Before i say anything else i feel i should say i have liked every other version of Windows to date, even Windows ME and Vista.
I used Windows ME for over two years, I never had anything against Vista, apart from some initial drive issues it was a solid OS and massive upgrade to XP. Windows 7 improved again massively on Vista and has been my main OS since the release candidate in early 2009.
Now we come to the Windows 8 consumer preview. Honestly, just wow.... how badly can you take something great and ruin it? I honestly can not think of anything positive to say about it from my use of it so far. Yes it has a few nice improvements like the boot up times, ISO mounting and the ability to "reset" your pc to its factory settings. Some good stuff i admit, however not really an improvement for every day use. Windows 8 is really not an OS for desktop PC's, tablets i guess it might be ok on however Android 4 does everything a lot better on a tablet if you ask me.
I dont see why a desktop PC's needs to use this inconvenient tablet interface as a start menu replacement? it just not piratical and doesn't work on a desktop PC. I feel like i'm been encourage not to multi task on a PC, To me anyway everything appears dumbed down so its actually made Windows more complex and impractical to use.
I would explain myself better however its 11:30 and my alarm's set for 6:15am, so its time for some sleep.
I would be interested to know what other people think of it so far. I do plan to give it a fair chance so who knows. As a user of Windows on a desktop PC and not a tablet i feel I get a much better user experience with Windows 7.
Edit - Just went to put my PC to sleep and realised even that's many more mouse clicks to do.. Press the Windows key, click on my user name, get back to the welcome screen, click another menu, then click sleep. (also seen you can hover over the right of the screen and go through a few menus to make it sleep too)
In Windows 7 i could click the start orb and click sleep... click, click done.. simple, effective, happy user.
Few random screenies by me too.