[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Windows 8: Which Version Should You Choose? here

[TravisSichel]

Totally agree 100% on cutting through the crap and only selling Windows 7 Ultimate.

[JacobLandau]

No, cut the crap, learn unix, and write your own OS.

[StephenMcAteerJrf0gs]

Yea, like having so many different product choice really hurt the sales of Windows 7.. it was such a flop because of that.

[CraigEngbrecht]

JacobLandau, on 17 April 2012 - 03:56 PM, said:

No, cut the crap, learn unix, and write your own OS.

I use linux servers, and most people are not willing to deal with the complexities of most linux Distro's yet. Suck it up and add some real comments to this post.
Windows 8 in my mind would only be cool if they made it low cost(140-175 range) and made the app based setup an option, for example maybe only on touch interfaces, or people that prefer it, most I don't think would want to use a completely new setup?

[Sensi23]

Most of the pro features you mention requires specific hardware (TPM chip, CPU supporting virtualization, etc), so if the latter is not present on the PC sold with windows -as most people don't build their own- these features would more or less add to the bloat if not mislead the consumer.

[JamesHollowell93xm]

CraigEngbrecht, on 17 April 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

Windows 8 in my mind would only be cool if they made it low cost(140-175 range) and made the app based setup an option, for example maybe only on touch interfaces, or people that prefer it, most I don't think would want to use a completely new setup?

Amen! I think I would love the new interface if I had a touchscreen, but as it stands now, it plain sucks to use Win8 on a Desktop or Laptop.

[daniel142005]

JamesHollowell93xm, on 17 April 2012 - 04:53 PM, said:

CraigEngbrecht, on 17 April 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

Windows 8 in my mind would only be cool if they made it low cost(140-175 range) and made the app based setup an option, for example maybe only on touch interfaces, or people that prefer it, most I don't think would want to use a completely new setup?

Amen! I think I would love the new interface if I had a touchscreen, but as it stands now, it plain sucks to use Win8 on a Desktop or Laptop.

Using the mouse alone, maybe. Learn the keyboard shortcuts and the experience improves greatly.

[Fatesrider]

Here's the version of windows you should choose: The one you already have.

Here's what will happen to most people: The computer they already have will die and they'll buy a new one which will come with some version of Windows whether they want it or not.

What the tech industry CONSTANTLY fails to take into account is social inertia and prior sales. Almost all of those who are going to buy computers have already done so. They already have an operating system with which they have some familiarity. Most of them are Windows PC's (Sorry Mac and Linux fans, them's the facts).

People do NOT like change in general. The technophobes far outnumber the technophiles, but it's the technophiles out here on the relevant sites calling the latest junk to come from the tech industry "great"! Most people just want to get their computing tasks done without pulling out their hair due to the incessant changes in programs and platforms.

Apple has the idea of selling the "experience" (though, arguably, that experience is based on a technophile's point of view and less on the point of view of the average computer user - who uses a PC), but once someone gets used to doing things, THEY DON'T WANT TO CHANGE IT. To them, it's a pain in the ass to have to adapt.

The technophiles sneer and scoff and call them noobs, but those average users are the people who will most be USING the tech and SHOULD be the ones dictating what's done. They don't want it to change. The tech industry constantly tries to build a better mousetrap - changing things a LOT in the process.

When the changes are more and more radical, people resist adopting those changes even more. This means that though there will be many early adopters of the new OS, they will NOT be flocking to it anytime soon.

[ddaley]

So glad I don't have to use Windows any more... That looks awful. Running FreeBSD with XFCE at home and work.

[artzy65]

Fatesrider, on 17 April 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

Most of them are Windows PC's (Sorry Mac and Linux fans, them's the facts).

We Mac users don't worry about that... or confusing, bloated, nonsensical OS upgrades.

This post has been edited by artzy65: 17 April 2012 - 07:20 PM

[WinTard]

I've used both Windows 8 Developer Preview (DP) and Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP) for quite a while now.

I must say that I LOVE Windows 8!

Why?

Well, when I started using Windows 7 Ultimate (beta) back in January 2009, I was blown away, and have been an early adopter of Windows 7 ever since. Even though my favorite OS is still the one and only Real-Time QNX.

The first impression Windows 8 DP left me somewhat cold...? The only nice thing I discovered was that it is more efficient than Windows 7.

I have a Dell Duo that came preloaded (including multi-touch screen functionality) with Windows 7. Since that machine is Intel Atom based, it lacks CPU power but is battery friendly.

Almost as underpowered as any 32-bit ARM CPU all the way to ARM Cortex-A15 omnipresent in all battery operated mobile devices (due to their low cost). Presumably, the next version of Samsung Galaxy S3 will come with a quad-core CPU ARM Cortex-A15 (in addition to multiple GPU cores). Likewise the next version of Apple iPhone5 would also keep-up with technology, and also use a quad-core CPU ARM Cortex-A15, relabeled Apple A6.

