5 ms·

I do not understand the skepticism against Windows 8, specially from the hacker community. The only reason I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because

by arihant 14y ago

I do not understand the skepticism against Windows 8, specially from the hacker community. The only reason I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because there are so few ways to build things on it, compared to a Mac. I remember back in the day when I used Windows exclusively because Visual Studio was the only way to do build awesome things fast. With Windows 8, MS has brought back those days. Developing for Metro is absolutely amazing. I have never felt the urge to write native desktop apps in years until Metro. Not that Apple and Google didn't try. Anybody looking at screenshots and making predictions should download the preview, fire up that Virtualbox, hack together an app and then decide. This is nothing like ChromeOS, believe me, I am running the 30th May build of Chromium on my other machine. This is something that sits between iOS-ified Mac and Web-ified ChromeOS.

kijin 14y ago
Developing for Metro might be amazing, but developing on Metro is a non-starter. After all, Visual Studio is not a Metro app (yet). Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7.
- arihant 14y ago
  The jump from Metro to traditional UI is not that big. Your visual studio can have its own tile on Metro that takes you straight to the app in traditional UI. Except when writing code, I am usually back in the Metro. It's just like web development. I code for the browser, not on the browser. And still, I am always on the browser, except when I am not.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  And? No one is saying you should develop in Metro. No one is saying "Avoid desktop mode". It's there for a reason. It is there for people who need desktop mode, who need true, all-the-time window-ized multi-tasking. Then there are the people who buy iPads, iPhones, Androids, WP7 and others by the millions. The majority of users do not produce content. Windows 8 is an effort to bring them an easy to use tablet experience while still allowing them to be highly productive in a traditional Windows desktop if necessary. Everyone acts like Windows 8 "breaks Windows". I do not understand this mentality. It's an additional set of apps, UX/UI and APIs. You're not forced to use them or even develop for them. But it's very likely that users are going to embrace Metro Apps for a huge number of reasons (performance [async apis, etc], battery life, notifications, live tiles, ARM tablets, etc) Very little incentive to upgrade is understandable, but I can still list reasons that I will be interested in upping to Win8: (1) upgrading is cheap ($15); (2) Win8 includes the ability to wipe the machine back to "just installed" clean built in (or can wipe Desktop mode (registry, desktop apps) and leave data + Metro apps); (3) hackers will want Visual Studio (or else why is a "hacker" using Windows) and will likely want/need to target Metro apps; (4) even I like to kick back and mindlessly surf Twitter for an hour in the evening.
  - kijin 14y ago
    The $15 upgrade is only for people who buy a new Win 7 PC between now and the end of the year. If you already have a PC, it will be more like $100 for the Professional edition. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying Win 8 right now and I like certain aspects of it. I don't think it breaks anything important, either. But when I'm in desktop mode, the experience doesn't feel all that different from Win 7. Ribbon in Windows Explorer? I don't care. One-click wipe? I don't think I ever messed up a Win 7 install. Other changes are rather distracting (oversized window titles and excessive color saturation in various UI elements) but I could get used to it. But the bottom line is that it doesn't feel like it's worth $100, especially since I'm not in the business of making Metro apps.
- recoiledsnake 14y ago
  >Developing for Metro might be amazing, but developing on Metro is a non-starter. You can run the full Visual Studio 2012 natively on any x86 tablet such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJQotodEVQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJQotodEVQ Does Android or the iPad have a full featured native IDE with debugging support without resorting to hacks? >Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7. You do realize that the Desktop on Windows 8 will run all programs that run in Windows 8 right? And Windows 8 contains major improvements to the Desktop like file copying, multiscreen taskbar support etc. etc.
  - vibrunazo 14y ago
    Say that again? :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BR&hl=en&client=mv-google&feature=mhee&v=ZQozs5tXxwY&nomobile=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BR&hl=en&client=mv-g...
shriphani 14y ago
It is also surprisingly fast. I have VS11 running on a Cr48 with Win 8. It builds fine and I the OS runs ok. I was expecting some severe thrashing given its rather unimpressive resources and the 1 gig of disk-space that remained after I got VS11 on it.
baby 14y ago
> I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because there are so few ways to build things on it, compared to a Mac. I'm using Windows to build things and I don't have any problems. More than that I remember having issues when I was on a mac (Sony Vegas). Care to explain what you can do with a mac you cannot do with a PC?
- spullara 14y ago
  Run the iOS emulator?
- arihant 14y ago
  Mac - Unix + Cocoa + iOS + Android + Web Windows - Android + Web Also, all my web servers are unix based. Having a unix based local machine behooves me.

