Windows 8 Compatibility

[Dragon]

No. Metro is overall a better interface. Explorer is clunky. Face it... most everything people use is located via a shortcut on THE DESKTOP. Metro simplifies this.

I don't agree. Explorer is useful as it is on Windows 7 for K/M, MetroUI is not.

The Metro interface is presently used on the Xbox360 as it's primary UI and the Xbox360 does not use a touchscreen interface. And I hate to break it too you a tablet with a touchscreen UI isn't much different than desktop mouse driven UI.

They're made for different userbases. Not to mention for the Xbox 360, you're not using a K/M, but a gamepad. For one, a touchscreen UI makes it more efficient to just click with your... fingers! Imagine that. Secondly, the K/M userbase has a much larger screen.

[Dragon]

Pretty much every program that is compatible with Windows 7 should be compatible with Windows 8, at least that is what I saw from the developer preview ages ago (still have to download the consumer preview.)

And another note, if Microsoft really do force us to use the metro interface, its just another reason to go to linux, atm my only reason for not switching to linux full time is compatibility of Windows, well I could use wine, but atm my laptop will not use the propriotory graphics drivers properly because of my BS hybrid graphics, if it did I would be on linux now and playing FFXIV through wine.

Microsoft's ideas of "we know how everything should be, and everyone else is wrong" and no options for customisation is what will kill them, Linux would be ahead of Windows now if everyone programmed for both of them I can gurentee it.

Agreed.

The only reason I don't use Linux is because game developers for the most part won't support OpenGL, the key ingredient needed for Linux compatibility (I believe). Linux is just the superior product in every other way.

[Delsus]

Agreed.

The only reason I don't use Linux is because game developers for the most part won't support OpenGL, the key ingredient needed for Linux compatibility (I believe). Linux is just the superior product in every other way.

I don't think its that, because alot of games (talking offline here) are cross platform, and the PS3 uses OpenGL. if they wanted to devs could write a Linux version based on OpenGL ported from the PS3 version, it would be alot easier than porting from PC to PS3 and vice versa because nothing would be changed between Dx and OpenGL.

You heard me SE give us a Linux port of FFXIV from the PS3 version, my poor Ubuntu gets neglected (well if I can fix my hybrid graphics problems, been working on em for months)

[Soukyuu]

No. Metro is overall a better interface. Explorer is clunky.

I don't see anything clunky about it, especially since it's clearly optimized for mouse input, while Metro is optimized for touch input. Having to wait for windows to realize you put your mouse near an active corner or risk erroneously opening the start menu by setting the delay too low is way too clunky compared to simply swiping your finger from one edge of the screen. And don't let me get started on scrolling.

Face it... most everything people use is located via a shortcut on THE DESKTOP. Metro simplifies this.

idk, my desktop doesn't have a single icon on it. And even if it had, icons look better than those ugly huge cells with a small icon for the program. I'm not planning to use metro apps, I didn't buy my fullHD screen to have one app visible at a time, maximum of two.

What they did to the UI was actually going back in time where you couldn't even have overlapping windows... except now you can't even have windows on an OS that is called "windows" (legacy desktop not counted)

[Dragon]

I don't think its that, because alot of games (talking offline here) are cross platform, and the PS3 uses OpenGL. if they wanted to devs could write a Linux version based on OpenGL ported from the PS3 version, it would be alot easier than porting from PC to PS3 and vice versa because nothing would be changed between Dx and OpenGL.

You heard me SE give us a Linux port of FFXIV from the PS3 version, my poor Ubuntu gets neglected (well if I can fix my hybrid graphics problems, been working on em for months)

Oh, I see... hmm.

[Haibel]

I have to LOL at all the people that don't understand Win8 and Metro UI. One of the Reasons for windows 8 Is to do away with the need for a hardware Bios. Which is something Google is trying to do with Chromium. Also another concept with Both OSX and Google is the Cloud integration. Microsoft is also moving to this Idea and has been slowly, very slowly moving to this for years. Microsoft is making win8 to be much like OSX in they they won't have to build a new OS anymore. They can just keep updating this mush like the way OSX has been for years.

As for the metro UI on a desktop. I can guaranty nobody that complains about it has used it with a Arc Touch mouse. You can have multitouch input on a desktop and it works great. If you don't think so I suggest you get the right equipment and try it out they way it's meant to be used.

