Windows 8 - first look - first opinions.

[thewerewolf]

Microsoft finally announced Windows 8 for real yesterday and made the Developer's Preview available for anyone who wants to try it out. It's free (although you'll have to download 2.6-5.3GB of ISO images) and there's no activtion needed

Comments

[thewerewolf]

Depends on where you are. Essentially the entire 'Metro' part replaces the "Start" menu and then blends gadgets into it. It then has its OWN menu which swipes in from the right hand side.

When you're in Win7 mode (aka 'Desktop'), then menus work as before. However, yes, the big change is the addition of a Ribbon to the desktop Explorer. You can make it hide itself by double clicking a menu header - then it only appears when you click on a header, and then goes away (which, as I only recently found out, is how all ribbon menus work).

The good news - a bunch of useful new features like finally after what 25 years - there's an Eject button in the ribbon that works on drives as well as optical disks - so no more going to the USB systray thing to release a drive.

The bad news? It's a dog's breakfast in there. Finding what you want will be difficult - and it's not especially easier for touch users.

[tzisorey]

I got the ISO, but haven't had time to play with it yet.

Is it true that you basically have to log into the computer with a live/hotmail account?

[thewerewolf]

Yes and no. If you create your account with a Live account, you get roaming features. Basically, this replicates the 'go anywhere/use any computer' concept Google put into Chromebooks. If I log onto your computer with my Live account, it sets it up to look just like my home computer. It also lets me migrate stuff between multiple computers of my own.

But you can still create a regular account that's not tied to a Live account. You just lose the migration features and the enhanced SkyDrive integration. It's not that much, actually.