8 on ARM it's the next logical step to combine the phone into everything else.
 
Derfman said:
Not that I'm thrilled with the direction it is heading in either, it would absolutely have to not work in most scenarios including simple tasks to earn the WIndowsME award.
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I don't get warm fuzzies for media support on this one.

It reeks of chasing the ghost of Steve Jobs this time around. They want us to get excited about Binging our Facebook twitter metro exchange. Yawn.
 
heatlesssun said:
Metro can be used to develop DX games for instance.

Metro can create some very beautiful and refreshing programs that are currently rare on the desktop. It may not catch on, but there will be a lot of things you see in Windows 8 that are very slick and fresh.
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Getting my rant on here...

First, "Metro" is a look. Weather you build games that use a UI like it is orthogonal to DX or any other gaming API.

Metro is optimized for touch. My display is not touch. It will NEVER be touch. When I see manager 'tards with their monitors and laptops all munged up with their grubby management paw marks because they can't read a display without tracing under the line with their fingers like my five year old it makes me want to beat them with a dead rat.

Using a mouse with Metro blows goats. Hitting the windows key and having your entire work-space obliterated by that fucking "immersive shell" pisses me off.

It's a solution to a problem that does not exist.
 
ianken said:
Getting my rant on here...

First, "Metro" is a look. Weather you build games that use a UI like it is orthogonal to DX or any other gaming API.
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Actually Metro is also the new WinRT API, it's much more than just a look.

Metro is optimized for touch. My display is not touch. It will NEVER be touch. When I see manager 'tards with their monitors and laptops all munged up with their grubby management paw marks because they can't read a display without tracing under the line with their fingers like my five year old it makes me want to beat them with a dead rat.

ianken said:
Using a mouse with Metro blows goats. Hitting the windows key and having your entire work-space obliterated by that fucking "immersive shell" pisses me off.
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But the same desktop and keyboard and mouse applications work EXACTLY as they always have, the only difference between Windows 7 and 8 from the perspective of desktop applications is how they are launched. Other than that the other major difference is how search works.

ianken said:
It's a solution to a problem that does not exist.
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But there IS a problem. Windows, Microsoft flagship OS, the most widely deployed OS in the world isn't optimized for the fastest growing input method on computers today, touch. Without touch Windows would simply stop being relevant outside of the business world and even then would face more and more competition from OSes that were touch optimized. The issues of Windows' touch suitability as a touch OS have been around for years.

The bottom line for those that don't like tablets and touch is that vast bulk of the world doesn't see it that way. This is simply the reality of computing today and Windows has to be designed to support what is important and relevant for what the bulk of people want otherwise it will be ignored and developers and 3rd parties will care about it less and less. Microsoft is simply having to make Windows fit in with the market dynamics of computers for our time. Microsoft is simply too far behind to develop a separate tablet OS from scratch and without leveraging the desktop Microsoft would have little hope in making a big splash in tablets and touch. Adding touch the Windows will maintaining the vast vast of keyboard and mouse functionality is a sensible strategy and one that has a reasonable chance of sucedding.

If someone has a better idea, Microsoft could have a very highly paid job for you.
 
i dont understand why everyone thinks these touch-based interfaces are going to be required for desktop users too. i feel like thats what theyre working on because its basically new territory for windows, everything else is already pretty sturdy in win 7. i doubt theyre so dumb as to completely cripple normal mouse+keyboard interface, especially since 95% of windows devices right now do not have a touch screen. there is just no way they will require you to use metro and kill the start menu entirely etc.
 
ekuest said:
there is just no way they will require you to use metro and kill the start menu entirely etc.
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Microsoft will try it's best to do exactly this, kill the Start Menu, at least as we know it. Metro apps a deeply tied to the Start Screen, if you turn of the Start Screen you effectively kill Metro and Metro apps will work with all Windows 8 machines. Without Metro working on ALL Windows machines the same way the motive for developers to write Metro apps is greatly diminished.
 
Everybody's complaining so much about the metro interface from the Dev Preview build. You DO realize that the whole POINT of that build was for developers to start dicking around with metro. It wasn't feature-complete by any means. They've stated that it will be easily disabled in favor of the classic desktop explorer, which every PC user will probably do. I'm excited to try it out.
 
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