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Windows 8 Consumer Preview embraces the KISS principle

February 29, 2012, 1:43 PM PST

Takeaway: The Windows 8 Consumer Preview released February 29, 2012, is the new poster child for the keep-it-simple-stupid philosophy.

On February 29, 2012, Microsoft made the Windows 8 Consumer Preview available to everyone as a free download. Of course, I downloaded and installed it to a PC right away to see what all the fuss was about.

For an even closer look at the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, check out the accompanying TechRepublic Photo Gallery.

Keep it simple

I haven’t had time to do a full evaluation of the Consumer Preview, but my first impression of this version of Windows 8 on a desktop PC is one of pleasant surprise. I am surprised because I find myself liking the Metro Interface. The tiles are simple, clean, and straightforward. In fact, some may say they are actually intuitive. Moving between applications is very nimble, and as far as I can tell all the applications work as advertised. You can get more of my initial reactions in the photo gallery.

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For the multitude of TechRepublic members who were predicting doom and gloom for Microsoft and Windows 8, I suggest you download the Consumer Preview and give it a thorough try. It may change your mind. And even if you don’t like the Metro Interface, you may find the more traditional desktop just as functional as the desktop in Windows 7 or XP. There is just no catastrophe to see here.

As time passes, I’ll see if my initial reaction holds sway, but as of right now I think Windows 8 is going to win some users over with its keep-it-simple-stupid (KISS) philosophy. For me the real test is whether Windows 8 can run the games I typically play on the PC. I’ll get back to you on that. (On a side note, I am installing Windows 8 on a tablet as I write this blog post.)

Have you downloaded and installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview? What are your initial impressions of this latest version of Windows? Can you live with the Metro Interface? Have your experienced any problems?

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About Mark Kaelin

Mark Kaelin is a CBS Interactive Senior Editor for TechRepublic. He is the host for the Microsoft Windows and Office blog, the Google in the Enterprise blog and the iOS App Builder blog.

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18 Votes

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What Is The Point

120529-000107 29th Feb 2012

I do not understand the point of Windows 8. I can understand the sales pitch for increased security. But I cannot understand a tablet-touch paradigm on a vertical monitor. I am creative and require fast data entry and precision pointing. I am not into finger-painting nor am I into drag-and-drop interconnectedness and messaging between applications. I am still struggling with cloud security and availability issues where vendors use unilateral contracts and you have the right to complain and get you last month's fee rebated for a catastrophic loss of your work.

So I would appreciate some advice as to why I would abandon a functional desktop with icons for a display of large message-enabled mini-windows? Is this a superior revolutionary operating system or an evolutionary operating system designed to put a touch-interface on an oldie-but-goodie and call it a win-mac? HELP. I do not understand.

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13 Votes

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Much pain, no gain

SquelchQuelch 1st Mar 2012

Simple and slick? These are adjectives I hardly need in an operating system that is, what, almost 30 years old? I don't need simple I need functional. I don't need slick I need reliable, stable and fast. Why doesn't Microsoft spend their millions (if not billions) on doing something like, oh I don't know, instant boot?
Those tiles are absolutely useless to users who don't give a rat's patute about social networking. I'm not going to just boot up the OS and sit and stare at the tiles to see who's talking and what email I might be getting, or how much the temperature is changing from minute to minute.
And my God!, what a colossal waste of space Metro is! I have rarely maximized any window in any version of Windows over the years. The last thing I want is to not have the choice anymore. And the way to get to the Start screen? Put your mouse over the bottom left corner of the screen! How un-intuitive is that? And most of these apps don't even have a close button. You have to put your mouse over the top left corner of the screen. Simply ridiculous.
And you know what is even more ridiculous? Shutting down! If you're on the desktop, you have to mouse over the bottom left corner to get to the stupid Start screen. (Oh, and make sure that once the little icon appears that you don't mouse over it too far or it'll just disappear.) Then you have to drag the Start screen up to reveal the login screen where you can finally click the shut down icon. But then of course, you have to confirm that you want to shut down. Inane!

In the first 15 minutes of use my right arm got tired because of all the back and forth between my keyboard and my mouse. I'm with @spawnywhippet, as soon as the OS is up and running I'm at the desktop until it's time to shutdown for the day.

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11 Votes

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What's the advantage?

zefficace 1st Mar 2012

Just like for Unity & gnome3, that's what I asked: What do I gain from this change? Nevermind that I like it or not, just tell me what exactly will this GUI change will really make better for me. After many months of gnome3 usage on my laptop, I have yet to find that advantage and am switching back to XFCE. I like XFCE, and don't really lose anything I would want from Gnome.

When it comes to Metro, I have tried it, and have yet to find any "real" advantage. I have not done anything much quicker, and things weren't easier to find, nothing seemed more intuitive, etc. So this seems to change for the sake of change. What MS might want to do relative to the mobile platform is a big nevermind to me. It still feels like change for change's sake. I certainly could adapt to Metro, there's no doubt about that. I could even grow to actually like it per se, but I don't think I would gain anything.

So I'll stick with Win7 untill the end of support, and by then maybe I'll find something attractive to lastest Windows available at that time. I will absolutly skip win8.

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0 Votes

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SECURITY ISSUES OF INCREASINGLY INTRUSIVE PLATFORM

120529-000107 8th Mar 2012

I think I am becoming more concerned about the increasing intrusiveness and monitoring of a computer I own and which has independently acquired programs that are of no concern to the operating system vendor. I do not buy the concept of program inventories to improve the "user experience" or resolve crashes. I want to see an independent assessment of the security issue.

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0 Votes

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Not Impressed. . .

Mooreman 6th Mar 2012

I installed the ISO version on a new 640 GB hard drive. After installing I couldn't open any of the Metro Apps except the desktop. After a lot of Google searching I found that you can't open them from Administrator mode. I don't recall ever being offered to create a standard user account during the installation. So after creating a standard user account, most of the Metro Apps started working okay. The Metro picture viewer App freezes and crashes. The Weather app also seems to be broken.

One of the first things I did was to create both a shutdown and a reboot shortcut icon using the shutdown.exe command in the 64-bit system folder. Now I don't have to jump thru hoops just to shut Win8 down. I don't care for File Managers (Explorer) that lack sight lines, and they can take that ribbon bar and shove it, so I installed the free Explorer++, it runs great on Win8. Problem solved. Give it a try.

I can hardly wait to see the start menu and start orb return in Windows 9, because I sure won't be trading in Windows 7 anytime soon for this piece of c**p. I can see the blow back from Win8 being worse than what happened with Vista, yes its that bad!

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0 Votes

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Hey!! I loved the Commodore 64!!!

dflitton02@... 6th Mar 2012

Watch it buddy!!

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