My Windows 8 Review!!

[Berryracer]

Since I got a cheap license for 15 USD via the Microsoft upgrade, I figured what the heck, let meh give it teh benefit of teh doubt

Installation went fast and smooth

I love the reboot speed which nearly went down by half for meh on my SSD down from 30 seconds to 15 seconds thanks to its speedy shut down process and speedy startup.

That's it! That's about the only good thing I can say about Windows 8

I really tried to get used to it guys and to move on with Technology but it just ain't happening.

and it's not the Start Menu that bothers meh as I bought a utility for 5 bucks from Stardock that bring teh start menu back and is actually quiet good

Here are teh quirks which made me go nuts:

- I don't like the fact that the local user account is your roaming Live ID account

- Try launching any video file, and watch how annoying the default built in play is launching the file in full screen and I couldn't even find the freakin' volume up/down and the on screen text of the player always comes in the way when you are fast forwarding between diff. parts of the movie. Plain rubbish! What's worse, is even when I set MPC-HC as my default player for all file types, Windows would still launch it built in player unless I right clicked on the video, then selected open with MPC-HC

- I absolutely hate the Skype that comes with Windows 8! Has anyone used this? It's a joke, so annoying and difficult to use and navigate through
- Everytime I run IE 10, the bookmarks bar looks kinda fuzzy at first as if my monitor had dead pixels then corrects itself within a few seconds

- IE 10 is a joke! How can they put this browser in a final version of Windows? The thing wouldn't even pass for being an Alpha in my books. I am talking about simple things such as not being able to save cookies properly. Everytime I close teh br0ws3r, I have to re-login all teh sites that I've been to! what teh duck?

Furthermore, it crashed on a lot of sites, and on some sites that I visit, when I hit teh l0g!n button, noth!ng happ3n$

- Even when UAC is disabled, everytime I want to copy or move a file, I have to answer a security question whether I am sure I want to continue! It takes me double the work to do anything now

- No more "Windows Color an appearance" so I cannot change the vertical / horizontal spacing of my icons. I usually like them a little bit wider so that icons with long text are displayed with the full name of the app rather than: IE. >> SUPERAntiSpyware will look like SUPERANT.... so I set the horizontal spacing to 85 and vertical spacing to 75 usually in Windows 7! Now this thing is gone I searched everywhere it's not there! Great! Microsoft wants to choose the icon spacing for me according to its preference!!

- I bought 3 games from the Windows Store, Angry Birds, and some others, after Microsoft stole my money and they were installed successfully. I couldn't for teh life of me find them, they were not in the usual Games section in the start menu, that was empty with nothing, not even Solitaire in there, and I couldn't even add the games from the "Programs and Features" section as you would in Windows 7.

Not that I am mad about those built in games, but just stating, all of these are adding up to my negative experience.

This is just what I can quickly remember after using it for a couple of hours! I tried to make it seem like it's ok and it's good but it isn't!

Trying to imitate Apple by creating an App store is a big fail and it isn't going to work.

I pity any employee who will ever find a Windows 8 PC to work on! LOL

Windows 8 is the king of the Worst OS in the world! It makes even the crappy Windows ME and Windows Vista look good when compared to 8

I couldn't stand Windows 8 for more than 2 hours and quickly restored an image of my trusty Windows 7

 

[wayliff]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2036148

 

[Soundmanred]

Are you that Matrix Leader guy? You sound like him.
I learned to not listen to anything that guy had to say.

You are him?! Must have changed your name once you got the horrible reputation I spoke of.
Nobody takes you seriously, as the following posts show.

Personal attacks will not be tolerated
-ViRGE

Noted.

 

[Berryracer]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2036148

woops, sorry didn't notice I was in the wrong section

Im gonna report myself to have this thread moved

 

[Berryracer]

Are you that Matrix Leader guy? You sound like him.
I learned to not listen to anything that guy had to say.

and why is that? did he sl33p with any of your family members? :whiste:

 

[pyonir]

Are you that Matrix Leader guy? You sound like him.
I learned to not listen to anything that guy had to say.

