[Huayra]

Ok, so at school we got windows 8 installed on our laptops.

Its Ok, but I don't like it. A start menu that shouldn't take up any more than a quarter of your screen space now takes up the whole screen. Even if that's not a problem as you type the programme name and hit enter, it's rather distracting. In desktop mode, they dumped the Aero themes, which looked very good.

Metro (whoops, sorry Microsoft) apps have been simplified with larger touch targets, for an OS designed for touch. Let's look at Hotmail vs Outlook.com. Although many people disagree, I liked the look of Hotmail, as opposed to Outlook.com's one colour no-rounded-corners-here style.

Windows. Why was Windows named Windows? Because you could open different programmes at the same time, and drag around and resize the windows. While you can still do that in desktop mode, Metro's (darn, did it again) only option for this sort of thing is a maximum 2 apps with one on a width of 320 pixels and the other taking the rest of the screen. No half and half, no three programmes open at once. "But Josh, you can just use desktop," I hear you say. What's the point then of Metro (sorry)? It's for a touch screen. "OK," you say, "so you can run touch apps on your desktop, while still using desktop mode when needed." Then why does Windows 8 like to force me into Metro (sorry, again) whenever it can?

I have more complaints about it than I've listed here, and I understand that software can be installed so it will default to desktop, but that's not the point. You shouldn't have to install extra software so that your OS will actually be useful for something.

I'm not saying it doesn't have performance improvements. It does. It has new desktop features as well that almost make me want it. The idea of having an OS for both touch and non-touch is good, but Microsoft have pulled it off so very wrong. Whether or not this will be worth putting up with the new interface, I don't know.

In reference to apps, they could have at least made the option to have them open like windows. not metro (I apologise), which you cant even have 2 on the screen at once. yes, you can choose between them, but its like choosing between food. Chinese dining (i apologise for any racism i may inadvertently cause) consists of a circular table (OS). Then there is a circular spinning dish in the middle (Desktop). on those are all foods you can choose from ("Windows"). you can miss one and go straight to another with the click of a button.

With "Western" style food, we are taught that an entree comes first (App A), then a Main Course (App B), then lastly, a dessert (App C). You must work through the entree to get to the dessert, if the dessert is the desired app.

Overall, I give it an initial 6/10. the reason i say "Initial" is because that there will be updates to come. I'm glad they got rid of (Masked) the black-with-white-letters loading screen (I forget what it is called), this makes the logon process a helluva lot faster than windows 7, but there could be some serious improvements to the UI, and even a custom Key-Combo option.