Winbdows 8, non-arcade related stuff.

[eds1275]

Xmas is coming up, and my wife is still rocking a netbook with XP. It's about at the end of it's useful life, and for the santa season I was going to surprise her with a new computer. Now that the initial shock of "Windows 8 is new, so I hate it" seems to be over, what is the general consensus of it as a basic computing platform? She uses the web, watches the occasional movie, some word processing and spreadsheets. I will probably avoid a touch screen since it costs extra and isn't something she'll likely use. I see the occasional computer come up with Windows 7 as either installed by default or as an option, and I use 7 and am very pleased with it. Windows 8, to me, seems like they just made it operate more like a phone. Which might be a good thing if it makes it easy to use.

[Slippyblade]

Windows 8 is a plague on mankind.  A friend of mine is a 15 year employee with Microsoft and he hates it as well.  Win8 is the, "skip every other version".  It's the modern equivalent of Windows ME.  Skip it, find a Win7 box.

[Ond]

You'll likely get a bunch of people saying similar.  Bashing it is popular, "hey why not just ditch Windows altogether and move to Linux  ...."  Yeah.  I've been using it for quite a while now on several PCs around the house.  Apart from the extra effort just to get to the desktop I like it, particularly the clean look of of the UI.  The one issue I had with it was updating it to 8.1.  I later found an app that I use a lot no longer worked and that it was not supported by the vendor on 8.1.  There is no way to roll back from 8.1 other than restore point which I don't use    I ended up doing a re-install of version 8.  One little tip if you right click in the lower left screen corner you can quick access things like control panel etc.

If you do choose to go with it there are some really useful tutorials on optimizing Win 8 for use with SSD drives here (the main one being moving user files off the SSD):



I have my system set up nicely now, no crashes, no problems and plays my fav games really well.

 

[shponglefan]

I haven't used it personally (other than noodling around in a shop), but I know a couple people who have it on their laptops and they dislike it.  The biggest complaint is knowing where everything is in Windows 7, but then having to completely relearn that in Windows 8.

[SavannahLion]

+1 on what everyone has said so far.

My wife and I purchased new laptops with Win8 recently and we both dislike it. We recognize it's designed for touch and that's the biggest stumbling block. For a touch based computer I'm sure it works well. For a keyboard/mouse only PC, it's a maddening exercise in patience as what once took one or two clicks now takes three or four.

The damn 360-like channels are annoying as hell too. It makes inefficient use of screen real estate and discards all the finesse the mouse offers.

I'm still trying to work the kinks out to make it useful for my wife and I but yes, skip Win8 or 8.1 and wait for the next version. Win7 (I use it at work) is sexy. Win8 is the OS for special people. You've got your basic functionality but it needs a lot of assistance to be of any real use.

[fallacy]

people that hate it are the ones that do alot more on a computer than the web, watches the occasional movie, some word processing and spreadsheets. If that's all you use a computer for you can go back to windows 2000... actually you can't but the point is who cares.

[eds1275]

She will care if it's a pain in the ass, and when she messes it up, I will care because I will have to fix it.

[ark_ader]

Windows 8 is for people who work with office programs. It also helps the old, certain particular women. Small children take to it well.

It shares the same core as Windows 7 and it can be faster in certain hardware configurations.

I have it installed but use it for lab work.  I am not a fan, but I do see its uses on mobile platforms.

Windows 7 is the best platform (with VMware for XP).

If it is legacy then stick to XP and focus on cloud technologies.


Linux is for servers and tinkerers.

[Louis Tully]

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[Ond]

I use my home PC for a wee bit more than web browsing and opening spreadsheets  .  Windows 8 takes some getting used to but I don't miss Windows 7 on my home PC  at all. I still use it on my work laptop because that's my company's standard. For those with generalised criticism (and who have have actually had experience with the OS), maybe provide some useful comparative information beyond the extra clicks to desktop or no start button? I provided an example, that alone wasn't enough though to deter me from continuing to use  8.    I've installed it on a range of PCs some quite old.  An old laptop I tested it on with an unsupported video card was not a good choice for the OS, another older Dell pentium 4  I tried it on ran really well as quick as or better than XP which I'd loaded on it previously.

I also use a Windows 8 company phone, it's OK, not as exciting as iOS but I gave my iPhone 4S to my daughter as a present, I don't miss that either.

I primarily use my home PC for design work, plenty of demanding 3D rendering, video editing and sound editing  ; and some gaming.  I removed all the clutter from the start screen and click to desktop.

I use VLC for watching movies and have done so for a few OSs now, I prefer Firefox and Chrome to IE and so I disabled IE.  I am a 'tinkerer' but choose not use Linux at this stage, I probably will in the future though.  I had years of supporting Unix (and Windows) servers as a systems engineer.  We use Linux for some Enterprise servers we build for customers but it's a pain in the ass to work with, I still prefer Windows.

[fallacy]

She will care if it's a pain in the ass, and when she messes it up, I will care because I will have to fix it.

Windows 8 works good for simple things. It will takes a day or 2 to re-learn everything. I will say I do like the start menu is better. Win7/xp it gets pretty messy with short cuts to programs that I installed one time but no longer work, having it all categorized like that is pretty sweet.

[knave]

I have yet to use Windows 8, but I have used Server 2012 and while it takes some getting used to it works fine.

The above video actually does a pretty good job at covering the main arguments against windows 8. I might have to give it a try now. I declined to buy it when I had the chance for $14 from Microsoft. 

[Mikezilla]

Avoid that abomination. Win 8 is designed for tablets and touch screen Windows computer gimmick crap. Go windows 7, its not even a question. I bought a new computer and it came with that crap on there, I still have it, but I just havent bought windows 7 yet cause I have other stuff to buy. Its garbage. The only bummer is that Win7 support isnt going to be around much longer, so that sucks. 

[Turvey]

The only bummer is that Win7 support isnt going to be around much longer, so that sucks. 

2 years or 7 years depending 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/products/lifecycle

[eds1275]

Thanks everybody. It looks like I'll be shopping for a windows 7 computer but need not fear the 8 if I get a smokin' deal or whatever. As for continued support... really low on my list of things to worry about. I ressurect xp machines for old people to browse the web and check email all the time and once it's set up so that it's hard to mess up... it's good to go for a long time.

[Howard_Casto]

Let me just give it to you straight.  Everyone's opinions on windows 8 is irrelevant.  It's already out in the wild and has been for over a year.  Unless you are getting her a used laptop it's going to have 8 on it so deal with it.  I'm not trying to be a jerk about this, it's just that people are acting like you have a choice in regards to what OS comes with new hardware.. unless you are buying within that window where some new models of pc don't have the newest OS on it yet, you simply don't have a choice. 

Now you can buy a laptop without an OS on it, but right now you can get laptops so cheap that it would probably be cheaper to get one with 8 pre-installed and then get a stand-alone "downgrade" for 7 later on if you hate it that much.

I'm still on 7 because I don't need a pc upgrade right now.  Windows 8 isn't that bad, people are exaggerating.  The ui is stupid, but there are methods to revert it/turn that off.