Windows 8 Release Preview is here

After downloading the Windows 8 Release Preview I am ready for installation. First surprise though is that I can not run setup from my existing Windows 8 box – it comes back with an error message saying the sources are not compatible with my hardware.

Well, booted from external DVD works just fine.

Let’s see how long this takes this time.

Started at exactly 10.00am. First step choose language and Keyboard settings and Installation begins.

While I am waiting, here the Microsoft Video for the Release Preview, quite upbeat I might add.

Installation asks me for the Product Key and surprisingly now offers to update (why couldn’t it run from inside Windows 8 in the first place remains a mystery) . However, I like the clean install and opt for formatting my disk first.

10.05am – done with copying files, getting ready for installation

I am doing this on a Lenovo X201 Tablet by the way – the consumer preview worked just fine on this hardware so I assume this release will rock on here!

10.10am – done with installation, restarting

10.14am – customizing, WiFi, color scheme and automatic update settings

All settings for sending information back to Microsoft are off by default – nice.

10.16am – provide Microsoft Life account to login

Your PC will be ready in just a moment ….

10.17am – logged in and ready to go

First App to be tested Mail. It automatically recognizes that my Live ID is an Exchange account and connects to my Exchange Server, 30 seconds later I am in business:

Calendar and Contacts are automatically there from my Exchange account too.

The Messaging Client only supports Messenger (and connected accounts) as well as Facebook. I don’t use either one of them, it’s too bad they do not support Lync.

Skydrive connection including Office WebApps works fine and I have immediate access to all my documents stored in Skydrive. Unfortunately today I still store many of my documents in iCloud – I need to figure out a better way of organizing myself in the Cloud.

The weather App finally works with my location and the location services identify my location correctly, unfortunately the weather will be rainy for the next 5 days – no fault of Windows 8 though.

Music wants to create an XBOX Live account for me – I already have one (which is different from the one I used to login to this machine – I will figure that out later).

Overall so far I like the fact that there are only a few Metro Apps installed – everything fits on the first screen, no scrolling necessary. All Apps work very fluid, the configuration issues I encountered with some of them before are obviously gone.

The App store is still quite empty, a couple of Apps, not very many reviews. However this is a Preview version so I do not expect much more at this point.

I installed two Apps to be able to work (tweetro and RemoteDesktop) and tunein (Internet Radio). All three installed in a matter of seconds.

tunein was a disappointment, black screen and that was all. I am not sure who does the quality control for the App Store – it seems like there is none. This is a little disheartening considering that there are no more than maybe 150 Apps altogether: fail, uninstall.

Tweetro does its job, connection to Twitter works just fine. Functionality is limited though. No filter in Messages, Lists does not show the lists where I am a member of and overall everything is too big – not enough information o the screen (possibly one of the main problems of the “touch first” philosophy).

Remote Desktop just needed the Gateway Server configured and I have full access to my virtual client. This also didn’t work very well in the last version of Windows 8 so I am pleased that this seems to work just fine. Without a RDP connection to my virtual Client I would not be able to work at all.

Last step for now: automatic updates.

Windows Update found three important Updates which will be installed. What I am missing are the updates for my hardware – touch does not work yet. Wait a minute – it does. I didn’t even notice that the device drivers were installed and there was no message. I tried before and touch was not enabled yet. Well – if everything works this smooth with Windows 8 this will be clearly a huge success for Microsoft.

Windows 8 Release Candidate - tomorrow?

Supposedly tomorrow we will be able to get our hands on the feature complete Windows 8 Release Candidate – at least it seems that the rumors so far have been right and the 1st. of June will be the actual release date for the next beta version of Windows 8.

This will not include the Windows on ARM versions as these are bound to specific hardware.

I can’t wait to install the feature complete preview on my Lenovo tablet – the consumer preview was nice but still had some issues with the hardware, touch interface and running classic Windows Applications.

Hopefully the release will also finally support the pre-release of Office 15 which I am testing right now on a Windows 7 system as Windows 8 is not supported (yet).

Windows 8 Release Candidate

It seems that the Windows 8 Release Candidate which will be feature complete will be released on the first of June or at least in the first week of June. This would mean that Microsoft is further on target to release Windows 8 RTM in October. Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft expects to ship 500 million copies of Windows 8 in 2012 and 2013.

Google Chrome is now the most used Browser

Even though Google Chrome is not pre-installed on any PC or Laptop (sorry Chromebook – but you don’t count) it is now the most used Browser (worldwide).

Quite interesting is also the rise of Safari which is translatable directly into increased numbers of Macs and iOS devices (surely no one installs Safari on Windows).

(from Silicon Alley Insider)

Facebook IPO = Bubble?

After Fridays for many disappointing IPO of Facebook the discussion if we are headed for another tech bubble has heated up again. Just from looking at recent IPO’s and the constant over valuating of tech companies it might seem that we are indeed headed into that direction.

However, the fact that Facebook didn’t explode on the first day of trading only means one thing. Demand and market evaluation of the stock was done correctly! This does not happen very often and therefore might come as a surprise to many investors and casual bystanders.

The question is how will the stock develop now? Are we in for a nose dive like Groupon and other tech startups or will we see a more steady and slow growth like LinkedIn?

My prediction is simple – the stock go down and wobble around the 30$ mark until 90 days from now – at that point the “insiders” are allowed to trade their stock and the price will go down considerably – possibly the low twenties. This is the time to buy, as from then on it will be going up for a long time. Facebook's monetizing strategy will become much clearer and possible alternatives (looking at you G+) will lag more and more behind to be seen as real threats to Facebook.

So this is not a bubble, just the market valuating a stock based on actual facts relevant to the market.