However, when mobility and battery life is concerned, ARM has interesting new hot products just announced today:
http://www.electroni...peed.effciency/
http://i.imgur.com/8hdhu.png

Back to topic, so in the case of the Dell Duo, well it was sluggish under Windows 7 due to the low-power-consumption and also low-computational-power Intel Atom CPU.



That is the first device I tested with Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Well, after a straightforward 12 minute bare-metal OS load from scratch, Windows 8 discovered everything, without requiring any manual searching of drivers. And apparently it ran as smoothly as my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

So now comes the Consumer Preview for Windows 8. Hence I decide to jump in and turn my new Home Theater PC (So much for the Post-PC Era anachronism....) into the vehicle to test this latest Windows 8.

Here are the specifics of the platform:
http://i.imgur.com/7fxTn.png
http://i.imgur.com/cUKKS.png
http://i.imgur.com/XKfvp.png

This is a barebones system from Tiger Direct. Excluding the external eSata 3.0TB 6Gbps Hitachi drive & case and also the Seagate 2TB 5Gbps external USB-3, this system only costs $299 to build. The bare metal OS install only took 10 minutes, found all the device drivers on its own. Under Windows 7 Ultimate, I had to load specific 64-bit drivers that came with the motherboard. Not with Windows 8. That is unnecessary.

Now the system cold boots in exactly six (6) seconds with a chronometer starting at the point after the mobo POST when the display says: Loading OS. The system doesn't need to shutdown and wakes up instantly (when sleeping).

I've loaded a BluRay Disc Writer, and put all essential software without any issues whatsoever. There's a wireless 2.4GHz logitech keyboard / touchpad with a dongle that works up to 30 feet away. I can now view EVERYTHING, from VCD to BD. When I say everything, I mean everything. I have not witnessed a single file type that couldn't play through Media Center or Media Player. Of course, I use the excellent and free shark007 codecs for Windows 8, in 32-bit and also 64-bit versions. I also use VLC 2.0.1, snagit, PowerDVD 12 Ultra, as well as Nero 11 Platinum.

Hm, let's see, CCleaner, Defraggler, Speccy, Recuva, Netflix (via Microsoft Silverlight), Visual Studio, Cygwin, Microsoft Expression, PeerBlock, and the only software so far that gave me some troubles is Microsoft Security Essentials, as it installed and updated properly, until Microsoft sent an update revoking the installation of MSE. Fear not, apparently, Microsoft Defender under Windows 8 is MSE under Windows 7 / Vista / XP.

I've setup the system to abide by the Principle of Least Privilege, and use a regular account and not the administrative super-user ID. User Access Control (UAC) is wonderful and works just like in Windows 7.

All in all, the 'start' button isn't so bad? Think of it as a 'souped-up' Windows 7 start button. To find anything, once focused on the lower left corner of the primary screen (I use extended screens, the Full-HDTV via HDMI being the secondary one continuously displays the traditional 'full desktop' and taskbar) one can type anything, just like the search function in Windows 7 start button. For instance to start a command processor shell, simply type 'cmd' and there it comes, with the offer of pinning it to the start menu, or taskbar. Same goes for everything else.

Everything else is still there for the technical or power-users. Just that cosmetically, things have been rearranged. From my perspective, this (not even beta) Consumer Preview is really solid, and FAST!

Basically, Windows 8 appears to me just as a 'turbocharged' version of Windows 7. Faster, more efficient (ergonomically and technically), and basically, now that I'm getting accustomed to it, I not only like it, but am really starting to enjoy it.

To all the naysayers, be honest with yourself, and give it a serious try, before deciding if you like it or not. But if you never used it, don't knock it prematurely through petty and ignorant prejudice.

Thank you Microsoft for a flawless execution. I am looking forward to the final Windows 8 (and any beta or release candidate that might show up in between).

