Microsoft has just announced that Windows 8 has gone gold – or, in Redmond parlance, RTM. “Today, I am excited to announce that Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing (RTM)! This means we’ve completed the product development and testing of the product and have started handing off the final code to our OEM partners. They can now begin preparing new Windows 8 PCs and devices they’ll introduce starting with General Availability.” Anybody got a spare MSDN account?
Standard procedure- wait for Service Pack 1 if you want it to be usable…. Or Windows 9.
I dunno… they’ve already done two numbered releases in a row. They’re probably getting ready to try a new version branding. Years, done, two-letters, done, aspirational yet meaningless word, done (won’t be trying that again for a while), numbers, done. Hmmm… special characters?
Behold: Windows #!
They pretty much returned to numbers (Windows 1, 2, 3) – so we might see another return, maybe we’ll see years again …or decades? (too bad it’s too late for XP – it would be so much more curious with “Windows Noughties”)
More like Windows 9.
Windows 7 was good enough without SP1
I don’t know… in this case, they’ve screwed Windows up so badly with Metro, and it’s only going to get worse as Microsoft forcibly tries to push it onto people and kill off the traditional desktop in upcoming versions, that I honestly think it’ll only get worse after Windows 8. For anyone who wants to do real work on a real desktop, that is.
The only thing that will save it now is a major repositioning of Metro, as being a “secondary” interface for those users who want it and keeping the traditional desktop around for those who want it and–*gasp*–actually own hardware that would work better with it. You know… keyboard, mouse, big monitor… that kind of antique legacy stuff that, according to Microsoft based on their intent to abandon the desktop, is apparently so outdated these days.
[UZ64 here. This is the username I will be using from now on.]
No Windows 7 was stable in Beta and RC. I think Win 8 will be the same.
The Windows hardware test suite is truly something to behold. I wish I could find the link, when I saw a pic of the rig that ran all the tests … I was like “holy shit”.
Stability isn’t the problem with Windows 8.
The problem is that it feels like the bastardized offspring of a desktop and tablet OS. The best description I have seen so far is “a monkey’s abortion”.
But I’m sure all the youtube videos and polls are wrong.
Microsoft can’t possibly release such a POS on the public. They always listen to their customers, right?
People are going to love Windows 8 just like Bob and Kin. Sinofsky is right to censor the Windows 8 blog and suppress negative feedback.
It wasn’t true for Win7 why would it be true for Win8? Win7 was Vista SP2. Win8 looks like Vista SP3. Winxp took until SP2 to get good.
Microsoft, prepare for the avalanche of angry phone calls, IT support nightmares and a massive user backlash who want to either “downgrade” back to Windows 7, or switch to an alternative O.S.
No, this is not a joke. Not Vista, not even Millennium Edition was as bad as this Metro crap. And yes, I tried them all, from the early alpha releases all the way to the latest Consumer Previews. Horrible UI, Microsoft.
Please come to your senses and release something worthy with Windows 9, or suffer market share bleed like you’ve never seen before.
For reference, just take a look at this telling video and you’ll see exactly why Metro is the biggest mistake Microsoft ever made. Everyone involved with this catastrophe should be fired on the spot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4boTbv9_nU
Pardon me sir, for intruding on your post.
But I would like to know how much did you sell your imagination for? Were there tears after sale of said imagination? Did separation cause any mental scars?
Presently, there’s a lot of butthurt about Windows 8 on the ‘Net. I am concerned about these individuals.
Are you trying to be funny? ‘Cause you sure fail at it, quite miserably I must add.
At work we use Windows, but at home it’s Linux all the way! No sane enterprise will ever migrate to Windows 8, that’s for damn sure.
I thought it was pretty funny.
What’s not funny is how many people have no imagination at all. Even more horrible: Some of these people are computer users!
Pardon me…no actually I’m not at all polite to Windows 8 defenders.
Like Sinofsky you probably sit in twitter all day and can’t conceive of how many problems this will cause power users and developers.
