Wow, fantastic work, Rainbird. Im very impressed!

Win 8 looks like its turning out to be quite a nice OS. I think MS is working on improving previous OS complaints. MS needs an inovative, easy to use, and strong security OS if they want to stay in the game. It appears they are working towards that. Im excited to see where this goes on tablets and PCs. Keep listening to the community, MS.

This hyperV stuff is very interesting but I am not sure it will work so well with a touch interface (if at all). But I guess if only OS you have at home is Win8, it could be useful with a mouse and keyboard.

As far as the boot time, hot damn. I wanna see what SATAIII SSD drive can do with Win8 boot time.

W8 really looks like a fresh start for Windows, and a great one at that! I'm really looking forward to the tablet experience, but they could stop adding features now, and I wouldn't hesitate to replace W7 with it anyway.

But having a tablet with PC power and versatility will be really awesome! Just give me a tablet like the Eee Pad Slider, and it can replace my laptop as well. That's probably when I'll buy one, when the tablet can truly replace the laptop. And W8 is a great step in that direction by the looks of things! ^_^

Right wall-o-text so I aint reading all of it.

1. When is this releasing?
2. The interface ... where is the taskbar?? It looks very barren
3. Is this what he 720's OS is gonna look like then?

1. 2012 is the official word, I'm guessing second half.

2. The Metro interface? That's the 'immersive' UI, that will be used for tablets and the like. The 'old' interface will also be there, and you can easily switch between the two, so no worries.

3. Maybe, but it will probably be more like what's coming out soon. 

I just watched the two hour demonstration Microsoft did of Windows 8 at BUILD, and I have to say, I'm extremely impressed! Be prepared for a very Metro tablet-ready experience.

Here's a few previews for those who want to read: Engadget, ArsTechnica and AnandTech and a video from Anand too!

Okay, so I've been running the developer preview of Windows 8 on my laptop (so no touch, just mouse and keyboard) for a couple of hours now, and I have to say that I really like it.
It's pretty clear that it's still a pre-release product, with bugs and a lack of polish here and there, but I'm generally very impressed with how well it runs (it's smoother than running Windows 7 on the same computer) and the new interface. It's quite easy to use (with a few niggles, though they seem like the kind of thing that will be ironed out before launch) even when you're not using a touch screen.

Has anyone else tried it?

Rainbird said: Okay, so I've been running the developer preview of Windows 8 on my laptop (so no touch, just mouse and keyboard) for a couple of hours now, and I have to say that I really like it. It's pretty clear that it's still a pre-release product, with bugs and a lack of polish here and there, but I'm generally very impressed with how well it runs (it's smoother than running Windows 7 on the same computer) and the new interface. It's quite easy to use (with a few niggles, though they seem like the kind of thing that will be ironed out before launch) even when you're not using a touch screen. Has anyone else tried it?

Will try it tonight. If it runs well enough, I'll pick up some low end Win 7 tablet and put it on that to test the touch experience.

How does IE10 beta run? Many crashes?

disolitude said: Rainbird said: Okay, so I've been running the developer preview of Windows 8 on my laptop (so no touch, just mouse and keyboard) for a couple of hours now, and I have to say that I really like it. It's pretty clear that it's still a pre-release product, with bugs and a lack of polish here and there, but I'm generally very impressed with how well it runs (it's smoother than running Windows 7 on the same computer) and the new interface. It's quite easy to use (with a few niggles, though they seem like the kind of thing that will be ironed out before launch) even when you're not using a touch screen. Has anyone else tried it? Will try it tonight. If it runs well enough, I'll pick up some low end Win 7 tablet and put it on that to test the touch experience. How does IE10 beta run? Many crashes?

I haven't had any crashes, so in terms of stability, it works very well. It's a bit more so-so with the Metro version, it works quite well, but it's nowhere near as flexible as the standard browsing experience.

Just sat in on the XBOX Live for Windows 8 talk at Build. The app looks awesome and will be a showcase for Metro style. Also showed port of Pinball FX 2 which looked great on non gamer laptop. Took 2 devs 4 weeks to port to Windows 8.