Do I like Windows 8? Yes and no. I am indifferent to it really.

The admin features, easy to install, easy to feed apps into a working image simply don’t apply to what I do and how I do things. While my main machine is the main pivot for what happens across the home network, each user is allowed freedom to run as a standalone unit, and each machine is maintained as a standalone unit. There is no corporate image or Intranet containing trusted applications.

At the user end is a dual interface, Metro being the most prominent. The trouble is that it puts any useful information right into the middle of the screen, absolutely no value at all while running major applications, all of which run in an emasculated desktop environment.

Yes, it is possible to load up the desktop with program icons and then show the desktop toolbar on the taskbar, and it is possible to run Vista/Windows 7 gadgets, but there just isn’t enough customizations to make a large space useful. Opening the Metro weather app produces a full screen view where I feel like I am almost outside. On a larger screen than a 19” widescreen, I shudder to think about it.

Lack of a Start button, menu and search box puts everything else out of reach, it being far too clumsy to have to switch between desktop and Metro, and even then have to fish for the ‘All Apps charm.

I was in TigerDirect yesterday, looking at the small devices for which Metro is designed, and there is no doubt that it would be an excellent interface to use. Unfortunately I don’t do my work n a tiny screen.

Can I see Windows 8 ever being my primary OS? No, but I will have it installed and will get to know it well enough to be able to support it in MS Answers. For the foreseeable future, Windows 7 will be my production OS.