Windows 8 - It's great (kind of)

After using Windows 8 for over a month now, I can honestly say it's the best OS that Microsoft has ever produced...with possibly one of the worst desktop UIs I've ever used.

The OS is simply not designed to be used on a desktop. Microsoft tried to blaze a new trail with their metro windows UI (which I very much respect) but fell flat when it came to supporting existing user input devices.

According to Microsoft, the future is a touch friendly OS...according to me, that's stupid! Let's face it, touch friendly is the future, but that doesn't mean we need to draw a hard line in the sand for the keyboard and mouse.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I'm pissed that Microsoft expects me to have touch-screen EVERYTHING, on the other, I'm really happy that I've learned about 30 new keyboard shortcuts to accomplish things that were easily clickable in Windows 7.

The real reason I feel compelled to write about Windows 8 however is it's speed an stability. I can honestly say, no version of windows I've ever used boots so fast, works so correctly, and requires as little tweaking to run programs at their optimal settings.

Playing video games with my Windows 8 box is like playing them on a brand new computer. I can watch my  required resources just fade away, while the full screen app takes center stage. It's quite an impressive thing to see.

I'm pretty convinced that all of the companies who stand to loose profits due to the impending Windows/Xbox Live store, are going to paint Windows 8 into being the worst OS this side of Vista. I'm going to go on record and say that is simply not true.

Pending you can get past the touch only friendly UI, I think Windows 8 is a great addition to the Windows family, and I can't wait to see it evolve from here.