LMAO

:thumbsup:

 

[cmdrdredd]

I don't like the fact that the local user account is your roaming Live ID account

This can be changed quite easily through the settings to a local account instead. Too bad you don't know how to read the menus because it even tells you.

- Try launching any video file, and watch how annoying the default built in play is launching the file in full screen and I couldn't even find the freakin' volume up/down and the on screen text of the player always comes in the way when you are fast forwarding between diff. parts of the movie. Plain rubbish! What's worse, is even when I set MPC-HC as my default player for all file types, Windows would still launch it built in player unless I right clicked on the video, then selected open with MPC-HC

when I open a video it opens in WMP by default (same as windows7) and it alerts me that I have other players that can support this file type and if I click that window I can configure which to use and what do you know. It works. No it never opened full screen. Maybe because I opened WMP first and it went thtough the configuration stuff and set as default for certain file types. Still, you can ALWAYS change the associated file types to whatever program you want and yes it does stick, however it does depend on the file type you are setting. For example if you set .avi to play with MPC then open a .mpg it might still be linked to the standard video player. You can change any file type to associate to any video player but unless you change them all, well...you found out. That isn't microsoft's fault and the video player is workable but relies on gestures and such.

- I absolutely hate the Skype that comes with Windows 8! Has anyone used this? It's a joke, so annoying and difficult to use and navigate through.

so run it in desktop by downloading it there instead. Too hard for you?

- Everytime I run IE 10, the bookmarks bar looks kinda fuzzy at first as if my monitor had dead pixels then corrects itself within a few seconds

- IE 10 is a joke! How can they put this browser in a final version of Windows? The thing wouldn't even pass for being an Alpha in my books. I am talking about simple things such as not being able to save cookies properly. Everytime I close teh br0ws3r, I have to re-login all teh sites that I've been to! what teh duck? Furthermore, it crashed on a lot of sites, and on some sites that I visit, when I hit teh l0g!n button, noth!ng happ3n$

first off if you want to be taken seriously don't use that stupid off english? second...if you hate IE why use IE? Unpin it and set chrome as default or firefox. my grandmother could do that

- Even when UAC is disabled, everytime I want to copy or move a file, I have to answer a security question whether I am sure I want to continue! It takes me double the work to do anything now

this is false. it never asks me if I'm sure I want to move it unless there's duplicate names

- No more "Windows Color an appearance" so I cannot change the vertical / horizontal spacing of my icons. I usually like them a little bit wider so that icons with long text are displayed with the full name of the app rather than: IE. >> SUPERAntiSpyware will look like SUPERANT.... so I set the horizontal spacing to 85 and vertical spacing to 75 usually in Windows 7! Now this thing is gone I searched everywhere it's not there! Great! Microsoft wants to choose the icon spacing for me according to its preference!!

is this a joke complaint?

- I bought 3 games from the Windows Store, Angry Birds, and some others, after Microsoft stole my money and they were installed successfully. I couldn't for teh life of me find them, they were not in the usual Games section in the start menu, that was empty with nothing, not even Solitaire in there, and I couldn't even add the games from the "Programs and Features" section as you would in Windows 7.

a little reading here would go a long way. windows+c type the name of what you're looking for and it'll find it


So I suppose you did zero research because these things can be changed except for one which I think you made up as a joke.

