I got hit in the nuts this morning by Microsoft when I installed Windows 8 x64 Enterprise RTM.

I'm still curled up in a ball on the floor. I think I'll be here until Windows 9 fixes this fucking disaster.

Aero is gone, so you have this flat looking Windows 1.x look for all Desktop mode window panes. It actually removes perceived depth from the screen. The best way I can explain is that the windows now feel like they are flat like pages in the same publication instead of each their own independent book.

The News app is ok, but I would prefer that same functionality in a regular desktop app than a screensaverish background app. I haven't found any other app that is very useful. In fact, I would prefer each app's grownup full application to the dumbed down widget.

At the end of the day, Microsoft is trying to brute force their way into the Tablet/Mobile space. Remember when Windows XP came out and the start menu changed from a single tall column to that fancy odd looking clusterfuck? It took them an entire OS revision to make that work correctly and they still didn't make it mandatory. This is 10000% worse and it is force fed.

For anyone who needs proof that this OS is fucking stupid, I urge you to try one simple task.

* On a non-touch screen computer, open the Windows Settings App (if you can find it). From there, call over someone who uses cell phones, computers, etc, but isn't a technician or wiz (someone who doesn't regularly use keyboard shortcuts). Ask them to simply exit the settings app.

There is no exit button. There is no back button. There are two ways out that I have found.
1. Keyboard Shortcut: Alt+Tab / Windows+Tab
2. Hidden Mouse Hot-Spot: bottom left corner

This gets worse though, imagine you are remoting into a system or using a Virtual desktop. So, anyone running Windows on a Mac, or bouncing between computers. The hard stop location of the bottom left corner of a screen is NOT a hard stop location if the computer is entrapped in a window. This means that unless you run your session in full screen, you almost completely lose out on the second method listed above.

The last major thing that frustrates the crap out of me is that I can't seem to tell when I am searching in the context of the app/application or when I am searching in context of the entire system. I cannot even begin to express how annoying this.

People in general say they want specific methods and things, but what they truly want is solutions to problems. Reinvention isn't a bad thing, however when you assume that the lowest common denominator is the type of customer you want to have and you forsake your power users and professionals, you end up with something like Apple.

I have never thought this before, but if Windows 8 is the trend, I am almost certain that we will see a new option emerge to compete from someone other than the current major players.