Windows 8: (Very) First Impressions

Last week Microsoft released a consumer Windows 8 preview. I downloaded it and installed it on one of the laptops here in my office.
Good news: Installation was very easy. Go here-- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso --and download the ISO image and then burn to a DVD (You’ll need to select the option in your CD burning software to “Burn an image to a disc” or something like that). Then install. I set the thing to run overnight and came back in the morning and it was done. There are a couple of prompts at the beginning, but once the installation actually starts that aren’t any more.

 Bad News (or maybe not—maybe just “News”): Uh, it’s WAY different from Windows 7. I haven’t seen a change this big to Windows since the move from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95. It makes the change from Office 2003 to Office 2007 (the Ribbon) look like NOTHING! Frankly, I was lost at first. I am finding my way around it a little bit, but my first impulse is that I hate it.

 I know Microsoft is trying to create an operating system that not only runs on your desktop computer but can also run on a cell phone or tablet as well—one operating system for all devices. But frankly, I don’t want a cell phone operating system on my desktop computer—the icons are too big and even the graphics are weird—everyone else is going for flashy, 3-d graphics, and this looks amazingly flat.

I seem to be at odds with the rest of the computer world, though. Over the weekend I read story after story after story about how favorably everyone was regarding Windows 8. I feel like quite the outsider. Maybe the issue is that I think most people are viewing Windows 8 as Microsoft's first serious foray into the tablet world, and they're looking at the operating system as a tablet OS or a cell phone OS. And looked at that way, the OS is fine. But as I said above, I have it installed on a laptop computer, and I'm looking at it as a PC operating system. And viewed in that way, I think it has the potential to be a terrible failure.

Maybe my opinion will change. I've spent less than an hour hands on with the operating system. Maybe time will cause me to fall in love with it. But for now my feeling, I guess, is that it isn't always best to try to be all things for all people.