Windows 8 round-up: Lease of life for the laptop or PC-killer?

‘Open a wider world’, says Microsoft as it markets the eight edition of its Windows operating system. You’ve opened a can of worms, says a section of early adopters.

‘A beautiful start,’ proclaims Microsoft.

It’s a non-starter, retort critics.

“Windows 8 brings life back to the laptop format,” declares Andy Baul Lewis, Director, Information and Communication Technologies Practice, Frost & Sullivan.

“Windows 8 killed my PC,” shouts back CNN’s Cyrus Sanati.
It’s a war or worlds out there. Not since the Wikileaks controversy hit the headlines has the tech community been so divided on an issue. Yes, the three-weeks-old Windows 8 is a hot topic of debate among the ever-vocal online denizens, and is getting hotter as you read this.

Despite the pummelling that Windows 8 is getting from a section of early adopters, analysts are split in their opinion on whether or not the latest avatar of the ubiquitous Windows platform from Microsoft is the disaster that some claim it is.

And tech opinions, as we all know now, vary widely among today’s Twitter-powered generation.

A piece in the CNN’s technology section claims that “Windows 8’s growing pains could deliver a major blow to Microsoft’s already dwindling market value.” The author suggests that the “lukewarm reception by users and sporadic issues with system migration” may soon force Microsoft “to make a lot of awkward, value-destroying apologies about Windows 8”.