Windows 8 is now with us!!!  It debuted this week and seems to be very different than previous versions of Windows.  So there definitely will be a learning curve for newbies or not-so-techie people. For one thing, there’s no start button or menu which seems to be the number one complaint I’m hearing, so it’s hard for people to find things the old way, the way they’re used to, that is. They go to reach for the Start button in the lower left hand corner of their screen and it’s not there. They seem to react like an amputee, the nerve endings for the missing start button still active in their brains. But where is it, they ask me, the cursor flailing around the screen. I hope this doesn’t make Windows 8 unpopular, like Vista. The missing start button. We’ll have to see.

Or some react like the proud parents of a newborn, they’re so excited about their new baby, and to see what she is like, but then after the computer boots, they discover to their horror, their beautiful new darling is missing her right hand. ‘Where’s the start button, they ask, an anxious look on their faces. After a grieving period they try to buck up, well, she’s a bit handicapped but she’s still beautiful to us.

Here’s a video on youtube of what Windows 8 looks like. The video is silent but can give you an idea of what it’s like to navigate a Windows 8 machine, the look and feel of it.

Tom’s Hardware Guide has a definitive guide and review to Windows 8 which seems very thorough.

And here is the Verge’s primer on Windows 8.

At Ducktoes we remember Vista and the chaos that ensued for our business clients. Those who adopted it too soon found there were no drivers for their printers or sometimes for their video cards and other peripherals, so we’re adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

But we’re excited to try it out. I’m putting it on a new machine so people can go for a test drive.