We actually use the start menu for passing parameters to our customer internal software. I will actually type in the program along with the parameter while continuing to look at code. Windows 8 takes me away from my focus and sticks me into an animated ad screen. WHEEEEEE!
Oh and the start screen makes a complete mess of my start menu. No I cannot ‘pin everything to the taskbar’ as I have numerous utilities that I only use a few times a year. If I wanted to make a complete fucking mess of them then I would just make hundreds of shortcuts on my desktop like an asshead.
IF I thought Windows 8 would appeal to grammies I might be neutral but all the feedback says otherwise. The Windows 8 blog is highly censored because so many developers/builders/msces are yelling about how everyone they have tried it on hates it and it’s a freaking STOOPED strategy anyways to try and catch up with the iPad by needlessly pissing off enterprise.
Then there is the whole user retraining cost issue which you will read about when enterprise takes a piss on this POS and demands Ballmer’s head.
Not that I expect you to listen anymore than the MS reps that just want our money. Well they won’t get it next year so maybe the M$ fanboy club will buy enough $600 surface tablets to make up for it. Not really, MSFT stock is going to dive over this bullshit.
Oh jerkface you’ve been buried again on a tech site.
You’ll be wrong about Windows 8 just as you were about Ubuntu and Unity.
Everyone I know has an Ubuntu tablet. Shuttleworth was right to force Unity and ignore the polls.
You were also wrong to call Vista unfinished.
10 out of 10 fanboys agree that LATEST_CRAP is actually awesome.
Instead of making hilarious assumptions and outlandish generalizations, the overly emotional need to settle down and relax. I know change is scary but it’s going to be alright.
Ah the ‘fear of change’ fallback argument, typically used by Windows 8 defenders since they can’t sell this POS on technical merit.
So tell me, were the people who predicted that Bob would fail afraid of change or in touch with reality?
I called Gnome 3 an abomination early on, I predicted Ubuntu would lose the top spot on Distrowatch over Unity and I’m now calling Windows 8 a POS that the most people will hate.
I’d like to think that I’m gifted when it comes to predicting interface changes but I just read the polls and gauge initial user reactions. Windows 8 also doesn’t pass the smell test. It just stinks.
Pics. Or it didn’t happen.
Distrowatch (on which you seem to be basing your estimates WRT the relative health of distros… http://www.osnews.com/permalink?529260 ) doesn’t matter, it’s just a conduit for loud, frothing, volatile fanboys.
And contrary to what anti-Ubuntu fanboys want to perceive, Ubuntu is doing fine: http://stats.wikimedia.org/archive/squid_reports/2012-06/SquidRepor…
Ubuntu 990 M 0.66% – far beyond any other non-Android Linux, including Mint (which has meagre 12.5 M 0.01%)
Oh, but surely you delude yourself that Mint (or some other) are stealing Ubuntu users …well, let’s check the trends – half a year ago: http://stats.wikimedia.org/archive/squid_reports/2012-01/SquidRepor…
Ubuntu 947 M 0.66%, Mint 18.9 M 0.01% (yeah…)
Can’t vote you up but you made me laugh
Windows Millennium Edition is much better than the crap they have been churning out lately. Give me Windows ME over XP/Vista/7/8 anyday!
Yikes! Windows 2000 pro was much better than winME but the thought of using either makes me shudder.
Win 2000 was the first good version of Windows IMHO. NT 4.0 was pretty solid but so limited.
Windows XP which tbh is just 2000 on Steroids has been a good OS since Service Pack 2.
I would rather use Windows ME than have that Metro crap forced on me.
Nothing says quality software like an artificial restriction.
That’s what really pisses me off about MS fanbots. They’re not just defending software that is receiving heavy negative feedback but also defending Sinofsky’s decision to force Metro in the boot and in the place of the start menu.
I now hate MS fanbots more than Linux forum defenders. At least Linux doesn’t have an actual p.r. department.
MS fanbots are just pathetic little nutless boys who would have told us that Bob was a great idea or that kin will sell millions and we should ignore any polls that say otherwise.