 

[Berryracer]

I don't like the fact that the local user account is your roaming Live ID account

This can be changed quite easily through the settings to a local account instead. Too bad you don't know how to read the menus because it even tells you.

berryracer pwned by cmdrdredd :'(

- Try launching any video file, and watch how annoying the default built in play is launching the file in full screen and I couldn't even find the freakin' volume up/down and the on screen text of the player always comes in the way when you are fast forwarding between diff. parts of the movie. Plain rubbish! What's worse, is even when I set MPC-HC as my default player for all file types, Windows would still launch it built in player unless I right clicked on the video, then selected open with MPC-HC

when I open a video it opens in WMP by default (same as windows7) and it alerts me that I have other players that can support this file type and if I click that window I can configure which to use and what do you know. It works. No it never opened full screen. Maybe because I opened WMP first and it went thtough the configuration stuff and set as default for certain file types. Still, you can ALWAYS change the associated file types to whatever program you want and yes it does stick.

Don't know why it did in my case though, it never opened in WMP it opened some full screen kinda interface unless that's what you're referring to as WMP :whiste:

- I absolutely hate the Skype that comes with Windows 8! Has anyone used this? It's a joke, so annoying and difficult to use and navigate through.

so run it in desktop by downloading it there instead. Too hard for you?

berryracer pwned by cmdrdredd :'(

- Everytime I run IE 10, the bookmarks bar looks kinda fuzzy at first as if my monitor had dead pixels then corrects itself within a few seconds

- IE 10 is a joke! How can they put this browser in a final version of Windows? The thing wouldn't even pass for being an Alpha in my books. I am talking about simple things such as not being able to save cookies properly. Everytime I close teh br0ws3r, I have to re-login all teh sites that I've been to! what teh duck? Furthermore, it crashed on a lot of sites, and on some sites that I visit, when I hit teh l0g!n button, noth!ng happ3n$

first off if you want to be taken seriously don't use that stupid off english? second...if you hate IE why use IE? Unpin it and set chrome as default or firefox. my grandmother could do that

True that, but, don't run away from the problem, how can the leading computer company release an unfinished product in a final release of Windows? The problems I mentioned are pretty serious

berryracer pwns cmdrdredd :twisted:

- Even when UAC is disabled, everytime I want to copy or move a file, I have to answer a security question whether I am sure I want to continue! It takes me double the work to do anything now

this is false. it never asks me if I'm sure I want to move it unless there's duplicate names

come to think of it, you're right, I dont know what I was thinking

berryracer pwned by cmdrdredd :'(

- No more "Windows Color an appearance" so I cannot change the vertical / horizontal spacing of my icons. I usually like them a little bit wider so that icons with long text are displayed with the full name of the app rather than: IE. >> SUPERAntiSpyware will look like SUPERANT.... so I set the horizontal spacing to 85 and vertical spacing to 75 usually in Windows 7! Now this thing is gone I searched everywhere it's not there! Great! Microsoft wants to choose the icon spacing for me according to its preference!!

is this a joke complaint?

No seriously, I $hit you not, where is the following screen to control the vertical / horizontal size of an icon?



berryracer pwns cmdrdredd :twisted:

- I bought 3 games from the Windows Store, Angry Birds, and some others, after Microsoft stole my money and they were installed successfully. I couldn't for teh life of me find them, they were not in the usual Games section in the start menu, that was empty with nothing, not even Solitaire in there, and I couldn't even add the games from the "Programs and Features" section as you would in Windows 7.

a little reading here would go a long way. windows+c type the name of what you're looking for and it'll find it

Well ok, you may be right, but still, no excuse for why they didn't go to where they were supposed to go which is the games folder.

So I suppose you did zero research because these things can be changed except for one which I think you made up as a joke.

Uhh no, I'm a serious d00d and I don't joke around

 

[Bonesdad]

well, I'm sure MS is shaking in their shoes...

 

[cmdrdredd]

1)The full screen video interface is Xbox video, not Windows Media Player.

2) How many years have we known IE is inferior yet people still think suddenly it'll be great. It's not, probably never will be. At least not to me. Try it and see on every new version. I do, but then I'm right back to something else. Still, it's not worth complaining because there's Opera, Chrome, Firefox, even Safari and some others if you don't like it.

