For the latest news and reviews surrounding Microsoft’s new products, make sure to check out Nathan Simon’s (The Real and Virtual Adventures of Nathan the IT Guy) and Joshua Wood’s blog (TechStop).

Disclaimer: All videos presented in the “YouTube IT Video of the Week” series are subjectively selected by ITKnowledgeExchange.com community managers and staff for entertainment purposes only. They are not sponsored or influenced by outside sources.

That video was posted over a year ago, and other solutions have popped up since then. If you’re looking for another method, ITKE expert Robin Miller tested out several free tools that improve the Windows 8 GUI in his recent post, ‘Making Windows 8 Useable on Laptop and Desktop Computers – For Free‘.

Disclaimer: All videos presented in the “YouTube IT Video of the Week” series are subjectively selected by ITKnowledgeExchange.com community managers and staff for entertainment purposes only. They are not sponsored or influenced by outside sources.

By Matthew Baxter-Reynolds (@mbrit)

The problem that Microsoft has with its newfangled UI with Windows 8 is that it takes a while to learn to love it.

I think it took me about six weeks. Six weeks of fighty confusion until one day I looked at it and just *got* it. As has been oft written in the past few weeks, Windows 8 is about tablets, not about the desktops. The peace I reached was that Microsoft had no other option. Creating a bizarre amalgam of Old Windows for the desktop and New Windows for the desktop was all that they could do to stay relevant as tablets took over.

Every time there has been a drop of Windows 8 (excluding the one from BUILD last year) people who look at it exclaim “LOLWUT!” and then bash out a rehash of the same old posts about how it doesn’t make any sense. Now we’re in another phase of that with RTM. And in October it’ll all calm down, GA will hit, and off we’ll go again.

And, OK, Windows 8 doesn’t make any sense. It’s bonkers to take an OS that for 20 years been based on WIMP interfaces, overlapping Windows, and ramped up information density and then forget that it ever happened. The re-imagining of Windows, arguably, goes too far. Thus the hypothesis that the pendulum will swing back in Windows vNext holds water.

But that’s hardly likely to happen. Any adjustments that Microsoft makes to the Windows 8 vision in Windows vNext will be smooth and calm and designed to satisfy some commercial objectives that you and I will know nothing about. Thing is, Microsoft knows that if a newbie Windows 8 user runs Windows 8 for a couple of months they’ll look at back at Windows 7 with its “Start orb” like it’s a piece of old junk. People generally dislike change, but we all can, at the end of it all, actually manage and thrive within change.

So what can you do? If you run a fleet based on Windows 7, are you thinking “I’ll skip Windows 8″? My question to you is “why?” Nothing you see today in Windows 8 is going to change. That MetroModern shell is staying. Re-imagined Windows 8 apps that are tablet-optimised are staying.

But there’s more than that. The desktop is going away. Your users want tablet solutions *today*. What Windows 8 gives you is an option. It doesn’t have to be iPad. Come October it can be iPad or Windows RT PC. Come next year, it can be iPad, Windows RT PC, and various Windows 8 form-factors including Ultrabook and tablets.

If you haven’t tried it, you need to. Windows 8 is experiential. It’s something you have to form a relationship with. You need your own opinion.

If you go out there and are brave enough to move your estate onto Windows 8 you’re building a platform on which great new solutions can be built. You’re going to go through a little pain. You’re going to hear a *lot* of complaining. But you’ll all get there, and when you do you’ll have a fantastic OS and a fantastic platform for your next wave of solutions.

Matthew Baxter-Reynolds is an independent software development consultant, trainer and author based in the U.K. His next book, Programming Metro-style Apps with C#, will be published by O’Reilly in November. His favorite way to communicate with like-minded technical people is Twitter: @mbrit.

Technology rules the world now. In this week’s IT quotes roundup, we take a look at how this power can be used for good – and not so good.

“It looks flat and muddy and not crisp at all.”
- Jon Hassell (@jghassell) in one of many tweets regarding Windows 8, which was released to manufacturing this week. Check out the whole Storify of his experience – you’ll feel like you downloaded it yourself (and if you already did, tell us what you think).

“It’s so cheap that you can afford to throw away 99.9 percent without looking at it.”
- John Villasenor, an electrical engineer at UCLA, talking about the (lack of) cost of data storage, and what that could mean for government surveillance. Sharon Fisher has more on the worrying trend.

“If you control how somebody pays for something, you control a lot.”
- A CIO of a large credit union, discussing the rise of payment applications like Square. Believe it or not, this could have major implications for the enterprise computing industry. And hopefully, the credit card industry.

