As many, I'm highly interested in any new versions of Windows, and especially in the one that will take over the excellent Windows 7.
So I instantly downloaded 'Windows Developer Preview' that has just been released (just for my birthday
), and I thought it would be interesting to post a screenshot for all to see. Both for showing it to those that are not going to test it, but also to discuss about it.
Here are my first thoughts :
For now there's good and bad things, and the experience is not perfect with the bugs that appears sometimes (the first time it started, I had a full green screen, the background and metro icons were there but invisible, nice bug ! ^^).
The important thing I think is that it opens a wide range of possibilities that will sure be exploited by everyone, there will be as many Windows apps as there are in the Apple Appstore, but they will be made for our desktops !
My main concern is to test another version where you could actually customize the metro start page, with different backgrounds, and different kind of icons, to get something more appealing than this ^^ I want to easily create metro-style icons for all my apps, to avoid having a nice Internet Explorer next to a ugly Firefox ^^
And the main problem for now, to me, is ergonomics, look how hard it is to restart the pc next to 7 ?! The shortest way is ctrl+alt+del... that's a huge step back I think. The interactions between start page and desktop are bad as it is now... And I wish I had an easy possibility to actually end the processes of the applications that are launched, and not keep them all launched in the background, taking all the RAM (I think about the time when I'll have Photoshop + Illustrator + Dreamweaver + etc... mostly !! Or we're going to need 16go RAM at least !!
An option to start the pc directly on the desktop would be great too, but I think it will appear anyway.
And finally, I HATE the ribbon, why would I need this hundreds of options at all time, the omnibar in Windows 7 was the best (and I even delete it via the msstyles ^^), it's another step back to me...
But I'm still positive about it, it's close from Windows 7 but opens more posibilities, that's finally something new in the desktop universe
What do you think ?
Wallpaper : Elein
So I instantly downloaded 'Windows Developer Preview' that has just been released (just for my birthday
), and I thought it would be interesting to post a screenshot for all to see. Both for showing it to those that are not going to test it, but also to discuss about it.Here are my first thoughts :
For now there's good and bad things, and the experience is not perfect with the bugs that appears sometimes (the first time it started, I had a full green screen, the background and metro icons were there but invisible, nice bug ! ^^).
The important thing I think is that it opens a wide range of possibilities that will sure be exploited by everyone, there will be as many Windows apps as there are in the Apple Appstore, but they will be made for our desktops !
My main concern is to test another version where you could actually customize the metro start page, with different backgrounds, and different kind of icons, to get something more appealing than this ^^ I want to easily create metro-style icons for all my apps, to avoid having a nice Internet Explorer next to a ugly Firefox ^^
And the main problem for now, to me, is ergonomics, look how hard it is to restart the pc next to 7 ?! The shortest way is ctrl+alt+del... that's a huge step back I think. The interactions between start page and desktop are bad as it is now... And I wish I had an easy possibility to actually end the processes of the applications that are launched, and not keep them all launched in the background, taking all the RAM (I think about the time when I'll have Photoshop + Illustrator + Dreamweaver + etc... mostly !! Or we're going to need 16go RAM at least !!
An option to start the pc directly on the desktop would be great too, but I think it will appear anyway.
And finally, I HATE the ribbon
, why would I need this hundreds of options at all time, the omnibar in Windows 7 was the best (and I even delete it via the msstyles ^^), it's another step back to me...But I'm still positive about it, it's close from Windows 7 but opens more posibilities, that's finally something new in the desktop universe
What do you think ?
Wallpaper : Elein
:origin()/pre00/8f93/th/pre/i/2011/262/4/2/bleu_ui_kit_by_ap_graphik-d4aabzv.png)
:origin()/pre00/d55e/th/pre/f/2011/269/c/d/kare_expansion_pack_by_ap_graphik-d3fzq9s.png)
:origin()/pre00/00a2/th/pre/i/2011/063/9/0/win8_orb_for_windows_7_by_ap_graphik-d36pauv.png)
:origin()/pre00/996f/th/pre/f/2011/269/2/a/kare_for_adobe_cs5_by_ap_graphik-d2pef5y.png)
:origin()/pre00/1e75/th/pre/i/2011/063/0/5/steelorb_square2_for_windows_7_by_ap_graphik-d2lbq9e.jpg)
:origin()/pre00/a713/th/pre/i/2011/063/1/2/win8_orb___square_for_windows_7_by_ap_graphik-d36sbv8.png)
:origin()/pre00/5b82/th/pre/i/2010/032/7/0/leopard_glass_dock_skin_2_by_potasiyam.jpg)
:origin()/pre00/d2ac/th/pre/i/2011/268/7/0/office_2010_for_win8__mockup__by_yacine29-d4av18z.jpg)
:origin()/pre00/ed62/th/pre/f/2011/313/e/2/mini_by_lysy1993lbn-d4fowyu.png)
:origin()/pre00/59de/th/pre/i/2010/350/7/8/fluentnotepad_rc_by_salvog92-d2u6s61.png)
:origin()/pre00/16aa/th/pre/i/2011/251/d/e/windows_flag_start_orbs_x5_by_davidm147-d499ekd.png)
:origin()/pre00/5663/th/pre/i/2010/224/0/8/seam_________start_page_by_dimage.jpg)
:origin()/pre00/d709/th/pre/i/2011/035/b/d/amr_by_bedroompop-d2rhu3k.png)
cuz i really hate that sharp corners on windows or buttons especially on a desktop os...it may look good on mobile but on desktop a bit rounded is better...
