umm.. yeah...

So it really helps people evaluate a TECHNICAL PREVIEW by using a start menu that will now be how many versions old???

Kind of like using Windowblinds Beta on winXP and expecting useful feedback.

Let's hope SD developers are able to skin the native start menu for a change (provided MS allows it).

goodbye, farewell and amen.

If you guys ever decide to provide meaningful skinning with the native operating system like you used to, then perhaps I'll see you again (in these topics).

In the meantime, I'll continue to be proficient with the true OS while the rest of the Start8 devotees continue in the dark ages. I understand that it has been a saving grace for the revenue stream and without it, Windowblinds could not have lived. Good fortune to you.

I am not ready to give up WindowBlinds yet. So, if I must use a start menu replacement in order to have the start menu match the rest of the GUI, then so be it. I have to go with Phoon on one point. I do wish Stardock could skin the existing OS. Skin the existing start panel.

If I could cut loose from WindowBlinds, I could about stand to run Windows 8.1 or even 10 au naturale. It's not so bad, once you get used to it.

I speak as a guy who has used it on touch capable equipment, and that WILL influence your thinking on the OS.

I am running 10 in a VM at the moment and must say, the start menu IS a bit of an adjustment. But for now, I will run 10 as MS gave it to me. 

More to come......

It's also surprising how little people know about the 'under the hood' advancements that 8 made over 7 (in terms of security and raw overall performance) but hey, why confuse the general populace with fact eh? 

Seriously, if all [or to the largest degree] anyone is interested in [in terms of a new OS] are the aesthetics I guess one cannot really be surprised at the shallow comparisons/outlook resulting from same.

Just because the masses might buy software to make something new look/feel like something old doesn't mean any one of them even has any idea of what is happening 'under the hood' in either case.  Too bad so few actually care to know...

Win 7 is more vulnerable than 8 on every front, it requires more third-party intervention to mitigate that (as much as is possible anyway).  It will be the new "XP" with regard to threat-related 'attack-surface' for the foreseeable future.   If any of that sounds like the answer then I say......'have at it'.........you're welcome to it!

 You'll notice that comment of mine you snipped out of my post laments only the shallow nature of such a comparison.  For the record I am myself not command-line averse and do most of my 'power computing' in such a manner.

So what if it's 'understandable and justifiable bias'?  It's still bias and can (and will by me anyway) be called out as such.  Yes......time and again even.....

No, far from it.  While better than XP's GUI, which was so butt ugly it was imperative it was put edeout of my misery, 7's GUI was little more than an updated version of Vista's and had already become tiresome, boring and uninteresting. It too required dressing up to make it visually palatable.

Win 8's GUI was nothing to write home about, but as a technically superior OS to ALL its predecessors under the hood, it was well worth persisting with.  I use Win 8 exclusively and have since the 1st public beta; however, I believe Win 10 will exceed it in every facet, and thus it shall become my next 'exclusive' OS.

Again, that is merely a matter of opinion.  For those who upgraded from Win 7 and embraced its successor for its superior kernel, speed, security and under the hood improvements, Win 8 is an astounding success.

Fact is, MS will never release an OS that's pleasing to everyone, visually or otherwise, but if one upgrades to and adapts an imperfect but functional OS to suit their requirements, then MS has done its job.... except for ME.

Sadly, the world if full of wooses who are afraid of change, and when a bunch of so-called experts in the press/media assassinate an OS so badly that they believe in the cringeworthy hype, it's not likely they're gonna grow a set and actually give it a fair go. Thus, if the press/media crucify Win 10 prior to public release, it too will be a 'public failure'... despite an improved kernel, superior security and under the hood enhancements to all OSes gone before it.

It took MS' retirement of XP [and all before it] to get users out of the PC dark ages... up to a point.  Hopefully it retires Win 7 in the near future to bring the PC using world into the current/future of PC's.

One can simply unpin the tiles in the tech preview of windows10, the user is then ending up with no tiles at all.
still nice to see that Start8 you got Start8 working this quickly.
 

My question is this. As with all things new how can anyone say with certainty that a newbie will or will not be better than its predecessor as far as functionality and ease of use be without running it on all eight, or in this case, ten cylinders hard enough to break it?  Putting it through the wringer as it were. Eventually I'll get my greedy hands on it and see for myself. Until then everything is speculation for those not running it. 

No, not really... I know that I'm gonna like it.  I also know that it will be faster than Win 8... read it on a MS devs blog,

I haven't downloaded it as yet, much less run it, but I'm not speculating that 10 is much gooderer than 9 would have been

It just is/will be.