I've been avoiding most of the tech blogs when it comes to Windows 8, as I've been waiting to try it for myself and not be clouded by what others think of it.
Installed two days ago on my Laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1764 (Core i3 330M, 4Gb Ram, 500Gb Hdd and Intel HD Graphics)
It's smooth, but any freshly installed OS always is. The first thing that strikes you is how counter productive it is.
This thing is not easy to use at all!
Case in point :
It seems to rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts, if you're not using a touch screen.
First impression is it is a big step up from previous touch enabled Windows builds, but I don't think it's going to take off.
Expect to see more people using Mac's and Linux.
Anyway, starting the transformation...
I've installed ViStart which emulates the Windows 7 start menu with a few tweaks as Start8 brings up a small version of the Metro UI and it just doesn't work.
More to come
I thought you could simply disable the Metro UI and have 'classic' Windows Explorer view?
I will be in absolutely no rush to install Windows 8, I don't see it as innovative at all and the way it looks like it's shaping up is aimed for the smartphone/iphone generation with everything useful being presented in a more and more obscure way. I hate things for the smartphone/iphone generation.
Literally the only thing to have really impressed me so far is pausable/staggered file copying, but I won't be updating Windows just for that.
But won't it follow the hit miss hit cycle of MS OS's? I'm sure i've got the order wrong and missed some but What is it?
H 3.11
M 95
H 98
M 2000
H XP
M VISTA
H 7
You've missed out Me, which I rated highly as a decent gamers OS but everyone else seemed to hate/slate.
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on May 24, 2012, 09:45:07 AM
I thought you could simply disable the Metro UI and have 'classic' Windows Explorer view?
You could on the Developers preview, the Consumer preview has no such luck.
If you disable the Metro UI with a third party tool you lose a lot of the apps that run in Metro Mode. Remote Desktop for example.
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on May 24, 2012, 10:32:13 AM
You've missed out Me, which I rated highly as a decent gamers OS but everyone else seemed to hate/slate.
and se
98 was crap 98se was good
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2
Quote from: zpyder on May 24, 2012, 10:21:47 AM
But won't it follow the hit miss hit cycle of MS OS's? I'm sure i've got the order wrong and missed some but What is it?
H 3.11
M 95
H 98
M 2000
H XP
M VISTA
H 7
95h
98m
98SE h
me m
w2k m
xp h
vista m
7 h
Win 2k was rock solid, built on NT. What was wrong with it?
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on May 24, 2012, 23:17:17 PM
Win 2k was rock solid, built on NT. What was wrong with it?
XP came no ME was in betwix but 2k was not intended for home use. it is still, NT 5.x or something, now isn't it ? wait no w7 has NT 6.1 and 8 has NT 6.2 kernel :)
I used Win2k for a good few years it was slightly faster than XP and used less resource, drivers where an issue to start with as performance parts manufactures didn't do drivers for the OS as it was considered just for office use, but after XP came out that stopped being an issue due to the fact you could use the XP drivers on it with little issues.
Didn't stop using it until XP 64 came out which was slightly faster.
Quote from: soopahfly on May 24, 2012, 11:27:15 AM
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on May 24, 2012, 09:45:07 AM
I thought you could simply disable the Metro UI and have 'classic' Windows Explorer view?
You could on the Developers preview, the Consumer preview has no such luck.
If you disable the Metro UI with a third party tool you lose a lot of the apps that run in Metro Mode. Remote Desktop for example.
I certainly tried my best in the Consumer Preview without success.
If anyone thinks that the video isn't realistic that is exactly the initial problem I had, except for me it was the opposite, I knew about the corner click and then got stuck in the apps. Finding out how to switch the F**king thing off was a right pain, I only managed that by accident.
I certainly can see some advantages with Win 8 if you have a touch screen. Without it I found that Win 7 was actually easier to use. Some bits were particularly unintuitive and initially it was far too easy to get stuck in the Apps. The absence of a start button and X close buttons is going to confuse a lot of users.
w2k had lots of software compatibility problems.