3) it's still a joke complaint about icon spacing because I can pretty much guarantee it's not there because aero is gone and we knew that for a long time. Most of those adjustments affect aero. However, if you absolutely must have this edit your registry. http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-8/change-desktop-icon-spacing-in-windows-8/

Heck Microsoft even has a whole page to tell you what each setting does http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc951790.aspx

4) another way to find an app is to open your Windows 8 start menu and each app you have is listed alphabetically so you can scroll over to it, or even better start typing the name right there in the search box, it's already got the flashing cursor. Simply begiun typing the name and it'll pull up any apps that start with those letters.

 

[Berryracer]

1)The full screen video interface is Xbox video, not Windows Media Player.

2) How many years have we known IE is inferior yet people still think suddenly it'll be great. It's not, probably never will be. At least not to me. Try it and see on every new version. I do, but then I'm right back to something else. Still, it's not worth complaining because there's Opera, Chrome, Firefox, even Safari and some others if you don't like it.

3) it's still a joke complaint about icon spacing because I can pretty much guarantee it's not there because aero is gone and we knew that for a long time. Most of those adjustments affect aero. However, if you absolutely must have this edit your registry. http://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-8/change-desktop-icon-spacing-in-windows-8/

Heck Microsoft even has a whole page to tell you what each setting does http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc951790.aspx

4) another way to find an app is to open your Windows 8 start menu and each app you have is listed alphabetically so you can scroll over to it, or even better start typing the name right there in the search box, it's already got the flashing cursor. Simply begiun typing the name and it'll pull up any apps that start with those letters.

you pwned meh.

respect +1 to you bro

Guess Windows 8 is not for meh though

 

[Beavermatic]

just kinda worried the OP is one of those folks who installed it, saw the Metro UI, freaked out and ran before giving it a real chance.

That's kinda what it sounds like. Most who installed it had the same "WTF...." moment when seeing everything new. It was a scary first day or two because your still adjusting to the changes, but really come to love it once you get accustomed to it.

 

[PokerGuy]

It was a scary first day or two because your still adjusting to the changes, but really come to love it once you get accustomed to it.

Uh, no. I purposely continued using it even though I thought it sucked just because I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a case of not liking anything new/different. Now I've used it for a while and I know how to navigate and find most things.... and I think it really sucks. I'll be going back to Win 7, I just haven't had time to switch back yet.

Can anyone honestly recommend Win 8 to their friends and family? I sure wouldn't.

 

[Beavermatic]

Can anyone honestly recommend Win 8 to their friends and family? I sure wouldn't.

Uh, Yes. I've recommended it to numerous people, and majority who have picked up a copy agree it's a step forward from Windows 7. Not just in the engine and speed, but in the control and desktop interface. Not all I recommended to bought it, some even refuse to touch it period, but most did and enjoy it.

Why is everyone so terrified to let go of a Start button? Here's why.. 17 years ago the world stopped innovating the desktop and just became lazy at any attempt any change or move forward (because prior to it, it was literally a complete overhaul from those who had been through a plethora of change to numerous operating systems and control interfaces (from punchcards to ASM and Unix terminals to DOS's autoexec.bat's and config.sys and himem's and AppleDOS and Apple System OS to Windows 1.0 and front ends like Eight-in-One to windows 3.11 and NT, and then finally to Windows 95 where desktop innovation has sat *literally* for 17 years without any major improvements. Throughout that time, people were learning nearly a new interface every couple of years.

