Well... Microsoft officially just threw up on my computer screen.

If you would like to see it, feel free to destroy one of your computers with a pre-beta:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

In all of my time using Microsoft products, I have never been so put off by an OS as I currently am with Windows 8 Developer Preview.

There are many new innovations that Microsoft has put into making Windows 8 a better OS, and honestly, I am so frustrated by a few of them that I can't get to the really good stuff.

Lets start with this. I don't see the link between desktop and mobile interfaces. They do different things, you use different things to make them work, why would they look the same?

Metro as a Start Menu is not a good idea for people who use a mouse or who have more than 20 applications installed on the computer.



It just doesn't work if you aren't using a tablet or phone.

Second, the desktop is an App? The DESKTOP is a fucking APP? Why?

On a smart phone, it makes sense that I have limited real estate or that I would do one thing at a time with my clumsy fingers, however with a little mousing action, I gain precision and accuracy. I have no desire to be limited to blocky half screen panels that look like digital signage rather than a computer interface.

What really pisses me off is that it isn't intuitive. There aren't buttons in the correct places to make it easy to bounce between the different views, apps, etc. Hell, I couldn't even figure out how to close the control panel. Seriously, I can't fucking close it. I have been a paid computer technician for the last 12 years and I can't close the Windows Control Panel. I am insulted that Microsoft would even fuck with my head like this.

How about Internet Explorer. The address bar was moved to the bottom of the page. WTF? Why? There are hundreds of browsers out there in the world and non of them pull this bullshit. Why would you put the address bar at the bottom of the page?

I was so frustrated by the clunky experience that I never had the time to play with the new Explorer or Task Manager. I'll have to get back to that soon. Still, if this is what we have to look forward to, even if it is just the ideas... I think I might brush up on Linux and hold my MacBook Pro a bit closer to my heart.

Windows is a strong gaming, media, and business platform. Pretending that it needs to be a mobile app as a priority makes me think that MS is going to stop playing its own game and instead play Apple's. On a mobile device, be a mobile OS, on a Desktop, be a fucking Desktop OS.

I wish the source for that quote was caught on video.

I just installed a bunch of applications and was playing around with it more... sorry, but the news does not get better.

The process for adding things to the Metro UI is a bitch... actually I have no idea how to do it other than to try and install something new and pray it sticks itself there.

I have no idea how to resize the icons.

I went to look at the weather widgety thing... yeah that fucking piece of shit told me how Anaheim was doing. I told it to look up my current city, but it told me to fuck off. I manually added my lovely New Haven city to the list and then I was stuck with New Haven and Anaheim. There was no easy way to clearly see how to remove Anaheim. By button mashing a shoryuken I was able to get rid of the wrong city. It was kind of them to give New Haven a tropical background. Nothing like thinking that this old school New England harbor city might have some crystal clear tropical water.

I can forgive an app for being shitty, however this is just an example of all of the apps. I loaded some Paper Airplane coloring kit bullshit. I couldn't do anything. I literally could not do anything. It told me all about how I could print... where the fuck is the print button?

By the way, my fucking Control Panel is still loaded because I can't close it. For that matter, it feels like most native applications that use the flashy bullshit are not closing. They remain uneasily accessible in the background waiting for me to mistakenly Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku and then pouncing on me.

In the "Desktop App" (Fucking assholes) the normal shit still seems to work. I used explorer to browse to my start menu and then began to play with some of the new explorer look and feel. It is ok. I don't hate the ribbon for Explorer as much as I did for Office. I think it is because there are less options. Additionally I use context menu options more than options in the old menu system.

Next test will be the Task Manager and file copy.

I almost want to join this thing to a domain just to watch it get a hernia and keel over.

So I did some network file transfers. The UI is a huge improvement. There is a data graph showing how fast your data is moving and what your average speed is.

Additionally the Task Manager is awesome. It shows you disk usage, network usage, subcomponent breakdowns and some other types of stuff. It also told me that those bullshit apps that I didn't want running were all still using memory, but no CPU. They were suspended and actively taking up a solid 30-50MB of memory each. Why does a paper airplane require 50 MB of memory when I don't want it turned on?

I couldn't figure out how to turn the fucking thing off or restart it.

I logged out through an odd interface and then found an option to restart only when I was completely logged out.

Mr. Satire wrote:

Well, this is a Windows I am not upgrading to. As GPF said, the tablet interface is terrible for non-tablet PCs. Also, I won't get it because the traditional Windows Explorer App (seriously, Microsoft? Is such a perfect GUI now insignificant enough to be called an 'app'?) utilizes Ribbon toolbars on Explorer windows, and I loathe Ribbon toolbars. I'll stick with Windows 7. I'm not even going to install this on a VM. The system requirements say this gobbles up 20GB of disk space for the 64-bit version (16GB for the 32-bit version, I think). I am not giving 20GB+ of disk space to this. EDIT: I'll install this in a VM just to look at it for a bit. Then I'll delete it.

* The ribbon really isn't as bad in Explorer as it is in Office. Give it a shot before bashing it even if you hated it in previous apps. In combination with shortcuts and context menus it did seem to work for me.

* No, you won't be installing this in a VM. I haven't heard of anyone successfully making it work without quirky issues. It doesn't work at all on VMWare.

* The OS is small, it doesn't take 16-20GB. It is Windows 7ish size, so closer to 8GB. However, add in a page file, add in temp files, actively store some data, install some programs and you'll be at 15GB quickly. 20GB after you install a few meaningful programs. However, 20GB to test an OS is nothing. My VM's are granted 80GB at the minimum because then you don't have resource issues... of course I generally install 40GB of shit by default. Just don't bitch about the size when doing OS testing.

Oh god...

Microsoft has gone full retard.

All Metro apps will be sold through Microsoft's store and no other stores are allowed.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/240212/metro_apps_to_be_sold_only_from_microsofts_app_store.html

So if you want to sell an app you have to give up 30% profit. Or... you could just use a classic executable app and sell a boxed copy or digital download from your website and keep the 30%. Hell, you could just make a web app and laugh your way to the bank.

All I can picture when I think about this story is...
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/bce7b31cef/tropic-thunder-film-clip-nobody-goes-full-retard-from-ilike2party

If Microsoft holds their ground as a desktop OS with cloud integration they will see PC's in the form of Desktops and Laptops continue to bring them revenue for years to come. If they try to play the mobile OS game against Google and Apple and give up the desktop experience, they will destroy themselves slowly and painfully.