Wasnt really usable as a home/allround pc. lots of games n stuff wouldt run on it.
Not really the OS fault, but it failed to take off - hence miss
Fair points on Win2k guys, I used it for a few years and even gamed on it but you're right there were some with lack of driver support, but I do remember how rock solid it was compared to the home OSes. For those it was suitable for it was what all the other OSes should be :ptu:
There is absolutely not a chance in hell we'll be rolling this out at work until we absolutely have to - and we always try to stick with the latest and greatest. But if you think thats bad try Server 8 which has adopted the same 'social' feel as Windows - its a server for gods sake!! MS have come on leaps and bounds in their tech recently - and I genuinely believe the new features in HyperV on Server 8 are going to set the virtual world on fire, but from what I've seen so far they're missing the goalposts big time on the OS part.
In conjunction with how good OSX is and getting better all the time (IMO before the flaming starts..) I can see a lot more people jumping ship like I did.
Quote from: Rivkid on May 25, 2012, 21:23:00 PM
There is absolutely not a chance in hell we'll be rolling this out at work until we absolutely have to - and we always try to stick with the latest and greatest. But if you think thats bad try Server 8 which has adopted the same 'social' feel as Windows - its a server for gods sake!! MS have come on leaps and bounds in their tech recently - and I genuinely believe the new features in HyperV on Server 8 are going to set the virtual world on fire, but from what I've seen so far they're missing the goalposts big time on the OS part.
In conjunction with how good OSX is and getting better all the time (IMO before the flaming starts..) I can see a lot more people jumping ship like I did.
I'm tempted, but I'm not paying apples over inflated price for hardware.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2
Win2K was NT5, it was rock solid but never intended for home use. I ran it for a while because it supported dual CPUs and 98SE didn't. It ran anything intended for Win32 pretty much fine, older stuff presented compatibility problems.
What I find amusing is that people don't realise that xp only came out about 6 months after win2k
Everyone thinks it came out with win2k3.
XP is over a decade old now. :)
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2
I installed the customer preview on my netbook and really hated it, on a tab yer it may work but to get that they have made it horrible to use with a keyboard and mouse :/
Could use my 360 controller on it I suppose :P
So the gist of it is that the Consumer preview is a big load of balls, the developers one was alright because you could switch off Metro, which means really no one is going to know if the final product is actually any good until it becomes downloadable? :yarr:
Very true. Hopefully the Metro UI will be reserved for touchscreen users and a stock desktop interface for the rest of us.
It wouldn't surprise me if the stock Windows UI wasn't massively different to the current Windows 7....Aero excluded.
That said, I'm bored now of Windows 8. It's not "doing anything" for me.
I'm going to play with Ubuntu 12.04
Loving how you can use the net while it's installing :D
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on May 27, 2012, 23:12:05 PM
So the gist of it is that the Consumer preview is a big load of balls, the developers one was alright because you could switch off Metro, which means really no one is going to know if the final product is actually any good until it becomes downloadable? :yarr:
Roughly, yes :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown:
They took the Aero interface, which was entirely adequate for a desktop, and created a new Metro one for pads. These would have been good, if kept separate...
Unfortunately they removed the Start button from the standard Windows interface and attempted to patch on Metro as some form of replacement - the result is something like a cows body that has a dragon's head tacked on, swan's legs and elephant's ears. The head always coughs smoke to confuse you while the tail produces poisonous burning sh*t.
Metro isn't good on a desktop, the apps are all meh and you can only have 2 visible at a time. I use a PC with multiple apps running, and quite often I want three or four of them visible on screen.
(http://i.imgur.com/3mF7a.jpg)
Got Windows 8 installed on my second PC. Quite simply, I hate it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOQ8IRVp2qs
Quote from: bear on July 02, 2012, 01:30:40 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOQ8IRVp2qs
They removed the ability to do that in the recent releases.
