What are your thoughts about moving to Windows 8?

I am concerned because most of the time I use a desktop with a mouse attached. The reviews I have heard say that this operating system was primarily designed for and works best with touch screens. That using a mouse is complicated and not all apps and web sites work with it.

I use my computer for work, and I can’t afford a buggy operating system.

Next january, Microsoft, as i read anyway, is going to offer a $39 upgrade from windows xpsp3 to Windows8-as long as your system has the hardware qualifications. I doubt they are making much money on that deal. The currently have in place until February of next year, a $15 upgrade from Windows7— also hardly a money machine.

The OS was designed with both laptops & touch sceen units in mind. It works equally well on either. This is probably the greatest offering from Microsoft since Windows95.

This is a new ball game folks, and Microsoft has finally gathered up the muster to step up to home plate as the clean-up batter.

I still use XP Pro sp3 at work. I doubt my machine would have the requirements to run a newer OS. I’ve used Win 7 on other machines at work, and it’s not too bad; but I like the stability of XP. I have little interest in 8, but I’ll be curious to see how it – and the Surface – are received.

We have one MS-PC at home that has Vista. We inherited that with the house, as it runs the built-in projection TV system. We plan to upgrade that eventually, but we hardly watch TV, and Vista is acceptable for streaming NetFlix or movies from Amazon or iTunes.

@alluseek Microsoft are offering that from today until next January (ish) for any machine running windows that meets the requirements. The $15 upgrade is only for people who bought their windows 7 pc since June (still have the receipt).

Having used it on a desktop PC I have to say I wasn’t too taken with it. The start menu with its big boxes designed for touch screens doesn’t really gel with the old style windows desktop. The new style apps were nice but didn’t really suit being displayed on large desktop screen. Their probably great on a tablet or viewed on the TV from a distance but didn’t work for me as desktop apps.

I am not going to. Metro UI is an abomination and win8 is the biggest pile of dung since Win ME.

…. and win8 is the biggest pile of dung since Win ME.

Yes, Win ME was for certain a big pile of dung. This you are correct on. Nothing else are you.

Sounds like it’s pointless unless you have a tablet. So I’ll give it a pass. I’m looking forward to the next OS, in which presumably they will have fixed some of the things they broke in 7.

@alluseek
You are not fooling anyone, Mister Ballmer.

@ragingloli Hilarious!

I tried Windows 8 for a couple of days and hated the metro interface.

I don’t plan to upgrade, I haven’t read of any advantages over Windows 7 (which I like quite a bit).

I’m not particularly interested as of now. I was going to partition my home computer and run the 8 beta to get a taste like I did with 7, but i never got around to it (unless the RC is still around to be run? Anyone know?). Currently I’m pretty well satisfied with 7, though, and I’ve not seen anything to convince me to upgrade yet.

Like adding yet another set of flame decals to a Geo Metro tacorocket.

It just doesn’t seem that practical for a non-touch interface. If I ever get a tablet or tablet-hybrid running Windows, then I would want it to use Windows 8. But I don’t think I’ll be switching my PC laptop to Windows 8 anytime soon…

I’ve only just moved to Windows 7, good enough for me.

Thanks, all. I’ve got enough trouble already getting some specific apps used only for Web development on Yahoo! Store platform to run in Windows 7. The smallest screen I use is my laptop’s 15.6” display. On the desktop, I hook up a full sized ergonomic keyboard and 24” monitor. A UI designed for a hand-held display is of Zero interest to me except for true hand-held devices, which I don’t use for development anyway. They’re for sending emails, text messages, and mapping/GPS only. So I think I’ll stay with 7 till Microsoft develops something better targeted for the desktop.

I do not like 8, Sam I Am, even with green eggs and ham. They had a laptop set up with 8 on display at work. It looks like it should still do all of the usual Windows things, but the mouse input was weird and the GUI was clunky.

I also don’t like their desperation to ape the iOS. This is Windows, for crying out loud! The one with the windows.

For what it’s worth, I’m using XP, and plan to install 7 on my next machine.

@Nullo: You mean the “windows” that were nearly identical to the original MacIntosh OS (the GUI originally developed at Xerox, and pirated by Jobs and Woz)? MS has been playing OS catch-up since DOS got left behind.

@hearkat I do indeed. Windows is a product with an obvious name. It was called Windows because it has windows. Windowed folders and applications are the core of the Windows desktop environment.
I began understanding that different operating systems could and in fact did develop at the same time in the late 1990s, the time of the iMac Renaissance; I wasn’t around to endure Microsoft’s painful mimicry that time. Up until then I had only ever seen the technology upgraded. We were up to Windows 98 before I really grokked the concept of parallel software development.

I agree with Nullo (and this is about iOS, not Mac OS desktop software).

Windows 8 Metro is very much like iOS – it’s a point-and-click interface designed for consuming content. It’s designed to sell you advertising or lead you to buy music/movies/whatever.

It sucks when you want to use a keyboard and actually CREATE content.

@jaytkay I didn’t try the content-creation part; what’s lacking?

@Nullo
I mean that tablets and phone interfaces are all about leading the consumer to do whatever some app wants – mainly buying something or staring at advertising.

They aren’t very good when you actually want to get some work done.

@jaytkay

Windows 8 “Metro” is not like iOS

It’s SIMPLY NOT a part of Microsoft’s makeup.

