Well, we've upgraded two workstations and a tablet (slate) to Windows 8. One has Office 2010, and I have Office 2013 on my workstation and tablet. In a word, without customization - it sucks. The default interface of O2K13 is similar to 2010, but has no color by default. 60% grey text on 10% grey background makes the menus difficult to read with my older eyes. I hacked my desktop system to use an "Aero Lite" format, which helps distinguish the window borders a bit more, but O2K13 will take some effort. I'll play more tonight, but I'm quite displeased with the defaults. Choosing a "wild" color scheme like fuchsia yields strong borders, but that's hard on my eyes.. the solid darker blue background gives good contrast on W7 but needs a LOT of customization on W8.
I'm debating whether I should move my RDS farm from 2008 to 2012, given the display defaults and the "flat" look. The 3D borders made it easier to distinguish controls and buttons. Its now at the bottom of my priority list.
My workstation upgrade to Windows 8 this weekend was also not smooth, but sadly not due to Windows 8. I had an older AMD dual-core system with 250 and 500 Gig drives and a graphics accelerator. While replacing the 250G with a 750G CinemaStar drive, a large clump of dust fell out. I decide to vacuum the innards of the PC, clearing the fans and grills of several years of accumulated crud, and in my zeal, apparently sucked a micro-capacitor off the video card. I powered-up and the video is a mess and other things start to fail as well. Glad I had a spare PC - lower CPU speed and no room for the 3 drives to nicely transfer files, but after 3 trips to the computer store for a new video card, extra USB cables for the new touch-screen monitor, and exchanging the video card for the correct model, I completed the app installs on Susan's PC and the complete reloads on my PC and tablet. I have to say that using a USB stick for the OS install is pretty sweet, especially since there's enough room for a txt file with my license key, WiFi key, and some admin tools.
On a positive note, I'm really happy with the interface using the touch-screen. I picked up a 24" monitor (1900x1280) with a USB touch screen and 4-port USB hub built in for our 2 desktop systems. Office has some options to space out the ribbon icons to accommodate fingers, and the tiles of the Metro interface are quite usable with the touch interface.
Glenn
_________________________
Actually I
am a Rocket Scientist!