MS fanbots need to read this article from J Bruzzese, a Windows professional and author.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/if-you-love-windows-be…
Edited 2012-08-02 00:38 UTC
When naming all the Windows versions for some strange reason ME is the most easy one to forget.
It’s just Windows 98 SE+. Windows 200 wasn’t able to unite the NT and DOS versions of Windows, ME was released to well, release something to update Windows 98.
Not sure ME runs any modern software these days like Firefox or MS/Libre Office.
To what extent did you try Win8? I installed the developer preview the day it was out, and have been using it as my main OS since the Consumer Preview was released, and upgraded to the Release Preview the day it came out. It definitely isn’t worse than the XP->Vista transition, since Vista broke drivers and software, which is far, far more disruptive than replacing the Start Menu with the Start Screen.
And for most users, that is the biggest change.
Meanwhile, there are lots and lots of good things that Windows 8 brings to the table.
“Meanwhile, there are lots and lots of good things that Windows 8 brings to the table.”
Such as?
Better performance for one.
using about 300mb of memory (idle) and I have dedicated a gig to it on the VM. The UI runs smoothly when I give it 12mb of video memory at 1024×768 in Virtual box.
Win8 > Win 7 > Vista in terms of performance. Before you hark on about the fact that Win 7 min specs were higher than Vistas, I think the min specs were more realistic than Vistas.
Vista underneath is pretty much Win 7 (I believe they are using the same kernel on the 64bit version in the latest update for Vista).
Improved disk performance: Shrinking and expanding volumes is much faster in practice.
Hyper-V built in.
The Refresh feature, and the in-place install.
GPU accelerated everything.
Improved multi-monitor support in the classic desktop.
The theme is nicer, with the sharp edges and fewer gradients.
Better driver support (USB 3.0 out of the box!)
Better support for multitouch trackpads.
Better search.
…
These are just things that affect me on a day-to-day basis. There are others that I think I can list off the top of my head:
Much better tablet support (duh!). This includes touch gestures, plus improved handwriting recognition.
More flexible threading model, especially useful for the newer AMD chips.
Integration with Windows Live (Yes, that is a good thing.)
…
Of course, the lack of start menu can be seen as a regression, but once you get used to the start screen, it actually is mostly better.
Most programs are i/o bottlenecked. With an SSD my programs are near instant and even with a 5400 rpm drive they are plenty fast thanks to pre-fetching. Sinofsky is going to have to try harder than crap like “displays fonts 500% faster” when I don’t remember the last time I waited for Windows to load a font.
This really is the emperor’s new OS. The Gold thread is 5000% thinner! Let me know when they come up with some metrics that actually make up for being forced into an animated clusterf*** of crap. Boot times are a joke when you have to boot into metro and then click “desktop”. This OS is a joke and the majority will agree, MS fanboys are just going to take a little longer.
Nothing says great software like ‘once you get used to it’.
Windows 8 makes a complete mess of my start menu. Dumping everything onto a single screen next to a worthless IE is a regression. Sinofsky has never even claimed it is more efficient, it’s just a lame-o strategy to encourage tablet app development.
Oh and P.S. I am a .NET developer with an MSDN account so don’t think I am a Linux or Mac troll. I also liked Vista and defended it here (after it was fixed) so stew on that for a while.
You forgot the most important for some Windows developers.
Focus again on C++ at the same level as .NET languages.
Starting to move away from Win32 to a proper OO API to the operating system, COM based.
Now only Metro and partially on the Desktop, maybe fully on the Desktop around Windows 9 or later SPs.
That is my wish anyway.
This way Microsoft is finally adding to Visual C++ capabilities offered by C++ Builder since 2003!
Edited 2012-08-02 07:04 UTC
None of those things mentioned really matter to Average Joe, except perhaps the Live-integration. I just don’t really know if even that matters much in the end as none of the Averages I know understand anything about this Microsoft Live-thing, they just use “messenger” or “chat” or “mail.” Microsoft kind of haven’t integrated it’s Live-based services well with eachothers nor are they taking enough advantage of that.