I am on the record that I will migrate (in my personal home) all my Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 and also from Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit only) RAID secure server to Windows Server 8 due to the new feature of native data deduplication, in addition to a slew of other improvements. But that is another story...

~~~~~~~~~~
People are eternally divided into two classes, the believer, builder, and praiser, and the unbeliever, destroyer and critic.
~ John Ruskin

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean.
~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei

[WinTard]

ddaley, on 17 April 2012 - 06:17 PM, said:

So glad I don't have to use Windows any more... That looks awful. Running FreeBSD with XFCE at home and work.

That's funny, I run FreeBSD and Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Solaris under Hyper-V under Windows.

Even funnier is to run OS X virtualized under Windows.

How easy? Simply Google OS X virtualized vmware virtual pc
http://i.imgur.com/XYygV.png

Ahh, the pleasure of using something MUCH better and much more universally accepted.

Proof?
http://www.netmarket...e.aspx?qprid=10
http://i.imgur.com/mFpLg.png
_________________________________
The rationale behind this post hinges on:

As far as legal precedents concerning this issue of illegality for OS X to be loaded on non-Apple branded hardware, people cannot ignore this US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling:

1984 U.S. Circuit court of Appeals decision held that a software publisher can't require consumers to run an operating system on a specific type of hardware.

The US Supreme court case legal precedent is:
Digidyne Corp. v. Data General Corp., 734 F.2d 1336 (9th Cir 1984), cert denied, 473 U.S. 908 (1985).

__________


DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER (IANAL). For legal advice, consult a lawyer. To understand your fundamental rights, please visit http://eff.org. They are lawyers.


~~~~~~~~~~
It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.
~ C. W. Leadbeater

[RickDobbelmannqbtt]

Some other new features of Windows 8

Look a new Blue Screen Of Death



These will be fun too

http://img802.images...2/9519/woow.png

Still want Windows?

No? Click here

[RickDobbelmannqbtt]

WinTard, on 17 April 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

Proof?
http://www.netmarket...e.aspx?qprid=10
http://i.imgur.com/mFpLg.png
_________________________________

[WinTard]

Oh a bit of fresh news:

http://www.microsoft...7MMSDay1PR.aspx
http://i.imgur.com/NIvNV.png

So my bad. I will migrate to Windows Server 8 Windows Server 2012 via Technet and MSDN.

~~~~~~~~~~
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
~ James Bryant Conant

Fortune has a fickle heart and a short memory.
{Chinese Proverb}

The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.
~ Dee Hock

[WinTard]

RickDobbelmannqbtt, on 17 April 2012 - 10:08 PM, said:

Some other new features of Windows 8

Look a new Blue Screen Of Death



These will be fun too

http://img802.images...2/9519/woow.png

Still want Windows?

No? Click here

I thought this was a Windows 8 thread? But since you insist.

Oh look some perpetual chronic features of Unix / Ubuntu / Linux / OS X... From old to new. They all panic! Mostly due to incompetent system admins or PEBKAC and sub-par hardware.

https://encrypted.go...nic+crash&hl=en
http://i.imgur.com/rddke.png

https://encrypted.go...biw=697&bih=668
http://i.imgur.com/gROzv.png

And speaking of recent vulnerabilities searching for Ubuntu:
http://web.nvd.nist....ype=all&cves=on
http://i.imgur.com/2UiO9.png

Ironic isn't it that for security through obscurity (Just look at the OS Market Share) All combined Unix & clones (which amounts to less than 10% of OS used in the world today) have more security issues than all combined versions of Windows in existence?

Just look at 1 month of data. However, I can assure you and am prepared to back it up, the same trend goes on for more than 5 consecutive years!

Source: http://secunia.com/a...weekly_summary/ (it's a free subscription weekly newsletter)

http://i.imgur.com/cTDLa.png

http://i.imgur.com/gQinH.png

http://i.imgur.com/6Y7yz.png

http://i.imgur.com/Mxv7A.png

Heh, I also use Ubuntu (among others), but I know what I'm doing. I've been using Linux since before there were any distros by compiling the kernel with 'make mrproper;make all' and installing the bootloader manually. My first Linux distro was Softlanding Linux Systems (SLS) back in 1992.

How long have you been using Ubuntu? Me? I've been using QNX, AIX, and SCO since 1984. My favorite Linux currently is Mint. Best Live CD is Knoppix.

Still want Ubuntu, "Linux for human beings"?


No? Click here

~~~~~~~~~~
The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.
~ Florence Scovel Shinn

The superior man does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow.
~ Confucius, The Confucian Analects

A computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match.
~ Uncommon Sense

[WinTard]

RickDobbelmannqbtt, on 17 April 2012 - 10:18 PM, said:

WinTard, on 17 April 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

Proof?
http://www.netmarket...e.aspx?qprid=10
http://i.imgur.com/mFpLg.png
_________________________________

Please feel free to visit them all. Me, I'm just extremely passionate & lazy, thus I merely chose the TOP one.

