I use windows 8 on my tablet, my desktop, my laptops, my media center. And it's awesome.

The fact that your livetiles show nothing is as they don't have anything to show yet. Configure your microsoft account (windows live, xbox, hotmail, what ever), and it'll populate it's data (contacts, pictures, etc..) from where it can (in my case, windows live, skydrive, facebook, twitter, home server..).

then it's rich and beautiful.

and yes, you have to completely relearn the ui. watch one-two videos about how to use it with touch, with mouse, with keyboard to understand it. it's absolutely simple and intuitive once you've grasped some of the few new usability concepts.


and about the one who noted that in office, you don't see infos in the ribbon anymore. press alt, and you see it all (and more than ever). those underlines are past, and that's for good. something bether came out of it.

and if you don't see "windows", remind yourself what a window really is: a hole in a wall that allows you to peek into another room. the start screen of windows 8, thus, is FULL OF WINDOWS.

but really, before dissing it, learn about it. you would not get an ipad and say "omg, where's my start button?!". you'd start to explore and learn the new ui before claiming it's stupid.

windows 8 is totally new in it's ui. and it's great.

then again, you still have to learn how great metro is. i suggest getting a windows phone 7 somewhere, and learning to use that (you can get them quite cheap/nearly free in enough places). metro is the best concept of design i've ever seen, the only one that makes actual sense and is not just pretty for being pretty.

but take your time, don't rush into win8 and then hate it for being unable to understand it. learn the concepts behind it, understand the goals they try to accomplish. once you do that, you will fall in love. on phone, on tablet, on notebook, on desktop, and on the big projector filling my room with it to watch movies and stuff. all sizes, same consistent simple to use ui. with all sorts of input devices.

Metro interface: 47% Negative, 12% Neutral, 44% Positive = 103%
Windows App store: 20% Negative, 23% Neutral, 36% Positive
Mail, Calendar and people apps: 25% Negative, 20% Neutral, 41% Positive
Internet Explorer: 20% Negative, 22% Neutral, 53% Positive
Windows Explorer: 14% Negative, 23% Neutral, 60% Positive
Restart/Restore feature: 14% Negative, 15% Neutral, 47% Positive

Overall Satisfaction: 34% Negative, 13% Neutral, 52% Positive
(The missing % are the people who voted as "Don't know")

Metro interface: 43% Negative, 12% Neutral, 44% Positive
My bad...

XP is still widely used, and will be used for a while I guess. Non-software companies won't switch as long as they doesn't really have to. Maybe some users won't switch either for a long time (like me), or maybe I'll have two operating systems installed. I don't know how well the the OS will get along with each other, but there are boot-managers anyway. I don't know about file-systems either, but I guess they change those for a new Windows.

I guess some serious software (engineering software for example) will support XP in a way, and don't rush immediately to the new Windows and burn all the bridges behind them.

So after I freaked out and calmed a bit, I think I don't really care. I want to study new technologies, and maybe I'll have both my old XP to play with old stuff and the whatever new sensation to learn it.

These are just guesses, I may be wrong an maybe I should really freak out. *goes back editing his Résumé with Word 2000

We recently went through a similarly disruptive interface change with Ubuntu. The result? Haters are gonna hate. Everyone else is gonna get on the bus and wave out the back window as the haters get left behind.

See ya *waves*.

This may sound weird. But I wouldn't mind controlling my PC through my tablet. Granted, it would make my tablet the most expensive keyboard in the world, IMO, the idea is cool anyway. And no, I don't mean remote desktop.

This may sound weird. But I wouldn't mind controlling my PC through my tablet. Granted, it would make my tablet the most expensive keyboard in the world, IMO, the idea is cool anyway. And no, I don't mean remote desktop.

I actually want that photoshop control interface for ipad. I only just recently got an ipad and just thought of it. I wish more apps/games had that kind of thing. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note (1200x800 res) and I'd love to use it as a touch interface for games, like a custom action bar for say SWTOR or WOW), as an extra control after the keyboard of course. It's getting more like a drawing tablet.

Blitz and alpha, actually this is pretty normal these days. iPad is known as THE controller in the music industry. With midi interface converter or something, it was used to control a lot of app. And it is fun.

There are loads of remote control applications of various forms for platforms like Android and Symbian. Though you can't beat a physical keyboard for touch-typing. I keep my Android Galaxy Nexus tablet for when I don't have my Windows 7 Samsung netbook on hand.

We recently went through a similarly disruptive interface change with Ubuntu. The result? Haters are gonna hate. Everyone else is gonna get on the bus and wave out the back window as the haters get left behind.

See ya *waves*.

I don't think it's constructive to say that someone is a "hater" just because they don't like something new. Personally overall I like the look of Windows 8 (although people saying we should all switch to full-screen are missing the point - I like Windows 8 because we still have the option of standard windows, and it will be the first real (non-phone) OS for tablets). And Unity had some improvements - e.g., the type-to-launch-software taken from Windows 7. But Unity also introduces some bad UI ideas - I find the new scrollbars unusable, for example. And changing the position of close buttons every six months just for the hell of it helps no one.