This is windows 8? oO
It looks totaly like win7 with a new UI... nothing more.
Yes it's close from Windows 7, but I think it's good that way, Win 7 is a good OS to work with when Metro is not that good (for now) professionally.
(If only I had better teachers I should be able to speak German too, but I'm not
The problems are the Metro apps that will stay open if you don't go end their task yourself in the task manager... (new and nice by the way) Which include Internet Explorer 10 and all its tabs.
I still have to make some "stress tests" when I found time, I will test with Photoshop in future days. My problem (in a way) is that it's installed on a small (40Go) hard drive, when the OS already needs 20Go for the install, plus I've tried to install some games, download, etc... so I don't have any place left for Photoshop right now
But on the other hand, it's installed on an almost 10 years old low Maxtor in IDE, and sincerely it runs really smoothly.
And there is also some bugs for now... So it may get even better in the future.
After 10 minutes of a fresh start without doing anything, Win 7 used 1,00GB or RAM, after the same time with WDP : 730MB !
For now there's more bug than Windows 7 (well, I don't see any bug in Win 7 ^^) so it's hard to compare the two, and I know WDP has been installed very recently compared to Win 7, but it seems a bit faster. And note that my C: drive is 96% full, which might not help
quick question about the "panels":
Can you resize them? Whats the max size? Can you customize them (Edit the text, picture as background etc.)?
Just asking for my gaming icons
Cheers
M$ have been making the same mistakes for a while now; trying so hard to dumb it all down for the users of today. What about the users who don't want to turn it on just to look at facebook? What about businesses? Can you really see anything productive being done in a "Metro-Style" "App"? Full-Screen immersive Word Processors are pointless when you can't have it alongside the pdf you're referencing and a webpage of info! Sure the kids'll love it- have their twitter and facebook in their... face! but what do the rest of us get; the same old desktop experience, but with poorer abilities to quickly launch the programs and tools we use and need!
I'm excited for it, don't get me wrong; and on a tablet- Great OS! But they really need to not forget their loyal desktop users, and definitely not forget their current place as a workstation / domain client OS!
With Windows 8 it's clear that it will be even worst on this side, I see it and I really don't like it too.
Now there's one thing that I understand. Being a designer, I see everyone around me that want a "professional" computer, and what do they choose ?... Apple !... Does anyone think Windows is a "professional" OS ? I don't think so. Does Microsoft should change that and make Windows more professional than MacOS, they already loose this fight
So I think they're on the right way, and they do what people will want in the future.
For now, people will fear the change as usual, but in 3 years they will love it. An OS has to be developed with touch today, that's for sure, and maybe in 5 years it will have to be developed for a camera like kinect, because it will be wanted.
I'm always amazed by the huge number of people that turn on their computer (sometimes even an iMac 27"...) only to play cards and check emails... Now all these users will have a huge square with their favourite app directly on the start screen, and it will be the same no matter what technology they use. That's what people want, that's what my father explain to me without even knowing the existence of Windows 8 ^^
For us, we'll have to learn the keyboard's shortcuts ^^ to start a search without touching the mouse for example, and quickly choosing the category, to sear an app or on the web directly. In a way it could also be the same as before, go click the start logo, don't mind the start screen and begin type the name of your app and it will be there.
About the apps, for now they're very basics, they look like phone app, but I believe some "desktop" app will appear and will be more interesting, independent developers will make better things than Microsoft for sure ^^
But of course Photoshop or Dreamweaver for example will never become Metro apps, so the desktop has to stay at least as good as Windows 7, and for now I'm satisfied with it.
I'm back on Windows 7 anyway, I'll wait for more about Windows 8, I believe it will continue to evolved in a good way.
Windows XX Professional has been present for a while but it never felt much different from the Standard/Home Edition.
Microsoft should release a true professional edition of Windows giving us the power users (designer, coders etc.) exactly what we need.
