Yuck that looks so fugly.

They're trying way too hard to be creative. Go with what isn't broke and improve it, jeez.

still looks too fisher price for my liking. microsoft should have never dropped aero glass.

I find this amusing only because most modern design including iOS7/8 and Android's Material borrow a ton of ideas from Modern/Metro design by Microsoft. Pretty much the entire industry is moving towards the flat look. They basically set the trend for anti-skeuomorphism and I'm glad they did. I personally find Aero to be hideous, looks like something from the 70's. I prefer the flat design principles. Material is by far the best looking so far but then Matias Duarte is pretty damn smart.

At least now it has the start menu back.. I plan on rainmetering the $hit out of windows 9 and customizing the look of it anyway. This will be the OS I upgrade to. Glad I never spent any money on 8

I don't care how it looks, just how good it is. I will upgrade from 7 to 9, so no hard feelings for wasting money on 8 for me. Yay.

It still has the fugly Duplo tiles of Windows 8 tacked needlessly onto the side. I will download the Windows 9 preview OS and see how it goes but I'm not expecting anything better than what Win7 has to offer.

It still has the fugly Duplo tiles of Windows 8 tacked needlessly onto the side. I will download the Windows 9 preview OS and see how it goes but I'm not expecting anything better than what Win7 has to offer.

The titles are the best part, especially now that you can interact with them that's even better.

Its too flat and pointy it looks like it could give me a paper cut.

Except 8.1 was a free upgrade from 8, and 9 will be a free upgrade from 8.1, so.....

I'm pretty sure 9 will be a full release and not a upgrade, I could be wrong though but I do doubt it'll be free though a upgrade version at a reduced price might be possible via the Windows Store.

That start menu looks horrible. I hope Microsoft gives users the option to disable it and use the start screen.

Agree, from what I saw once it will be optional and you can use old win8.1 type metro too. I will stick with old look, well that's if we get a free upgrade from 8.1 to 9 like they initially said. 🤓

Fairly sure I read that it would be free to 8.1 owners, I`ll see if I can find the article EDIT - Actually I might have it the wrong way around, could be a free upgrade to XP, Vista and 7 users to convince them to upgrade http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/08/04/windows-9-rumored-as-free-upgrade.aspx

A free upgrade would be tempting, though I like my current setup of 7 (themed to look like Vista).

lol, why?

I'm not a fan of the taskbar in 7.

That start menu looks horrible. I hope Microsoft gives users the option to disable it and use the start screen.

That's the only chance of me going anywhere near Win9....

Actually one of my favourite updates to Windows since Vista You likely already know, you can just tell it to use a small taskbar instead too ?

Yeah, thanks though.

Here it is. Looks legit. THere's a "Use the start menu instead of the start screen." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--wgAsHWNRE

That option should have been there with Windows 8 and give us a choice to ditch those stupid tiles/store

Start Menu - meh, I don't really care how it looks. It might be transparent if you're a keyboard-heavy user New notifications = YAAAAAY! (Still no preview available for MSDN subscribers)

I find this amusing only because most modern design including iOS7/8 and Android's Material borrow a ton of ideas from Modern/Metro design by Microsoft. Pretty much the entire industry is moving towards the flat look.

I find this amusing because you think that if something is imitated that it's somehow better. The flat metro style looks like absolute crap. The sales numbers for Windows 8 prove that nobody wants their desktop computer to look like a cell phone UI. Most of my friends with iPhones prefer IOS 6 and have only recently switched to 7 because many apps no longer are available or even work unless you update.

They basically set the trend for anti-skeuomorphism and I'm glad they did. I personally find Aero to be hideous, looks like something from the 70's. I prefer the flat design principles. Material is by far the best looking so far but then Matias Duarte is pretty damn smart.

Well you my friend are a very small minority. 90% of the desktop gaming systems and graphics workstations I've built during the past 3 years have windows 7 installed by direct request by the customer. And I couldn't even count the number of people who have come to me with brand new laptops requesting that I wipe them and install windows 7 instead. The young crowd seems to be the only people I come across who like the flat tile-based UI, primarily because they live on their cell phones 24/7. The professional/Business crowd overwhelmingly prefers the better looking, more traditional windows 7 UI.

Multi desktop [youtube]VF4Eva_4UNE[/youtube] Start Menu's live tiles [youtube]I4eDVlRvws0[/youtube] Notification Center [youtube]7hG_0pLq49s[/youtube]

Get over it, 8 is better than 7 - Fact. Ditch the startmenu and get with the times by learning the features of a better OS that allows to do more faster. Save you opinions of looks for facebook selfies.

Um... the facebook selfie generation overwhelmingly likes windows 8. And FYI, windows 7 is the faster OS in just about everything. proof? PassMark for example: Windows 7: PassMark(R) PerformanceTest 8.0 (http://www.passmark.com) Results generated on: Wednesday, April 16, 2014 Benchmark Results Test Name: This Computer Graphics 2D - Simple Vectors: 34.1 Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors: 191.9 Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 276.7 Graphics 2D - Windows Interface: 134.1 Graphics 2D - Image Filters: 965.4 Graphics 2D - Image Rendering: 778.2 Graphics 2D - Direct 2http://forums.anandtech.com/images/smilies/familiar/disgusted.png 26.9 2D Graphics Mark: 892.0 PassMark Rating: 2126.6 Operating System: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 build 7601 (64-bit) CPU Type: Intel Core i7-4700HQ @ 2.40GHz Number of CPUs: 1 Cores per CPU: 4 Hyperthreading: Not Capable Motherboard: G750JX Memory: 32GB Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) DDR3 SDRAM Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M Hard Drive: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device (1TB) Hard Drive: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 1TB SCSI Disk Device (1TB) Hard Drive: WD My Book 1230 USB Device (3TB) Hard Drive: SDXC Card (63GB) Windows 8.1: PassMark(R) PerformanceTest 8.0 (http://www.passmark.com) Results generated on: Thursday, April 10, 2014 Benchmark Results Test Name: G750JX-CV050H Graphics 2D - Simple Vectors: 33.9 Graphics 2D - Complex Vectors: 124.6 Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text: 258.7 Graphics 2D - Windows Interface: 144.5 Graphics 2D - Image Filters: 929.8 Graphics 2D - Image Rendering: 859.2 Graphics 2D - Direct 2http://forums.anandtech.com/images/smilies/familiar/disgusted.png 25.8 2D Graphics Mark: 835.0 PassMark Rating: 1990.6 Operating System: Windows 8.1 build 9600 (64-bit) CPU Type: Intel Core i7-4700HQ @ 2.40GHz Number of CPUs: 1 Cores per CPU: 4 Hyperthreading: Not Capable Motherboard: G750JX Memory: 32GB Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) DDR3 SDRAM Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M Hard Drive: LITEONIT LCM-256M3S (256GB) Hard Drive: ST1000LM024 HN-M101MBB (1TB) Hard Drive: WD My Book 1230 USB Device (3TB) Hard Drive: SDHC Card (15GB) ----------------------------- That's just one example. Go check out 3dmark scores for some more proof. ... or go take another few selfies with your tile based phone OS which is pretty much the same as windows 8. An OS designed for the brain dead touchscreen generation.