Oh, like Windows CE was supposed to be? That was like using a tree trunk for a pool cue.

So far, it is a desktop OS that makes enough of a pretense of being something else to confuse customers and drive superior competitors from the market.

I doubt it will ever be anything else.

You can't blame MS for trying to enter the tablet/phone market but I think they are too late to the party. Android and iOS are already well positioned so I doubt many people have been waiting for W8 on portable devices.

I actually wouldn't mind it being a minor failure it might force Gates to finally step back into the ring...

I agree this one's for the lucrative mobile market. Luckily Win 7 is good enough to see me right for a few years yet.

I don't know if that would helpful or not. Wasn't the Zune his idea? :P

he wanted an MP3 player but he was already gone when dev started on it...

I hope their attempt at unifying desktops, tablets and smartphones with one OS doesn't end up being a detriment for desktop users. The devices are so different in the way they're used that I can't see anything good come from this.

Jack of all trades. Master of none. The thing about Windows 7 is that I don't have to constantly jab the Windows key to remind it I'm using a desktop PC.
I just hope this is just another Vista and they have more of a clue next time around.

would windows eight on a mobile mean ability to run dos games? cause that would be pretty awesome. phones are already 20 times more powerful than my second gaming pc so power is not a problem... just drivers.


but that metro looks just so so unhelpful and completely not needed.

My guess is they will remove Aero from Windows 9 and go full on with Metro. They are already Metro-ing Office, Expression Studio, Visual Studio, XBOX, and their web services.

The horror...

I've tried out Windows 8 for half an evening now as a dual-boot with Windows 7 on my laptop (I didn't want to risk all my data and game progress on the desktop), booting and installing from a Windows 8 disc made from the downloadable ISO. I think I messed up the boot sector by changing the default boot to Windows 7 from within WIndows 8 configuration menu right at the first startup. When my system didn't boot at all I rebooted with the Windows 8 disc, I chose repair and there was an option to repair if Windows doesn't start at all. After a boot in Windows 8 I restarted and chose to have Windows 7 to be my default from the settings option in the bootmenu.

So all is well that ends well as installing is concerned.

But Windows 8 is not so well in use:

When you start the apps screen shows: it's messy, things aren't ordered in folders like in the start menu, where you could have lesser used parts of a program like a weblink or BG config program stowed away inside the BG folder. You can sort it allright, but it still looked messy after sorting.

Apps can't be closed by a red cross in the upper right, I used ALT-F4 to close them.

Open apps don't show in the taskbar, so you can't see how many apps are open unless you use ALT-TAB and cycle through them or open the task manager.

Many tabs want you to sign in with a new concept called Microsoft ID, a mailadress and password you use for things like sharing photo's, mailing, etc. etc. Bye bye privacy. There's a reason I don't use social media and have different names and passwords for different activities! I DON"T WANT TO SHARE ALL MY STUFF, MICROSOFT!

And finally the system is a mish-mash between the new Metro apps-interface and the old interface that keeps you rummaging through the UI to see where they've hidden things. Old WIndows was bad in itself, with some managment hidden in right-click on My Computer, some in the Control Panel, which was even more confusing in Windows 7, but now they've added a third method of setting controls, which makes the whole even more fussy.

I'll update my XP desktop to Windows 7 before 7 goes out of sale, no way I'll pay for that hideous 8.

Then they'd be pretty fucking retarded then, wouldn't they? For desktops they're providing an inferior interface over a long established superior one. Next move is to scrap the superior one entirely? I just don't see them being that mentally deficient. The desktop PC market is still their bread and butter, no matter how exciting the world of tablets might seem at the moment.

Inferior?

This is most likely how it will look like: http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/24/2822891/windows-desktop-ui-concept

Office 15 is looking amazing!

Exactly what my father said when I told him about my abysmal experience: MS will get a lot of unhappy feedback from desktop users and will make a turnaround back to the good things from the Windows 7 and Windows XP times. My father is even hoping for support of XP to be continued in a fanmade style beyond 2014.