Google: OS market share
http://i.imgur.com/MFbcT.png

~~~~~~~~~~
Software is like sex: it's better when it's free.
~ Linus Torvalds

Efficiency is intelligent laziness.
~ David Dunham

Laziness is the mother of efficiency
~ Marian Propp

I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness, to save oneself trouble.
~ Dame Agatha Christie

[RickDobbelmannqbtt]

WinTard, on 17 April 2012 - 11:28 PM, said:

RickDobbelmannqbtt, on 17 April 2012 - 10:08 PM, said:

Some other new features of Windows 8

Look a new Blue Screen Of Death



These will be fun too

http://img802.images...2/9519/woow.png

Still want Windows?

No? Click here

I thought this was a Windows 8 thread? But since you insist.

Oh look some perpetual chronic features of Unix / Ubuntu / Linux / OS X... From old to new. They all panic! Mostly due to incompetent system admins or PEBKAC and sub-par hardware.

https://encrypted.go...nic+crash&hl=en
http://i.imgur.com/rddke.png

https://encrypted.go...biw=697&bih=668
http://i.imgur.com/gROzv.png

And speaking of recent vulnerabilities searching for Ubuntu:
http://web.nvd.nist....ype=all&cves=on
http://i.imgur.com/2UiO9.png

Ironic isn't it that for security through obscurity (Just look at the OS Market Share) All combined Unix & clones (which amounts to less than 10% of OS used in the world today) have more security issues than all combined versions of Windows in existence?

Just look at 1 month of data. However, I can assure you and am prepared to back it up, the same trend goes on for more than 5 consecutive years!

Source: http://secunia.com/a...weekly_summary/ (it's a free subscription weekly newsletter)


Heh, I also use Ubuntu (among others), but I know what I'm doing. I've been using Linux since before there were any distros by compiling the kernel with 'make mrproper;make all' and installing the bootloader manually. My first Linux distro was Softlanding Linux Systems (SLS) back in 1992.

How long have you been using Ubuntu? Me? I've been using QNX, AIX, and SCO since 1984. My favorite Linux currently is Mint. Best Live CD is Knoppix.

Still want Ubuntu, "Linux for human beings"?


No? Click here

~~~~~~~~~~
The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.
~ Florence Scovel Shinn

The superior man does not set his mind either for anything, or against anything; what is right he will follow.
~ Confucius, The Confucian Analects

A computer is a stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things. They are, in short, a perfect match.
~ Uncommon Sense

This is a Windows 8 thread. But if you insist...

"How long have you been using Ubuntu?"

Since 10.04 beta 1

Shortly after finishing my degree in software development where we were trained by the mighty advertising gimmick of Microsoft, Adobe and other products the school had corporate contracts with.

Have to admit my Linux administration class was the most frustrating and difficult because of all the years of using exclusively M$ products. We used SUSE in that class and our instructor was clueless.

Started a new online auction business and needed to put together a plan for the it infrastructure. So being a new business and IT costing a ridiculous amount of money for my start up open source was an option.

Downloaded Ubuntu beta burned it to a CD, restarted the pc and just followed the on screen instructions. Installed it side by side with Windows. It was so much easier to use than SUSE and it worked really good out of the box being a beta.

Switched back and forth between Windows and Ubuntu for about a month but kept on using Ubuntu more and more and more. installed it on all of my pc's once 10.04 was released. Found ALL OF THE SOFTWARE I needed in the app center to do my coding (eclipse, quanta plus, Glade interface designer, python, kompozer), photo manipulation (GIMP, Phatch, Blender, inkScape, etc) batch processing (Phatch, GPRename, KFileReplace, etc) database design (MySQL), Accounting (GNUCash), Not to mention the FREE No commercials ever Pandora music player called Pithos. Gotta have tunes while working!



"Ironic isn't it that for security through obscurity (Just look at the OS Market Share) All combined Unix & clones (which amounts to less than 10% of OS used in the world today) have more security issues than all combined versions of Windows in existence?"

More security issues? Do you think it is possible you are seeing more Linux security issues announced because the source is open and the code can be de-bugged by anyone. You seem pretty smart, what are your thoughts? Sure is nice to have an OS that updates and patches its kernel daily. Still can't decide if I want to upgrade to 12.04 to get those updates. Hey maybe security through obscurity will mean I wont need to update 10.10. There is a thought for you. Security through obscurity in deprecated ubuntu distros makes them even more secure.


Speaking of "security through obscurity" How many holes do you think the NT kernel has left? If I were a betting man, would be willing to bet more than any current free open source distro and it wouldn't even be close.

Lets open up the NT kernel and see how many holes still exist.

This post has been edited by RickDobbelmannqbtt: 18 April 2012 - 12:37 AM

[KryptoUnderdog]

The thing that poisons MS for me even moreso as a developer fluent in their technology is all these different versions of things and the often cruel expectation that tech folks are going to both learn and get certifications on these (so far) very transient and non extensible technologies. The half life of many of these has been more dependent on how far Microsoft can raise the expectations of hands-off managers than what the technology actually practically delivers in productivity. The fact that Microsoft at this point has an Enterprise version descriptor for Windows 8 that ends in "and much more" is in keeping with this MIS buzzword bingo history that exasperates actual software engineers and end-users.