I do not understand the skepticism against Windows 8, specially from the hacker community.
The only reason I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because there are so few ways to build things on it, compared to a Mac. I remember back in the day when I used Windows exclusively because Visual Studio was the only way to do build awesome things fast. With Windows 8, MS has brought back those days. Developing for Metro is absolutely amazing. I have never felt the urge to write native desktop apps in years until Metro. Not that Apple and Google didn't try.
Anybody looking at screenshots and making predictions should download the preview, fire up that Virtualbox, hack together an app and then decide. This is nothing like ChromeOS, believe me, I am running the 30th May build of Chromium on my other machine. This is something that sits between iOS-ified Mac and Web-ified ChromeOS.
Developing for Metro might be amazing, but developing on Metro is a non-starter. After all, Visual Studio is not a Metro app (yet). Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7.
The jump from Metro to traditional UI is not that big. Your visual studio can have its own tile on Metro that takes you straight to the app in traditional UI. Except when writing code, I am usually back in the Metro.
It's just like web development. I code for the browser, not on the browser. And still, I am always on the browser, except when I am not.
And? No one is saying you should develop in Metro. No one is saying "Avoid desktop mode". It's there for a reason. It is there for people who need desktop mode, who need true, all-the-time window-ized multi-tasking.
Then there are the people who buy iPads, iPhones, Androids, WP7 and others by the millions. The majority of users do not produce content. Windows 8 is an effort to bring them an easy to use tablet experience while still allowing them to be highly productive in a traditional Windows desktop if necessary.
Everyone acts like Windows 8 "breaks Windows". I do not understand this mentality. It's an additional set of apps, UX/UI and APIs. You're not forced to use them or even develop for them. But it's very likely that users are going to embrace Metro Apps for a huge number of reasons (performance [async apis, etc], battery life, notifications, live tiles, ARM tablets, etc)
Very little incentive to upgrade is understandable, but I can still list reasons that I will be interested in upping to Win8:
(1) upgrading is cheap ($15); (2) Win8 includes the ability to wipe the machine back to "just installed" clean built in (or can wipe Desktop mode (registry, desktop apps) and leave data + Metro apps); (3) hackers will want Visual Studio (or else why is a "hacker" using Windows) and will likely want/need to target Metro apps; (4) even I like to kick back and mindlessly surf Twitter for an hour in the evening.
The $15 upgrade is only for people who buy a new Win 7 PC between now and the end of the year. If you already have a PC, it will be more like $100 for the Professional edition.
Don't get me wrong, I'm trying Win 8 right now and I like certain aspects of it. I don't think it breaks anything important, either. But when I'm in desktop mode, the experience doesn't feel all that different from Win 7. Ribbon in Windows Explorer? I don't care. One-click wipe? I don't think I ever messed up a Win 7 install. Other changes are rather distracting (oversized window titles and excessive color saturation in various UI elements) but I could get used to it. But the bottom line is that it doesn't feel like it's worth $100, especially since I'm not in the business of making Metro apps.
Does Android or the iPad have a full featured native IDE with debugging support without resorting to hacks?
>Since most "hackers" will spend most of their time on the traditional desktop anyway, they see little reason to upgrade from Windows 7.
You do realize that the Desktop on Windows 8 will run all programs that run in Windows 8 right? And Windows 8 contains major improvements to the Desktop like file copying, multiscreen taskbar support etc. etc.
It is also surprisingly fast. I have VS11 running on a Cr48 with Win 8. It builds fine and I the OS runs ok. I was expecting some severe thrashing given its rather unimpressive resources and the 1 gig of disk-space that remained after I got VS11 on it.
The only reason I do not use a Windows computer (anymore) is because there are so few ways to build things on it, compared to a Mac. I remember back in the day when I used Windows exclusively because Visual Studio was the only way to do build awesome things fast. With Windows 8, MS has brought back those days. Developing for Metro is absolutely amazing. I have never felt the urge to write native desktop apps in years until Metro. Not that Apple and Google didn't try.
Anybody looking at screenshots and making predictions should download the preview, fire up that Virtualbox, hack together an app and then decide. This is nothing like ChromeOS, believe me, I am running the 30th May build of Chromium on my other machine. This is something that sits between iOS-ified Mac and Web-ified ChromeOS.