Indeed wouldn't be so bad if you could still do that. Stupid decision by M$
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
Looks Like Microshaft is trying to improve on its Windows Vista (A view of the sewage works edition) disaster by following it with Windaz 8 (Hard to swallow tablet edition) :thumbdown:
Do they ever learn? ???
I will add this here rather than starting a new thread...
Quote
Valve boss Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a 'catastrophe'
Operating system Windows 8 will be a "catastrophe" for PC game makers, according to Valve Software's boss.
Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle, Gabe Newell said the next version of Windows could mean big changes to the PC market.
Many took his comment as a criticism of the changed user interface in Windows 8 as well as its built-in Windows Store.
The Windows Store could dent the success of Valve's own online market, Steam, through which players buy games.
Hat tricks
Mr Newell, who worked for Microsoft for 13 years on Windows, said his company had embraced the open-source software Linux as a "hedging strategy" designed to offset some of the damage Windows 8 was likely to do.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18996377
Some personal interest but still relevant.
I can't see anyone actually wanting to upgrade tbh. I mean what is Windows 8 bringing to the table that Windows 7 doesn't other than some too cool for school touch bollocks no one wanted or asked for? What will be new and improved is sweet F.A as far as I can see other than a few snappy explorer changes like multiple & pausable file copying dialogues. The fact that they are buggering the OS overall means I will not push for a copy as I did with Windows 7, and my recent shafting over memory support with Win7 is leading me even further down the f**k giving them a chance route.
This is this decades Windows Me (and I still rate Me FWIW)
I know of people already talking about upgrading, the masses won't actually know whats in store for them, its just another case of keeping up with the Joneses for most that are not knowledgable enough to make their own decision.
Quote from: Bacon on July 27, 2012, 08:19:02 AM
I know of people already talking about upgrading, the masses won't actually know whats in store for them, its just another case of keeping up with the Joneses for most that are not knowledgable enough to make their own decision.
Surely anyone like that is more likely going to be the sort that buy a new computer and happen to have Windows 8 preinstalled (or buy one on the premise of getting the newest Windows)? No one of even the remotest technical knowledge to do an upgrade themselves or that keeps tabs on this sort of thing would upgrade out of choice. :lol:
QuoteMojang's Markus "Notch" Persson is the latest industry heavyweight to speak out against Windows 8, stating in a Reddit AMA that Microsoft's new OS will be a hindrance to freedom of development.
More info @ The Verge (http://www.theverge.com/gaming/2012/8/2/3212486/notch-window-8-is-very-very-for-indie-games)
I'd be tempted by a mac next, however... I'm not a raving homosexual.
Quote from: soopahfly on August 03, 2012, 08:46:12 AM
I'd be tempted by a mac next, however... I'm not a raving homosexual.
Hahahaha. Mac just wouldn't work for me, I use my M$ work laptop for 'productive' stuff, Tablet for media consumption, so the only thing left for my PC to do is play games via steam. Now I know things are getting better for Mac with steamplay but still not everything.
Value pushing their linux team after making the win8 is crap annoucment (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/2/3214980/valves-source-engine-linux-opengl-direct3d) - Would only be for source games though :P
Oh and 1 day after Microsoft make an annoucment that Windows 8 dev cycle has finished a final copy of windows 8 N appears online (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/2/3216103/windows-8-download-leak-enterprise-n) - Gota love it when these things happen so fast every time... its almost as if they do it on purpose :P
Windows 7 will still be supported until Windows 9 comes out tbh, there is absolutely no point in anyone rushing out to grab the new OS as it offers nothing drastically new even in terms of hardware support. Other than touch. Anyone that uses a desktop PC for productivity will not be interested in touch anyway. Games and everything else will have a long life on Windows 7. I think MS made a boo-boo rushing this out, they should have released their next OS in 2015 and made it really sing.
