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“Woody is correct…the interface is horrible for mouse & keyboard folks”

Not for this folk. I’ve had no problem navigating Metro with my keyboard and mouse. Some things were a bit confusing at first. I thought using the mouse to lift the openeing screen was a bit clunky. Then I decided to try pressing the up arrow button, and up it went. Cool. Pressing the Windows button returns you to the Metro screen if you’re in an app. Pressing it when you’re on the Start screen switches to the desktop, pressing again switches you back to Metro.

I can click all over Metro with my mouse, slide boxes around, play with apps. They keyboard is hardly needed. On the desktop … well, it works like Windows desktop. Click and type. The start button is gone, but I’ve been able to do everything I wanted to without it. I’ve been pinning my apps to the task bar since Windows 7 came out, and that still works.

So I don’t really see what the problem is. The Windoes 8 works just fine with a keyboard and mouse. If you don’t like learning new tricks, stay with Windows 7. Me, I’ll see what the final version of Windows 8 looks like, and what kind of launchers and other tools come out with it. And I’m sure there will be a way, either from Microsoft or someone else, to boot directly to the desktop so you never have to see the Metro interface if you don’t want to.

Oh, and Windows 8 wouldn’t install on my Vibe tablet. It said it couldn’t find any drivers.

~~ Grey

I’ve been using Windows since 3.0, so I think I qualify as a veteran. And I like Windows 8.

I’m currently running it under VirtualBox, but I will be attempting to install it on a touch tablet tomorrow. (A Vibe, currently running Windows 7.)

It’s taken me a while to figure some things out, but I expect that with any new software product. After playing with Metro for a while, my reaction was, “My father-in-law could use this.” I think a lot of users will never need to look under the covers to find the desktop.

Us old dogs? Yep, we’ll probably have to learn a few new tricks. It didn’t take me a whole long time to find out how to bring up a command shell, regedit, and other things I needed to play with.

And as others have pointed out, Microsoft isn’t done with this yet. It’s a bit of a ways to release yet. And you know what happens when a new version of Windows comes out. Independent developers fall all over themselves getting out little products that “fix” the things that people don’t like. So it won’t be too long after release that Windows Secrets posts their first “Must-Have Windows 8 Applications” column.

So please don’t rush to judgement. This is a new world. Don’t resist – adapt. And if anything I suspect that Windows 8 will give new life to PCs instead of killing them. Think of the huge number of people who don’t have PCs, but have tablets and smart phones. Show them a Windows 7 desktop and they’ll go back to their phone. Show them Windws 8 Metro … running on their phone, tablet AND PC, with the same interface and the same apps, and they’ll find that there might be a lot of benefit to having a PC too.

That’s my five cents worth. I’m off to find out how to develop Metro apps. Because an app store where someone can buy my program and run it on their PC, tablet and phone? I think that’s an opportunity knocking.

~~ Grey