It's about the same time EVERYTHING went lazy within culture and we have to literally poke and prod you to accept any bit of change in a world that finally wants to move on. Where everything went wrong with this past 17 years as far as desktop innovation, I'm not going to detail... thats a story of social studies that becomes off-topic, but regardless a new market has emerged over the past 10 years such as mobile smartphones, ultrabooks, touchscreen devices, tablets, car interfaces, giant massive screens with all sorts of control options, all of this... and everyone suddenyl wonders why everything is moving in a direction that makes your mouse feel ancient (But still very appliable to new these new interfaces, such as the the example set by Metro, and ofr course, still very precise as opposed to a fingertouch)

And there are new developments for controlling even the desktop itself, devices that will be built into your mouse/monitor/whatever that detect finger gestures to move, devices that allow you to control your desktop or games with your mind (no joke, google it... its already in the pipes), etc, and Metro UI would take huge advantage of such technology... hence the push to start exploiting it. So you have to think ahead, and outside the box. It's not just a UI meant for touchscreen or mouse... its also for tech thats right around the corner you may not even realized existed yet. However, even if your not keen to that sort of change... mouse support is still always there. But don't expect the interface to stay the same. Either catch up to the times or be left behind.

 

[PokerGuy]

Uh, Yes. I've recommended it to numerous people, and majority who have picked up a copy agree it's a step forward from Windows 7. Not just in the engine and speed, but in the control and desktop interface. Not all I recommended to bought it, some even refuse to touch it period, but most did and enjoy it.

Why is everyone so terrified to let go of a Start button? Here's why.. 17 years ago the world stopped innovating the desktop and just became lazy at any attempt any change or move forward (because prior to it, it was literally a complete overhaul from those who had been through a plethora of change to numerous operating systems and control interfaces (from punchcards to ASM and Unix terminals to DOS's autoexec.bat's and config.sys and himem's and AppleDOS and Apple System OS to Windows 1.0 and front ends like Eight-in-One to windows 3.11 and NT, and then finally to Windows 95 where desktop innovation has sat *literally* for 17 years without any major improvements. Throughout that time, people were learning nearly a new interface every couple of years.

It's about the same time EVERYTHING went lazy within culture and we have to literally poke and prod you to accept any bit of change in a world that finally wants to move on. Where everything went wrong with this past 17 years as far as desktop innovation, I'm not going to detail... thats a story of social studies that becomes off-topic, but regardless a new market has emerged over the past 10 years such as mobile smartphones, ultrabooks, touchscreen devices, tablets, car interfaces, giant massive screens with all sorts of control options, all of this... and everyone suddenyl wonders why everything is moving in a direction that makes your mouse feel ancient (But still very appliable to new these new interfaces, such as the the example set by Metro, and ofr course, still very precise as opposed to a fingertouch)

And there are new developments for controlling even the desktop itself, devices that will be built into your mouse/monitor/whatever that detect finger gestures to move, devices that allow you to control your desktop or games with your mind (no joke, google it... its already in the pipes), etc, and Metro UI would take huge advantage of such technology... hence the push to start exploiting it. So you have to think ahead, and outside the box. It's not just a UI meant for touchscreen or mouse... its also for tech thats right around the corner you may not even realized existed yet. However, even if your not keen to that sort of change... mouse support is still always there. But don't expect the interface to stay the same. Either catch up to the times or be left behind.

Spoken like the kind of person who might use linux. Nothing wrong with linux, but the average person doesn't want any part of it because they are unable or unwilling to take the time to learn and understand the functionality. No amount of arguing otherwise will change that reality. In the past, MS pretty much had a monopoly, so they could force people to go with certain changes or be left behind. Now, that is no longer the case and people have options. They can use a mac (osx), they can use a tablet (android, ios etc), or they can simply continue to use Win 7, Vista or XP.

Forcing people to make a change is only a good idea if it's a change to something better. The current desktop/tablet hybrid in Win 8 is not better, it's lousy. It might be a step towards a different future, but that doesn't mean that 'step' is better than current options (win 7) or alternatives (osx, ios, android).

MS is well aware of this reality, and is going all out (spending more than a billion in advertising) to push win 8. The win 8 pro edition sells for $38.88 at retail in a nice box (at Microcenter). There can only be one reason for such heavily discounted prices, MS is terrified of essentially becoming the next RIM.

