Windows 8, is it all that?

[yehness]

Is Windows 8 really all that? What's so 'good' about it. Last stable Windows OS was Windows XP. That's my view. I'm open to hear your views.

I have a HP DM4, if it's any good I'll put it on there.

 

[lakedude]

I wouldn't bother if you already have W7HP.

W8 pros:

1) The ability to combine drives into one big drive pool.
2) Far better licencing terms.
3) Decent UI for touchscreen.
4) Latest and greatest everything.

W8 cons:

1) Edge Swipe is terrible for touch pad users (can be disabled).
2) Plain 2d appearance.
3) If Metro was well designed you could just use it, instead one must learn how to use Metro.
4) No Games unless you sign up online.
5) M$ is forcing you into their "app space". Gadgets are gone because of "security".

 

[ViRGE]

If your view is that XP was the last stable OS - and thereby implying you were unimpressed with Windows 7 - then it's unlikely you'd find Windows 8 any more impressive.

 

[KeypoX]

Is Windows 8 really all that? What's so 'good' about it. Last stable Windows OS was Windows XP. That's my view. I'm open to hear your views.

I have a HP DM4, if it's any good I'll put it on there.

lol at windows xp stable.

 

[Mem]

I wouldn't bother if you already have W7HP.

W8 pros:

1) The ability to combine drives into one big drive pool.
2) Far better licencing terms.
3) Decent UI for touchscreen.
4) Latest and greatest everything.

W8 cons:

1) Edge Swipe is terrible for touch pad users (can be disabled).
2) Plain 2d appearance.
3) If Metro was well designed you could just use it, instead one must learn how to use Metro.
4) No Games unless you sign up online.
5) M$ is forcing you into their "app space". Gadgets are gone because of "security".

Metro you CAN avoid for the most part especially if you customize your PC/Laptop desktop with shortcuts etc.. you don't need a third party Start Mod like some users have ie Classic Shell but I can understand some users are more comfortable with one,as to no games well there are plenty of free ones you can download the normal way like you do with Win7/Vista with browser etc.....so don't even need to go to Store,I'm a gamer and get my games the normal way ie via Steam,Origin, game websites plus free downloads from sites etc...

It boots faster and IS more snappier then Win7,better security,better battery life for portable gear ie Laptops/Notebooks/Tablets etc, improved Task Manager,Refresh and Reset options ,I could name more but you can see the rest here http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/374587/30-best-features-of-windows-8 .


Bottomline try it for yourself(ie free Preview version) is my best advice and use it for a few weeks to really get use to the changes.

yehness I will say about your XP statement nothing wrong with Vista, Win7 or Win8 with regards to stability so XP was not the last stable OS.

As to good/improvements well it depends on what you are really looking for (we all like different things) ...I've been happy with most of the Windows Operating Systems ie XP,Vista,Win7,Win8.


Plenty of threads on Win8 from both sides,end of the day ONLY YOU can really say if its worth it.

 

[poohbear]

Last stable Windows OS was Windows XP. That's my view. I'm open to hear your views.

Lol u can't be serious? that OS is 12 years old & i wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole. Its a mess! Win7 is as good as it gets for desktop & laptop users, the only reason i'd contemplate win8 is the language packs (for those of us that are multi-lingual) & the ultra low upgrade sale price of $40. With only 1.7% market share, u gotta wonder how much sales will plummet if it goes up to $100-$150 after jan 31st.

 

[jhansman]

Here's an idea: get it, install it, boot it, and see for yourself. You're going to get every opinion under the sun here, some informed, far too many not. Just keep an open mind and be willing to learn. I know, I know, it takes an effort, but we can't tell you if it's worth your time or not.

 

[Nothinman]

Is Windows 8 really all that? What's so 'good' about it. Last stable Windows OS was Windows XP. That's my view. I'm open to hear your views.

I have a HP DM4, if it's any good I'll put it on there.

If you think XP was the last stable OS from MS you haven't been paying attention. Win7 is so far ahead of that it's not even funny. Vista is even way ahead of it, but the growing pains sucked.

If you want to be up to your neck in the MS ecosystem and get into their app store, XBox music, etc right now then jump into Win8. If you don't care about that yet then get Win7 and see what happens with the evolution of Windows past Win8.

 

[sm625]

1) The ability to combine drives into one big drive pool.

Is there an article that goes into more detail on this? I still know nothing about it. What kind of options it has, etc. Can it allow you to put certain files nad folders on an SSD and keep others on the HDD? Or at least I'd like to know the exact name of this feature.

 

[yehness]

lol POINT taken!

 

[yehness]

If you think XP was the last stable OS from MS you haven't been paying attention. Win7 is so far ahead of that it's not even funny. Vista is even way ahead of it, but the growing pains sucked.

If you want to be up to your neck in the MS ecosystem and get into their app store, XBox music, etc right now then jump into Win8. If you don't care about that yet then get Win7 and see what happens with the evolution of Windows past Win8.

You're right. Let me add I switched to Mac around the time Vista was released.

 

[Nothinman]

You're right. Let me add I switched to Mac around the time Vista was released.

My condolences.

 

[Blueychan]

Storage Pool/Spaces is worth the upgrade over any other version of Windows.

 

[lakedude]

...as to no games well there are plenty of free ones you can download the normal way like you do with Win7/Vista with browser etc.

I was referring to the standard games that have come with previous versions of Windows like Solitaire and Minesweeper. I understand the App Store has free games available. Of course you are able to download 3rd party games from whomever you like...

