Windows 8 Developer Preview Downloaded Notches Half a Million Downloads on Day 1

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markstrelecki

September 18, 2011 at 9:26am

Well, I decided to throw caution to the wind and install the DevPreview on my main production system: Core i7-920, 24GB RAM, SATA3 RAID, Nvidia 9800GTX+, X58 mobo...

1st impression: Metro is no good for me. I want the granularity and control I have come to know in the many years of using MS Windows. Metro is a simplified UI that I don't need and that actually stands in my way of doing things the way I've been doing them for almost thirty years. Probably great for newbies and users with far less background in the icon-oriented desktop metaphor, but it will NOT be for me. I've already found the registry entry that turns it all OFF and brings me to the "old style" desktop. (It felt really scary thinking about that just now as I typed it...)

2nd impression: no real gain in boot speed for me, but this IS a preview so I don't expect tremendous performance. I don't reboot very much, and leave the system up all the time, but when I setup the Core2 laptop I may be doing more boots and can get a better idea of how that goes.

It has been stable in the three days I've used it 24/7, but WIN7 is quite stable on this box, too, so no real gains there. I think the UI "feels" faster - web pages seem to paint faster, but not by much. I'm also using Firefox 8 (Aurora) and newer versions of some apps I'd been avoiding, and it all seems to work OK.

If the plan is to use Metro as a lightweight environment leveraging HTML5 and CSS, and avoiding ActiveX and IE plugins, then I could respect that design decision and would use it for much of my web work. If Metro is launched first, and faster, and then optionally booting the "normal" Windows desktop, I could support that, too.

If we get a Metro that is kinda like a lightweight shell, ala Slashtop, where much of our web stuff could happen, I think that would be a very workable and wise approach. It makes a platform that new apps can be delivered upon, and FINALLY moves us away from the legacy insecurities we've come to loathe and hate in Windows.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Love the mag, adore the website (even with all the spelling/grammer errors), and can't get enough podcasts. Kudos to Gordon and all the veterans on staff at MaximumPC.

MARK STRELECKI

Atlanta, GA. USA

 

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Lovechild

September 15, 2011 at 6:55pm

21 second boot on first gen intel ssd card  old core 2 duo with 8gb of ram and old geforce mobile 260gtx  1gb .. like that very much

can use most of windows 7 tricks like moving userprofile to differnt drive.. like that

just type from desktop to find anything.. love that

using middle mouse to scoll metro... nice

stable as all hell at lest for me and it alpha... very very nice..

I thought i would hate ribbon but they are really useful.

somethings i dont like . not knowing how to get in safe mode with out have to check  safe boot in system config. F8 just give repair options ?

Once i have finish backing up all my saved game going to try on my destop whic is much more modern system see how it works there.. 

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maddingo

September 15, 2011 at 3:12pm

yikes... I realize this is prebeta...but metro is an abomination for desktops

 

i waited 24 ~hrs before posting this...trying to find the "oh now i get it momment"

 

but I don't get it.... i can't stand the dev preview build at all.... convoluted pain in the butt to use on a desktop with no obvious gain over the traditional windows desktop.

 

for the love of god add a f***ing close option to the metro apps also....how the hell do you exit them anyways?..or they just think i want them running all the g** damn time...cause I don't

 

oh and put the f***ing programs in the start menu

 

this has the potential to make people wax nostalgic for vista =p

 

if you are going to start a project over and take 7 years to release it ever again...do it now

 

take your current win 8 plans put them in a shreddeder take all the source code containing drives put them in a car crusher then lift the remains with a giant electromagnet...then dump them in the deepest part of the ocean...and start again.

 

blah..... aweful just needlessly aweful.

 

utter crap for the desktop... a phone and a desktop are two different things (thank god)   please for the love of god rethink this microsoft ....it is terrible.... making Win ME and Vista look pretty damn good terrible.

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nogdolan

September 16, 2011 at 8:53am

I can only imagine what you might have thought of Windows 8 if you had not had the forsight to wait the whole 24 hours to form your opinion!!!

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JohnP

September 15, 2011 at 11:51am

Well, It's different. I think the hardest thing is to always come up into the app page whether I want to or not. So far, it is not completely intuitive on how to add or subtract these apps.

 The underpinnings of Win7 are all there though, buried under the usual suspects, control panel, desktop, task manager, disk management, etc.

 Once I get the feeling for the thing, I would expect it will be at least at good as Win7 and that is saying a lot as I love Win7.

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Cregan89

September 15, 2011 at 1:26pm

I agree completely, but I get the strong impression that Microsoft has a bunch of plans for how the two interfaces will coincide in the beta/release version. They absolutely have to offer a way to view a list of apllications from the Aero desktop without having to switch to the Metro desktop. That's the whole point of having a window based interface. But we'll see I guess. 

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don2041

September 15, 2011 at 8:32am

Hey Ballmer, there is a big difference between excitment and curiosity. Iv tried Win8 and I am far from excited with what Iv seen so far.

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Neufeldt2002

September 15, 2011 at 9:19am

I agree 100%.

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Marthian

September 15, 2011 at 8:32am

Can someone explain to me the app store? Will I still be able to run applications I randomly download off the internet without some fee, or will I ONLY be able to use applications off the App Store.

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doggitydogs

September 15, 2011 at 7:17am

What if I've only downloaded half of it because I have a slow internet connection (~800 kbps), and the other half is being downloaded on day 2? How is THAT counted in the statistics?

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