Microsoft Details Windows 8 Upgrade Plans

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Has anyone here actually used it? its not all bad. it just needs some tweaks. The start screen is not mouse friendly. And when searching in the start screen, it looks for apps first. so if i type Devices and Printers and press enter nothing comes up, i have to tell it to look for Settings and not Apps. minor inconvenience. Also the OS boots into the start screen and i have to start the desktop separately. Another inconvenience. Also with dual monitors, they have a 6 pixel barrier at the top and bottom of neighboring screens. pixels is awkward. It works when you dont want, and doesnt work when you do want. why dont they make it the size of the start bar on the bottom and the same size on the top. also accessing the start menu by mouse is inconvenient when you have dual monitors, and the second monitor is on the left, not the right.

Other than these things its like i'm using any other pc. The desktop still has icons and folders. It wakes from sleep in about 2 seconds on my 2008 laptop. I think if they fix these quirks then it will be a much smoother experience. Really the only thing that changed is the start menu, and how many people have their start menu open ALL the time?

Embrace for thumbs down in 3......2......1.....
 
Auto Cad with a finger input system I can see my boss watching me make a drawing with my middle finger. No thought for professional programs.
 
Windows 8: Average Joe likes it (or can at least tolerate it), computer geeks hate it.

The Tom's comment section is full of us computer geeks, so don't be surprised that anything speaking against Windows 8 (whether it'd be well-thought out and rational or completely asinine) is voted up and anything speaking in favor of it (again, regardless of rationality) is voted down.
 
Heh. PR spokesperson. Cute.

[citation][nom]killerb255[/nom]Windows 8: Average Joe likes it (or can at least tolerate it), computer geeks hate it.The Tom's comment section is full of us computer geeks, so don't be surprised that anything speaking against Windows 8 (whether it'd be well-thought out and rational or completely asinine) is voted up and anything speaking in favor of it (again, regardless of rationality) is voted down.[/citation]

Seems to be an unfortunate state of affairs. I'll stop preaching about it, but it still seems that most people are being rather close-minded over Win8. Most of the people I talk to who talk down about it haven't even tried it. They've just seen videos or watched other people use it. Not a good barometer for stating whether you think it sucks or not. But hey, what do I know.. I'm just a supposed MS PR spokesperson, right? 😛
 
[citation][nom]odd_enough[/nom]Seems to be an unfortunate state of affairs. I'll stop preaching about it, but it still seems that most people are being rather close-minded over Win8. Most of the people I talk to who talk down about it haven't even tried it. They've just seen videos or watched other people use it. Not a good barometer for stating whether you think it sucks or not. But hey, what do I know.. I'm just a supposed MS PR spokesperson, right?[/citation]
Windows 8 is not bad at all. It boots up faster than Win7, has a much improved task manager and settings are are better organized. What we hate isn't Windows 8 but Metro User Interface which brings a whole new application model along with app store and cloud services. In other words: the things we hate the most in the Apple world as soon to be seen in PCs through Metro. The only compelling advantage Windows still holds in comparison to OS X is its broad hardware compatibility.
 
[citation][nom]K2N hater[/nom]Windows 8 is not bad at all. It boots up faster than Win7, has a much improved task manager and settings are are better organized. What we hate isn't Windows 8 but Metro User Interface which brings a whole new application model along with app store and cloud services. In other words: the things we hate the most in the Apple world as soon to be seen in PCs through Metro. The only compelling advantage Windows still holds in comparison to OS X is its broad hardware compatibility.[/citation]

I suppose so, but most geeks still use hotkeys just as much as the mouse to navigate right? Metro is very hotkey-friendly. So far, I have had no trouble using the Metro UI with either the mouse or keyboard. Very interchangeable. Don't get me wrong, I despise the Apple OS design. But I am also a big fan of fluid, pragmatic minimalism. It could be just personal preference, but I find that Metro strikes that balance for me. It isn't limiting, everything that I liked from the old start menu is still there, maybe with an extra click thrown in, but ultimately, not that big of a deal.
 
[citation][nom]odd_enough[/nom]Heh. PR spokesperson. Cute.[/citation]

Yeah, I've been called that too not long ago. Apparently posting some useful shortcuts and saying that I don't see what all the kafuffle is heresy to some.

Regardless - no-one is going to force you to buy it or use it. I gave it a fair shot and found the learning curve wasn't nearly as steep as many of it's opponents make it out to be. I'd admit I might be the exception - but I think there is just a lot of general silliness over what seems to me, mostly aesthetic differences.
 
The thing is, we're hedonists at heart. We want to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Relearning things = pain (or at least discomfort). This gets worse and worse the older we get, as we would rather use what we've learned when we were younger than to learn something new (even moreso if it's perceived as "change just for the sake of change," "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," or "reinventing the wheel").

Unfortunately, that is the case for Metro (as much as I, personally, like it): change just for the sake of change. If the complaining about the Office 2007 ribbon was any indication, Microsoft shouldn't be surprised at the complaining about Metro...

