I was honestly a little excited when I got to installing the new preview of Windows 8. It's like that with any piece of software I install though, I become like a child getting a new toy, I want to play with it and discover all of its functions. An operating system is on a whole other level though, because it just does so much more than any other piece of software. It's rare that I'm honestly disappointed when I first start messing around with a new operating system.
This was one of those instances, at least at first glance.
Windows 8 seems like it'll be brilliant on tablets and tablet PCs, but it's optimized for those at the expense of those of us on a regular computer, and more so for those of us who are either on a desktop or use a regular mouse with a laptop.
The system is set up like I've come to expect from an operating system that's used on touch-based devices. The old Windows start menu is completely gone, replaced with a brand-new start screen that seems to want nothing more than to make you use nothing but Windows products (though at least the Mail program supports Gmail, I'm not sure about others). Of course, this may be due at least in part to the fact that the Metro apps bundled with the preview are all Windows-owned, and hopefully this will change in the future. It is, thankfully, somewhat customizable, so anything you don't use can be moved to the side and more frequently-used programs can be placed in prominent positions.
Presumably, you can swipe to the side on a tablet or possibly on a laptop with mouse gestures in order to display more programs. On a desktop, this can be controlled with the scroll wheel on your mouse, as well as by dragging the scrollbar. The setup seems like a good idea in theory, until I realized that I have forty-two different program folders under my Win 7 start menu, and many of these contain multiple programs. The start screen is going to get clunky and crowded, fast.
It probably doesn't help that I find it one of the ugliest operating systems I've yet seen, and I'm accounting for Linux distros in that. The colors just seem strange, don't coordinate well, and are frankly just unattractive. There are a few other things that are a bit off-putting. There is a desktop, but I can't quite divine its purpose. I know that non-metro apps will exist, but you'll still have to go to the start screen to get to them. The desktop should be familiar to anyone who's used Windows 7, with one glaring difference: there is no start button. At all. It's gone. Instead, to get to the start menu, you have to click the bottom left-hand pixel.
Settings are also in a strange place. The Control Panel of old is gone, and the settings are now in a hidden menu revealed by moving your mouse to the screen's top or bottom right. It sometimes took me a couple of tries to get to items on that menu without the menu inexplicably disappearing on me. It's not a system that's intuitive and easy to use, at least not for someone who's grown accustomed to the "old" Windows.
On the other hand, is it fast? Yes. I was immensely pleased by the start-up time on my computer. In technical aspects, Windows 8 excels. It used less memory than 7, and supposedly uses less processor power, though Task Manager so rarely shows mine going over 0% that it's hard to tell. For all its aesthetic flaws, Windows 8 is a bit of a technical marvel.
The changes will be difficult to get accustomed to. I'm sure that updated drivers will help immensely when the full release arrives, since I couldn't get my video card to work properly due to lacking one. Will I probably buy 8 when it's released? Yes.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go boot back into my Windows 7 partition.
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