@Thoiness
First and foremost -
I am a technician
I have used Windows since Windows 3.0 - the only Windows versions I passed on completely were Vista and ME.
I am currently running on a dual boot Win7/Linux machine (For security testing and forensics as well as some other things that Windows, sorry to say, kinda sucks the big one on, I use BackTrack. For daily computing, I use Windows.)
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With regard to your response to Vorpaladin..
"3. Where are the Windows 8 Applications?
Windows 8 hasn't been released yet... LOL"
Okay.. so Microsoft is going to release the OS.. THEN worry about stuff that will run on it? (meaning software native to Metro FOR tablets and phones that wouldn't support the extended PC interface). That doesn't seem like a good idea to me. When it rolls out, the flagship products ought to roll out with it to help bring in money. Not wait until it's released. By now, they should have an idea of where things are going. It sounds like they don't. That spells a cluster%^&! waiting to happen to me.
"5. Too little, too late for the smartphone/tablet market
It's never too late to introduce a technology bridge to the market."
No it's not, but with several giants already in the market - Microsoft has an uphill battle that they may not win. This desperation is evident in Microsoft's recent rash of lawsuits against the Android market. Here's some nice excerpts from court documents for you (the whole thing, quite lengthy, can be found at:
www.groklaw.net/pdf2/MSvB&Nanswer.pdf).
"Microsoft had prepared claim charts purportedly detailing the alleged infringement but insisted that it would only share the detailed claim charts if Barnes & Noble agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement ('NDA') that would cover the claim charts as well as all other aspects of the parties discussions. Noting that the patents were public and that the infringement allegations pertained to Barnes & Noble's public product, Barnes & Noble refused to sign an NDA. Insisting that an NDA was necessary, Microsoft discussed the alleged infringement on a highlevel basis only. Microsoft nevertheless maintained that it possessed patents sufficient to dominate and entirely preclude the use of the Android Operating System by the Nook. Microsoft demanded an exorbitant royalty (on a per device basis) for a license to its patent portfolio for the Nook device and at the end of the meeting Microsoft stated that it would demand an even higher per device royalty for any device that acted 'more like a computer' as opposed to an eReader."
"Microsoft's attempt to cloak its abusive and anticompetitive licensing proposal in confidence by referencing a plainly inapplicable confidentiality agreement is further evidence of Microsoft's unlawful scheme to restrict competition in the mobile operating system market."
Why try to push someone out of the market by using outdated or outmoded patents? Especially when some of these patents they're claiming they innovated were previously patented by prior companies, and were not held up by the Dept. of Justice or any branch of the justice system against Microsoft. So, why does Microsoft have to resort to shady practices that reek of anti-trust violations to try to corner a market? Because their share of the next big thing is shrinking. Windows Phones are not in high demand - Android phones are. Maybe if Microsoft would spend half the effort they're exerting to try and strong arm competition into actual innovation, they would hold a bigger market share of new technology.
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Now, in reply to your most recent post, allow me to make some counter-points.
1) Reset and refresh is a HUGE gain!
I call BS. There are ALREADY cheaper alternatives to imaging. And if Windows itself is compromised to any serious extent, and requires a TRUE clean install? Guess what - your happy little @$$ is probably still going to need to put the DVD in and install it if you didn't actually make a seperate image. End result? No gain.
2) Faster boot times!
While not critical, if it is an issue that's costing a company money in lost productivity because their employees are waiting for their systems to boot - which is a better solution? Buy Windows 8 Professional for upwards of $300 or slap in a solid state drive that will drastically decrease boot time, AND access times for a paltry $225, saving $75 dollars per system. Lets see, 250 computers, times $75, this gives a savings of $18,750. Yep. Let's upgrade to Windows 8 for faster boot times! Again, no gain.
3) Windows to go! No more Half-baked PE's!
First off, this is an enterprise issue. Quoting from YOUR sources:
"This is an enterprise process: Windows to Go will be an option in Windows Server 8, not a consumer feature."
Now, we've already hashed out why most company's probably won't upgrade to Windows 8, and Server OSes are even MORE expensive than Desktop OSes - which means, a company will be even LESS likely to upgrade until FORCED to.
Second point, again from your own source:
" 'VMware has been offering a similar product called VMware ACE since 2007, so it's about time Redmond got into the act,' King says. "
Yet again, Microsoft is Johnny come lately.
4) The ribbon makes things SO much easier!
Ease of use is all well and good, but in the end people don't have to know how a PC works to use ANY windows product. My mom and dad (68 and 78 respectively) have NO clue how a PC works. None. They tell me "my computer isn't working". They can't tell me what's wrong, they know NOTHING about the guts of the computer, or anything related to that. In short they are the farthest thing from Tech savvy, but they use Windows XP with no problem. So again, I call BS on that argument.
5) Native ISO support
Wow.. let me throw down $300 dollars so my IT staff can mount ISO's from windows.. Wait, why should I pay for that when FREEWARE will do it for me? That really justifies an upgrade.
6) Wifi and NFC Support
Again, quoting YOUR sources:
"Here's a feature that might not make headlines, but still holds promise: Like Android 4.0, Windows 8 natively supports Wi-Fi Direct."
