Saturday 8 September 2012

Windows 8 RTM - Review

Windows 8, Metro UI
"Windows 8 RTM is lightening quick at times; and just downright unresponsive and frustrating at others"

First off, let me just say that I have been really looking forward to testing this OS.  Not because it brings waves of enthusiasm and over-riding joy out of every pour in my body at the prospect of using Metro UI, but because the community is split well and truly down the middle on Windows 8.  Well maybe not even the middle, maybe 70-30....and it's not in the positive.

Windows 8 is likely to divide opinion even months after release with those in the 'power user' bracket complaining heavily that production will suffer and that it is a needless and pointless OS designed to bridge the PC and Smartphone market.  Many too will cry with howls of derision at the Duplo bricks feel and design of the OS.  It takes a while to get used to shall we say, both aesthetically and from a navigational perspective.

Windows 8 RTM is lightening quick at times; and just downright unresponsive and frustrating at others.  Installation was a breeze.  I have a primary disk with Windows 7 installed (it would be madness to upgrade and risk losing a stable OS), and I recently emptied my secondary drive of Linux after many disasters with Ubuntu, Xubuntu and Mint.  The installation speed was swift as can be expected and we were right into the lock screen which I got rid of as soon as I had the chance.  Now Windows 8 boots straight to my password screen.  From the password screen we have the Metro UI and the intial response of OMG soon evaporated after a days use.  It's now reasonably friendly and a quick way to reach all your constantly used apps and folders.

Boot times were lightening fast.  Really impressively so.  My Windows 7 running an AMD Athlon X2 takes 1m43s to ignite its first web page from the initial Windows logo appearance.  Windows 8 blows it out of the water taking a mere 50 seconds to boot into Chrome and load up my three default tabs.  Highly impressive.  It may just be me, but the interface and general graphics seem much more modern.  I cannot describe it but it feels swanky.

Now the big bug bear.  The Start Button.  I must confess, although I pin lots of things to the Pin Bar, I really didn't realise how much I use and rely on the Start Button in Windows 7 until it was gone.  You see, in Windows 7 everything is branched out so that anything can be accessible with just a click or two.  The Metro UI and the Windows 8 desktop changes all that.  The Start Button now is effectively the Metro UI screen.  Here you can pin things onto it and re-arrange the blocks as you please.  Default things like pictures, music and videos are all there as well as IE10 and other bits and pieces.

Navigation is now done through the Metro UI, the desktop (which is like Windows 7) and yes, here is the big change, shortcut keys.  If you have absolutely no interest in using shortcut keys or just refuse to use them on the premise that you have to distort your uncoordinated hands all round the keyboard, then Windows 8 will not be for you.  My reliance on Alt+F4 (to close applications), WinKey+Q (to open up search), WinKey+C (to open up 'Charms') and WinKey+Tab (to flick between desktop, Metro and all other apps and open pages) is now legendary at least in my own home.

"The shortcut keys will be a huge divider.  This is where the joining of desktop/laptop PC and Smartphone comes into play, and this is where a lot of the community will just say 'no thanks'!"

And here is the crux of the matter.  Windows 8 is essentially two operating systems stuck together.  For me anyway, you have the Metro UI to carry out your basic functions and provides quick navigation to the internet and the news and then the desktop; without a start button.  The shortcut keys will be a huge divider.  This is where the joining of desktop/laptop PC and Smartphone comes into play, and this is where a lot of the community will just say 'no thanks'!.

Aside from the obvious learning curve of the shortcut keys you have the corners of the screen which act as other means of navigation.  Moving the mouse to the top left of the screen provides you with a quick view of pages and apps that are open.  Moving the mouse to the bottom left reveals Start area or Metro UI.  So....the start button is there in kind, just not as revealing and present!  An issue many will find is moving the mouse not all the way to the bottom left and hitting the wrong app opening it all the time.  This is completely annoying.

One of the first things I did was to try and set up my GMail account with the Mail app present on the Metro screen.  Rather surprisingly, it worked.  Even more surprising was the People section which synced my contacts from GMail.  This was most encouraging.  Encouraging too that I could edit my notes section which I apply to client contacts through the People section in Metro.  I could just use GMail for everything in a Chrome tab, but the feel and satisfaction of the layout of the Mail and People app is rather nice.  Although I'm still undecided with regards to Mail as to whether I like or dislike my new mail being shown in bold at the top of the screen or whether the current way of manually moving up from the last read mail is better.  I certainly don't miss mails like before as I guess it forces you to read them all.

Pictures was a right pain and has to be improved.  I store all my pictures, music and videos on an external drive and I wanted to import folders from the external drive into the Pictures app.  Not only was the selection I wanted to move too big but they seemingly have to be moved into My Pictures when all I wanted is an app just to grab what I wanted and the folders that I wanted, not just selecting files.

I skipped on using IE10 as there are Flash security issues, but my choice of browser is Chrome anyway.  Chrome pages load fast, really fast.  But it is unresponsive at times as tabs and the browser itself locks and just doesn't work on times.  Another plus point in terms of speed and a negative in terms of stability.  On the second day of testing I also started to experience network connection drops, from an ethernet connection.  I had to keep manually repairing the network.  Also when I tried using Blogspot and Yola for web work, pages would hang on occasions and become unresponsive.

"If I sound a little harsh on Windows 8 then I may be misleading you.  I actually love the aesthetics, the speed and the freshness of it all.  I've even got to grips with the shortcut keys and corners.  But from a productive point of view, it may just be all too much for the normal user."

I also had a complete system error window popping up as the entire OS came to a juddering halt.  A reboot was required.  Users may also start to get annoyed and agitated at constantly having to go from one corner to the next and having tabs/apps/windows/bits and pieces flying all around the place.  You will, inevitably, get those moments after Alting, Window Keying, short cutting and apping and after several distortions of your hands across your keyboard come to a point where your head will go and you just grind to a brain freeze.  Normally a calm down period of up to thirty seconds is required for you to progress with your work.

If I sound a little harsh on Windows 8 then I may be misleading you.    I actually love the aesthetics, the speed and the freshness of it all.  I've even got to grips with the shortcut keys and corners.  But from a productive point of view, it may just be all too much for the normal user.  Going back to Windows 7 (because I just couldn't do any editing at one point with the crashing of Yola pages) felt like a nice warm pair of slippers.  But slippers are boring and dull aren't they, so therein lies the quandary for me.  Windows 7 seems sluggish in comparison, at least until it actually gets going.  I found myself looking for the app toggler where I could quickly and seamlessly flick between web pages and apps and documents.  But Windows 7 is stable, it's reliable.  The folks at M$ may well and truly iron out these issues for release from Windows 8.

My problem is, and this is the big question, do I really need Windows 8?  Apart from the gloss and the aesthetics, the unbelievable boot times and fresh approach, could I learn to love it and rely on it as an OS?  I'm not sure.  I'll definitely be switching back and forth until release, I may even use Windows 8 much more.  The upgrade price is also very generous too but Microsoft know that it has a battle on its hands to win this particular fight.  Talk of dumbing down the OS, of it being Vista II and just general outrage that an OS designed for the PC to get the best out of  a PC is being overshadowed by the Smartphone wars is always in comment boxes the web over.

I would love to give Windows 8 a solid five stars, I really would.  I think in a way it kind of deserves it.  But at the moment, there are just too many niggling issues that stop it from reaching its potential, that will hopefully be eradicated on release.  Whatever your opinion of Windows 8, it's a very bold move by M$ and is sure to go the full 12 rounds!

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