I have been using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview since it was released at the end of February, and my experience has been relatively good so far. There have, as is to be expected, been a few bugs here and there, but they are easily to overlook on pre-release software. The biggest annoyance, however, has been the lack of support for Adobe Flash in the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10. Surprisingly, Windows 8 won’t just support Adobe Flash in the final version, it will actually come bundled with it.
Most web developers are transitioning from Flash to HTML5, but many high profile websites still require the use of Flash. In the Developer and Consumer Previews of Windows 8, encountering a Flash-based website in the Metro browser forced the user to open the page up on the desktop side of IE10. This, while doable and fairly simple, was somewhat of a pain. It’s also not ideal on touch screen devices like tablets; especially those that run the ARM-based Windows RT, which doesn’t allow users to install traditional apps on the desktop. To make matters worse, some HTML5 video players, like YouTube, only seem to work half the time.