“Of course, they’ve always had this power. But now we know that they’ll use it in ways that we really don’t agree with.”
- Instapaper creator Marco Arment, commenting on the recently announced Twitter API changes that give the service “wiggle room” for revoking access for those using its platform. The change – which has been met with scorn among many developers — continues what’s already been an interesting summer for APIs.

“Blades are supermodels, rack-mount servers are the girl next door. I like the girl next door.”
- Dan Brinkmann, VMware vExpert and solutions architect speaking at BriForum on Thursday. If you couldn’t tell, this event was rife with quotes; see the #BriFoum hashtag for more. See if our users agree about the virtues of rack-mount servers.

“I think that Windows 8 is kind of a catastrophe for everybody in the PC space.”
- Gabe Newell, ex-Microsoft employee and co-founder of the Valve game platform, on the prospects for Microsoft’s new operating system (set to RTM soon) in a wide-ranging interview with VentureBeat.

“At Armageddon, we’ll have 1) Twinkies, 2) Cockroaches and 3) Devices running Windows.”
- Brian Madden, speaking during his annual BriForum event in Chicago. What version of Windows they’ll be running, that’s another question altogether.

“As an industry we’ve been telling people, ‘Buy our stuff, you’ll be magically safe. “I’m glad we’re finally saying, ‘God you’re screwed; buy our stuff when you are breached.’”
- Bruce Schneier, CTO of security firm BT Counterpane, speaking during a panel discussion at the annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. Check out more BlackHat 2012 coverage from SearchSecurity.com.

Hear an IT-related quote that you think should be included? Let us know in the comments, via Twitter (@ITKE) or via email (web-contactus@techtarget.com).

GP 2010 R2, the most recent version

The Metro-ized UI, demoed recently

My first reaction: Microsoft, the same company inflicting us with the Office Ribbon, made this?

My second reaction: But will it blend?

As in, will it actually work, in the real world, for blending the disparate needs of data consumption, analysis, and input in a way that works with modern business? ERP software is no joke, but the demo images struck me as almost too clean to be true: They were fanciful, Hollywood-esque, the way we want technology to work (“Computer, enhance!“) instead of the way it actually needs to in order to be useful. It was Microsoft, after all, that released a “future-looking” video which was heavy on Minority Report-styling and light on a relation to anything Redmond was actually delivering in the market:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/a6cNdhOKwi0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

The disconnect between that marketing fantasy and the painful reality of most business software suites is what’s driven workers off “official” corporate Intranets, IM packages, and file sharing tools and into the hands of prosumer gems like Dropbox, GMail and Skype.

But this is a living, breathing, supposedly working prototype of what appears to be well-designed business software, software Microsoft apparently intends to ship down the road when Windows 8 makes its official debut come October. If the new Microsoft Dynamics can deliver more than pretty graphs and help make ERP more manageable and more pleasant to use, much-maligned business software might have a much brighter (and not to mention prettier) future ahead of it.

Check out more screen shots of Microsoft’s Metro vision at the get-spblog, and let us know what you think about the shift with a post in the IT Forums.

Michael Morisy is the editorial director for ITKnowledgeExchange. He can be followed on Twitter or you can reach him at Michael@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

But that excitement and those revisions comes at a cost: Radically different means what has worked for years is heading the way of the Dodo, and retraining, rebuilding and restructuring are all going to become part of the upgrade, especially difficult for the OS ecosystem that has bent over backwards for backwards compatibility. Yes, a more traditionalWindows 7-ish interface lies just beneath Metro, but that’s a bandaid, or as Tony Bradley snarked, “Windows 8 feels like Windows 7 with Metro added as an additional, frustrating layer I have to work through to get to the features and capabilities I actually want to use.”

I bet that will be a common thread among two groups in particular: Power users and computer novices used to things exactly the same as they’ve been (See viral video for demonstration). Change is inevitable and I think Microsoft is making the right strategic choice, but it’s also a good opportunity for enterprises to ask themselves which platform will they embrace for the future: Windows 8‘s bold but uncertain moves? Apple’s polished, pricey and enterprise-indifferent strategy? A web application suite that they can better deploy – but at the cost of endpoint control?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, since the only thing I know for certain is that there are no easy answers. E-mail me at Michael@ITKnowledgeExchange.com, and if we like your response we’ll even try and select a great book or other swag to send you.

Slack400 says that two can play at Microsoft’s game: “All this means to me is that Windows gets demoted on my primary computer to a virtual machine and Linux becomes the hyper-visor. But seriously, I suspect it’s all noise and us dual-booting admins will have to set a flag in the BIOS to allow the mixed environment to continue.”

While some plan on a little shuffling when it comes to ensuring Windows 8 and Linux play nice, other members don’t even have Windows 8 on their radar. GusHugershoff doesn’t see the point in dishing out the cash for Windows 8 if you’re going to “upgrade it to Linux.” His suggestion? “Get a KVM switch and keep an older Win2K system for the things you just have to use it for. Besides – the more you cram on one computer, the more you are looking for compatibility issues.”