by arihant 14y ago

kijin 14y ago

Developing for Metro might be amazing, but developing on Metro is a non-starter. After all, Visual Studio is not a Metro app (yet). Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7.

arihant 14y ago
The jump from Metro to traditional UI is not that big. Your visual studio can have its own tile on Metro that takes you straight to the app in traditional UI. Except when writing code, I am usually back in the Metro. It's just like web development. I code for the browser, not on the browser. And still, I am always on the browser, except when I am not.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
And? No one is saying you should develop in Metro. No one is saying "Avoid desktop mode". It's there for a reason. It is there for people who need desktop mode, who need true, all-the-time window-ized multi-tasking. Then there are the people who buy iPads, iPhones, Androids, WP7 and others by the millions. The majority of users do not produce content. Windows 8 is an effort to bring them an easy to use tablet experience while still allowing them to be highly productive in a traditional Windows desktop if necessary. Everyone acts like Windows 8 "breaks Windows". I do not understand this mentality. It's an additional set of apps, UX/UI and APIs. You're not forced to use them or even develop for them. But it's very likely that users are going to embrace Metro Apps for a huge number of reasons (performance [async apis, etc], battery life, notifications, live tiles, ARM tablets, etc) Very little incentive to upgrade is understandable, but I can still list reasons that I will be interested in upping to Win8: (1) upgrading is cheap ($15); (2) Win8 includes the ability to wipe the machine back to "just installed" clean built in (or can wipe Desktop mode (registry, desktop apps) and leave data + Metro apps); (3) hackers will want Visual Studio (or else why is a "hacker" using Windows) and will likely want/need to target Metro apps; (4) even I like to kick back and mindlessly surf Twitter for an hour in the evening.
- kijin 14y ago
  The $15 upgrade is only for people who buy a new Win 7 PC between now and the end of the year. If you already have a PC, it will be more like $100 for the Professional edition. Don't get me wrong, I'm trying Win 8 right now and I like certain aspects of it. I don't think it breaks anything important, either. But when I'm in desktop mode, the experience doesn't feel all that different from Win 7. Ribbon in Windows Explorer? I don't care. One-click wipe? I don't think I ever messed up a Win 7 install. Other changes are rather distracting (oversized window titles and excessive color saturation in various UI elements) but I could get used to it. But the bottom line is that it doesn't feel like it's worth $100, especially since I'm not in the business of making Metro apps.
recoiledsnake 14y ago
>Developing for Metro might be amazing, but developing on Metro is a non-starter. You can run the full Visual Studio 2012 natively on any x86 tablet such as this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJQotodEVQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxJQotodEVQ Does Android or the iPad have a full featured native IDE with debugging support without resorting to hacks? >Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7. You do realize that the Desktop on Windows 8 will run all programs that run in Windows 8 right? And Windows 8 contains major improvements to the Desktop like file copying, multiscreen taskbar support etc. etc.
- vibrunazo 14y ago
  Say that again? :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BR&hl=en&client=mv-google&feature=mhee&v=ZQozs5tXxwY&nomobile=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=BR&hl=en&client=mv-g...

shriphani 14y ago

It is also surprisingly fast. I have VS11 running on a Cr48 with Win 8. It builds fine and I the OS runs ok. I was expecting some severe thrashing given its rather unimpressive resources and the 1 gig of disk-space that remained after I got VS11 on it.

baby 14y ago

> I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because there are so few ways to build things on it, compared to a Mac. I'm using Windows to build things and I don't have any problems. More than that I remember having issues when I was on a mac (Sony Vegas). Care to explain what you can do with a mac you cannot do with a PC?

spullara 14y ago
Run the iOS emulator?
arihant 14y ago
Mac - Unix + Cocoa + iOS + Android + Web Windows - Android + Web Also, all my web servers are unix based. Having a unix based local machine behooves me.