Windows 8

[McGMT]

Well I know there are a fair share of computer jockeys on here... Have you looked at the next windows? What do you think of it?

 

[Boricua SS]

havent looked at it yet... but hopefully its not like Me or Vista ... you gotta love the change of technology lol... graduated college in 2010 in Computer Maintenance and Networking, and was taught on Windows XP, Vista, and 7... and now Windows 8 is coming out

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Windows 7 is the best windows out, vista sucked and xp was good but now new programs need more to run. My cuz ran windows 8 beta on his comp and he liked it and some thing he didn't like. It is way different and you need to get used to it. I want to run the beta and see what it has

 

[CdnGMan]

Windows 8 is suited more towards the tablets & touchscreens than to the desktop PC's IMO... the interface is gimicky... but if that's your thing, go for it.
As far as I'm concerned, Windows 7 is the best OS out there for today's computers... YMMV.

 

[Decembersend]

Windows 8 is suited more towards the tablets & touchscreens than to the desktop PC's IMO... the interface is gimicky... but if that's your thing, go for it.
As far as I'm concerned, Windows 7 is the best OS out there for today's computers... YMMV.

100%

 

[ItsOnVoy]

Windows 8 is suited more towards the tablets & touchscreens than to the desktop PC's IMO... the interface is gimicky... but if that's your thing, go for it.
As far as I'm concerned, Windows 7 is the best OS out there for today's computers... YMMV.

True!! Exact what my cuz said

 

[McGMT]

They have made some changes since the beta versions and the release version is out now for free trial. The upgrade price to the base version is said to be $19.95! Better than 89.95 While the pro version has no price out yet it is said without a touchscreen it behaves much like Win7. I just fired up the release preview so I will let ya know if anything has really changed.

 

[benz01]

I read a review of Windows 8 that makes Windows 7 look like the best Windows ever. I cant remember where I read this or I would post the link. I was going to take the upgrade special they are offering but now am hesitant.

 

[McGMT]

I read a review of Windows 8 that makes Windows 7 look like the best Windows ever. I cant remember where I read this or I would post the link. I was going to take the upgrade special they are offering but now am hesitant.

8 seems to be like Microsoft thought, how can we make it more of a PITA to use a desktop computer.... Lets hide everything and get rid of the start button so you have to go thru 2 menus to find your applications!

 

[NewfieEnvoy]

Industry standard is to upgrade with every second release. Microsoft seems to release usable software on this same schedule

 

[ScarabEpic22]

Ive gotta say, I wasnt a huge fan of Windows 8 until my work gave me a touchscreen laptop. Im biased, I did a lot of work with W7 at my last job ranging from image creation, deployment, application compatibly testing to end user support. I will use W7 on any client's machine until they get a touchscreen (or get the free app that adds the Start button back). Not sure if anyone knows this, but W8 Release Preview and RTM use much less RAM than W7 on the exact same PC. My work laptop dual boots W7 and W8 RP, W8 RP uses about 300MB less RAM. W8 RTM is supposed to be even better.

Im not sold on the new Start screen, for tablets/phones it will be great, for desktop and laptops without a touchscreen not so much. With any of the free apps that adds the Start button back, it hides the new Start screen so you have to hold Shift+Windows to get to it. Makes the regular W8 desktop feel like W7 just lighter on RAM usage.

My .02.

 

[McGMT]

Ive gotta say, I wasnt a huge fan of Windows 8 until my work gave me a touchscreen laptop. Im biased, I did a lot of work with W7 at my last job ranging from image creation, deployment, application compatibly testing to end user support. I will use W7 on any client's machine until they get a touchscreen (or get the free app that adds the Start button back). Not sure if anyone knows this, but W8 Release Preview and RTM use much less RAM than W7 on the exact same PC. My work laptop dual boots W7 and W8 RP, W8 RP uses about 300MB less RAM. W8 RTM is supposed to be even better.

Im not sold on the new Start screen, for tablets/phones it will be great, for desktop and laptops without a touchscreen not so much. With any of the free apps that adds the Start button back, it hides the new Start screen so you have to hold Shift+Windows to get to it. Makes the regular W8 desktop feel like W7 just lighter on RAM usage.

My .02.