In any case, my prediction, at the risk of getting voted down to -20 and beyond, is that most people will get used to it (like the Ribbon), and a small, but loud minority will complain about it into Windows 9, 10, and beyond (again, like the Ribbon, even in Office 2010).

Believe it or not, there are people that still use Windows 98 for their own reasons. Live and let live. Let the market speak for itself in 2013.
 
killerb255, that response is the most sensible thing I've heard anyone say in any Win8 dicussion I've been a part of. Thank you. (+20 if I could)
 



This article is talking about how much money it costs, not the actual software upgrade process.

Afaik, the process from XP will be XP SP2 or greater -> Windows Vista SP1 or greater -> Windows 7 SP1 or greater (actually I don't see why they would even need to require service pack to update from this) -> Windows 8

Why not post a reply to this thread about starting from Windows 3.0 and see where the thumbs rating goes for the post :)
 
Another problem with Windows 8 I have not read about is the lack of driver support for graphics cards, only a very few top end graphics cards have Windows 8 drivers and the ones that I have tried from Nvidia are buggy and in some cases don't work at all. This may be a problem for people wanting to downgrade to Windows 8.
 
There's simply no reason for a professional to use Windows 8. I'm in DCC, 3D rendering specifically, and Windows 8 will do nothing to help me or save me time. Without the Start Menu, it's going to cost time. I'd not be surprised if they took away Libraries too, and any other decent features Win7 has already! Windows 8 will be a huge downgrade for anyone who uses their desktop like a grown-up.

I can't understand the XP users though - hey, have fun wasting your own time. No Libraries? No Start Menu search line? Get outta here, old timers!
 
[citation][nom]lordstormdragon[/nom]There's simply no reason for a professional to use Windows 8. I'm in DCC, 3D rendering specifically, and Windows 8 will do nothing to help me or save me time. Without the Start Menu, it's going to cost time. I'd not be surprised if they took away Libraries too, and any other decent features Win7 has already! Windows 8 will be a huge downgrade for anyone who uses their desktop like a grown-up.I can't understand the XP users though - hey, have fun wasting your own time. No Libraries? No Start Menu search line? Get outta here, old timers![/citation]

Uhh? There's honestly no reason for a professional to not use Windows 8 either. It's Win7 with an aesthetically different start menu (same functionality!) and far superior multi-monitor support. It also gets rid of Aero, while still looking like Aero. What's the big deal? I'm in 3D as well. To describe specifically, I do animation and modeling with Maya and Max, respectively. My workflow shows no slowdowns, and while it doesn't necessarily speed things up either, there is simply no reason not to use it. It has also been a blast using Win8 with my Wacom tablet.

This is just like the big hoopla Autodesk users freak out over every time a new version of Max/Maya comes out. "Oh, I'm not going to upgrade to that, there's no plugin support for it." Seriously? If you're that reliant on plugins, you need to work on your skillset. The software devs will support it eventually, and you end up gaining features with no harm to your overall workflow (besides, you shouldn't upgrade software during a project anyway).

Same thing here. "Huge downgrade" is a completely 100% false comment to a statement regarding use of Windows 8 in a professional setting.

Have you even tried Win8 yet? If you haven't, I'd suggest you try it before making statements regarding its functionality.
 
Its not about functionality!

You can get work done on it, just learn how the interface works, takes a little time!

ITS THE GOD-DAMN AWFUL LOOKING GUI that is METRO!
 
I put the Windows 8 Release through the four-year-old nephew and eight-year-old niece test. Cut The Rope and Fruit Ninja...they love it! They eventually learned how to get to Start (bottom left hand corner) and go back to games they were playing (top left hand corner). Of course I had to tell them, since it wasn't intuitive at first. I think a touch screen would be easier for them, though. A single monitor would also be easier, since my niece kept going nuts in Fruit Ninja and the mouse would sometimes jump to the second monitor...

Moral of the story: the older we get, the more stubborn we get about change. Again, we don't want to relearn things, but to paraphrase Charles Darwin: It's not always the strongest animal that survives. It's the ones that adapt the fastest that do.

Kids aren't "relearning" anything. They're learning stuff for the first time, so they have nothing to compare. Seasoned IT pros that have experience dating back to DOS and Windows 1.0 have it tougher, as they have to "unlearn" what they knew and relearn. Again, that goes against our hedonistic nature: too much "pain," not enough "pleasure."
 
Have I used Windows 8? Yep.

Could I adjust to the UI? Sure.

Am I willing to use an operating system that explicitly tries to prevent me from doing certain things to/with my computer? Not a chance in hell.

Eventually, in Windows 9, or Windows 10, the only software you'll be able to run on your computer will have had to have gone through Microsoft's vetting process. And that's completely unacceptable for any computing device that's more than just a toy. It still blows my mind that iPad users are okay with that arrangement; I can barely understand why console owners are okay with it. But my computer is mine to do with as I please, and it pleases me not to accept as inevitable the transition of computers from personal computing devices to overpriced toys.
 
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