Microsoft finally released the consumer preview of the much anticipated Windows 8. While some consider it a great OS which has a great user interface, others criticize it as another failure just like Windows Vista. Of course, the OS is still very much in a beta stage and there are bound to be bugs here and there, it seems the consumer preview isn’t what techies expected it to be. A great deal of those who used it had one or two negative things to say about it.
Windows 8 had some nice features which is quite an improvement to Windos, I must say. With a touch device, you’ll definitely love Windows 8 as you can touch and swipe easily. It’s even been said it’s going to be the default OS on Nokia tablets to be released later this year.
There’s is a whole lot of improvement on the user interface which now looks so modern. Below is a video of Tami Reller, Chief Marketing Officer of Windows, giving the crowd a demo of the Windows 8 preview during the Microsoft keynote at CES 2012.
Based on what I’ve seen and read so far, Windows 8 isn’t optimized for desktop devices and it’s only great on tablets and other touch devices. As a matter of fact, i don’t like how it looks. Maybe that’s because I’m so used to, and content with Windows 7 but I doubt if I’m going to really upgrade when it’s finally released. I might use it on a tablet but…my notebook? I doubt it.
To be honest, I think the user interface is super polished and apps seem to load fast and sliding seems so smooth. The familiar start button that shows your start menu is finally gone, so is Windows explorer. Just like your Google account is tied to your Android device, so is Windows Live account with Windows 8.
Interested in trying it out? You can download it from the official site.
Minimum Requirements
- 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
- Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch
With the Metro UI, you can switch from your notebook to your tablet and then use your mobile phone outdoors without missing out any major Windows feature. The Metro user interface isn’t bad at all. Before installing, i suggest you check out Microsoft’s compatibility center for Windows 8.