from tomorrow windows pro (upgrade) is on offer($40 for download) until jan 31st and yes you get the media center pack for free (normally a couple of bucks)

I have used the final version for several weeks on my secondary PC and my opinion hasn't really changed, it's still very meh...

Once you have installed Launchy, Fences, pin you programs on the desktop and can forget about the whole Metro stuff it's not a bad OS but it's not really different from Seven, there are some improved tools like the task manager and some other minor things but that's all.

Concerning the "Metro-ish" part, my opinion hasn't changed, if anything it's even worse (as now they no longer have the "it's only a beta" excuse), it has tons of stupid bugs (it took me a while to finally have it in the correct language as it has the good idea to ignore the ), it's sluggish (when my one year old android tablet is faster to load programs then their Metro equivalent you know something is wrong), most of the default Metro apps (Video, Reader, Picture), looks like minimalistic proof of concept rather than real apps and/or require an online account to work (Calendar, Contact, etc...).

In conclusion, as long as you don't touch Metro it's an Ok OS, you can do everything you could on Seven, but unless you plan on changing your PC or, like me, get it for free, I don't really see any reason to update if you already have seven.

Of course they would require an online account. They are supposed to feel alive and always fresh, maybe you missed the point of WinRT applications.

If you don't want that, you always have alternatives, like the Contacts folder (an answer for the example you gave).

Alive and fresh... seriously ? for a calendar and a contact application...

I have nothing with them having an optional online option for synchronization, but making it mandatory is silly.

Yes, because the People app acts not only as a list of contacts, but as a sort of Windows Runtime contract / protocol, meaning other WinRT applications can use it to get users' contacts and details about them (if users agree to that, of course), add contacts to users' lists whenever users connect various services such as Outlook, Facebook, Twitter, Skype... Also, it automatically keeps the users up to date with news relative to their contacts.

If you don't need any of that, as I've said, use the Contacts folder.

No way, dx11.1 hasn't even started yet. Haha, do you really believe that? We can't even emulate the first Xbox properly, and that's an 11 years old console.

By the way you realize that the Power PC architecture is completely different than the one used in x86 and x64 systems, right? And why would Microsoft do that? The Xbox 360 sells many more games than PC anyway.

The way those article presented the rumour it seemed plausible but perhaps not likely. I'm sure they do it because of xbox sales and not because of technical limitations (seems incompetent that Microsoft wouldn't be able to do it when they created both Xbox and Windows.

Yes, they can, but that doesn't mean they will. Even if they did, it would require a monster PC to run (emulators are not 1:1, you need a much more powerful machine than the one you're trying to emulate). They haven't even updated the original Xbox emulator on the Xbox 360 to run more games.

it's based on a disassemble of win8 RTM but this was before we knew that MS was designing a single kernal for all systems I expect the win8 kernal will be in the next xbox

Are you sure you've read about an emulator and not something else? Because Windows 8 comes with Xbox Live integrated into the OS, maybe you read something about it?

Looks like that this is what happened. There were actually rumours of a Xbox 360 emulator for Windows 8, but i'm pretty sure that this rumour was caused by a confusion when Microsoft announced that Xbox Live would be integrated into the new OS, which lead some people to believe that this meant Windows 8 would run Xbox 360 games.

30€ for the update?

Sold.

Ye, its freaking cheap compared to previous editions. :)

Some apps that you'll find useful:

Reader (Adobe Reader basic replacement, PDF and XPS files).
Cocktail Flow (beautifully designed application, featuring lots of cocktails (more will come in time as this version still lacks many present in the Windows Phone version)).
Fresh Paint (modern Paint replacement, very nice, works great with digital brushes and pens too).
Mail+Calendar+People+Messaging (Mail for email, Calendar for calendar-related stuff, People as a contacts aggregator, and Messaging for texting Outlook / Facebook / other friends)).
Music and Video apps for streaming Xbox Music and Xbox Video (the streaming services).

EDIT: Forget about antivirus, defragmenting, maintenance and similar stuff. :) Also, give it a week or so, you'll be doing things faster on it once you get used to the new workflow.

That kinda remind me of "Halo 2 for Windows Vista"

Note also that if you bought "a qualifying Windows 7 PC between 2 June 2012 and 31 January 2013" you can upgrade for an even lower price through the Windows Upgrade Offer website.