As I have mentioned before the most beneficial feature of Windows 8 for Average Joes and Janes is the curated app store; once the people become aware of that I can image them using the app store as their primary method of finding new applications and games, possibly resulting in massive reduction in malware and viruses. The less malware and viruses there are in the wild the better for everyone. The second thing that is very beneficial for Average Joes and Janes is the inclusion of Microsoft Security Essentials as a core part of Windows 8; since MSE does not expire, it is not some trial thing nor does it try to push subscriptions or extra functionality to users it’s a very workable “out-of-your-face” antivirus – solution.
As for the reaction of these Averages: as I’ve said, I believe most complaints will be about how the people don’t understand why the system jumps between regular desktop and Metro so often when they try to use their applications, not about Metro itself. Eventually, though, people will end up replacing most of their legacy applications with Metro-based stuff from the Windows Store and thus people will start to complain less. In any event the complaints won’t be enough to steer the general populace away from Windows, it’ll still be mostly only geeks, nerds and self-righteous “professionals” who will be doing that in some sort of a crusade and the general populace will continue rolling their eyes.
Windows 8 RT is where I see potential for a much bigger of a mess with general populace: Average Janes and Joes are exceedingly good at ignoring everything they’re being told, they’ll just see the word “Windows” and automatically believe that everything they throw at the tablet will work. No matter how much you tell them otherwise there’s bound to be people who refuse to understand, and thus it would likely have been smart for Microsoft to name Windows 8 RT something more distinctive.
Here’s why you are wrong:
People are not as average as you think. I’m always surprised by how many people have that one Win32 application for work or home.
Also, the following will not go to Metro anytime soon:
Office
iTunes
Photoshop
Warcraft
By anytime soon I mean years. Those are huge applications that cannot be ported overnight.
So it’s unrealistic to expect most people to stay in Metro.
Then on top of it multitasking in Metro sucks and the fonts are crap because it is designed around ultra high dpi monitors.
We’ll see in a year or two.
I’m fairly certain Microsoft will eventually release a Metro-version of Office, possibly one with an interface for both Metro and traditional desktop.
True. But then again, Metro sports a music player already, so it’s likely people will slowly move to that.
True again.
It’s almost always played in fullscreen, plus it doesn’t use Windows UI anyways, so that’s wholly irrelevant.
It’s also unrealistic to expect Average Joe to move to anything else.
You just wish to complain about stuff you don’t like.
iTunes isn’t that dominating, not to the extent that some people would like it to be. Now, reliable stats are hard to come by, but on Steam Survey ( http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ ) it’s at 30.73%, Winamp 19.45% so relatively comparable (and, curiously, WMP at 33.43% which seems to make no sense …unless Steam can determine if it’s actually used, which would mean that MS player is already more popular)
It also seems very regional – as far as personal anecdotes go, hardly anybody uses iTunes at my place. Plus, during my Last.fm browsing (subpages of which often show what some random people use for listening), I see iTunes around as frequent as WMP, IIRC – with Winamp, Spotify, and fb2k also thrown in quite often.
And Photoshop could be quite awesome on touch; but we’ll probably wait for that a while.
Warcraft won’t go Metro, but it’s not a dekstop app in the first place. iTunes hardly fits with Win desktop as is – might as well be “ported” without any adaptations (like Google did with the early test version of Chromium for Metro) and the extent to which it doesn’t fit the environment will stay roughly the same.
You’re really trying hard to convince yourselves that everybody will hate it…
So how is the start/metro menu? Do you prefer it over the win7 startmenu or did you fix it with third party tools like launchy(my plan)?
I’m at times a little frustrated that there isn’t an easily apparent way to add programs (The start menu folder structure is still there, it’s just sorta hidden.)
But, no, I haven’t used anything to change the way it operates, and overall I think I do like it better than the Win7 menu, since it operates in a very similar fashion.
I did manage to get back to the Metro menu. A few times in fact, but the virtual computer was so slow that I have no idea how I did it.
Speed aside… I like windows 8 a lot and use the release preview as my only OS both at home and at work. But I found it damned near unusable in in a vm – not for speed, but due to how much the screen corners matter.
