Windows 8 To Debut In October?

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Bloomberg, citing anonymous people with "knowledge of the schedule," claims that Windows 8 will ship in October. Personally, I think they can pull it off. What do you think?

The initial rollout will include devices running Intel Corp. (INTC) and ARM Holdings Plc (ARM) chips, making good on Microsoft’s promise to support both standards, said the people, who declined to be named because the plans are confidential. In embracing ARM technology, Microsoft is using the same kind of processors as Apple Inc.’s iPad. Still, there will be fewer than five ARM devices in the debut, compared with more than 40 Intel machines.
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They should just limit it to tablets, and then make a proper version for the desktop. Both the previews have been horrendously badly recieved.
 
Unless they bring the "Start" menu button back, I will not be going to Window 8 anytime soon...
 
It's always been rumored to be released in October. Just like Windows 7. That's been the plan known by those that follow OS releases for quite a while. Their "sources" have weak news.

I'm hoping they bring back some form of Start menu (optional) for the desktop and let users decide. I'll use the Metro UI on touchscreen devices and love it. Metro UI itself is very, very nice. But, it gets difficult when using a mouse/keyboard. Even worse when using a trackpad on a laptop.
 
I had too many issues with it and went back to 7. I know it's in beta, but when 7 came out in beta I had a much better experience.
 
Metro interface aside, I see nothing in W8 that is anything over W7.

To me, after using the beta for a couple weeks, it just looks like someone slapped the Metro UI on top of W7. really nothing to see once you got by the first few minutes.

After D/L that little application bringing back the Start button, the experience is simply the same.
 
Kinda like Office 2010, there's just no reason to upgrade, no incentive or need. Happy with Win7 + Office 2007 /shrug
 
I have no plans to replace my win 7 any time soon.

This is not simply due to any UI change, but win 8 simply doesn't offer me enough to justify the price of an OS upgrade. I don't own a tablet and my phone is android.

I will still learn what I can from win 8 to prep for future version of windows, but win7 treats me too well as it stands.
 
They should just limit it to tablets, and then make a proper version for the desktop.



 
Rebel44 said:
They should just limit it to tablets, and then make a proper version for the desktop.
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PC sales have flat lined, consumers just don't see any reason to upgrade desktops and laptops. Windows 8 is as much for OEMs as Microsoft. There's got to be a another reason for people to buy PCs. Touch screens, tablets and Metro apps may not be that enough reason but it's more motivation that just another keyboard and mouse driven desktop OS.
 
Does Windows 8 have any performance benefits? That's really all I care about.
 
GreenGoose said:
Does Windows 8 have any performance benefits? That's really all I care about.
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Actually that's one area when you get over the debate about the new UI where Windows 8 is going to probably be attractive to some people. Windows 8 runs better on every one of the 4 devices I've installed it one than Windows 7, a dual screen desktop, a convertible tablet PC and two x86 slates.
 
People got use to staying with one windows for along time. Windows 8 doesn't look that great. They always want to reinvent the wheel every time a new windows comes out. I don't see why they don't just add on to what they did already and expand on that. Make a Windows thats practically perfect. They always just restart from square one when it comes to the GUI every time. Usually it comes out to be bad then the next version of windows fixes what they did bad.

Usually the cycle is like this

95Good 98bad 98seGood MEbad XPGood Vistabad 7Good 8bad

The cycle continues. Its like they do it on purpose lol.
 
My company (many, MANY users) will NEVER buy something with radical interface changes that Win 8 introduces... Unless MS will make a "business" version of Win8 (ie no Metro BS, Start button, etc) they will lose MILLION$ in corporate level purchases... Don't have to be a marketing guru to see that...
 
Highly doubt Microsoft will try to sell a tablet OS to businesses. People should not jump to conclusion over a "consumer" preview. I also highly doubt they will make their schedule, my guess is Q1 2013.
 
Conker said:
Make a Windows thats practically perfect.
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How do you make something with the longevity of Windows that's practically perfect for 1.4 billion people? If you know how to do that, I have a feeling Microsoft and a lot of other companies have piles of cash waiting for you.

Conker said:
They always just restart from square one when it comes to the GUI every time. Usually it comes out to be bad then the next version of windows fixes what they did bad.
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Hardly, the basic UI in Windows 95 to Windows 7 is fundamentally the same and the reason why there's a lot of resistance to Windows 8, it's simply going into unfamiliar and new territory. But with PC sales flat lining and the iPad blowing up like a nuke in sales there's really little choice but to do something radically different in Windows lest it will become increasingly irrelevant to average consumers.
 
closers said:
Highly doubt Microsoft will try to sell a tablet OS to businesses. People should not jump to conclusion over a "consumer" preview. I also highly doubt they will make their schedule, my guess is Q1 2013.
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Oh indeed that is the plan but completely disagree with the premise that Windows 8 is only a tablet OS. It does indeed run virtually every desktop program I've installed, from Office to Steam and everything between and for a tablet OS it's remarkable that the programs run exactly like they did in prior versions of Windows.
 
heatlesssun said:
...the basic UI in Windows 95 to Windows 7 is fundamentally the same and the reason why there's a lot of resistance to Windows 8...
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I agree with that much ... even Win3.11
However the PC is only suffering from not being the #1 go to device to do everything anymore.
The iPad cant replace a PC or MAC, but they certainly work well together.
I argue that it still takes a PC or MAC to fully realize the potential of any portable device.
Win8 is simply Microsoft's push for ubiquity across all computing platforms.
As functions of PC's peel off to portable devices it makes sense for Microsoft software to follow them.
 
