Windows 8 is out (Anyone wanna do a Technet group buy? -fly)

So, Ars Technica decided today was going to be 'let's fluff microsoft's window 8 penor' day today.


Windows, reimagined: A review of Windows 8 (long and pretty comprehensive review. 5 pages)
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/windows-reimagined-a-review-of-windows-8/

There's a lot more to Windows 8 than its user interface. In a normal Windows release, these other aspects—a new storage subsystem that lets you join multiple disks together, a new backup system, reduced memory usage, greater protection against security exploits, portable installations on USB memory sticks and more—would be prime considerations when assessing the operating system.

In the coming days, we're going to take a closer look at some of these features, but the user interface changes in Windows 8 threaten to overshadow them all. Some people have had visceral, negative reactions to the new user interface, and they're more than willing to forego these other improvements so that they can stick with Windows 7's much more familiar face.

If you're a desktop user, then yes: the new interface is not perfect. Despite what Microsoft says, the new interface is a compromise. The new interface makes some things worse. It also makes some things better. If you're a multimonitor user, I would think long and hard before upgrading; as welcome as the new taskbar is, the ease of use of the new interface is a severe problem with multiple monitors.

With a single screen, however, just treat the Start screen as little more than app launcher and be selective about your use of Metro, and it turns into something that actually works pretty well. Maybe even something better than Windows 7.

That may not be enough for everyone, particularly in corporate environments scared of retraining costs, but Windows 8 shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Should you go for the new operating system, you won't lose any performance, and you can even get away with an in-place upgrade.

If you're willing to look beyond the desktop, Windows 8 offers something altogether more exciting. There have been hybrid and convertible laptops in the past; machines that can switch between being what is essentially a laptop and what is essentially a slate/tablet, typically through some form of docking keyboard or exotic hinge mechanism. These machines have always been better laptops than they were tablets due to the weaknesses of Windows interfaces of old.

Windows 8 lets these machines become truly useful. In their tablet guise, they have Metro apps (though these are currently a little thin on the ground). In their laptop guise they have full-strength desktop software. There are still rough edges. The integration of the two interfaces needs to be better. But Windows 8 works. It's one operating system that can support tablet and desktop apps side-by-side. And that might just be worth a little compromise.

Gentlemen, start your benches: Measuring Windows 8's performance
http://arstechnica.com/information-...our-benches-measuring-windows-8s-performance/

Conclusions

Windows Vista's under-the-hood changes to the operating system caused notable performance regressions compared to its predecessor, but Microsoft substantially alleviated those problems in Windows Vista service packs and in Windows 7 itself. Windows 8 continues to build on that foundation, so performance remains mostly the same in Windows 8. There are isolated cases where performance is consistently better, most notably in boot time and in certain games, but for the most part the performance of Windows 8 is going to be very similar to the performance of Windows 7 on the same hardware. Whatever you think of Windows 8's new interface and rough edges, it's hard to find fault with its speed.

Second article says it best. If Win8 performs the same as Win7.... Not much of an impetus to switch then, at this point.
 
But do we really even care about how an OS "performs"? I mean, yeah 10 years ago I was running around [H]ard|OCP chasing FPS, but who really cares anymore? It's next to impossible to stress a CPU or GPU these days without some crazy intense game.

Am I just getting old?
 
So, after reading them both...

If you are a typical home user Win8 is fine.

If, however, you aren't, if you do productivity components like Photoshop, web development, etc, windows 8 will cause more pain than it alleviates. There is a big disconnect between metro aps/Edge UI and traditional desktop aps. For instance, the UI & Charms bar will not work with outlook.

I'll say it again. Outlook is 100% unregonized by the Edge UI. You can't use the 'share' charm to send anything to or from outlook. Used to right clicking a file, or url, and choosing 'send to'? Not anymore. If you hope to do a mixed use of traditional desktop & metro desktop, you will experience pain. If you go all desktop, or all metro, then things get better, but only marginally better for all desktop, but markedly better for all Metro.