[Delsus]

I have to LOL at all the people that don't understand Win8 and Metro UI. One of the Reasons for windows 8 Is to do away with the need for a hardware Bios. Which is something Google is trying to do with Chromium. Also another concept with Both OSX and Google is the Cloud integration. Microsoft is also moving to this Idea and has been slowly, very slowly moving to this for years. Microsoft is making win8 to be much like OSX in they they won't have to build a new OS anymore. They can just keep updating this mush like the way OSX has been for years.

As for the metro UI on a desktop. I can guaranty nobody that complains about it has used it with a Arc Touch mouse. You can have multitouch input on a desktop and it works great. If you don't think so I suggest you get the right equipment and try it out they way it's meant to be used.

Microsoft has hardly ever completly rebuilt an OS, 95 and 98 are essentially the same at the core, just a few changes to make the latter better, Windows XP was based on 2000 and NT at the core, even Windows 7 is based on Vista (alot of changes for stability etc), Windows 7 is Vista 2.0, but they needed to rebrand it, because of the tarnished reputation of Vista.

Also what you are saying is we HAVE to buy something that looks like it was made by a 5 year old to use it properly, that Arc touch mouse is the uglyest thing I have seen, it does not look comfortable to use, and looks like it will suck for games.

Seriously, the metro UI is made for tablets and phones, I will hate using it hated everything to do with metro with a mouse and touchpad (multi-touch)

Microsoft WILL loose people by forcing them to use metro, the (what they call it) Legacy start menu is ideal, everything is there, in a logical order (alphabetical) whereas on metro they are in the order you install them, it will be a nightmare finding things among hundreds of apps and programs, they can't even make the tiles the same size, some have large ones others have small ones, it looks ugly. I will be downloading the release preview, and probably beta if I can get hold of it to try out (alot has changed since developer preview) but my expectations are extremely low after what I saw in the developer preview.

I believe Windows 8 will fail badly (looking at ME style failure) on PCs and laptops, Metro will however work on phones and tablets, Microsoft could have done one thing, have metro enabled by default, but add the classic desktop and start menu as an option, alot will use metro because they stick with defaults, people who really cared about it will switch, or if they like it even stick with metro, this is the wonderful thing about linux, you don't like one thing, change it.

[Soukyuu]

As for the metro UI on a desktop. I can guaranty nobody that complains about it has used it with a Arc Touch mouse. You can have multitouch input on a desktop and it works great. If you don't think so I suggest you get the right equipment and try it out they way it's meant to be used.

You missed the point. What you are telling us is to get a touch device - exactly what Metro is made for and is good for.
The point is, over 99% of desktop PCs do not have touch devices. Forcing a touch based UI on desktop users is a mistake.

[Delsus]

You missed the point. What you are telling us is to get a touch device - exactly what Metro is made for and is good for.
The point is, over 99% of desktop PCs do not have touch devices. Forcing a touch based UI on desktop users is a mistake.

^^ Agree 100%, now if they offered the option of desktop or metro we would have no problems.

[Maneki]

I've been running Win8 since the Consumer Preview came out and now doing the Release Preview. I've seen some good improvements in terms of performance over 7 and a lot lower memory footprint overall. Base install also only too about 15 minutes from a USB key to an SSD.

In regards to gaming performance, it's really less about the OS and much more about the hardware drivers. I had some pretty major issues with the AMD driver release for CP. Going to the RP drivers fixed a lot of issues I had, especially with Eyefinity.

In terms of day to day use, I most of my computers have Win8 now. I use it at work and on two of my machines at home. Metro does take getting used to, and I'll admit there are some issues with mouse control, but they're not huge. I've gotten used to the changes and really like the polish that has been put on the RP.

With that said, Microsoft's target for a new OS aren't really people with existing hardware. The vast majority of computers that get upgraded are on the business side and much less in the consumer market. Most of the people who wind up with Win8 are the ones who buy new computers with it preloaded. I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more touch-based hardware coming out this fall. Only Apple users really consistently plunk down the $100 (or whatever it is) every 2 years to get a new release of OSX.

Finally, it's a bit unfair to blame the poor performance of FFXIV (especially when it comes to the UAC prompt) on the OS. To me, that's just a lack of testing and lazy coding. Maybe it's something unavoidable, but how do other games get around it? If you really understand how UAC works, it's easier to appreciate what the purpose is. The "secure desktop" is actually a different user session than the standard desktop. Therefore, anything in that user session is completely separate from your standard login and mostly unreachable by malware or code of any type.

This seems to cause problems for XIV since it doesn't know how to deal with DirectX suddenly getting paused. I don't see this as a Windows problem, since the feature existed long before XIV came into play.