I haven't used the previews at all, but at this point I think I'll be upgrading right away.

I was concerned about the Metro interface being on by default, but from what I've read the regular old desktop+start menu is a tile you can open on the Metro start screen. That sounds good to me, Metro plus the new built-in multiple monitor features should look really nice on my setup.
 
erexx said:
I agree with that much ... even Win3.11
However the PC is only suffering from not being the #1 go to device to do everything anymore.
The iPad cant replace a PC or MAC, but they certainly work well together.
I argue that it still takes a PC or MAC to fully realize the potential of any portable device.
Win8 is simply Microsoft's push for ubiquity across all computing platforms.
As functions of PC's peel off to portable devices it makes sense for Microsoft software to follow them.
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I agree with all of this. And here's the thing, how can Windows proper, not a tablet variant, be relevant if it doesn't support the fastest growing segment of computing devices which are touch based? Windows 8 is simply designed with the current market realities of computers in mind, less emphasis on PCs and full blown computing experiences with keyboards and mice and more on touch and light weight applications.

There's just no where to go on the desktop with only keyboards and mice that would have any relevance to consumers right now. Any you want to slice it, the desktop is in a LOT of trouble on the consumer side. There's simply less interest in it from developers, many of the programs are just looking dated, and too many developers have simply been dialing it in with desktop programs. Sure there's tons that are great but Windows needs an infusion of something fresh, at this point just getting something fresh and different into the core of Windows is critical.

Maybe Windows 8 won't be well received but there's little choice on the consumer side, they simply have no passion or desire for conventional PCs, all that excitement has gone to the iPad. Microsoft has to everything it can to get some of that excitement back into Windows.
 
I for one am looking forward to an OS from Microsoft, that is not directly based on Windows Vista.

And, no way, I'm not having this shitty Metro Fisher-Price crap on my screen. With the power of the average computer these days, you would think that they could come up with something better than a 32 colour, flat button screen. Mind you, my Amiga would have been proud of displaying the Metro interface, and it would not have looked bad... in 1990!

The only place for Windows 8, is on a tablet.

Here is to Windows 9. MS's chance at putting things right again.
 
Stimpy88 said:
I for one am looking forward to an OS from Microsoft, that is not directly based on Windows Vista.

And, no way, I'm not having this shitty Metro Fisher-Price crap on my screen. With the power of the average computer these days, you would think that they could come up with something better than a 32 colour, flat button screen. Mind you, my Amiga would have been proud of displaying the Metro interface, and it would not have looked bad... in 1990!

The only place for Windows 8, is on a tablet.

Here is to Windows 9. MS's chance at putting things right again.
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When people talk about that Fisher-Price UI it reminds me of all the times that people said that of Windows XP. The tiles in Windows 8 can be very beautiful when utilized. Tiles can display anything and are dynamic, the 32 color flat button thing that would run on an Amiga is cute though.
 
XP definitely had a fairly terrible UI appearance. Bright greens, bright blues, everything big and chunky. :p



Ahh, much better! :)
 
Stimpy88 said:
I for one am looking forward to an OS from Microsoft, that is not directly based on Windows Vista.
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Why? Vista's bad reputation was, IMO, undeserved. XP was heavily entrenched and it took almost a year (!) for a handful of hardware manufacturers like Creative and Nvidia to put out decent drivers. From a speed standpoint it was fine, Vista with SP1 was actually faster than XP.

The best thing about Vista was that they finally brought security up to the same level as Linux and Mac OS. Obviously there are more Windows machines out there and thus more malicious software targeting them, but XP admin accounts were essentially sitting ducks because XP lacks the privilege authorization features found in other modern OS's. People loved to complain about User Account Control, but Linux and Mac OS have had the same thing for years. UAC is probably the least-annoying implementation of them all and it maintained backwards compatibility with older Windows software.

And, no way, I'm not having this shitty Metro Fisher-Price crap on my screen.
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Like I said in my previous post, I think the complaints about Metro are overblown. Nothing is being dumbed down, you can still go to the regular old desktop just by clicking the appropriate tile. Just think of it as a nice looking launcher. When you don't need the full desktop Metro gives you a nice media-center style interface for important applications and information.
 
I don't forsee Win8 having very good sales. I've been saying its ME 2.0 since it came out.
 
chinesepiratefood said:
This is probably the worst comparison in the world. Windows ME was barely even a product, they practically just packaged up a bunch of pre-beta code and called it an operating system.
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I'm talking in terms of market acceptance, not the product itself.

Yes, I've used 8. It seems like a packaged bunch of beta code called an operating system that very few are going to like or want (unless they have a tablet).
 
Conker said:
Usually the cycle is like this

95Good 98bad 98seGood MEbad XPGood Vistabad 7Good 8bad

The cycle continues. Its like they do it on purpose lol.
Click to expand...

Actually more like Win3.x good, Win95 bad, Win95 SR2 good, Win98 bad, etc. Doesn't change the cycle of course, just reinforces it some more :D

After trying Win8 in a VM and talking about it with others who have tried it as well I can not see any reason why I'd want to use Win8 on a desktop PC. Metro is a liability on the desktop, not an asset. By the time I have tweaked it to work for my purposes I'd be back with Win7. Might as well keep Win7 and call it a day.

Win8 is NT 6.2 and doesn't add any significant features over Win7 (NT 6.1). There are no major API changes, just some performance tweaking which can be done to a large extent with Win7 as well.

I'll see what Win9 does :p
 
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