Koohiisan gives “+1 for virtualizing Windows 8 to get around any (real or perceived) secure boot issues,” especially since he uses VirtualBox to run a virtualized Windows XP for any software that absolutely demands Windows on his Linux laptop. He used to dabble in dual-boot, which was “cool for [him] back ‘in the day,’” but he simply doesn’t need it anymore with all of the advancements in virtualization.

Don’t test the waters if no one’s swimming

Chippy088 plays it safe when it comes to Windows operating systems, usually waiting until it is widely used in the local business community before drinking the koolaid.

Linux is becoming more and more used by local small business clients, as the more MS upgrade their OS’ the more expensive the newer hardware becomes to buy. Legacy equipment isn’t an option on most MS software. Linux can become a more common OS if MS continue to price themselves out of the SMB market.

In general, everyone seemed to agree with Petkoa and Ekardris, echoing blogger Eric Hansen’s position on the matter: Serious Linux users won’t really be affected by a little UEFI speed bump.

All part of Microsoft’s grander plan?

DoneThat brought up an interesting take on the whole situation and the general reaction coming from the crowd:

Just an observation…a lot of people here are pointing out they will simply make the Win OS run in a Vbox as a solution.

Maybe the Linux problem is just a by product of Microsoft’s real purpose: push everyone toward virtual environments?

One easy goal: get enough critical mass and then “secure out” VMware! Now that could be a money maker for Microsoft.

The suggestion excited Koohiisan who offered “a pat on the back and props” to Microsoft, if that is indeed their agenda, especially since “[v]irtualization provides excellent DR when done right, for home and work systems. But, such a plot wouldn’t really bury Linux at all since it makes such a great, (and resource-friendly) VM host system, IMO.”

What do you think? Is Microsoft putting its foot down for the greater good of virtualization adoption? Let us know in the comments section or email me directly.

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.

Worry over what this means for non-Windows users – especially in the vocal Linux community – has run rampant despite Steven Sinofsky’s claim that “[t]he UEFI secure boot protocol is the foundation of an architecturally neutral approach to platform and firmware security. Based on the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) process to validate firmware images before they are allowed to execute, secure boot helps reduce the risk of boot loader attacks. Microsoft relies on this protocol in Windows 8 to improve platform security for our customers.”

It is precisely the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) that makes this roadblock possibly permanent. While this is what they say is the “key” to allowing non-Windows users access to their machines, it may prove to be the lock instead. Matthew Garrett, mobile Linux developer at Red Hat, said in a blog post, “As things stand, Windows 8 certified systems will make it either more difficult or impossible to install alternative operating systems.”

The real worry comes when users buy newer models, since Microsoft has no control over whether or not manufacturers allow users to disable secure boot, the one saving grace of the whole fiasco. As Garrett points out on his blog: “[Microsoft's] competition can’t [require hardware vendors to include their keys]. Red Hat is unable to ensure that every OEM carries their signing key….or any other PC component manufacturer.”

Not all Linux users see the hype as warranted, as IT Knowledge Exchange blogger Eric Hansen of I.T. Security and Linux Administration puts it: “I personally think all of this is nonsense.” Citing the optionality of Secure Boot and that this feature only affects newer models already set up for Windows, Hansen doesn’t see any immediate effects on the way he uses Linux.

“I’m not sure what the system specs are for Windows 8, but I’m pretty sure even those systems running the (now) archaic BIOS is going to be able to boot Windows 8. If you don’t have UEFI on your system, then Secure Boot isn’t going to make a difference anyways,” Hansen writes. “[H]ow does this involve Linux? Well, in the short term, it doesn’t.”

It’s true, it doesn’t seem that non-Windows users need to feel threatened by the BIOS replacement and default secure boot for now. Brad Chaco of Maximum PC highlights one Slashdot forum user’s “chilling prophecy of the future“: “Today you can throw Linux on any old hardware, and do something useful with it. 5-10 years from now, you’ll have to specifically hunt down unlocked software. This has a rather drastic effect on the utility of Linux, which is Microsoft’s intention.” Bing Tsher E follows up with an indirect response to Hansen’s less-than-alarmed post: “The hardware vendors are also vigorously trying to make certain there isn’t any ‘old hardware’ to employ…. It won’t matter whether the old hardware can boot Linux if it’s been sucked out of existence and destroyed.”

What do you think: Is this the beginning of the end or mere conspiracy theory?

Melanie Yarbrough is the assistant community editor at ITKnowledgeExchange.com. Follow her on Twitter or send her an email at Melanie@ITKnowledgeExchange.com.