Windows 8

Hey didn't see a post on this so figured i would let you all know, You can get windows 8 now and if you want to d/led it instead of gettign the disk its only 40 to buy it. 

WHile i'm not too big on the new interface you can change it back to the old look. But it does have a faster start up time and uses less memory. 

I'm d/ling it now to check it out will give my thoughts after i see it. Also plz no apple fanboys respond to this about how windows sucks I hate most apple products and don't want to hear it. Specially considering how much of a theif Jobs was.

I quite liked the developer preview. It's got better support for SSD, and the kernel has been largely trimmed down and improved. I'm not the biggest fan of the new touchy interface, but then again, my computer isn't a touch screen, so I guess I'm not the target audience for that. By the way, if you're a Windows user and are concerned about security (including game account security), you might want to consider an upgrade. Windows 8 has some new protection mechanisms that are a complete monster to get around. For the time being, it is, by far, the hardest operating system to hack on. At the very least, it's brand new, so it will take even the big malware houses awhile to catch up.

THE QUESTION!! How does GW2 run on it?? :)). i don't want to get it and then have to hassle with compatibility issues. If you answer an idk then i will hold off for a while and check back. If you answer that it is a perfect match for GW2 then i will get it :))

well fully installed seems to be pretty good. the new interface is actually pretty cool for pics, music, and video makes it easier to find stuff. Its basically the same as x-box live. I don't like that even in desktop view it doesn't have a start menu. Your start menu is go to new interface right click and click all apps. As far as GW2 i ran it real quick it works was getting 17 fps in Lions Arch which for the amount of ppl there isn't 2 bad. Will do some further testing later. Got to go dye my hair real quick. Got 2 parties the next 2 days so don't knwo how much testign i will get done.

Downloading too. It better work. BTW there are apps to give you back start button like this one: http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/16/start-menu-windows-8-pokki/ Hope it doesnt take all night to install I wanna do WvW some tonight.

Funny thing is I'm a total apple fanboy but I've been running the developer preview of Windows 8 in bootcamp for the last few months and loved it. I have been playing GW2 on it from the beginning with no issues at all. Only problem is now I need to fork out $100 to continue using it.

Just one thing. Please don't ask people not to make slams in the post and make unnecessary slams yourself.

Thinking about getting Windows 8, yet I'm still a little skeptical. I'm working on creating a new gaming machine piece by piece, and I don't really want to drop $150+ for another edition of Windows 7. The $40 digital download seems like an awesome deal.

Svero, When my HDD died a few weeks ago, I decided to put win 8 on rather than XP... Yeah, I know... It is night and day faster, stable and, after figuring out the iu, easy to use. Shortish learning curve, btw. I had one issue with gw2. But it was resolved by updating my video drivers. It's certainly made me rethink getting another iPad.

I hated it at first but I am starting to like it. You can actually just run in desktop mode if you want and it won't feel that different from windows 7. Searching for things you can now just press the windows key and start typing the name so finding programs is a lot faster then going through the start button now.

Is the $40 downloaded version capable of a clean install, or is it one of those goofy "Upgrade" versions?

Recommend getting this new version even if you don't use it right away. The price for digital download is $39.99 + tax. I noticed windows is a lot cleaner and less junk. The start menu is little odd at first, but think as it as place you place all items you use over and over. If you plan on doing a clean install, I recommend this choice to most users. It will save you old windows to windows.old Then can copy your game files over to new directory and run you game setup file. This will save time and having re-download the program. This works for most games, just remember to get the setup file and run it to insure the program works correctly. If you have a built in video card , recommend using it vs your fancy video card, windows when searching for devices will crank you video card and the fans, this sometime cause the computer loose video signal or restart. Also check out the compatibility site when searching for your drivers. I installed my video drivers from my disk and ended up having some issues in GW2, I went to the site and download the driver they recommend, the game ran like a champ. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/win8/CompatCenter/Home?Language=en-US I done a few of these installs on various computer and more than happy to help. Backup you stuff always before installing a new version windows. If you have more than one hard drive with data, remove it or unplug it to insure you don't lose that hard drive to a freak accident.

I bought my laptop this year so they gave me a deal to buy it for $14.99. I wouldn't have any other reason to buy it. All the same, it's not that bad of an OS. I don't have a touchscreen, so it is taking a bit of getting used to. Plus, it's super new still so the market is a little vacant of fun apps to use. But I haven't run anything that is not compatible. I kind of miss my start button though.

I've been using Windows 8 almost exclusively for over a year now, I like it. It's really sad seeing so much incorrect information flying around the internet about it, it reminds me of the Vista rumors that ruined the sales of an entire OS.

Vista wasn't rumors, it really was a bloated piece of crap. Even Microsoft admitted that they goofed with Vista. That's why their usual migration policies were made optional for their clients and partners. (I forget the official terms, its been a decade since I worked for the Windows group at MS.) The result of lessons learned from Vista, was Windows 7, of which folks are justifiably anxious to switch from, for a new OS. I love Windows 7, its the best Windows version in history. That said, I've heard nothing bad about Windows 8, other than folks being disappointed that MS still refuses to stop integrating proprietary Internet applications into their OS.

Vista was fine if you had the horsepower to run it. The problem was that MS didn't do any developer previews or beta releases, so the third parties (hardware and software) were caught flat-footed on release day trying to support a completely different operating system that they'd never seen before. If you're going to require an order of magnitude more video processing power, you should probably clue in Dell and HP. If you're going to throw everyone out of the kernel, you should probably tell the development community, at least the ones that develop all the garbage that comes pre-installed on a Windows machine, so the first thing the user sees when booting up their new computer isn't 40 applications crashing. Vista had it's problems, but it's failure was mostly caused by poor community relations, and the resulting PR firestorm. Thankfully, they seem to have absorbed this lesson the first go-round. Windows 8 is cool. I'm not the biggest fan of the Metro interface, and I hate that Metro apps have to be deployed through the Windows Store, but I'm confident that MS will fix these things in time. Overall, the OS itself is crisp and quick. I'm examining my migration options for several of my computers now.