A non technical review of a server OS, you say?

How so?

Let's start simple.

This thing is rapid. Even on a hard drive, it's lovely and quick. But that's where my joy ends.

Yes, it's a server OS. But PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me change the colours to something that don't make me think I'm using a Tomy My First Server.

I'll say that again. It's a server OS. So why am I hovering over nothing to bring up menus of nothingness in an entirely counter-intuitive fashion. At no point does intuition mean "reading minds" before anyone says "You just have to get used to the changes" No, stop right there buddy. Intuition means looking at a screen, and working out for yourself what you might have to do to achieve a target or goal. It doesn't mean "right, I can find my way around enough to start up a browser so I can google "how do I turn off this ruddy computer". One positive is, googling/finding out about that silly popup thing on the right hand side also shows me a few other bits and bobs.

But that's entirely counter-intuitive. And silly.

What was wrong with 2008 R2? Ok, it didn't have a "touch friendly" interface. This is a server.

How about putting the backend improvements on 2008R2 and making 2008R2v2 or something. The only possible reason for any of the UI rubbishness is to force people's hands into core installations. Sorry but I moved to running Windows systems because I tired of remembering countless unix shortcuts and AS/400 oddities, yet it feels like we're being pushed back into it.

Perhaps MS is fearing it's making things too easy for people and their technical people might lose their jobs soon...