Back onto Windows 8, anyone bothered getting hold of the release version and given it a try?

Bit of a hands on: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/15/3243464/windows-8-rtm-final-build-hands-on

This is the crucial paragraph really for most users, but isn't explained very well:

QuoteIf you were hoping to see some additional changes on the desktop to better suit keyboard and mouse users then you're out of luck. Most of these improvements arrived with Release Preview, and Microsoft has done nothing here to answer a number of criticisms facing its new Start Screen interface. On a multiple monitor setup you're still restricted to running Windows 8 style apps on one screen, and activating the new Start Screen without the Windows key is still a little tricky using the hot corners. Windows 8 still boots into the new Start Screen interface, and a number of functions (like playing audio or video) will throw you into the Windows 8 style interface instead of allowing you to stay in the desktop mode. If you're a WIndows 7 desktop fan then you're never going to avoid the new interface in Windows 8, but there are ways to change default app behavior to limit its use.

Comments seem to vary from it being amazing and perfectly productive in desktop mode, to people complaining about not being able to totally escape the Metro UI.

Indeed its the comments that are the most interesting thing of that article. Some people seem to of been able to adjust to it quick easily while others are a flat out no use.

Once its been out for a bit I will give it another go and with the 1st Windows RT surface tab coming out at a rumored $199 I may be tempted

Dangerous game from MS that is - undercutting its OEM partners one one specific product line. That said what else are Acer going to install on their laptops - Ubuntu?!

I'd be tempted to pick one up at that price possibly - for Plex if nothing else.

Acer already have outspoken (basically moaned) about Microsoft basically undercutting them, HP went 'meh' and Lenovo said they will just make better quality products and will be fine.

And now we can all happily use Windows 8...

Classic Shell gives Windows 8 a Start Button

Quote from: Leon on August 23, 2012, 10:43:39 AM
And now we can all happily use Windows 8...

corrected....

Well you may have a point there, it doesn't make it happy, just makes it usable

So thanks to the volume license portal my work lappy is now evalutating Windows 8. Can't believe I'm saying this - really like it!! Its fast as hell, within an hour I'm pretty much familiar with the layout and how to get to everything and it just feels nice. Everything works although I needed a reg hack for the Cisco VPN client but other than that faultless. Time will tell how it pans out but first impressions are really good - massive improvement from the early version I tried.

What's the crack with drivers support on Windows 8, I take it 99% of Windows 7 drivers will work without issue?

For those wondering (like I was) apparently the stupid RAM memory limit restrictions of older Windows versions are now a respectable 128GB or 512GB depending on what version you use.

Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on October 26, 2012, 23:05:57 PM
What's the crack with drivers support on Windows 8, I take it 99% of Windows 7 drivers will work without issue?

For those wondering (like I was) apparently the stupid RAM memory limit restrictions of older Windows versions are now a respectable 128GB or 512GB depending on what version you use.

Not sure TBH - almost everything was working out of the box and on top of that I'm using a Dell 6430 which has official Windows 8 x64 drivers on the website. I've just finished installing my work apps (vSphere, OCS, CuciMoc, Office etc..) and its all working fine. Some lovely simple stuff too - like double clicking an ISO just mounts it and it works. Simple - but being integrated into the OS its a lot nicer to use than things like demontools, Magicdisc etc..  I'm sure as well that I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Looking forward to moving to server 12 too - virtual machine replication, de-duplicated file shares and HA DHCP! Superb!

Those are the things you don't really hear about that actually show might have a ton of improvements over Win7, its the little things like that which I'm looking forward to seeing the most.

I think I'll pick up a windows 8 phone soon and see how I get on with it that way first. I really like the look of the new HTC windows phones.

My computer is well overdue and format and ram & ssd upgrade so if I like it I'll get it on the PC.

Quote from: DEViANCE on October 27, 2012, 10:12:44 AM
I think I'll pick up a windows 8 phone soon and see how I get on with it that way first. I really like the look of the new HTC windows phones.

My computer is well overdue and format and ram & ssd upgrade so if I like it I'll get it on the PC.

How about Nokias Lumina ? with windows 8, I myself have an N9 with MeGoo and like it a lot but it would be even nicer to run MeGoo on a Lumina as it has a better cpu the Lumina 920 has better hardware than an iPhone 5

Here