[Windows 8 General] link68759:
Modern desktop monitors and TVs are widescreen; it would be foolish to have a vertical scrolling interface...

I've tested windows 8 on my laptop (with touchscreen) and my desktop. I removed it because it's much too unstable at the moment, but I enjoyed the experience and I definitely see potential for awesomeness once the market fills out.

I think most of the naysayers haven't owned a WP7 device; yeah it's weird when you start out, but when you learn how to use the system, it's the most efficient and awesome UI anyone could ask for. Those of you who have "used" it and hate it probably never really understood how it works, or else are just blind fanboys of other systems, flaming away and unable to have an open mind. It works, it's efficient, it's a good system. Get over it, no one cares if you hate it.

But since there are basically zero tiles for Windows 8 right now, none of the naysayers are able to actually see what it will be capable of.

From my perspective, Windows 8 works great with keyboard and mouse, and using it with the touchscreen (as a tablet) is effortless and intuitive; so much so I might actually buy a windows 8 tablet when one comes out (my previous stance on tablets is; they're a gimmick, just toys for gaming and watching videos... all of which my laptop does better. If the windows 8 tablets aren't ARM, god I hope they aren't, they will actually be able to run x32 x64 exes. In addition to most of android's stuff, and also, WP7's stuff).

That said, windows 8 is worst on a laptop with a touchpad. Touchpads are inferior in general, but with a laptop you are often forced to use it. For some reason, a touchpad on windows 8 is excruciatingly painful, and I found myself hugging the keyboard shortcuts more than ever.

Right now, as many have pointed out, this is no indicator of what 8 will look like. This developer preview is more like 7 in a fancy new hat than a full blown release (think, WP7 skins for winmo 6; looks like it, but you can't actually have the apps or do anything new).

For those who said the registry might be going away and windows will be "x1000 better without it"... the registry may get cluttered over time, but clutter does not contribute to system performance in any way. It just annoys some people, and the "registry cleaners" fool everyone into thinking a cluttered registry is bad. This. Is. False. There may be one ill defined key that causes the system to hang in a certain situation, and a registry cleaner *might* find it while it takes out a third of your registry, giving you the illusion that cleaning made it "x1000 better".

As far as registry vs ini files; registry settings are better for compatibility. You can back up settings on XP and bring them over to 7, whereas with a program that uses AppData, you must manually place it in the correct new slot, or god forbid it doesn't even used appdata, you need to put it in the correct folder... etc etc. and If the registry goes, then that will invalidate a lot of useful registry tweaks online (and who knows if the new location for system settings will be so easily accessible, or closed off to everyone but the most cunning hackers?). Just musing, but really the registry isn't doing much harm; those calling out for the noose seem to be disillusioned as to what the registry is actually responsible for.