Its unfortunate to say, I've given up on Windows 8. It's interface takes much learning curve and my drivers, games and software are very glitchy. I got my new computer, and I feel back at home on Windows 7. It's a real shame that Microsoft only gives OS's a few years to live, in my mind Win 7 has superseded every OS I've used. I'm not one to put down an offer to try out an OS but this time MS has gone too far and made too many changes. In fact, they simplified the PC too much!
There were features I liked in Windows 8, but having to remember there's no more start menu crosses the line. I found myself using my phone to remotely shutdown and restart the computer rather than from the computer itself.
Microsoft also crossed the line by shutting the gadget network down. I hardly use the sidebar anymore because of them shutting everything down. Let's face facts, MS only cares about its dollars, not the people. It's sad I have to use windows to do my everyday tasks and to use my day to day devices otherwise I'd be using *gasp* Linux.
MS has one more shot to impress me with Windows 8 and its successors, and I hope that the desktop will rule again.
Austin, I agree with you 100%. Now, Win7 is not going anywhere, it will be around for at least seven more years, at least.
Now, for desktop gadgets, you can find several of them in a number of sites in the Web.
For example, the new Pandora gadget -which is great, by the way - can be found in the Pandora site. Download it and enjoy. You can also still find the gadgets for various radio stations (NPR, BBC and others). There are various weather gadgets as well that work excellently.
The gadgets for Win7 are far more efficient than the stupid (and I would like to emphasize stupid) full screen apps of Win8. Why would one need a full screen app in a 24'' - 30'' inch monitor for weather or Pandora????? The Pandora gadget, is small but still shows all the stations, what is playing, the up and down buttons, volume controls and displays the album art. In a 24'' inch screen, it occupies a tiny place in the desktop and it is always there. I do not need to switch to it, and I do not need to launch it or anything like this.
Win8 is just a Phone OS that runs the desktop as a task. It is nothing more,
it is a lobotomized version of an OS for the Y generation for which the concept of computing is the iPhone.
In the future, I can see myself migrating to either OSX or
Linux and running Windows transparently as a virtual task. In Linux, one can easily achieve this with
VM Workstation 8. Thus, instead of having access to silly, little phone apps, at least I will be having access to industrial strength desktop applications alongside my Windows applications. I am sure that Google can also easily produce a desktop version of Android that would run the Windows desktop in a virtual machine (if one would want a better mobile OS in their desktop). The Android ICS "desktop" is far nicer and far more animated than the "overtiled" Win8.
Win8 will be met with derision, this much is clear. It is trying to cancel the way 99% of Windows installations work. Some will fall along thinking that they are "trendy", but they are simply suckers for MS PR. The main reason for Win8 is to sell phones and tablets, condition the users to the brain-damaged "Metro" interface and sell apps by the bushload (apps that one got for free with the desktop gadgets!!!).
Oh..well!!!