If you have only used windows 8 in a vm, then you are justified in hating it.
I find it works fine in a VM, must be all my Quake 3 lan battles when I was 20 where I can control the mouse so well.
Edited 2012-08-01 22:12 UTC
I disagree, the corner thing is annoying as hell in a VM.
I have a recent iMac with 8 GB of RAM. Windows 8 ran pretty slow (in Virtual Box).
Honestly I have no idea to get back to the Metro menu, although I managed it a few times. When I thought I had figured it out it wouldn’t work the next time. But this is because it was so slow, when I did the correct thing the result may show a little later.
Having the Metro interface is a brave attempt, but it’s undermined by providing the traditional desktop, which is kind of sabotaged by removing the start button.
Why not use the traditional desktop and offer Metro as a pulldown or hotkey optional feature? For me Windows 7 is their best ever effort, it’s really good. Windows 8 isn’t a step forward. It’s not even a step back, it’s more a step in to a dark forrest where it’s easy to get lost and nobody know in what direction it will go.
Metro works fine on a touch based system. Although I’m not very fond of these live tiles. It looks cool, but why spend seconds watching an icon waiting for information that may or may not be there? It’s kind of like the BlackBerry stare where you peer at the notification LED and try not to blink because then you may miss it. If something interesting is there you need to be able to see it in a tenth of a second. Now the live title of me first tells me I am me before it tells me of any social network updates.
So it will be horrible for every one with 1+ monitors?
I will eventually get it on real hardware, but will wait to see if a SP1 would be needed.
So it will be on torrents tomorrow or after it gets released on MSDN?
You kidding? It’s probably already up there, released my Microsoft themselves so they can try to get a userbase. Guess the pirates can’t complain how crappy it is when they get it for ‘free’ (even though I think they’ll end up paying for using it…)
From what I understand it has a different activation scheme for retail but the OEM still uses the same SLIC as found in Windows 7 – so if there is leak the OEM SLIC file will probably appear soon after at everyones favourite place.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they release another piracy check for 7 but not 8.
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to surreptitiously court pirates in a sad attempt at inflating installation stats.
Ballmer’s ass is going to be on the line so we could see Windows 8 piracy checks removed entirely.
Metro is crap. However, I hope they changed their minds about not supporting non-PAE CPUs. I have a couple of Pentium M laptops that I don’t want to retire just yet.
Thank Intel for that, and their efforts at “differentiation” while PAE is around since Pentium Pro. Making the OS PAE-only probably simplifies many things, makes it more robust. Plus, new machines are the dominating channel of Windows distribution, by far.
Meanwhile, you don’t have to retire your laptops, they will continue working perfectly fine with Win7.
THE BEST WINDOWS EVER!!
Just take my money already!
Seriously stoked about this, but I still gotta triple boot Windows XP 64, Windows 8 and OpenBSD, because I still support some VB 6 and .NET 1.1 apps .. oh well.
Edited 2012-08-01 22:32 UTC
But where I work we will be cancelling all of them.
Why? We work in enterprise and there is already hatred of Windows 8. We’re going to stick with Win7/.NET 4 and then maybe the reps will listen to how Windows 8 causes us problems. They’ll probably lose around $36k from us over the next 3 years.
So you MS fanboys defending this POS better buy a lot of surface tablets to make up for all the angry Windows developers who will be skipping this garbage. Probably should buy 10 copies of Angry Birds per tablet just to be safe. I bet if you guys all do that then it might equal enough tablets sales for 1 hour of iPad sales.
When can we start having articles about Windows 8 without at least half the comments being “Metro is crap and you are an idiot if you don’t agree.”?
Probably right around the time of Windows 9 …which might be even quite possibly adored as the best ever, just the way Vista SE ‘marketing trick of “lucky 7″‘ is now.
Microsoft is committed now. Or should I say they should be committed? The Metro disaster is here to stay, it can’t be avoided now. Should be interesting to see how the public and businesses react to this mess.
Something along the lines of:
Metro is crap and you are an idiot if you don’t agree