Windows 8 .... anyone upgrading?

[Nick]

I'm installing on my laptop now. Will see how that goes for a bit before I put it on my desktop, the workhorse

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[amf]

If it stays true to MS's track record, it will be one to avoid. Ever since DoD (Days of DOS), my experience has been you really need to skip generations. 98 was good but W2k/Me was a dog; they finally got it right with XP. Vista was a bigger dog, & they got it right with 7. Same pattern in DOS. I'd avoid 8 like the plague myself.

 

[riverc0il]

If it stays true to MS's track record, it will be one to avoid. Ever since DoD (Days of DOS), my experience has been you really need to skip generations. 98 was good but W2k/Me was a dog; they finally got it right with XP. Vista was a bigger dog, & they got it right with 7. Same pattern in DOS. I'd avoid 8 like the plague myself.

8 is a complete direction change. I wouldn't reference past experiences for 8. I alsowouldn't install 8 on a lap/desktop. It looks much more mobile oriented. Your timeline is off, though. 98 wasn't good, 98SE was good. 2k was fine, ME wasn't. Win7 is good enough I came back from Linux, I don't anticipate moving off 7 for a very long time as my hardware is just fine for the software for a long time (I don't remember ever thinking that, you used to be behind the eight ball from the day you bought/made a machine). Business still are fine with XP. Win8 is something different though, all about mobile. I'd have to see it side by side with Android before making a decision there as I am sure I'll get a tablet down the road once the marketplace sorts itself out.

 

[bvibert]

I do kind of want to check it out, even though I'm already convinced that I won't like it. I have no intention of installing it on any of my computers though.

Riverc0il is right, it's designed to optimize touch interfaces, which my laptops are not.

I think the appearance of the home screen is ugly with all the different colored tiles. All the demos I've seen posted online have tiles that are constantly flashing updates, which I find annoying. I suspect I'd be using the desktop environment more often then not, which will now be an extra step to get to.

 

[kickstand]

If it stays true to MS's track record, it will be one to avoid. Ever since DoD (Days of DOS), my experience has been you really need to skip generations. 98 was good but W2k/Me was a dog; they finally got it right with XP. Vista was a bigger dog, & they got it right with 7. Same pattern in DOS. I'd avoid 8 like the plague myself.

+1

First thing I thought was, Vista sucked, 7 is solid, avoid 8. It's a proven track record with Microsoft desktop o/s's, dating back to Windows 95. It seems like desktop doesn't use the same QC methods the server products use.

 

[Edd]

I want to put my hands on a Surface tablet but I just learned you can only get them online or at a Microsoft store.

 

[Rushski]

Find it strange they're betting quite a bit on this release. Now, all PCs will have it pre installed. If phone buyers aren't buying Windows phones, why would computer users want that interface?

That being said, I'm somewhat tempted to put it on an older, free laptop we have which the wife just uses for browsing/FB/etc... It is back from a virus but not completely as I haven't the time or desire. Wondering if I can get it cheap enough to refresh the laptop?

 

[Edd]

That being said, I'm somewhat tempted to put it on an older, free laptop we have which the wife just uses for browsing/FB/etc... It is back from a virus but not completely as I haven't the time or desire. Wondering if I can get it cheap enough to refresh the laptop?

I was thinking the same thing about an XP netbook I have but I probably won't. I think it's $39.99 to upgrade XP or Vista.

 

[Mpdsnowman]

My mom needs a new computer so I plan on going to bestbuy and getting her a new one. It will have 8

 

[AdironRider]

And I am thinking that Windows2k was the best.

Anyone remember XP without any SP's? Talk about a weapon of mass destruction...

 

[ScottySkis]

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Will it turn my monitor off when I shut off the computer, like older versions of Windows use to?

 

[Nick]

So I've been using it on my laptop for a few days. I really like it so far, I put in a start button add-on for 5$ and it seems really good. Speedy, and even without a touchscreen it works well. Will need to keep playing iwth it more before I make the jump on upgrading my desktop but it's OK, not the apocalypse some made it sound like it would be.

 

[Edd]

I'm rooting for Microsoft. If folks adopt Windows 8 tablets, phones, and PCs in large numbers it'll be good for consumers competition-wise.

 

[dmc]

Holding on to XP on my work laptop until they come after me...

 

[WWF-VT]

I'm currently running Windows 8 on a laptop and Office 2013 and expect to have a Surface in December. The Windows 8 interface is pretty easy to figure out and the "Desktop" tile basically drops you into the same look and feel of Windows 7.

 

[hammer]

Just upgraded our home PC and went with Windows 8 on the new one. So far the interface is fine, most of the time I stay in the Desktop tile. I work with a variety of desktop environments so this change isn't a big deal. At some point we will get a touchscreen monitor. Biggest complaint at this point is that I can't set up the native mail app but I just downloaded Windows Live Mail and it works just fine for us. Also have Thunderbird but I only use that for my work e-mail account.

New machine has an AMD processor (FX-8350 etc.), with the discrete graphics card and 16GB RAM it's pretty good for gaming according to our son. Didn't buy it for gaming but we wanted to have something that would play video pretty well, and I've been less than impressed with integrated graphics in the past.

 

[Cannonball]

I have Win 8 on both a desktop and a netbook that I bought this year for specific work purposes. I've been pretty unhappy with it. I understand that change will always be hard, but this is such a significant change that I really don't have the time to spend figuring it out. So both units are running in very limited ways, simply accomplishing their assigned tasks without me being able to maximize their use. At some point I am going to have to dedicate several days to figuring Win 8. But I haven't found that kind of time in past 6 months and don't see it happening in the near future.

It seems like MS decided to put all of their eggs into the mobile platform basket. I think this was a mistake. For Apple or Android that may make sense. But there is still a substantial (majority?) portion of the market that wants a no-nonsense work-based platform. I seriously don't give a crap about having XBox, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other crap on my work computer. I need streamlined, efficient business programs and I want the rest to stay out of the way. If I want some unproductive downtime I'll pick up my iPad.

 

[Geoff]

Holding on to XP on my work laptop until they come after me...

I was the last XP Pro user in my company. My laptop became unstable as the bloatware consumed all the RAM and got stuck in page fault hell so I finally gave up and got a Win7 laptop this spring. The biggest hunk of pain was that I need to have IE8 on the machine to access a Hewlett Packard bug tracking environment my largest customer uses. I tried to get it working, gave up after a couple of days, and it took the IT guys several days to get it installed. I also have a USB driver for an essential piece of lab equipment that only runs on XP. I still keep my old XP Pro laptop around just to use that piece of lab gear. It also has my personal email archive from Mozilla Thunderbird that I never figured out how to migrate to my new laptop.

I'm fine with Windows 7. Now that Win 8.1 put a Start button back, I'd likely be OK using that, too.

 

[bigbog]

No troubles when working with Win7...agree about the tons of XP sw. Kept XP on one home desktop for a few little known apps. Gotta learn to design for touchscreen(and others:roll...would be good with some stuff.

 

[St. Bear]

Just got a new laptop last night that has Win8 preinstalled. It's alright for a home laptop, but I wouldn't like it for work. The tiles aren't so bad, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to get rid of the ones I don't want.