Oh, and you completely miss the point about the start button. It's not the start button itself, or the functionality that it offers that are the problem. The problem is that the new setup is not at all intuitive, and people are going to be asked to learn a completely new non-intuitive way to do things. Some might, but many will not. I can't see any large company ever going to Win 8, they'll skip it and go with whatever new options exist 5 years from now. Until then, it will be win 7.

 

[Blueychan]

Great! Another "Windows 8 is the worst OS eva" because I am not familiar with the UI ...

http://arstechnica.com/information-...er-on-the-inside-under-the-hood-of-windows-8/

 

[PokerGuy]

Great! Another "Windows 8 is the worst OS eva" because I am not familiar with the UI ...

http://arstechnica.com/information-...er-on-the-inside-under-the-hood-of-windows-8/

Thanks for the link, that's some interesting information on some of the aspects of Win 8 that might not be known.

From an everyday use perspective though, the functionality and UI are king, and Win 8 fails horribly in both those departments.

Looks like Win 8 is just the gimpy first step towards a much better future OS.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Heres the thing. If you install start8 or classic shell you have windows 7. You do not ever need to use metro. Then you csnbtake advantage of the better underpinnings of the os like the speed. Clsssic shell is free too...

The hatred is unfounded. The deaktop is the same...exactly the same minus aero. If you stare at the edges of windows enough to need aero effects I feel sorry for you.

 

[Blueychan]

Thanks for the link, that's some interesting information on some of the aspects of Win 8 that might not be known.

From an everyday use perspective though, the functionality and UI are king, and Win 8 fails horribly in both those departments.

Looks like Win 8 is just the gimpy first step towards a much better future OS.

but the complaints about the functionality and UI are overly exaggerated ... I've been using Windows forever and I am fine after a couple of hours with Windows 8.

Some people are just too lazy to learn new things (even if they are better). We are also live in a time where overreaction is considered cool. It's cool to hate on new things and people are quick to jump on the bandwagon to declare something is the worst/best ever without much thought.

 

[mikeymikec]

- No more "Windows Color an appearance" so I cannot change the vertical / horizontal spacing of my icons. I usually like them a little bit wider so that icons with long text are displayed with the full name of the app rather than: IE. >> SUPERAntiSpyware will look like SUPERANT.... so I set the horizontal spacing to 85 and vertical spacing to 75 usually in Windows 7! Now this thing is gone I searched everywhere it's not there! Great! Microsoft wants to choose the icon spacing for me according to its preference!!

Sadly many user interfaces have been designed in the last decade with less customisability than they used to have. I think many user interface designers are obsessed with "brand identity" and that if the UI is too customisable then it can't be easily associated with their brand. Smart phones suffer from this especially IMO.

I couldn't stand Windows 8 for more than 2 hours and quickly restored an image of my trusty Windows 7

Bear in mind that most people cling to the familiar, me too. I don't like change that I perceive to be for the sake of change rather than actual improvement.

 

[PokerGuy]

but the complaints about the functionality and UI are overly exaggerated ... I've been using Windows forever and I am fine after a couple of hours with Windows 8.

Some people are just too lazy to learn new things (even if they are better). We are also live in a time where overreaction is considered cool. It's cool to hate on new things and people are quick to jump on the bandwagon to declare something is the worst/best ever without much thought.

You might think the complaints are overly exaggerated, I don't. I've been using Win 8 for a while now (rather than just "it looks different so I don't like it"), and I think the UI truly feels like a cludge rather than a finished product. It feels like a stepping stone to something better to come in the future, a bunch of ideas that have not been properly thought out and integrated. Having kind of a "dual OS" where the two sides don't interact seamlessly is lousy. Losing functionality you previously had (like Aero, the start menu, the ability to quickly modify things like window borders or icon text fonts, windows media center built in etc etc) is lousy.