Would it be so hard?? All they have to do is strip this new ugly skin of windows, including Aero (which is not that bad but it's the same crap since Vista) and I don't mean to disable it. From my experience disabling Aero on my quadcore PC to gain some resources and speed, did the opposite!
So all we power users need a fast reliable OS which is usable and without the bling and most certainly without Metro crap!
Can we do something about it?
I keep watching the ReactOS project which intends to give us windows user an alternative: [link]
But the development is impressively slow... I don't think it will even reach the beta!
I totally don't understand what means the "professional" in Windows X Professional. I get Windows 2000 Pro SP4 few years ago to replace my Windows 98, but the only reason was because I knew it was the most reliable OS for me at that time.
And I really see the need today for both a family and professional version of Windows. There are some people (like my parents for a good example of family ^^) that want a simpler Windows, and there's all the professionals on the other side that want more options
And it clearly needs a different design between each one, not something between the two in both.
Going all the way for family usage is not a bad choice for Microsoft, but in the end it will bring more people like us looking for another OS...
But again, I really want to wait for a future release of Windows 8, I believe the start menu and some other functions might have a professional use if it's worked properly. Having a whole start page instead of a tiny start menu can be great if we can customize it for our own use.
The only thing I have against Aero (not talking about the fact that it was old fashioned billion years ago
And in a way, that's why I don't hate Metro that much, because it's contemporary and minimal.
And that also explains why I hate the ribbon, it's too much information where we don't need it. "The perfect UI is the one that you don't notice", that's a rule Microsoft just forgot here, and what I don't understand is that it goes against Metro...!
I didn't know the ReactOS project but it sounds interesting, it seems to have many options. I don't know why but opensource has always many more options. Simple things are perfect but you have to give the options that people needs...
The Finder is a perfect example, it's more customizable but also simpler than the explorer.
Just after replying to you I remembered that I've forgot to mention win2000... back in the days I've choose win2000 advanced server and dunno why but for some reason it worked better and faster than win2000 pro. Even though the server version had some extra server specific services running in the back which I've eventually turned off. Maybe it had something to do with the kernel version... dunno for sure... I've used it as my main OS and it felt great, almost professional in a way.
I'm not totally against Metro UI but it soooo damn obvious that it doesn't fit in with Aero, no way, no how! Are M$ devs really that blind?? And again, the ribbon thingy doesn't go with the Metro UI. Ribboned explorer should've been and experiment back in the days of the Vista failure and dropped later on in Win7. I've got used to it in Office which has a point but in explorer?? Come on! Btw, I don't use explorer, it's way way way to limited for a power user. Image I have always opened about 20 tabs on each side in Total Commander... now that's a file browser! Instead of the useless ribbon they should have introduced tabs in explorer... tabs in everything! but noooo... they tell us to use the grouped feature of the taskbar which is hell of a lot of time consuming!
Like I said before... M$ needs to release a truly professional version of windows for the power users. Give us the same platform and kernel but a brand new professional UI. before win7 I've always used a shell replacement of which BlackBox (bbLean) was the best... lean and mean and with tons of options! Win7 made it obsolete and the compatibility isn't that great too. I've always dreamed of the perfect windows alternative: ReactOS powered by bbLean shell. Still dreaming about it!
Until then hopefully M$ will fire all their UI designers and hire some fresh minded people who can continue the Metro project and adopt it to the desktop version of Windows and also making it possible to easily integrate with other software without forcing developers to rethink their GUI (an example of this would be the small ugly icons in the metro start menu of the shortcuts you've added: firefox, foobar, azureus etc.).
Same thing goes for the competition! Apple needs a revamped UI but they fear to change something that works and something that the Apple fans love so much (a really close and expensive system)... well now that's another story!
Probably it will also speed up the development of those devices as well making the circle close.
What about functionality, I think it will be improved sometime. It is yet a developer preview.
I think the same considers Gnome 3. It is also a "re-imagined" system. And for me it is useless... so far. I like the main idea of Gnome, which tries to keep the desktop clean and minimalistic, but it is done with a cost of user experience (in my opinion).
But I strongly hope both Windows and Gnome and other systems that will try to change the view on PC will success in their tries. And I believe Windows 8 is on a good way to change using PC in a way.
What exactly is 'new'? All I see is a bunch of gimmicks stolen from other OS's and software, and poorly integrated at that. I know this is a pre-release so they might have the bugs fixed by the final release, but it's highly unlikely that they're gonna release any features that are actually 'new' by then =\
but that theme leaves an awful lot to be desired I'm afraid...
and you can turn off the metro and ribbon together with a registry key
ive been thinking of making a mockup of a replacement bar.
This developer preview is mainly the interface for tablets, so in that perspective, it's very nice. Only thing that really pisses me off like mentioned is the inability to close apps.