Windows 8

[TheColtofPersonality]

Well... Apple: MacOS, iOS... Microsoft, MS-DOS? sounds good, back to C:\DOS> C:\DOS>RUN RUN\DOS\RUN I don't know what could go wrong...

Well it is kind of strange the Windows name has stayed around for this long anyway, after all the name Windows is short for Windowed DOS.

And Windows has not used DOS as a basis for ages, not since Windows ME.

The Windows NT os is the basis for more modern windows OS, the NT operating systems, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and yes even 8.

[Autumn]

First, to note; As alot of you may know, I am VERY critical of stuff and not afraid to speak my mind and only tend to comment on things I actually have experience with, not what some youtube video or blog tells me... so you'll know what I say here isn't buttered up or sugar coated.

I bought Win8 Pro (Not to be confused with Win8 RT which is just for the tablets) on release last Friday (It's only £25 as digital download).

I upgraded from Win7. It went very smoothly. The only (single) eyebrow raising moment was when it told me that MS Security Essentials wasn't compatible and needed to be un-installed. Bit weird that I had to google to find out that it has Defender built in.

It installed... everything worked. PC boots quicker, everything feels snappier.

Things I found and my thought process and feelings towards it;

* It starts in Metro. Ok, I like messing about with the colours and arranging the panels how I like them. (They're not random at all)

* Noticed I can get to ANY installed program (application as opposed to 'app' which when referenced are two different things) by just typing the name or part of the name. This is no problem as I have a keyboard, which it sort of like a little typewriter with all the letters I need on it... they're dying out.

* Realised that there's pretty much no difference in a start menu and an App list on things like android. Same thing, presented slightly differently.

* Found out all the keyboard commands that are essential. Win+D, Win+X, Win+i, Win+Tab, etc... This isn't exactly rocket surgery and became fluid and instinctive after as little as 10 mins playing with it.

* Win+D got to and from my desktop (Windows 7) instantly. Win+X when in the desktop brought a whole bunch of controlpanel access items (Love this!), Win+Tab switched between Metro apps (Not normal windows applications as these are different), Win+I offers settings for individual Metro apps, etc.

* Noticed that Metro is an add-on to Win7, not a replacement (Except on Win8 RT for tablets). It's important to know that Metro doesn't break or take anything away. It allows you to run all those nice looking Metro apps and Xbox SmartGlass etc.

* Dual screen works... finally. Natively span wallpapers across both monitors or different on each and can have Metro apps take small parts of a screen whilst the rest taken up with Desktop etc. Easy as drag-dropping.

* Started to explore metro apps. There's not kajillions like on Android market, but very easy to browse and some of them, like MetroTweet (I bought the pro version) seems to work very nicely, enough for me to replace TweetDeck on the desktop!

* Everything works as it should. No drivers stopped working, no incompatibly issues with anything pre-installed, nothing.

I did however play with the re-install options. There's an option to re-install win8 and keep all your settings and programs etc or a simple clean install wiping everything... I wiped everything at this point (just to see). It was INCREDIBLY PAIN LESS. WOW!!! This is how windows should have been YEARS ago!. It just got on and installed it fresh. Quicker than I remember any windows installs I remember. No disc required, no input needed... I didn't need to tell it what keyboard layout and other tedious nonsense. It just worked.

That along with the enhancements to the portions that resemble Win7... Microsoft has done good.

Again, Metro isn't Windows 8. It's an addition. All your Win7 stuff's still there and still very easily accessible. You don't have to use Metro at all. But it's nice arranging your metro stuff and information feeds how you want them!

If you're running a tablet with Windows 8, it's Windows 8 RT, not the full thing.

To note, as a former Ubuntu user myself, Moving to Win8 from Win7 was NOTHING like moving from Gnome to Unity. The Ubuntu transition was so drasticly different in experience I stopped using it, not wanting to bother installing gnome manually.

Comparing Metro to Unity is a very bad comparison. Metro also doesn't replace the 'windows experience'. It's an addition. (unless you're running RT).

[Bright Glow]

Good to hear some positive critics about win 8 since I plan to upgrade my win 7 to win 8 as soon as I'll have enough money for that.

[Mellorious]

I hear Metro is good for general net users, but bad for gamers/game developers. But there's so much mixed hype around it it's hard to form an opinion without trying it myself.