Sure, some of those shortcomings can be rectified (using start8, getting a key and downloading/installing windows media center), but with preciously little to gain, why would one want to go through the cost and hassle of doing that? Why not just wait until a finished product comes on the market (Windows 9 or whatever), or switch to osx?

There's a reason MS is practically giving win 8 away at this point ($15 upgrades, $38 retail boxes for the pro version)......

 

[PokerGuy]

Heres the thing. If you install start8 or classic shell you have windows 7. You do not ever need to use metro. Then you csnbtake advantage of the better underpinnings of the os like the speed. Clsssic shell is free too...

The hatred is unfounded. The deaktop is the same...exactly the same minus aero. If you stare at the edges of windows enough to need aero effects I feel sorry for you.

The point is that you need a reason TO upgrade, not that you need reasons NOT to upgrade. There are very few reasons to upgrade, and a lot of reasons not to. Thus, for most people it would be foolish to upgrade. That's why MS is practically giving it away.

 

[Blueychan]

You might think the complaints are overly exaggerated, I don't. I've been using Win 8 for a while now (rather than just "it looks different so I don't like it"), and I think the UI truly feels like a cludge rather than a finished product. It feels like a stepping stone to something better to come in the future, a bunch of ideas that have not been properly thought out and integrated. Having kind of a "dual OS" where the two sides don't interact seamlessly is lousy. Losing functionality you previously had (like Aero, the start menu, the ability to quickly modify things like window borders or icon text fonts, windows media center built in etc etc) is lousy.

Sure, some of those shortcomings can be rectified (using start8, getting a key and downloading/installing windows media center), but with preciously little to gain, why would one want to go through the cost and hassle of doing that? Why not just wait until a finished product comes on the market (Windows 9 or whatever), or switch to osx?

There's a reason MS is practically giving win 8 away at this point ($15 upgrades, $38 retail boxes for the pro version)......

The prices are low is due to new business strategy rather them giving Windows 8 away. Plus full retail are $99 and $139 for core and pro respectively. I am not sure where you get $38 retail from.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Can anyone honestly recommend Win 8 to their friends and family? I sure wouldn't.

I would.

My wife, for example, is quite averse to change. She likes her Win7, hates OSX - never gave it a fair shot when I bought our Mac Mini. She doesn't even really get along with our iPad. Not that she can't use it, she just doesn't like it. She's pretty set in her computing ways.

When I installed Win8 it took her 15 minutes to get the basics. The only real issue she struggled with was switching apps. Once I showed her the different ways, she fell right in to it. She enjoys the metro UI, especially the live tiles. She likes using some of the dedicated site apps - as opposed to having to use the browser - she likes the social integration, notifications, etc...

I like it too. I find the Metro UI pleasing to look at and no obstacle to effectively using the machine. I also like some of the apps quite a bit, social integration, notifications, all that... What I really like are the underhood improvements that seem to get me better battery life, faster boot/resume times, and a generally more responsive and fluid user experience.

Not saying it's perfect. For example, allowing split screen only by thirds in the metro UI is dumb, imo. Especially with widescreen displays.

Still, the only thing I feel like we miss out on with our Zenbook is that it's not a convertible. Until Win8 I generally thought the idea of using touch alongside a full desktop OS was gimmicky. Now I wish I had a touchscreen.

 

[PokerGuy]

The prices are low is due to new business strategy rather them giving Windows 8 away. Plus full retail are $99 and $139 for core and pro respectively. I am not sure where you get $38 retail from.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/403742/Windows_8_Professional_1_User_Upgrade_PC

$38.88 for a retail copy of Windows 8 Pro. You can also get it on Amazon for the same price ($68.88 - $30 gift card).

There was also the $15 upgrade that some people got in on.

Also, MS at first had WMC as a standalone option to be purchased, but have since decided to give it away until at least January.

I'm no insider to MS, but to me it looks like they understand they have a turkey on their hands and they have to go all out get as much market penetration as they possibly can, at any cost.