 

[lakedude]

Is there an article that goes into more detail on this? I still know nothing about it. What kind of options it has, etc. Can it allow you to put certain files nad folders on an SSD and keep others on the HDD? Or at least I'd like to know the exact name of this feature.

I've got W8 on my laptop. Pooling drives is not really practical on a laptop. My "server" runs ZFS which could pool drives long before W8 came out.

Looks like drive pooling on W8 is called "Storage Spaces".

As far as putting certain folders on certain drives, I don't think that is what a drive pool does. A pool makes one big virtual drive out of several individual physical drives. All the drives in the pool appear as one.

Sorry I'm not more help as I haven't used this feature personally...



http://arstechnica.com/information-...aces-explained-a-great-feature-when-it-works/

 

[unokitty]

Is Windows 8 really all that? What's so 'good' about it. Last stable Windows OS was Windows XP. That's my view. I'm open to hear your views.

I have a HP DM4, if it's any good I'll put it on there.

Its very difficult to get good statistics concerning what Windows versions are in use. One source is a web site like W3Schools that tracks and reports the OS Versions of the users that browse to that site.

For Dec 2012, they report the following OS statistics:
Windows 7 -- 55.6%
Windows XP -- 21.1%
Windows Vista -- 2.8%
Windows 8 -- 2.5%
Windows NT -- 1.8%

As a revenue source, Windows 8 is obviously a very good thing for Microsoft.

Just my opinion, while the revenue for Windows 8 is clearly good for Microsoft, at this time, I don't see anything about Windows 8 that is good for me.

And, you could interpret the above statistics to indicate that 97.5% of the Windows Users that are browsing to W3Schools don't find Windows 8 very compelling either.

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[blankslate]

From what I've gathered from reading articles about the OS.

Win8 has definite under the hood improvements over Win7 it's just that the interface isn't that great for a lot of Windows users.

Unless you install a 3rd party program I don't think there is a way to boot Win8 directly into the Desktop

from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9235059/Windows_8_s_uptake_falls_behind_Vista_s_pace?

 

[Rvenger]

Clearly one of the reasons why Windows 8 is not doing so well adoption wise is because people don't want to upgrade an OS that is only 3.5 years old.

 

[0___________0]

Unless you install a 3rd party program I don't think there is a way to boot Win8 directly into the Desktop

A scheduled task that runs explorer on log in will go directly to the desktop. But it probably takes more time to close the explorer window than it does to press "start" on your keyboard to get to the desktop from Metro. Could probably have the task kill it though.

 

[poohbear]

I dont think thats the only reason it didnt do well....ppl generally upgrade every other OS, not every OS. Since everyone is on win7, i gather most of em wont upgrade till win9. MS is being ridiculous if they think they can get most ppl to spend $100-$150 every 3 years on a new OS. They should make the transition as painless & user friendly as possible, the Metro UI is not so user friendly.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I dont think thats the only reason it didnt do well....ppl generally upgrade every other OS, not every OS. Since everyone is on win7, i gather most of em wont upgrade till win9. MS is being ridiculous if they think they can get most ppl to spend $100-$150 every 3 years on a new OS. They should make the transition as painless & user friendly as possible, the Metro UI is not so user friendly.

This is true, if MS thinks that I will pay them a yearly fee to keep my os updated they are incorrect in that assumption with Blue or whatever their new initiative will be called. I'm checking out Ubuntu currently as I like having total control of my os and is the reason I started custom building my own computers. I will never willingly cede control to the cloud. Now my company can do whatever they want. Of course I'm not a tablet or super phone kind of guy, so I'm in the minority. :\

 

[Nothinman]

I dont think thats the only reason it didnt do well....ppl generally upgrade every other OS, not every OS. Since everyone is on win7, i gather most of em wont upgrade till win9. MS is being ridiculous if they think they can get most ppl to spend $100-$150 every 3 years on a new OS. They should make the transition as painless & user friendly as possible, the Metro UI is not so user friendly.

Supposedly MS is looking at a shorter, more frequent release cycle similar to Ubuntu or OS X which would mean they have to drop the price and make upgrades work better. But I doubt there's any way their current management could make that work, so we'll see what actually happens.

 

[mikeymikec]

Even if MS increases their release schedule and significantly decreases the cost of a licence down to Windows 8 upgrade levels or lower, I think they're stupid to assume that people would upgrade every time they release a new version of Windows.

If Windows 7 had come directly after XP (ie. Vista didn't happen), apart from hardware requirements and XP's end of support life in the near-ish distance, there wasn't a great deal to attract the average person to upgrade from XP to 7 (and even if Win7 was priced the same as Win8 Upgrade).

I like both operating systems, I'm using Win7 currently, but I certainly wouldn't try to encourage a customer to upgrade from XP to Win7 unless there was something very specific they were looking for that Win7 has. When April 2014 comes along, that's a different story, but upgrading the whole machine is likely to be a better idea.

 

[unokitty]

Holiday PC sales slide for first time in 5 years

"Win 8 is disappointing, the PC market will remain weak for awhile and margins are likely capped," said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt on Thursday, as he downgraded the stock to 'equal-weight' from 'overweight'.

"Investors are also nonplussed, driving Microsoft's shares down neraly 20 percent since last March, ... The shares are down 6 percent since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26."

This also article cites the lack of "compelling reason to upgrade."

Is it premature to say that Microsoft without Bill Gates is beginning to resemble Apple without Steve Jobs?

 

[unokitty]

Duplicate post... Leaving to get more coffee...