Windows 8 Release Candidate Expected by June

[Sam_Reynolds]

According to a report by Dutch blog WinUnleaked, Microsoft is planning on launching a release candidate of Windows 8 in either late May or early June.

Read more here: Windows 8 Release Candidate Expected by June | Hardware Canucks

[KylSp]

Performance is very good, but it's the worst OS I've used since Windows ME. What a complete piece of garbage for any PC user, this is simply a dumbed down tablet focused OS, don't let anyone kid you otherwise. Everyone I've let try it on my laptop is aghast at how cumbersome and all over the place things are, there is no consistency in the OS with the gutting of the start menu.

[dandelioneater]

^^ I forced myself to trythe consumer preview in a vm a few weeks ago and it wasn't much fun. Very awkward to do 'PC' tasks on it. I think it could be a hit on a tablet though, we shall see...

[belgolas]

Only reason to get windows 8 is for the under the hood improvements and then command prompt it so it looks like windows 7. Yes you can do that. There are multiple ways. Stardock for example is making this.
Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu

Or this.
Add A Start Menu To Your Windows 8 Consumer Preview Installation With ViStart

So I will most likely "upgrade" to windows 8 if I can make it look like windows 7 and keep all the extra performance.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by belgolas

Only reason to get windows 8 is for the under the hood improvements and then command prompt it so it looks like windows 7. Yes you can do that. There are multiple ways. Stardock for example is making this.
Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu

Or this.
Add A Start Menu To Your Windows 8 Consumer Preview Installation With ViStart

So I will most likely "upgrade" to windows 8 if I can make it look like windows 7 and keep all the extra performance.

And here lies in my issue. Why should we have to resort to another program to do what we want?

I remember back in the XP days I installed a program that allowed me to re-arrange my taskbar icons (yes I'm that particular) and when they released Vista and I could that it was a good thing.

But don't go backwards!

[NyteOwl]

Microsoft has been heading this way with their non-server product since Windows 98. I know at least a dozen die hard Windows supporters who have been asking about Linux and a couple who are already scouting Apple options if they need to upgrade.

Me? I'll wait for the bargain prices on WIn7 stock and finally upgrade my XP

[Xeven]

I'm more concerned about the developer side of things. WPF/Silverlight/Win32/WinForms and .NET have been relegated as second class citizens and large quantity of developers (and clients) are miffed because of their heavy investment on these technologies (which were touted as Microsoft's "future" at some point). It's not what Microsoft is saying, but rather what they're not. While they've heavily emphasized the role of HTML5 to Window's future, they've almost kept mum about the rest of these technologies. This puts desktop/LOB applications, users and developers on the sideline in the aim for a more "profitable" future in the consumer space. Basically trading off their present and past consumers (desktop) for the tablet arena, which almost makes no sense. This is already starting to bite them in the ass as "nobody" seems to be rushing to produce XAML/HTML5/WinRT applications, which is probably the reason why they're de-emphasizing "legacy" desktop development in the first place; force developers to transition.

Maybe I'm looking at it at the wrong way, but I know a lot of technical leads and while there is no barrier for them to learn these new technologies (software evolves fast after all), some just feel too slighted by Microsoft and have the irrational feeling that Microsoft is out to screw with them. Heck, some even started buying apple, learning objective C and paying the $99/year developer subscription fee.

Personally, I wish the best of luck to Microsoft with Windows 8. Who knows I might just begin to like it at some point. A small part of me though (the irrational one) kinda hopes the whole things goes down to the fiery flames of hell, where it belongs.

[belgolas]

Mac is going the same way. My brother is a die hard Mac fan and he is considering switching to Windows. Mac is going to get more iOS "features." Unlike Windows 8 Mac will still keep basically the same UI.

[Mark]

I certainly will not be Microsoft guinea pig again. I'll wait for the patch upgrade that was similar to there previous version - Windows Vista - Patch called Windows 7 = and they charged us suckers

[[nK]Sharp]

After trying out the consumer build ill also be sticking with seven.

I find it harder to find programs now, at least initially and the worst part is ventrilo became a bit messed up after using 8.