Are you looking forward to Windows 8?

[Rob Williams]

Even though I prefer Linux as an OS, I generally look forward to each new Windows release given that I have to use it for a lot of things. For the most part, I love Windows 7, especially after the Vista debacle. Its release helped assure me that Microsoft learned from its lesson and I had a renewed feeling of confidence that future releases would continue the tradition of what a quality OS should be.

But here is Windows 8. I'm still not sure how to sum up my thoughts...

The truth is, I don't know a single person that's "looking forward" to Windows 8... none. There are of course those (including me) who are looking forward to certain aspects of the new OS, but because of the forced Metro interface, it seems that a lot of people are planning on skipping over this release entirely. There are sure to be unauthorized tweaks that will allow you to replace Metro with a standard Start menu, but really, no one should have to go to such lengths to restore functionality that has existed since Windows 95.

And things just keep getting worse. Did you know that DVD playback isn't even going to be available out-of-the-box, but rather require either an OS upgrade or an add-on pack? That's right... not a single version of Windows 8 will ship with DVD playback support.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/...dows-media-center-available-in-windows-8.aspx

I just don't know. It really seems like we are on a tick tock schedule here, for Windows releases. Tick is a truly shitty release, and Tock is the apology release.

Tick: Windows ME
Tock: Windows XP
Tick: Windows Vista
Tock: Windows 7
Tick: Windows 8

There's a definite theme here :-|

 

[Kayden]

The lack of DVD playback because Dobly is being a greedy bitch and Microsoft wont take on for it's customers, made this an AWW HELL NO. See the link for a similar expression on my face how I thought it in me head. (c;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im_5QdHp04E

 

[Kayden]

I found this today and any one running dual boot should be concerned for the short-term.

Secure Boot is one of the more controversial new features in Windows 8. This anti-malware measure will prevent any software not signed by a trusted certificate authority from starting before Windows 8 is up and running. It’s designed to head off rootkits and other forms of malware that attempt to hijack the boot process.

Unfortunately, it could also intercept other operating systems such as Linux distributions, which has caused uproar in the open source world.

Our own Jon Honeyball has argued that it “isn’t reasonable for the majority of PC users to have to put up with unsecured booting, simply because an alternative OS vendor can’t be bothered to go down the same route”. Linux vendors and computing experts have argued that PCs are unlikely to ship with any secure keys other than Windows’ own, giving Microsoft an effective monopoly on the hardware.

“The extension of Microsoft’s OS monopoly to hardware would be a disaster, with increased lock-in, decreased consumer choice and lack of space to innovate,” argued renowned security researcher Professor Ross Anderson in his Light Blue Touchpaper blog. “It is clearly unlawful and must not succeed.”

The problem with this to me, is that this will put Microsoft in the position to (potentially) deny a 3rd party developer access to their OS if they see a feature they want to incorporate and charge for it, and will keep them up to date on changes being made in certain apps they are in competition with so they can again counter it or add it before those features hit the market.

This is a two edged sword of security and big brother I think and I just don't agree that companies should be forced to cert their software with a (possible) direct competitor. This is going to be more trouble from startups and I don't think it should be there in the name of security.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Not to mention that compromised certificates and spoofing can get round this 'security' feature given time. Does come across more as a lockdown than preventative security.

The lack of DVD support is nothing new, Windows XP was released without DVD support too and most DVD drives, both retail and OEM, come with decoder software, not to mention a lot of people use VLC or MPC with ffdshow which have decoders too (legal or otherwise).

 

[DarkStarr]

Meh, 8 sucks. Metro is baked in to the explorer ui. Its a tablet os but they said, wait! Can we slap this onto desktops too? So someone said, HELL YES, just a few mods to make it half usable and there, windows 8 the best os EVAR!!!111!!!!111!11!11!1!!!

Also, anything that can be done on 8 can be done better on 7. Namely metro and well..... everything lol

 

[OriginalJoeCool]

Rob's right. Only every second release is good. We could call it Ballmer's Law or something.

 

[Rob Williams]

Rob's right. Only every second release is good. We could call it Ballmer's Law or something.

LOL, I like it!

 

[Kayden]

Rob's right. Only every second release is good. We could call it Ballmer's Law or something.

That's fantastic! I'll use it for now on.

 

[CaptainFluffy]

The only thing I was REALLY looking forward to in 8 was the rumored xbox 360 emulation, which I haven't heard anything about since the beta started. Since Microsoft seems to be keeping up with Ballmer's Law I'll probably be skipping 8.

 

[Rob Williams]

The only thing I was REALLY looking forward to in 8 was the rumored xbox 360 emulation, which I haven't heard anything about since the beta started. Since Microsoft seems to be keeping up with Ballmer's Law I'll probably be skipping 8.

I forgot all about that. If that happened, it'd be cool as hell, but I can't see it. There have been a lot of times when I felt like loading up an X360 game but couldn't be stuffed to hook the console up.