I can understand them wanting to get a touch based OS out ASAP with tablets becoming a big thing however they should of seperated them imo. Ah well its done, I'm not interested in having Win 8 on my home PC, I can't have it on my work PC, it has no use on my media server but if I can get it working 100% on my Transformer (waiting on XDA to get it working on the Tegra 2 chipset) then I will happily have a play ;)
Quote from: soopahfly on August 03, 2012, 08:46:12 AM
I'd be tempted by a mac next, however... I'm not a raving homosexual.
Come on... 5 years ago called, it wants it's argument back....
I used to be the most anti apple person in the world, but I went mac after playing with a hackintosh for kicks and just being blown away by it. I haven't looked back. I've got win7 on boot camp on my MacBook Pro for the odd game but rarely use it and I wouldn't think of booting it for anything else. Each OSX release just keeps getting better and better and it costs me like £20 to upgrade. I'd never say never to MS because I'm not a 'fanboy' and if they pull something out of the bag I'll go with what's best, but I can't see it happening anytime soon as they just can't compete at the minute for a home user OS. We're actually getting hammered at work by the enterprise tech teams to support mac and despite resistance from management it is slowly happening. It's not just a flashy image and good marketing that's causing that....
*shudder* I remember having to intergrate 60 Macs into a windows network. AD & DFS being in the biggest hurdles due to 10.0 and 10.1 not knowing what either of them were so not playing nice. Stupid bodges of having to manual point to OU's over LDAP and all that crap.
These days its meant to be much better if you do have to go that route :)
I've ran Windows, Linux and Mac OS X in parallel for over 10 years now.... if not more.
Windows, as much as people want to slate it is OK.
It's functional. But for me, nothing more.
It works with every peripheral and piece of software you want, because of it's market share, which what makes it what it is, but i've always find it to anaemic - it has SO MUCH bloat and pap in there you don't need; it also feels really flakey and lacks the polish and slickness of Mac OS X and Linux and despite it's size and all the development that goes in to it, it still lacks the key ingredients and features which make Linux and definitely Mac OS X so good.
I learned my lesson after Vista and 7 - i won't be bothering with Windows again.... FWIW i thought XP was and still is a brilliant OS - it ran like clockwork back in the day, when i was using a seriously under-powered piece of kit.
Meh.
Quote from: Badabing on August 03, 2012, 11:32:10 AM
I've ran Windows, Linux and Mac OS X in parallel for over 10 years now.... if not more.
Windows, as much as people want to slate it is OK.
It's functional. But for me, nothing more.
It works with every peripheral and piece of software you want, because of it's market share, which what makes it what it is, but i've always find it to anaemic - it has SO MUCH bloat and pap in there you don't need; it also feels really flakey and lacks the polish and slickness of Mac OS X and Linux and despite it's size and all the development that goes in to it, it still lacks the key ingredients and features which make Linux and definitely Mac OS X so good.
I learned my lesson after Vista and 7 - i won't be bothering with Windows again.... FWIW i thought XP was and still is a brilliant OS - it ran like clockwork back in the day, when i was using a seriously under-powered piece of kit.
Meh.
Apple is the new Microsoft, OSX is the new windows.
That said, apple products are extremely well polished. (typed on an ipad3 :))
If I had the means I pobably by an mac lap I like my brothers new one thin, magnetic powercord etc. it is idiot proof but Ubuntu linux works great is free, has fast updates and does all I need and k3b burner is the best I tried :D
Quote from: bear on August 03, 2012, 23:06:55 PM
If I had the means I pobably by an mac lap I like my brothers new one thin, magnetic powercord etc. it is idiot proof but Ubuntu linux works great is free, has fast updates and does all I need and k3b burner is the best I tried :D
you could build a very nice PC, with analogous spec' to a Mac' [desktop] and stick Ubuntu on it, even play around with the aesthetic properties of the desktop and it would be very close to a Mac in terms of experience and performance.... the only thing is, i really love my Mac laptop, but there are ways to replicate what the Mac provides in some situations.
