Windows 8: The Great Experiment

Little known to some of my friends, I have a dark secret.

I enjoy using Windows more than Linux.

I can hear many calls for my head already. “Chris, you sell-out!” “Chris, Windows is terrible and Ubuntu is amazing!” “Chris, did you remember to take out the Recycling Bin?” The fact remains that Windows has a smoother interface and is a very stable OK I’LL MOVE ON I SWEAR.

Anyway, in an effort to keep at the cutting edge of technology, I decided to use Windows 8 for my relatively-new laptop. After a bit of finagling with hard drive space and EasyBCD, I set up a dual-booted system with Windows 8 taking 300GB and Ubuntu taking 120GB.

The hardest thing to get used to, granted, was the Metro interface. However, it didn’t take very long to learn, and after reading a few quick guides, I was up and running. Literally; startup is very quick, some of the apps are quite good (got a traffic one for free, looks VERY helpful), and the gestures are helpful (flick inward from the left part of the trackpad to switch between windows). There are some caveats, sure. If I want to boot into Ubuntu, Windows first has to almost fully load before getting to a boot menu. If Ubuntu is selected, the computer must restart first to unload Windows.

Overall though, I’m seriously thinking about upgrading my desktop to Windows 8. It’s worth it.