I’ve been spending a lot of time working with the Windows 8 beta, partly because I wanted to make sure marcedit would work with the new system and partly because I know that at some point I’d be seeing it.
First impressions:
- Not having the start button is a little jarring because you find and start programs differently (think search or tiles).
- there are some cool new shortcuts that once you get use to using the windows key, actually make using the system fun
- I like the mail program since it gives your outlook calendar and email integration, while providing integration for my google, facebook and windows live calendars
- I like the people tile (reminds me of my phone)
- like the integration with skydrive
- not sure what I think yet about the way desktop and metro are integrated. I’m getting use to it, but it doesn’t always feel as slick as it should. Though maybe that will get better with time
- love, love, love the integration with xbox. If you have one, that will be your killer feature in windows 8 since you can stream your games from your xbox to windows 8 device.
- It will be interesting to see if they create a metro office interface because I don’t like how office 2010 integrates. Decided to use libreoffice and google docs till I see what comes out.
However, the big question is how it works as a tablet os? Well, I got an Acer Iconia Tab and have installed Windows 8 and so far so good. Its both lite-weight with all the functionality of a desktop. So I’ll periodically check in to let folks know how it goes.
TR
P.S. This was actually written on the tablet, using live writer.