It certainly sounds like it’s not a part of my makeup either. I’ll stick with 7.

I know this is an old question but I was browsing through past days and saw it and thought I should try to spread a bit of love here… sorry it wound up being so long. I’m feeling verbose tonight, I guess.

I plan to upgrade. I love the metro interface on my phone—it’s quite intuitive. Mostly, I want the improved pen input—windows 8 pro has digitizer input functionality. A tiny nib, an eraser on the other end, and OneNote with improved inking waiting for me. I really want to be be able to take notes electronically in class. I’ve used a couple windows 8 tablets with the pen input, it’s quite nice, actually feels like a really smooth pen. Bring on the tablet!!

If my current laptop weren’t in the process of dying, I might hold off. I agree that it’s not necessary to switch from 7 to 8 if your hardware remains the same, but not because 8 is ineffective or ineffecient; just because the much of the 8 interface isn’t that different, 7 still works well, and I tend to delay purchases in general.

I had the beta version of 8 on my computer for a while, and actually, it ran smoother and faster. Also, once I learned the hotkeys, I moved around 8’s OS faster: my fingers rarely needed to leave the keyboard to use the mousepad. I wound up reinstalling my old version of Windows for two reasons—first was that iCloud refused to load (I do have an iPad). That being my only way to move files off the iPad, I needed it. iCloud’s site was literally the only one, I have no idea what its stinginess was about; second, I would have to reinstall 7 anyway, because the beta would expire, and you wouldn’t get the upgrade-deal with the beta if you wanted it.

The major differences:
– You have the metro start screen instead of a start button. Some people whine about this, I’m not sure why, it’s really not a difficult concept. Getting the 8’s pro version, you have a desktop mode for legacy applications, so it really does just feel like a menu. Some people think this is “jarring”, whatever. I’m glad they’ve left a space for old software to still work as the environment changes.
– The metro apps fill the screen like perpetually having pressed F11. This concerned my open-ten-windows self, until I realized I only actually look at one or two windows at a time anyway despite the comforting stack behind. The way you navigate between the full-screen apps helps with this immensely. Quick flicking/buttons flips you between apps, shows a scrolling list of all open, closes apps, snaps two on the screen, etc.
– You have swipes/corners/hotkeys to reveal actions that used to be found only by moving your mouse around the screen. This is probably the biggest change, that many of the buttons and actions are now slightly tucked away. It keeps the screen tidier and the interaction smoother so long as you remember that all the actions still are there, just not all staring you down at once.

As for the feared loss of productivity, I understand this. Brings me back to my iPad, actually: it was a grad gift to use for school, and it’s now mostly just an expensive but lightweight collection of textbooks, with too many notetaking apps. Other than save my back quite a lot of weight, it doesn’t do anything very functional. And so it’s this weird device that I don’t otherwise need, it’s just a lot of media and consumption, a strange new definition of the term ‘tablet’. Whether or not you personally like their implementation, Microsoft’s concept behind windows 8 was that tablet can be function, that it should be function. I know someone who works for Microsoft. The company has already (quietly) given all their employees new windows 8 machines to work from, so they clearly believe they’ve produced a productive interface. I asked the person, if he was able to work from the new software. He said he took a day to learn the new parts of the UI, and that was that. He still does everything he used to, and says that he’s faster than he had been, which is saying something. Plus, many of the additions are fun and useful. The picture password, for example.

But then, I’m one of those few people in the world to have a zune. I love the thing. Its build quality is the reason I’m waiting for the Surface Pro release.

Prediction:

A pathetic, ugly, clumsy Apple ripoff.

@DancingMind Thanks for the depth of coverage. I very much appreciate the insight.

@Crashsequence2012 Microsoft began its life with MS-DOS, which was just a tweak of QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Word Perfect was the model for Microsoft Word. Microsoft isn’t famous for cutting edge innovation. Excel for Apple may be the one exception.

Windows:

The whole thing makes me sad.

Still, I would always choose windows over anything made by CrApple.

Your “better for gaming” excuse becomes less relevant every day.

You say CrApple: Tell us how Apple is lacking in quality of any kind?

It is mainly about the slave labour at FoxConn.
But in addition to that, their “design” is stagnant and boring, their OS is locked down to users and wide open to attackers, their quicktime player is a bloated piece of shit, they are more litigious than Rambus, as demonstrated by their recent lawsuit against Samsung for their alleged monopoly on rounded rectangles, and their claim to being an innovator is a brazen lie. All their products are derivatives of other products.

@Crashsequence2012 I’m sure if the unemployed of America would work 90 hour weeks for $300 a month then Apple wouldn’t be getting kids in china to build their phones.

@Crashsequence2012 I’ve got to say that @ragingloli has a point. Possibly $300/90hr is a decent wage in China, I don’t know. But Apple is notoriously proprietary.

@Nullo

Whatever is required to bring me excellence at the lowest price possible.

@Nullo
They have been committing suicide because it is not a decent wage.

@ragingloli

One documented case showing a direct connection between a suicide and pay rate.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/12/chinese-foxconn-workers-threaten-mass-suicide-over-xbox-pay-dispute/

@ragingloli I would have thought that just the 90hrs/week would be enough for the suicide.

[mod says] Let’s get back to the actual topic, folks. And please…no personal attacks!

@augustlan Yes! I mean, really…

It’s my question, and I had to go back up and reread it to see what the “topic” originally was. :D