In reply to a post by DavidFinbarr:

What's the view from people that have tried it?
Anyone going to buy it?

no for 2 reasons.

1 - I dont have a touchscreen device to put it on and to me its a touch screen OS.
2 - There is no logical reason for me to replace windows 7 its only 3 years old and does everything I need. Supports all modern hardware features as well.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

So you are not using it just because of the start menu... Surely that is insignificant to the majority of time you are spending on the computer?

you think thats the only change?

I am for what its worth often stopping and starting apps, so things like quick launch and the start menu are a core requirement. I am not a fan of search boxes to run apps.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

you think thats the only change?

That's the only change that I could see that would get a users' back up. The other changes (that are forced on you) I cannot see how one could possibly dislike.

I don't think it's fair to call it a touchscreen OS, it works perfectly fine with a mouse and keyboard. A touchscreen OS is like what is on the iPad or iPhone (iOS is this? I'm not a mac expert).

well some people will dislike 'any' change so you have alreayd misjudged its impact.

How about closing windows.
Launching apps.
App management.
Settings management.

Microsoft have even publicaly stated its optimised for touchscreen, its a touchscreen OS, just because it will load up on a desktop it doesnt mean its a desktop OS. The entire design is centred around making it work well on touchscreens. Sadly also seeing this affect on major websites as well like the bbc, the bbc site is all tiled styled now for touchscreens and its poor compared to the old bbc site on my desktop for usage.

Microsoft may have said it's "optimized" for touchscreen but they won't have intended for that to mean "it's not optimized for PCs and laptops" - As much as MS want to play catchup with apple and android there is absolutely no way they would put their PC and laptop market at measureable risk by putting it on the back burner. If they lose that market they are totally [censored].

Steven Sinofsky has stated it works just as well with a mouse or keyboard driven user, he is probably the person most in charge of the project, so any other statements from MS probably aren't as authoritative as his.

When I first jumped to Windows 7 from XP I also had some of the same problems by accidentally hovering over taskbar items making aero peek get in the way, I adapted quite quickly, people will do the same with Windows 8.

Agree with you about the BBC website but the BBC don't know what they are doing when it comes to technology, Microsoft on the other hand know exactly what they are doing.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

Who in their right mind would put windows on a MAC?

My MBP has boot camp - I use the Win7 partition for work use, and running tools that there isn't a MAC equivalent (e.g. inSSIDer).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

tools that there isn't a MAC equivalent (e.g. inSSIDer).

iStumbler?

In reply to a post by billford:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

tools that there isn't a MAC equivalent (e.g. inSSIDer).

iStumbler?

I've been using WiFi Scanner from the MAS:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wifi-scanner/id411680...

but its nowhere as good as inSSIDer.

I tried that iStumbler but it failed to run on my OS X Lion installation; maybe it didn't like the WiFi (formerly Airport) card in my 2011 MBP.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

Microsoft may have said it's "optimized" for touchscreen but they won't have intended for that to mean "it's not optimized for PCs and laptops" - As much as MS want to play catchup with apple and android there is absolutely no way they would put their PC and laptop market at measureable risk by putting it on the back burner. If they lose that market they are totally [censored].

Steven Sinofsky has stated it works just as well with a mouse or keyboard driven user, he is probably the person most in charge of the project, so any other statements from MS probably aren't as authoritative as his.

When I first jumped to Windows 7 from XP I also had some of the same problems by accidentally hovering over taskbar items making aero peek get in the way, I adapted quite quickly, people will do the same with Windows 8.

Agree with you about the BBC website but the BBC don't know what they are doing when it comes to technology, Microsoft on the other hand know exactly what they are doing.

windows 7 also had regressive GUI changes, the difference been tho it had a huge technical leap from XP (as XP was very old on win7 launch) and the GUI changes were less of an impact. I was able to bring back quick launch, things like the taskbar hovering popups are tunable even to the point of effectively disabling them. In truth vista may actually be a better OS than win7 as after a couple of service packs they ironed out a lot of the bugs but its reputation was permanently tarnished and on its launch XP wasnt so old and dated.

Ultimately for me win8 offers very little and win7 is still technically modern. I feel I am not alone on this and it wouldnt surprise me if windows 8 has poor sales compared to win7 because it is a short time after win7 release.

I would say people saying win8 is good or bad is about 50/50 at the moment and win7 was nothing like that ratio, in addition windows 8 forum site according to the owners of the windows 7 forum site has had way less hitsand active posters when compared to when windows 7 was at the same stage.

Lets hope microsoft do the sane thing and dont drop support for windows 7 soon.

The BBC R&D department is at the forefront of audio and visual technology.