Windows 8 Consumer Preview

The public beta of Windows 8 is official

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/wind ... er-preview

You can download it here

Have fun.

Been playing with the developer preview since it first came out. I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions before I post my own.

Thanks. Just sent that out to the rest of our staff.

i saw the first preview video and really it is just going to be one of them things that we are going to be forced to upgrade over the years but then again most of us skipped vista and waited for 7.

Lets hope that it is good with resources and does not BSOD too often lol

I put it on a VM and I am not impressed. I really don't see the business world grasping this as their next desktop OS of choice. I'd need to install it on a tablet to really get a feel for it. I won't be going to it at my present location since we are a closed secure network and all the nifty things Windows 8 does seems to need some internet connectivity.

Zealous, the BSODs are pretty much a thing of the past since Windows 7. I rarely ever see them anymore.

Apparently the beta for Server 8 is available as well. Downloading it now since I am more interested in that than I am the desktop version at this point.

i say give it 6 months after release and the consumer feedback should make some good updates. Guess wait for finial release

The problem is that Windows 8 Desktop is designed for touch devices. Working at a desk with a desktop PC, it will get rather tiring using a touch screen. Yes you can use a keyboard and mouse but that seems counter-intuitive to what Microsoft is trying to do IMHO. I see Windows 8 Desktop being a pretty big hit for the home tablet user. For the business, I see this as being a dud. But what do I know.

Windows 8 Server on the other hand looks pretty cool so far. I just joined it to my domain so I'll see what goodies are packed within.

Windows 9 Pro will be the business version and will actually fail like vista business did. I'll wait for Windows 10 lol. It's all marketing.

Now that you mention it, I can't recall the last time I've seen one.

The last time I had a BSOD was on vista.

But this wasn't entierly windows fault, I used some beta software that worked thightly integrated with the system (security software).

As of Windows 8, while I haven't tested it personally I have a friend who has tested it and it appears that it is a rather quick system.

The interface is unusual but quick, even quicker than windows 7 for gaming according to him. The thing I care the most about however (after switching to linux as my main os) is the browser, I hope IE 10 will bring better html5 support and standarlisation in general.

99% of all kernel panics in Windows ("bluescreens" as users see them), and in any OS for that matter, are caused by poorly-written/faulty device drivers, not by the OS itself. The standards for device drivers and the quality of hardware itself has gone up substantially, which is why you rarely see such situations anymore. They do still occasionally happen, but the only times I can remember it happening to me in recent history is when a piece of hardware was actually failing. Hard drives and video cards are especially notorious culprits.

I am tempted to install Windows Developer Preview but at the same time kind of put off by the fact that it will expire in 2013 if I install it now. I know it is really awesome as I have seen videos of it and also seen it on my friend's computer via TeamViewer - but it's not the same as actually being in front of the real thing. I would like to get it, but is it worth it? And isn't it virtually the same as Windows 7 anyway, asides from the start menu?

Windows ME...BSOD's GALORE! That was by far the sorriest excuse for an OS I've seen in my life.

seems to me that Windows 8 is a return to Vista...