Quote from: Badabing on August 04, 2012, 17:49:03 PM
Quote from: bear on August 03, 2012, 23:06:55 PM
If I had the means I pobably by an mac lap I like my brothers new one thin, magnetic powercord etc. it is idiot proof but Ubuntu linux works great is free, has fast updates and does all I need and k3b burner is the best I tried :D
you could build a very nice PC, with analogous spec' to a Mac' [desktop] and stick Ubuntu on it, even play around with the aesthetic properties of the desktop and it would be very close to a Mac in terms of experience and performance.... the only thing is, i really love my Mac laptop, but there are ways to replicate what the Mac provides in some situations.
Yes, the 12.04 Ubuntu is quite maclike :) and there is macbuntu :)
Quote from: bear on August 04, 2012, 19:18:21 PM
Quote from: Badabing on August 04, 2012, 17:49:03 PM
Quote from: bear on August 03, 2012, 23:06:55 PM
If I had the means I pobably by an mac lap I like my brothers new one thin, magnetic powercord etc. it is idiot proof but Ubuntu linux works great is free, has fast updates and does all I need and k3b burner is the best I tried :D
you could build a very nice PC, with analogous spec' to a Mac' [desktop] and stick Ubuntu on it, even play around with the aesthetic properties of the desktop and it would be very close to a Mac in terms of experience and performance.... the only thing is, i really love my Mac laptop, but there are ways to replicate what the Mac provides in some situations.
Yes, the 12.04 Ubuntu is quite maclike :) and there is macbuntu :)
Macbuntu looks good, but with Linux you could create something as good looking with your own style.....KDE/Gnome has some nice effects and styles....
Back onto Windows 8, anyone bothered getting hold of the release version and given it a try?
Bit of a hands on: http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/15/3243464/windows-8-rtm-final-build-hands-on
This is the crucial paragraph really for most users, but isn't explained very well:
QuoteIf you were hoping to see some additional changes on the desktop to better suit keyboard and mouse users then you're out of luck. Most of these improvements arrived with Release Preview, and Microsoft has done nothing here to answer a number of criticisms facing its new Start Screen interface. On a multiple monitor setup you're still restricted to running Windows 8 style apps on one screen, and activating the new Start Screen without the Windows key is still a little tricky using the hot corners. Windows 8 still boots into the new Start Screen interface, and a number of functions (like playing audio or video) will throw you into the Windows 8 style interface instead of allowing you to stay in the desktop mode. If you're a WIndows 7 desktop fan then you're never going to avoid the new interface in Windows 8, but there are ways to change default app behavior to limit its use.
Comments seem to vary from it being amazing and perfectly productive in desktop mode, to people complaining about not being able to totally escape the Metro UI.
Indeed its the comments that are the most interesting thing of that article. Some people seem to of been able to adjust to it quick easily while others are a flat out no use.
Once its been out for a bit I will give it another go and with the 1st Windows RT surface tab coming out at a rumored $199 (http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/14/microsoft-surface-199/) I may be tempted :P
Dangerous game from MS that is - undercutting its OEM partners one one specific product line. That said what else are Acer going to install on their laptops - Ubuntu?!
I'd be tempted to pick one up at that price possibly - for Plex if nothing else.
Acer already have outspoken (basically moaned) about Microsoft basically undercutting them, HP went 'meh' and Lenovo said they will just make better quality products and will be fine.
And now we can all happily use Windows 8...
Classic Shell gives Windows 8 a Start Button (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/23/classic_shell_gives_windows_8_a_start_button/)
(http://regmedia.co.uk/2012/08/23/classic_shell_options.jpg)
Quote from: Leon on August 23, 2012, 10:43:39 AM
And now we can all happily use Windows 8...
corrected....
Well you may have a point there, it doesn't make it happy, just makes it usable :P
So thanks to the volume license portal my work lappy is now evalutating Windows 8. Can't believe I'm saying this - really like it!! Its fast as hell, within an hour I'm pretty much familiar with the layout and how to get to everything and it just feels nice. Everything works although I needed a reg hack for the Cisco VPN client but other than that faultless. Time will tell how it pans out but first impressions are really good - massive improvement from the early version I tried.
