Looks like Windows 7 with a fancy start menu and a fish.

*shrugs shoulders*



Edit: Typing this from Win8. Seems okay (typically use Linux and XP). UI is usable without reading any instructions. This is no 3.1 to W95 transition.

Off to download some programs.

What does he use in / the desktop for? To start applications such as Office, check mail, and browser the web?

install windows , install only what you really need , backup (what you should always do anyway) and once a while have a spring break and put back the backup. one could also use revo uninstaller to really delete your stuff. not the way it should be perhaps but not like windows 7 is really bad.

windows 7 came with my new pc, but i doubt if i ever gonna windows 8 by the looks of it. and i think it will fail like windows me. they should have created 2 different versions.

The only thing I dislike is how many steps I have to go through to shut down the computer. The rest is OK and have absolutely no issues with it.

I'm just going to stay away from this thread because all I see is the usual "I liked it better before because I'm too lazy to learn something new despite either (a) mapping exactly to an old concept (start screen - desktop with icons) or (b) there being actual data supporting the fact that you don't lose any functionality in the move".

I'm dual booting it from a VHD and I guess I'll slowly move towards it being the primary OS when the final build is released.

Yes, but why should that be a reason not to use a desktop? The only use I see for mobile things like tablets and smartphones, is if being able to access information on the road is more important for you than to be able to type properly.

which i could get already in windows xp more or less so that is not impressive at all.

In that case he won't need the desktop, at all. And I doubt he'll need to install a single additional application. No more looking through folders to find stuff, everything is shareable through the Metro applications.

Oh now I see, you were talking about the desktop UI, me about a desktop computer.

Well, my father knows nothing about Windows 8 but what I've told about him (it seems I'm the only one in my circle who knows it exits at all), so dislike by my father is completely due to my rant. But he likes XP a lot and knows I do as well, so that's why he hopes it stays alive for a long long time.
Could you clarify that one, how does Metro help finding files more easily? Or are you refering to finding programs?

What's wrong with borders?

I am not even using W7, so I'll check the thread again in a.. few years*. :)

*) maybe later

Well, support for Windows XP will end on 8 april 2014, so after that: no more security updates. My plan is to buy WIndows 7 before it goes out of shop (sometime in 2013? usually a year or half a year after the next version comes out), so I can avoid the new road Microsoft has taken with Windows 8 till 2020, when support for 7 stops. And maybe 9 will be better, then 11 (every even Windows version seems to be a failure, someone wrote).

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

havent downloaded 8 preview yet, but like on this forum, heaps of other desktop users seem to have the same complaints about the UI being pretty shite for desktop users. Why do they have to make the changes just to cater to the mobile crowd? (small % of users come on).Windows 8 may indeed turn out to be the next XP so to say :D

Past 2014 you can always go the Linux way! Let Microsoft go their own way, they're not a shepherd we should blindly follow!
I hope you meant to say the next Vista so to say?

People don't like changes... Windows 8, Ubuntu, Windows Phone are all examples of that.

EDIT: Some users are reporting that WoW runs a lot better on 8 than it did on 7.