Like Android 4.0... so AGAIN, Windows is Johnny come lately, copping a page from someone else's book. Great innovation guys, too bad you're behind the curve.
"Although it's been slow to take off, the techology recently received a boost with the launch of Google Wallet, which lets you purchase goods by tapping an NFC-enabled smartphone against a terminal. Windows 8 will bring NFC support to tablets and laptops."
Again, taking a page from Google. Way to be innovative.
7) Tablet support of Desktop products
Funny.. I found no references to this in your sources. MS makes Office for Mac, so this would really be more of a developer issue than an OS issue.
8) Enhanced Hyper-V (available to consumers rather than just enterprises)
This is nice. However, I don't see myself running out and dropping a bunch of money on Windows 8 JUST to get virtualization technology, when there are free and open source alternatives that address that need for me for FREE.
9) Native multi-monitor support
The only cool thing here is that you can make the same desktop fit across multiple screens. Useful and nifty, admittedly, but so far this is one of the few pluses, and it STILL doesn't justify the expense on an enterprise/business level.
10) Roaming settings to keep your settings regardless of the PC you log into
Okay, first and foremost..
In an enterprise environment, this is handled by Active Directory, and is ALREADY present in Windows XP, Vista, and 7 - at the very least! Any PC you log onto with your domain account, will carry your profile over to the new one. This is a retarded argument, and doesn't even fit with what Windows 8 is billing for roaming settings.
What Win8 calls roaming settings allows you to sync preferences across MOBILE devices. This is nice, but again - a simple convenience not worth the upgrade in a business/enterprise environment.
Now...
"Even a Lenovo S10 (first-gen Atom + 1GB of RAM) can "run" Windows 8"
Nice how engadget put that in quotations for you. I don't think you realize the implications of those ""'s around run. Just because a system meets the MINIMUM requirements to run an OS, doesn't mean it will run the OS well or that the OS will perform as well as it's being billed to. In order to have anything CLOSE to a pleasant computing environment, you need the RECOMMENDED requirements. Those will make the system perform as 'billed'. So anyone rushing out to buy Win8 because "My First Gen Atom with only 1 gig of RAM can run it!" will likely be SORELY disappointed in their user experience. Minimum requirements are exactly that - the bare minimum required to load the various services and pieces of the OS. I would be surprised if they had more than a few hundred MB's of available memory after installing it on a 1 GB system, which means that your Paging file will be overused. Overuse of your Page file leads to excessive disk thrashing. Excessive disk thrashing will erode the lifetime of your hard drive much faster than normal usage. And if you thought things sucked before the hard drive crashes, just wait until your hard drive gives up the ghost after all the disk thrashing that's required to load the things you need to use to be productive. Guarantee you'll wish you'd used Ghost or PING to make an image, or atleast kept good backups rather than relying on Windows 8's Reset and Refresh abilities.
Regarding ARM technology (what most Tablets use):
"..but Microsoft has so far declined to provide details about what software will and won't run on the devices."
Never a good sign when the company can't assure it's consumers of which products may or may not be functional, especially with a release date looming so close.
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Progress is important, but progress for progress sake is just retarded. It's a sad fact, technology evolves much like life does. Changes are made, tweaks are done, and in the end - if the mutation proves to actually increase the effectiveness of the creature (in this case, PC's and Mobile devices) then it will thrive and flourish, if it's just a change being made for change's sake (or even worse, solely for profit's sake) that doesn't actually meet a demand or need then it will ultimately not find itself being propagated. Sadly, it looks like Windows 8 is just an excuse to try and pull more money from consumer's pockets. People buying new computers will be forced to use what WILL be ultimately an unrefined and practically unfinished product (atleast until SP 1 for Win8 comes out), or forced to BUY a copy of Win 7 to install, because there are no 'licensed' downgrades.
Sorry to bust your bubble, but Windows products are almost ALWAYS rushed to the market, maybe because Windows is always behind some curve or another these days or maybe because of Shareholder and CEO demands - who knows. But until a Service Pack comes out, most people who 'know about computers' and understand Microsoft's track record pretty well know that the OS will be chock FULL of exploits and bugs until a Service Pack is rolled out to correct the most glaring ones. Most OSes get frequent updates, but I don't think ANYTHING updates as much as Microsoft. Every month a slew of updates come out to address gaps in security or functionality. It almost seems like their Quality Control crews are asleep at the wheel, or they're just pushing to hard to meet a deadline. Either way, that kind of lackadaisical approach to quality is sadly disturbing.
Oh yeah, and as for us 'techies' wanting to stay back in the days of DOS and command line environments.. Well, we 'techies' tend to work in Command Line environments not because we like the black and grey color scheme - but because we can do the same thing that the GUI could do, only faster. What might take quite a bit of clicking and searching, can be done with a series of commands - possibly even using command piping and directing (Probably not something you understand, but in short you pipe the outputted results of one command into another. This is something much easier to do, and more powerful, in *nix environments but is still functional and effective in Window's command line environment). There are also some things that can ONLY be done from the command line.
