First off a little background: I’m not an Apple/Mac hater at all – I like their aesthetics and interfaces, but hate the iTunes-connection (more iPhone/iPad-related than OSX). Yes, I know there are ways around it, but eventually, you’re going to end up needing it for something.
I’ve recently been loving Android and its progression on smartphones and tablets. I’ve personally used an HTC Evo and Motorola Photon and have had up to 4 different Android tablets at a time in different rooted/hacked/ROM’d incarnations.
When the unfortunately named Windows Phone 7 debuted, I loved the interface (seriously, you MetroUI guys did a great job) but wondered if this was something the market needed. Granted it needed a kickstart after the previous WinMo versions, but would it gain hold in the market? The answer so far, is a resounding, “meh”.
Back to the present!
Microsoft – in a new tact – unleashed Windows 8 “pre-beta” to the world at their //BUILD conference a few weeks ago and so far it seems the internet’s enthusiasm and curiosity have been piqued! We have the same great MetroUI (from WP7) with live tiles and finally, a true touch-based interface that is responsive and usable (unlike the Windows 7 touch interface). As a PC user, I’ve welcomed Windows 7 as the true successor to XP, and skipped Vista like a large portion of the world. Reading all the Windows 8 press and outside opinions, I proceeded to download all the .isos (x86, x64, dev tools) and found some test machines.
Test machine 1: Dell Studio 15 (circa 2009) Core2Duo 2.4 ghz, 15″ 1080p, 4gigs RAM, Blu-ray drive
Test machine 2: Acer Iconia W500 (hastily purchased after //BUILD) AMD C50, 2gigs RAM, 1280×800 GorillaGlass LCD
Install was a no-brainer (use the Windows 7 USB drive utility or just mount the iso using your favorite virtual disc utility) – though you can save settings on x86 and x64, I chose to do a clean install on both (x86 on the W500, x64 w/dev tools on the Studio15). The installation was quick and painless and I rebooted into a pretty full-screen lock screen (familiar to WP7 users or Bing users).
Logging in:
Immediately we have a little bit of a difference emerging as I naturally wanted to touch the screen to wipe away the lock screen, but all that did was add a smudge to my Studio’s screen. Of course the tablet was natural and once logged in with my Live account, was greeted with a cheery MetroUI.
Navigating MetroUI:
Nothing bad to say from the W500 – the MetroUI is swoopy, responsive, effortless and natural. You can long-press to drag or remove items and easily switch to the desktop. From the Studio, it’s still pretty, but not as natural using a mouse to scroll from page to page. On the tablet, I like how the Windows key brings you back to Metro, but I don’t like that on the Studio. I’d rather have the Windows key bring up the right sidebar to search for apps or a new-fangled Start menu (decades of training are hard to break!).
The Desktop:
When you’re on the Windows 8 desktop, you’ll be in a familiar place since it’s very similar to Window 7. There’s a revamped Task Manager, but most everything looks the same. On a tablet, we fall a bit short of the nice Metro experience since buttons on task bars, menus, etc. are sometimes a bit too small to hit accurately on the first attempt. Luckily the full-screen keyboard carries over instead of invoking a miniature Windows 7-style virtual keyboard.
Applications:
So far, here’s what I’ve got running successfully on Windows 8 x86:
Evernote
Pidgin
Dropbox
Google Chrome
Flash
Microsoft Office 2010
Will be testing Cisco VPN and AnyConnect soon!
More updates – especially on the x64 Studio – to come! Been playing w/the W500 mostly!
Conclusion:
I really like the MetroUI (in case that wasn’t obvious) and I’m excited to see that there might be another player in the tablet wars. I still have (and love) my Android tablets, but I’ll keep checking this out and see if this is a better way to use Windows. I’ll still respect the Apple gear as well and am definitely keeping an eye out on what the iPad 3 will bring to the table.
Blender bottles – nothing techy w/those right? WRONG!