Maximum PC

last night i saw that i could pick up a copy of windows 8 pro for 15 bucks. So i called and got myself a digital copy to try out for 15 bucks and a physical copy for another 15.. after the order i was given the option of installing windows upgrade assistant. i did and began to download windows 8.. it all looked really smooth and snazzy..

windows 8 upgraded in a decently short ammount of time and i was soon staring at metro.. i actually kinda liked it.. so i clicked google chrome.. whats this??? i have now exited metro and am back in windows 7 with no aero on my taskbar. ok thats weird.. i will just start up steam.. what the hell.. im back in windows 7... hmm.. maybe i should have fresh formated instead of trying to upgrade... i will go back and do that... oh wait.. my digital download is gone.. AND I CANNOT DOWNLOAD ANOTHER.. neato.. so i now must wait for my dvd.. guess i will call microsoft for help.. oh they think i stole windows.. oh they took my windows 7 cd key and all my info minus the rectal exam... oh they think i stole my copy... they think i having trouble with apps.. they simply told me to wait for the dvd and then do a fresh install...

i came here to post my impressions...

meto seems neat for the 2 seconds you spend on it before you click any app and are rocketed back to the old windows screen minus aero so it looks like crap..

So after paying 30 bucks it seems the only real gain i got from windows 8 was that i now get to reinstall windows 7 and download another 80 gigs of games..

i cannot wait for steam and linux.

Didn't you ask about using Linux?

Again - Just because Steam is coming to Linux doesn't mean the games are compatible with it right out of the box. Go look at what you can buy for Mac, that's about as good as you'll get (if even that).

EDIT: I might be misleading. A good chunk of the library will run with WINE, but Valve has no control whether or not they can distribute games for Linux with WINE. Otherwise the Mac OS X library would be a lot larger (unless they include WINE anyway).

As far as I'm concerned, the move to Win8 for most people is not needed, unless of course, you have a touch-screen capable PC or tablet. Other than that, most regular PC users won't see much of a difference, other than the Start menu is gone and replaced by the tiles/metro interface, and everything else is moved around.

The only other positive thing I heard is that it is a little less resource hungry (memory) than Win7. I can't verify this yet since I don't use it prime-time yet (it's running in a VM right now, so it's hard to gauge impact on memory compared to performance in a VM). I'm just irritated at the mixed support from MS for their products on Win8. LIke, how supposedly VS 2010 isn't compatible, but VS 2005, 2008, and 2012 are... 2010 is the sweet spot for me, new enough for my needs, but still compatible with WinXP and Vista machines, whereas 2012 is not compatible anything lower than Win7.

Which brings me to a concern on the longevity of Win7. I assume that MS will support it for at least another 3 years (although sales may cease in 6 months or so). I wouldn't mind seeing them dump Vista support to extend Win7's support... hopefully they make a good decision and keep updating/patching Win7 for at least 7-8 years for those who really it is not feasible to upgrade to Win8 anytime soon--such as businesses and schools).

(My favorite challenge to play on fellow co-workers/friends is to offer $1-2 if they can find the Control Panel in less than 5 minutes. So far, I haven't had to pay anyone...)