Don't ever mistake our preference for something that's not as aesthetically pleasing for a complacency in the way things were. We use command lines to make OUR lives easier, just like most consumers use GUI's because GUI's to make their lives easier.
And, before you knock non windows OSes, why don't you take a look at what OSes run the BIG @$$ servers that keep the backbone of the internet and several enterprise infrastructures running - it AIN'T Windows. It'll be a *nix environment. So, if you like facebook and google and bing and yahoo and your IMAP mail servers and all the lovely things that the internet provides? You're relying on an entire backbone that is heavily populated by non-Windows systems. Bet on that. There's a reason a lot of big iron runs on a *nix OS. *nix based systems are more robust, generally easier to secure, and can usually be updated without restarting. In fact, most *nix systems can run hard and heavy for MONTHS between reboots. I can't leave Windows running for more than a month without it forcing a restart to update. These constant reboots would cause drops in service on the internet that would have you pulling your hair out at it's roots.
Also, try setting up a high performance cluster with Windows. Linux will let you interconnect several different desktop systems together and turn them into a SINGLE processing unit with shared processing. This means, I can take several cheap CPU's and 'beowulf' them into a more powerful system. Windows doesn't allow this kind of shared processing.
There are many places that Windows just does NOT work as an alternative to Linux.
However, in reverse, there are only a few places where Linux can't be an alternative to Windows. (Oh, and before you mention Apps? Most Windows apps can be ported into Linux. However, there are quite a few Linux apps and functionalities that do not port well, or do not port at all into Microsoft's OS's. Kinda funny - reminds me of a song.. "Anything you can do, I can do better.. ").
I think, my dear friend, you are the one afraid of the slow evolution that portable computing is taking away from Microsoft, and are just so blatantly addicted to Microsoft's teat that anything NOT Microsoft is inferior - because, afterall, most users use Microsoft right? (Though so many people using the system is probably due to OEM's being coerced into supplying Windows as the OS on their system for SOOOO many years. People are working on making better and more robust OSes that are trending away from the way Microsoft tends to do things. Mac's current OSes are a derivative of *nix OSes. The console is practically identical, functions are very close, they have developed their own file system, and made several improvements to code they managed to acquire and make closed source. So, obviously there IS something to it if Microsofts biggest competitors in the tablet, phone, and PC markets rely on an OS that is, basically, an extended mutation of *nix. Because of this, *nix systems have FAR outlived Microsoft, and due to their constant mutation of a good thing getting, for the most part, better - they'll probably outlive Microsoft who is about to start feeling the way Apple did when Bill Gates basically gave Steve Jobs the shaft and took the stuff he had been working on for Apple (a clean, nifty new OS), and went off to Japan and IBM to peddle their own version of Apple's (at the time) new and innovative OS. So, innovation REALLY isn't Microsoft's gig. Not in the sense of synthesizing something. They do well at taking something and trying to improve on it. Unfortunately, they've had a cycle since Win98 of alternate OSes basically being a commercialized beta version of the NEXT OS they release. Let's consider this. Win98 Second Edition, solid, stable, well built, leaner and meaner than 95. Then the ME bomb comes out. It reeks to high hell, tends to be passed over except for OEM sales, with very little upgrade sales. Then XP comes out.. Very big. People like it. Businesses STILL use it. It's a huge pool of enterprises that are nearing a bubble that will burst and force them to buy a newer OS due to lack of support etc. These people will have to choose between the versions of Windows that will have come out around the neighborhood that I believe someone stated of 2014 - 2016. Now, after XP, we again have a bomb. Vista. Lots of OEM sales, very few upgrade sales. Lots of people passed it over. Microsoft's attempts at making the system more 'secure' gave people the option of being informed of nearly EVERY microscopic change to the system, or having NO notifications about changes to the system at all. Very inconvenient for people. Then, Windows 7. Pretty good. OEM sales, Upgrade sales. 32 and 64-bit processing refined with applications to boot. Now, according to this pretty consistent cycle since around 1998 (14 years now. Possibly more than HALF their time as a software mega-titan), do you TRULY believe that Win 8 will NOT be another ME or Vista for PCs? It may be a semi sucessful tablet/phone system (after all Win 7 phones kinda went the way of the dodo, so - every other..), but as far as the PC goes? It'll probably be a let down. Win 9 or whatever name they give it will likely be the stable commercial release of what was envisioned in Win 8 for the PC. Also, consider the SERVER releases of Windows. They tend to be released with every other client OS, to capitalize on the refined technology of the previous year's client. Windows Server 2000 was close to the NT servers and Win98 systems. Windows Server 2003 was close to the XP systems in look and functionality of interface. Server 2008 basically capitalizes on Win 7 clients and the new and refined things from Vista clients. So likely, if Win8 is released this year, then Win 9 will likely start to pop and simmer around late 2013/mid 2014 window. And Windows server 2014/2015 or Win Server 9 equivalent will be released. This seems to be a trend, and something that I will wager is probably going to be close to the overall outcome of Win 8 PCs.
Enough of a rant for now, just had to put some things in perspective for you that you seem to not be seeing or understanding.
