Windows 8 Developer Preview Downloaded 500,000 Times in 24 Hours
It seems there are a lot of people out there who are looking forward to Windows 8. I’m a dedicated Mac user, but even I have to admit that Microsoft’s next operating system looks pretty darn impressive. The way in which it integrates with Windows tablets is most exciting for me — and then, of course, there’s Xbox Live.
However, I’m not the only one who likes the look of Windows 8: Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, revealed at the company’s BUILD conference in California this week that the Windows 8 Developer Preview was downloaded a staggering 500,000 times in just 24 hours.
During his keynote, Ballmer also noted the positive reaction Microsoft has received from the community following the release of the Developer Preview. He used slides to display positive quotes to the audience, including one from Tom Warren over at WinRumors that read:
“I’ve never witnessed this much excitement in a Microsoft audience at a keynote before. It’s electric.”
While VentureBeat spoke of the Windows 8 user experience:
“Windows 8 “re-imagines” user experience, adds major performance gains.”
Let’s compare that figure with one achieved by Microsoft’s biggest rival: Apple. Back in July when the company release is latest OS X Lion operating system — the first ever digital-only release of a major OS — one million users flocked to download the OS through the Mac App Store on launch day. While that figure is double that of the Windows 8 downloads, I must stress that the Developer Preview is a very early alpha build — undoubtedly riddled with bugs and issues. 500,000 downloads of an alpha build is very impressive if you ask me.
Have you downloaded the Windows 8 Developer Preview yet? What do you think so far?
[via The Next Web]
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