What's the crack with drivers support on Windows 8, I take it 99% of Windows 7 drivers will work without issue?
For those wondering (like I was) apparently the stupid RAM memory limit restrictions of older Windows versions are now a respectable 128GB or 512GB depending on what version you use.
Quote from: Clock'd 0Ne on October 26, 2012, 23:05:57 PM
What's the crack with drivers support on Windows 8, I take it 99% of Windows 7 drivers will work without issue?
For those wondering (like I was) apparently the stupid RAM memory limit restrictions of older Windows versions are now a respectable 128GB or 512GB depending on what version you use.
Not sure TBH - almost everything was working out of the box and on top of that I'm using a Dell 6430 which has official Windows 8 x64 drivers on the website. I've just finished installing my work apps (vSphere, OCS, CuciMoc, Office etc..) and its all working fine. Some lovely simple stuff too - like double clicking an ISO just mounts it and it works. Simple - but being integrated into the OS its a lot nicer to use than things like demontools, Magicdisc etc.. I'm sure as well that I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Looking forward to moving to server 12 too - virtual machine replication, de-duplicated file shares and HA DHCP! Superb!
Those are the things you don't really hear about that actually show might have a ton of improvements over Win7, its the little things like that which I'm looking forward to seeing the most.
I think I'll pick up a windows 8 phone soon and see how I get on with it that way first. I really like the look of the new HTC windows phones.
My computer is well overdue and format and ram & ssd upgrade so if I like it I'll get it on the PC.
Quote from: DEViANCE on October 27, 2012, 10:12:44 AM
I think I'll pick up a windows 8 phone soon and see how I get on with it that way first. I really like the look of the new HTC windows phones.
My computer is well overdue and format and ram & ssd upgrade so if I like it I'll get it on the PC.
How about Nokias Lumina ? with windows 8, I myself have an N9 with MeGoo and like it a lot but it would be even nicer to run MeGoo on a Lumina as it has a better cpu :) the Lumina 920 has better hardware than an iPhone 5 :D
Here (http://www.popherald.com/20121027_samsung_galaxy_s3_vs_iphone_5_vs_nokia_lumia_920_unlocked_price_features-20355)
Quote from: bear on October 27, 2012, 10:59:25 AM
Quote from: DEViANCE on October 27, 2012, 10:12:44 AM
I think I'll pick up a windows 8 phone soon and see how I get on with it that way first. I really like the look of the new HTC windows phones.
My computer is well overdue and format and ram & ssd upgrade so if I like it I'll get it on the PC.
How about Nokias Lumina ? with windows 8, I myself have an N9 with MeGoo and like it a lot but it would be even nicer to run MeGoo on a Lumina as it has a better cpu :) the Lumina 920 has better hardware than an iPhone 5 :D
Here (http://www.popherald.com/20121027_samsung_galaxy_s3_vs_iphone_5_vs_nokia_lumia_920_unlocked_price_features-20355)
I've got a Sammy Galaxy SIII as my main phone so pretty much top spec hardware wise, till the HTC OneX+ comes out but you can pick up the HTC 8S for £200 in blue which looks smart and has a good enough spec for me to get a taste for Windows 8.
(http://www.htc.com/managed-assets/smartphones/htc-wp-8s/marquee/HTC-WP-8S-2V-blue.png)
The Nokias are nice, powerfull phones but a little plain for my liking.
Ok so is anybody actually using windows 8? looking to get a new laptop (without touch screen) and I assume I'm better off with windows 7?
I use it on an Acer W500, its decent on touchscreen but I'm pretty sure metro would be infuriating without any touch controls.
Windows 7 would be perfectly fine I think.
Main problem I'm seeing is that they all now ship with 8!! >:(
It's bloody diabolical, I installed it yesterday and reinstalled Windows 7 today.
Metro & permissions drove me to insanity. It's just not worth the hassle!
Dull static grids of icons that don't offer any at a glance info, buggy software and betas, overpriced software and accessories.
Yay windows