Saturday, March 31, 2012

After a month, how do we like the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

Before starting this today, I did a bit of surfing to look for reactions to Windows 8 on the web, and of course, there's lots of the usual complaining from those who don't engage brain before opening mouth - or in this case, hitting the old keyboard. A lot of that would be avoided if only they would try to familiarlize themselves with the program before simply assuming it doesn't work. It works very well, but it doesn't work like your old XP, or your (Ugh!) Vista, or even your Windows 7 - but it is using a lot of Windows 7's goodies under the hood, and if you're paying attention, you'll pick up on that almost immediately.

In case you are one of those who have tried it, ran into familiarization problems, and didn't like the results, and couldn't find some answers for your problems, (possibly because the 'Help' section is largely unwritten in this test version!) you should click on this link for some very useful help from someone calling himself 'Dr. Z's Blog' because in it there's a list of common problems that newbies may experience, and the answers to those, to get you going again quickly and easily.

And lest we forget, this program has only been out of its cage now for barely a month amongst us unwashed masses, and it is still very much a work-in-progress, as Microsoft will quickly remind you, so try to give them a chance to finish it before you start composing its epitaph. Reports of its demise may be grossly exaggerated, to put it mildly.

A lot of fuss has been made over the accent on the touch interface, and experts have gone on record as saying that it can't compete with the simpler and better iPad designs. I can't comment on that, because I have never owned an Apple product. That's because I don't like to mix religion with computing. The technician who works on my computer whenever it needs any fixing or new hardware upgrades was an Apple dealer for many years, and then one day, he got smart and realized that he was trying to survive on the business he got from an enterprise that had only about a 10% market share. By switching from iMacs to PCs, he opened up his market from 10% to 100%, because he can now fix and sell computers to everybody. He has sold me three already, and will sell me another whenever I need one. He knows how I like to install various third-party programs, especially freebies, from around the web, and he once told me that I'd probably hate a Mac. When I asked why, he said "Because there's only a limited number of programs available for Macs, due to the fact that the vast majority of programs are made for PCs, and programmers are making new ones for those instead of for Macs, which use a different O/S. So most of those freebies you love wouldn't work on a Mac." 

I don't know how successful Windows 8 will be in its final incarnation, but so far, I don't see any reason why it can't be a raging success. I haven't found any glaring problems or even irritating aggravations in it, and I think once people understand how to easily switch between its touch interface and its desktop interface, they will get over the idea that it needs a major overhaul. It's in the process of being built right now - so wait for it! It isn't finished yet. Even in its unfinished state, it's a hell of a lot better than Vista, and let's shut the hell up about XP. That was four operating systems ago, and it's history. 

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