Chewy's review of Windows 8
Now that I've had some free time, I've downloaded a copy of Windows 8 Pro from Dreamspark (formerly MSDNAA), and had about a days use from it. I thought I would like to share my views on the fuss that is "Microsoft Windows 8".
Before I start, I'll mention that Windows 8 was installed inside VirtualBox v4.2.4 (the first version to properly support Win8). 2GB of RAM and 2 CPU cores was allocated to the VM. All default settings were left as is, except 3D acceleration was disabled due to stability issues. I did have some stability problems initially, but turning off 3D acceleration fixed most of those.
1. Installation - that was easy, no issues when coming from a blank HDD. (a 400GB HDD image was provided). I only needed to install the VM guest additions for a few drivers, but no issues with those.
2. The initial user setup. First of all WTF is about linking my desktop account to a MS Live account! No, I don't want to sign in with my Live Account (I don't have one, nor do I want one). Also, why can't I join a domain on first boot? (Something that was possible with Windows 2000 and XP IIRC). But otherwise setting up a local account was easy. BUT, and this is a HUGE BUT, WTF is the default new user an ADMINISTRATOR. Hasn't MS learned? FFS, create 2 accounts just like every Linux distro for the last 15 years has done, and educate users, that privileged actions require a f&*(king password. Yes UAC was annoying, but anything that wants to write to %PROGRAMFILES% or %SYSTEMDIR% should need a password as a minimum.
3. The New UI (aka Metro). Playing with the basic applications, nothing special, but I think someone forgot about all the UI research MS did in leading up to Windows 95 and right through until Windows XP was released. It's not the start screen is the issue, as I'm treating it like start menu that take ups the whole screen. (In some ways, most users only use about 10 applications at most, so pinning them to the start screen makes sense). What concerns me, is the "live" nature of it, in that it downloads constantly from the Internet. (Here is Oz, we can still get basic Internet packages that only include 500MB on ADSL, not to mention wireless connections are still expensive).
What took me by surprise, was how easy the new Start Screen was to use, BUT after an hour of playing with the Metro stuff, I though "How do I find all the applications installed"?. WTF, it's under "Search"? So, I mouse to the top-right, click on search, and I can see my Applications... Not ideal, but a habit to be learned.
I didn't play with Mail or Messaging, but IE (the Metro version), sucks. I found it slow, and the full-screen thing was annoying, especially having the address bar pop-up everytime you go to a new URL. (I also like my tabs). But the HTML rendering was on par with what I was seeing in Firefox 16, so can't complain on that part.
The weather tile, was giving incorrect information, so no idea were it was getting it's information from. (Comparing it's information to what I see in GNOME 2.30 and the weather applet, on my Android phone, in the GNOME 3.6 weather applet and also a quick lookup on WeatherChannel.com.au which all 4 agreed, was not the same as the MS tile). ** The GNOME applet gets data for Australia directly from BoM, and I can see all the correct information, including the GPS location of the receiver (Gold Coast Airport), so NFI were MS is getting their data from - and yes MS's data was wrong. (3C lower and said raining, but looking out the window, there were only a few clouds in the sky).
4. The classic desktop, no issues there. Since I normally use Win-R to bring up a Run dialog, had no issues find stuff. I also re-added the default desktop icons, so access to Computer Management, and the local drives was not an issue. But I did find it assuming that on the little system tray icon that lets you safely remove your USB keys, I could "safely remove VBOX HDD C:". Now that would be interesting.
The new task manager is a LOT better than the one on Windows 7. Please MS, can you back-port the task manager into Windows 7. (It's now on par with what Linux/BSD/Solaris users have had for over 10 years). Also, it's nice to see the event log view from recent Server products make it into Win8. (I prefered the server view as it gave the info you needed straight up, not having to use filters).
The switching between the New UI and desktop applications got a little annoying, but overall, it's not that bad once I got used to it.
5. Device setup - very few issues connecting to printers on the LAN, nor any LAN based file shares. (I did have to manually update a HP driver, but I would consider that a non-issue as this is something that's occurred since day zero with any version of Windows, when devices are on different Windows versions).
Overall, I don't really see what the fuss is? Yep, it's a new start screen (it's a f^&(king fullscreen start menu - get over it), the theming looks closer to Windows 1.0 that Windows 7 (not to my taste, but we are have different tastes), the New UI based applications need some colour (to help define the input and widget boundaries), but overall, it's just another iteration of Windows. Overall, it's not a step-down from Windows 7, but a side step into a boggy pot-hole.
Performance wise, it felt just as fast as Windows 7 or Windows XP (whilst running in a VM), so can't say anything in that regard.
My main concern was around Anti-virus. Nowhere was there any indication that an AV solution is bundled with Windows 8, nor is there any indication of how to manually access it. Also, not being able to join a domain first up, and the prompting for using a Live account is just bulls^%t. (I value my privacy).
As for the Metro applications, and the wall-garden - don't give a s&^t. I don't see that as any different to what Apple or Google have... and few complain about either of those in day to day life.
I still have more to play with, so will leave some further comments until I have fully explored those areas before handing down judgement.
PS. Would I recommend Windows 8 over Windows 7? Not really, I would say they are the same product, but just with a different user interface...