I can confirm the RAM usage, I dropped about 450Mb ram off my usual average. That is the one thing, the start screen just is not a good fit with a PC. They really need to come up with a classic interface for non-touch devices.

I do like the new task manager... Gives more in depth information without having to use the performance monitor.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

I am told that the new windows 8 is great for anyone that has a xbox also, I guess it has features that lets you stream to your xbox easily etc.

 

[ItsOnVoy]

well I installed windows 8 on my computer, deff like it. Its smooth and features are nice!!

 

[Bartonmd]

I may have to try that out. I have a 10" windows 7 tablet and it loads up pretty bad with just running IE and stuff.

Mike

 

[ItsOnVoy]

I may have to try that out. I have a 10" windows 7 tablet and it loads up pretty bad with just running IE and stuff.

Mike

8 is pretty much the same thing as 7 but has added features and apps and things like that. I mean I am getting used to it pretty fast. I love having apps and things like that and just hit desktop and you have a windows 7 layout etc. Its nice and I am liking it so far.

 

[ScarabEpic22]

I may have to try that out. I have a 10" windows 7 tablet and it loads up pretty bad with just running IE and stuff.

Mike

This sounds like an ideal Win 8 canidate, I havent switched my personal laptop over yet but my work laptop has had Win 8 for a while. My home domain controller is running Server 2012 right now, works pretty well.

 

[DocBrown]

I'm running 8 on a laptop at work. I've also ran the betas in VMs. The start screen is not as radical as it looks, nor as bad to use as some people make it out to be. It is the Start Menu with square icons and "live" tiles. Learn how to configure it and its not really any different than the old Start Menu. Still, I can understand it being intimidating on the desktop for some people. Under the hood 8 is much better than 7.

 

[Sparky]

The main thing I don't like about the start screen is how it hides most of everything, and in order to see all the rest you have to bump over to the right corner to get the little pop-out menu, hit search, then there is all the rest of the stuff. Seems to be an unnecessary extra step. I guess you could say the start screen is a glorified "pin" section of the older Start menu, but IMO it should have a tile that takes you to "All Programs" without having to go over to the side. I mean really, how many people are going to know or figure out to go to the corner to make that little pop-out side menu appear, and also figure out that hitting the search button will show the entire program list? Seems a little counter intuitive to me.

That said, my impression with just tinkering with it wasn't nearly so maddening as when I was setting up someone's new laptop on a tight schedule. That really ticked me off lol.

I guess I'm not convinced it is better than 7 for anything on a standard desktop, but I'm not saying it is the worst thing that has ever happened to a PC either

 

[gmac310]

It seems like every other release of Windows sucks. 95 sucked, 98 was good; ME sucked, XP was good; Vista sucked, 7 was good. You know what that means for 8!

 

[Sparky]

95 wasn't too terrible, and Vista wasn't that bad either (especially after SP1 it was fine). The biggest reason 95 and Vista were perceived as sucking was a lot of older software would not work in them due to the major changes made to the OS. By the time 98 came out programmers had adjusted, so everything was rosy. XP would run most 98 programs still, but a big reason why XP was better off from the getgo on application support was Windows 2000 came between ME and XP, and XP was based off of 2000. A lot of home users hadn't gone to 2000 as it was more of a corporate OS than anything, but it got the programmers moving. XP was around then for YEARS, then Vista came out and boom, same issues as from 3.1 to 95. Different programming again, particularly around the UAC (which was a little overbearing on its implementation). Windows 7 came out a few years afterward, when programmers were again acclimated to the OS differences.

Most existing 95/98 programs ran fine under ME but, well, the OS still totally sucked no matter which way you cut it lol. Horribly unstable and clunky. It was dubbed "Migraine Edition" for a reason

I'm not saying that 95 and Vista didn't have their problems (they did, 95 had a relatively unstable registry for example) but they weren't anywhere near as bad as ME and were still functional OSes over all (especially after SP1 for Vista).

Windows 8 is on a similar foundation as Vista and 7, so most existing programs should have no problem. I'm still skeptical on its new interface to a point, but, we'll see.

 

[eutechnyx]

also while in the windows UI u can hit windows key and x and it will bring up a decent list of commonly accessed features,control panel etc. and while in the tiles screen u can just type anything and it starts searching for it.