Today I installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Dual booting with Windows 7, because I'm not an idiot.
So, first impressions.
Transitions
Microsoft is betting hard on mobile and tablets as the future of computing, because this platform only makes sense if you assume that Metro is how things are going to be, and the relationship between Metro (the tablety part) and the Windows 7 Lite Desktop part is analogous to the relationship between Windows 95 and its DOS console: a last bit of sea water before the fishes haul themselves onto dry land.
Unfortunately the Metro interface is klunky and difficult if you're using a desktop for desktop tasks. Flipping back and forth is fine when I have the limited real estate of a phone or even a tablet, but on a real computer I want to do multiple things simultaneously, and always having to go back to App Space makes that more difficult than it ought to be.
Integrating Services
Let's compare and contrast.
In order to do just about anything, I have to provide my Windows ID. I didn't even realize I had a windows account in the mobile sense of the word, but then I remembered that I have a hotmail account from 1997 or so, and I gave it that. Microsoft wants to tie my calendar, mail, mobile game and other activities together with this account.
They make me do this with every single app. When I want to launch something I haven't launched before, it asks me to log in again. Why I have to keep entering this is beyond me.
Once you get into the apps they at least give you the option to associate it with other services. The Mail app would be beyond useless if it only tied into a hotmail account that I haven't logged into for, what, seven years? But I can point it at my gmail account, which makes it more useful.
On the other hand, consider my Android tablet. I logged into it once when I first got it using my google account and from that I have immediate access to gmail, chrome, gtalk, blogger, and about a dozen other services. Everything ties together transparently and without requiring any further effort from me. Moreover, these are all services that I use on a regular basis, so having them available is 90% of what I want to do.
If linked services being transparent across multiple devices is the future, and it pretty plainly is, then Google owns Microsoft on this front, comprehensively. Maybe Apple can compete here but I doubt anybody else can.
Windows 7 Is About It
As mentioned, the desktop parts of Windows 8 are effectively Windows 7. I'm okay with this, generally, as Windows 7 is about as good a UI as you're going to get given the Windows approach and design constraints, and it works well enough. But on a desktop you're going to spend most of your time in the desktop view and consequently one has to wonder what the motivation will be to go with Windows 8 on anything bigger than a tablet.
(For normal people, I mean. I know why I'm here.)
Oh, and another thing. When you are in App Space, it likes to have a very wide field, so you can scroll left and right to see more goodies. However, in keyboard and mouse mode, you have to grab the little bar on the bottom of the screen to move. Why can't I click on the screen and drag it as I would on a tablet? This is very poor design.
Oh Well
The biggest thing that Windows 8 did for me was to convince me that an extended and somewhat more capable Android OS is absolutely something I want on my desktop. It already has a lot of the features that I would want, and deploys them in a fashion which would adapt to a mouse and keyboard interface more smoothly than the Windows 8 stuff seems to. A little bit of window management and you're basically there.
So, first impressions.
Transitions
Microsoft is betting hard on mobile and tablets as the future of computing, because this platform only makes sense if you assume that Metro is how things are going to be, and the relationship between Metro (the tablety part) and the Windows 7 Lite Desktop part is analogous to the relationship between Windows 95 and its DOS console: a last bit of sea water before the fishes haul themselves onto dry land.
Unfortunately the Metro interface is klunky and difficult if you're using a desktop for desktop tasks. Flipping back and forth is fine when I have the limited real estate of a phone or even a tablet, but on a real computer I want to do multiple things simultaneously, and always having to go back to App Space makes that more difficult than it ought to be.
Integrating Services
Let's compare and contrast.
In order to do just about anything, I have to provide my Windows ID. I didn't even realize I had a windows account in the mobile sense of the word, but then I remembered that I have a hotmail account from 1997 or so, and I gave it that. Microsoft wants to tie my calendar, mail, mobile game and other activities together with this account.
They make me do this with every single app. When I want to launch something I haven't launched before, it asks me to log in again. Why I have to keep entering this is beyond me.
Once you get into the apps they at least give you the option to associate it with other services. The Mail app would be beyond useless if it only tied into a hotmail account that I haven't logged into for, what, seven years? But I can point it at my gmail account, which makes it more useful.
On the other hand, consider my Android tablet. I logged into it once when I first got it using my google account and from that I have immediate access to gmail, chrome, gtalk, blogger, and about a dozen other services. Everything ties together transparently and without requiring any further effort from me. Moreover, these are all services that I use on a regular basis, so having them available is 90% of what I want to do.
If linked services being transparent across multiple devices is the future, and it pretty plainly is, then Google owns Microsoft on this front, comprehensively. Maybe Apple can compete here but I doubt anybody else can.
Windows 7 Is About It
As mentioned, the desktop parts of Windows 8 are effectively Windows 7. I'm okay with this, generally, as Windows 7 is about as good a UI as you're going to get given the Windows approach and design constraints, and it works well enough. But on a desktop you're going to spend most of your time in the desktop view and consequently one has to wonder what the motivation will be to go with Windows 8 on anything bigger than a tablet.
(For normal people, I mean. I know why I'm here.)
Oh, and another thing. When you are in App Space, it likes to have a very wide field, so you can scroll left and right to see more goodies. However, in keyboard and mouse mode, you have to grab the little bar on the bottom of the screen to move. Why can't I click on the screen and drag it as I would on a tablet? This is very poor design.
Oh Well
The biggest thing that Windows 8 did for me was to convince me that an extended and somewhat more capable Android OS is absolutely something I want on my desktop. It already has a lot of the features that I would want, and deploys them in a fashion which would adapt to a mouse and keyboard interface more smoothly than the Windows 8 stuff seems to. A little bit of window management and you're basically there.
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