Windows 8 Preview Build

Just downloaded this from M$ website and I'm liking it better than 7 and Vista. In my opinion it still needs some serious work though, my first complaint with it is that it is freakishly bloated (OVER 10 GIGS JUST TO INSTALL THE DAMN THING!) and a lot of my games RUN BETTER UNDER WINE even though they require tweaking to get them to run. Another thing that's annoying me right now (aside from the security bullshit) is that they replaced the Start menu with a start screen, which was cool at first, but now I'm just finding it annoying. Still not sure about this OS, I might keep it as a dual boot when the full version hits the streets depending on how WINE development has come along so that I can play DX10 and 11 games, but I definitely wouldn't trade a good Linux distro for it though, especially when you take into consideration just how much easier Linux is to use and how much more of my legacy software runs better under tools released for it. Speaking of Legacy software, I can't get this to run Konami Collector's Series Castlevania & Contra, Turok 2, or ANY DoS game. Dark Athena also lags more under this than WINE, though you need an input hack to make it work with WINE. Surprisingly Xonotic runs just as good under this though as it did Linux, though I'm having an issue with not being able to use surround sound with it.

had it on my pc a week ago. n1

lol I noticed you posted HAD. Also, I'm posting this from a Linux Mint boot I put on another partition . The only incentive I'll have to use Win8, assuming they get rid of a number problems it has, is to avoid the headaches associated with running Steam under WINE. Speaking of gaming under Windows 8, a number of games RUN BETTER UNDER WINE than they do that operating system. Right now there's a lot of old stuff I want to run, but can't run under Windows 8 that I can very easily run under WINE. It should also be noted that games like Unreal and Unreal Tournament seem to have some mouse acceleration issues under Windows 8 and supposedly Windows 7 (can't confirm though because I've never played these under 7). In addition to that, most new Windows games still work with WINE if tweaked right, though it won't be until Games for Windows Live runs properly under WINE that I can recommend it over actual Windows for newer titles not to mention I don't think most people want to use hacks to get around relative mouse position issues and and cracks (which I'll shamelessly install if I find something too invasive) to get around bullshit DRMs.

So they're giving the Start Button the Office '11 treatment? Where did I see it before? Ah, of course - Unity. At least on larger screens it's not fully maximized by default. Still, I wouldn't want to upgrade my Windows partition - sure, Metro might be good for tablets, but my s10-3t runs U11.04 just fine - I'm just waiting for multitouch support. That and possibly the g-sensor. So no Windows 8 for me.

lol but it's kewl cuz you can pin stuffs to it. Actually it's cooler than you think since Windows only has one very specific purpose (current and maybe next generation gaming) that it's OK for. If I continue using it as a dual boot I'll end up pinning all of my games to that screen and never worry about seeing my desktop or doing anything else unless I'm installing mods or something. Something that's cool due to how big of a cluster%$@# Explorer is and how bad Windows sucks at doing anything else. If Games for Windows Live ever becomes compatible with WINE though I'll have no incentive to have a Windows boot since almost everything will work with just a few tweaks that can easily be looked up.

Speaking of WINE, right now there are really only three major issues that plague games under WINE, those are: Games for Windows Live incompatibility, problems with some DRMs (most of which are invasive and borderline illegal so I would end up cracking them regardless), and some raw input problems (Dark Athena and Human Revolution require hacks to get around this). It should also be noted that a few games that are EXTREMELY dependent on Direct X have problems or won't play (ARMA II in particular the last I checked) and they're still working to implement DX10 and DX11 (most games don't need these anyway so not much loss there). A LOT of stuff, legacy games especially and some new games too will run better under WINE though and it's often recommended to use WINE instead of Windows for certain applications. Unreal and Unreal Tournament in particular, it's recommended to take the Windows version (not that useless Mac or fubar Linux version) of those games and install them in a WINE prefix as the perform much better in a WINE environment than a Windows one and better than the native Linux client as well.