Ok, I have been working on my desktop pc with a clean install of Windows 8 Professional. There is definitely a learning curve involved, as I stated on my Facebook post, but…. I got to say, I am pretty impressed. The system is VERY responsive. Startup, shutdown times are unbelievable. I can’t give an exact comparison to my old setup, due to having tri-boot options set with Windows 7 ( Fedora, and Ubuntu).
Plus, Windows8 doesn’t have all the software patches and other issues slowing it down like previous versions have, yet.
When using apps, you will be pleasantly surprised – after the initial annoyance of it being different than you are used to. It took me a while to figure out how to CLOSE an app, and that did bother me for a while. Supposedly, you don’t have to close them. You can just leave them in the background where they consume almost no resources – and then they will eventually go away after a period of non-use. But, if you are like me and WANT it closed, just move your mouse to the top of the window, and then drag the app to the bottom of the screen where it closes. Kind of cool, but not as easy as clicking on the X like in most current Windows applications.
All of my current software appears to have installed without any issues, except for my HP printer/scanner interface software. The drivers all work, but the HP application just won’t load for me. I will have to research this a little further.
The integration with Hotmail / Live, Skydrive, and messenger is both a good and a not good thing. I really don’t like my PC username being douglasjohse@hotmail.com… I used to use something simple like Doug. I am going to have to read on this one a little further.
Clean, Fast, Stable, and seems to have plenty of potential in areas I haven’t even touched yet. Initial reaction was that this was going to be too complicated for MOST casual Windows users… current reaction — this rocks! People just need to spend a little time learning the NEW stuff and give it a chance. Anyone that currently has the tinkering ability to learn Linux – will catch on pretty easily.