[Bright Glow]

Any idea about if the 32 bits or the 64 bits version shall I buy from the Win 8 pro when I'll be able to afford it?

[PIJIN]

I bought Win8 Pro (Not to be confused with Win8 RT which is just for the tablets) on release last Friday (It's only £25 as digital download).

...It's only only £25...

...only £25

Too bad I live in America...and I'm poor.

All in all, is it worth it? Are there any major upgrades over Windows 7 besides the ones stated, I'll stay right here with Windows 7 if I'm not missing out on much.

[Autumn]

...only £25

All in all, is it worth it?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/buy

For the price.... yup, it's worth it.

[Pony]

Good upgrade if your bored, I guess. Maybe I could use this on my laptop or something, but there's really no need on my main PC.

[brianblackberry]

Not all that excited about it yet, although through $employer I have installed it on two machines already (32 bit and 64 bit home edition), and the installation went smoothly although I am not fond of the lack of customization in comparison to previous installations.* I have an MSDN key for the Enterprise edition so will be installing and trying that next.**

For me personally I see no advantage over Windows 7; some above enjoy the customization and ease of us for Metro, but I don't even use the pinning of applications to the taskbar in 7 that often (heck I still assemble everything into nice sub-folders in Quick Launch, a holdover from XP).***

*There is no Windows 8 home edition name, its just Windows 8, I just call it that to separate it from Pro, Enterprise, and RT.

**No need to spend for Enterprise unless you are a developer that also needs domain networking and in that case the $employer will likely buy it.

*** I appreciate Windows 8 attempt to make everything sleeker and more accessible, but I am fine with tried and true over having to get the latest shiney even if it is full of features and runs well.

[Parker_Izing]

Well it is kind of strange the Windows name has stayed around for this long anyway, after all the name Windows is short for Windowed DOS.

And Windows has not used DOS as a basis for ages, not since Windows ME.

The Windows NT os is the basis for more modern windows OS, the NT operating systems, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and yes even 8.

DOS stands for Disk Operating System So, as long the computers use disks, all OSes would be technically a sort of DOS. (As long they find a use for "Sys Rq" key I'l be happy ) By the way that means "System Request" or basically, like the WinKey, back in 1981...

[Autumn]

DOS stands for Disk Operating System So, as long the computers use disks, all OSes would be technically a sort of DOS. (As long they find a use for "Sys Rq" key I'l be happy ) By the way that means "System Request" or basically, like the WinKey, back in 1981...

I use an SSD... no discs in there.

[ONWARDconwardicus]

I actually got Windows 8 to replace my XP at my dad's house for only $2 from my Cisco teacher.

It crashes every time i try to install someting. Sometimes I finish the download, but most often I get the new frowney face of death and my computer does an auto restart. It got annoying after two days of trying to get minecraft mods and other things i missed. Does anyone else have this problem?

[Mellorious]

Just for reference, Windows 8 Pro is 40 US Dollars for digital download. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/buy

For the AMURICUNS like me.

[TheColtofPersonality]

http://windows.micro...-GB/windows/buy

For the price.... yup, it's worth it.

For me its not, its an interface totally made for a tochscren.

Give me Windows 7 and openSUSE 12.2 any day

[Sunshine]

At the office I work at, we installed one of our laptops with Windows 8. We then played a game where we timed how long it took someone to find notepad. A few people participated and I think the longest time was about ten minutes.

I agree that it's good for touchscreens and not as an OS for anything else. It's good that they have a desktop option, but the lack of an actual "start" menu just makes things frustrating. Just going to shut down the laptop using Windows 8 is needlessly complicated. If I hadn't looked it up then it would have taken me quite a while to figure that out.

It's flashy but not efficient.

[Parker_Izing]

I use an SSD... no discs in there.

BIOS access is still based on disk emulation (price of using sata interfaces) SSD (Solid State Disk) should be capable of sprout infinite 'heads' and write/read a bunch of sectors/files at the same time, when this happen, would be sweet, and truly the future.

[TheColtofPersonality]

Well the media has called windows 8 as a flop, again I say somed of you folks if you hate win 8 give linux a shot, there is even a few that look like the old windows like linux mint.