Opinion: Is Windows 8 Worth $15 for New PC Owners?

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I pin my favorite apps to the front of the start menu and use it all the time for that reason, however I never dig through the "all programs" list.
 
So microsoft thinks everyone wll run out and buy a pc pc just to upgrade to windows 8? are they freaking insane?

The new Metro UI is horrible for Desktops and Notebooks. The settings to change things under Metro is confusing and bad. You have no icon settings you have to take your mouse and shove it into the corner of the on the right hand side of the screen just to make the settings in metro appear.

When you want to go to the classic Windows UI like on Windows 7 you click on the desktop tile in Metro UI, but now Microsoft has decided to take away the start menu! So now there is no more start menu in Windows 8, if you want to go to your programs you have to shove your mouse down in the lower left hand corner of the task bar click on Metro UI menu then take your mouse and use the scroll bar all the way at the bottom to the right just to get to your program menu. And to top it all off the sleep and shutdown option is in Metro UI. So if you are on the classic desktop you have to go back to the Metro UI and then put your muse all the way to the right of the screen until the settings gear icon appears. Then you click on that and then you click on the power icon in which you will see the shutdown and restart options appear. What a pain in the ass!

Oh and there is no way to disable the Metro UI you are stuck with it. So in order to get to the classic Windows UI screen you have to go through the Metro UI first.

Windows 8 does brings some small improvements like better battery life over Windows 7 for portable devices, it takes up a little less system resources over Windows 7 etc.. but none of those improvements justify how bad the user interface is in Windows 8. I see your avg consumer buying a new pc and losing patients very quickly with Windows 8 once the final version comes out to the point where they will be demanding their pc vendors to downgrade their pc's back to Windows 7.
 
[citation][nom]thatguychuck[/nom]This is going to end up like Vista. New PC's will come with 8, unless you pay a $50 "downgrade" fee.[/citation]

Link to where Microsoft charged $50 to downgrade. As long as you owned Vista you automatically had downgrade rights.

As for the $15... You'd be REALLY SILLY not to get the upgrade to at least offer WIndows 8 if you come to sell the unit
 
[citation][nom]SteelCity1981[/nom]So microsoft thinks everyone wll run out and buy a pc pc just to upgrade to windows 8? are they freaking insane? The new Metro UI is horrible for Desktops and Notebooks. The settings to change things under Metro is confusing and bad. You have no icon settings you have to take your mouse and shove it into the corner of the on the right hand side of the screen just to make the settings in metro appear. When you want to go to the classic Windows UI like on Windows 7 you click on the desktop tile in Metro UI, but now Microsoft has decided to take away the start menu! So now there is no more start menu in Windows 8, if you want to go to your programs you have to shove your mouse down in the lower left hand corner of the task bar click on Metro UI menu then take your mouse and use the scroll bar all the way at the bottom to the right just to get to your program menu. And to top it all off the sleep and shutdown option is in Metro UI. So if you are on the classic desktop you have to go back to the Metro UI and then put your muse all the way to the right of the screen until the settings gear icon appears. Then you click on that and then you click on the power icon in which you will see the shutdown and restart options appear. What a pain in the ass! Oh and there is no way to disable the Metro UI you are stuck with it. So in order to get to the classic Windows UI screen you have to go through the Metro UI first. Windows 8 does brings some small improvements like better battery life over Windows 7 for portable devices, it takes up a little less system resources over Windows 7 etc.. but none of those improvements justify how bad the user interface is in Windows 8. I see your avg consumer buying a new pc and losing patients very quickly with Windows 8 once the final version comes out to the point where they will be demanding their pc vendors to downgrade their pc's back to Windows 7.[/citation]

So.. are you still running Windows xp? How long did you use Windows 8 on your desktop for? A day?
 
[citation][nom]damianrobertjones[/nom]So.. are you still running Windows xp? How long did you use Windows 8 on your desktop for? A day?[/citation]

No i'm actually running Windows 7 and i've been running windows 8 since the first build was release. So there is your day comment right out the window.
 
So is this $15 for an 'upgrade' to a Windows 7 installation or can you do a clean install with it? If you can only upgrade an existing Win7 install then its not worth it.
 
THe title of this encourages people to say its not worth it, as seen by most of the comments, its as if they are telling you what to think. Marketing ploy by Apple sheep probably. If the title read " Windows 8 only 15 dollars!" then the comments would have more favor for the price of a new OS, then against it. Dont be a sheep,people, think for yourself.
 
I wouldn't use windows 8 if you paid me.

Well.....unless i could just uninstall it afterwards, or you payed me a LOT. If i couldn't uninstall it, then i would use it for $10,000. $1000 would not be worth my time to suffer through it.

 
With most users doing almost all their computing on a browser they barely care what OS they're running. I could sit any of these people in front of Windows, Mac, or Linux and as long as they can find the browser icon they are good to go. For these people, $15 is a good price so why not keep it there? Try convincing them to spend $100+ if not eligible for the discount and see how far you get. Love the fact that Apple charges "only" $29 for their new OSes. Hell, I only went all-in on Win7 after Microsoft offered it to students for $30. Wasn't hard finding someone with an .EDU email address. At $30, the upgrade is a no-brainer. $100+...meh, I can wait.
 
I have installed and tried the Release Candidate of Windows 8. It runs just like Windows 7, except now Microsoft has introduced at least two extra clicks into every task.

So it isn't worth any amount of money. The extra features are mostly designed for tablets. The only upgrade feature worth listing is a better Task Manager, but this could be modified in Windows 7 and XP with a free 3rd party tool.

 
I've been using Windows 8 at work since it's first release and I haven't seen any sort of issue with it. To me, there is little difference between the start menu and the metro landing page.

I press the windows key, type in the title of the program I want to run (or enough of it), and press enter.

Yes, you still have a desktop.
Yes, you can still put icons on it.
It's nice for me to have two layers. Things pinned to my desktop and things pinned to my start menu.

It does really well with multiple monitors (which is a must for my profession)


Why is it the people who consider themselves the most tech savvy are also the most resilient to change? Then again, maybe I don't have a hard time because I've always used keyboard shortcuts.


Example:
Windows Key + C pulls up the right hand pane/ribbon
Windows Key + S is a snipping shortcut
Windows Key + X like a control panel shortcut
Windows Key + F opens up the Files Menu
Windows Key + E opens up the App Menu


To each his own though. Outside of the new OS learning curves - I honestly, as a System Engineer & Administrator with 3 screens at work and a single monitor gamer/programmer at home, haven't lost any efficiency using it and can now be just as effective in Windows 7.
 
lol, wow, the win8 haters are out in full force today!
Anywho, for the average user, with a single desktop/keys/mouse setup, it is a take it or leave it thing. Simply put, it will not really add much value.

However, for a power user who wants more performance and control over their system, or someone who lives on multiple machines, or someone who is heavy on cloud utilities, or someone who also uses a WP7/8 device, and/or a tablet as well, then the improvements and inter-connectivity available between devices would be more than worth $15
For anyone with a touch screen monitor, it is well worth the upgrade as well, because win7 touch support frankly sucks.

I had Win8 running on 2 netbooks and my desktop at one point when I was playing with it (CP version), and I loved the integration of skydrive, and that my user settings and files followed me between devices. The improvements in RP I tried on only one of the netbooks, and it was a substantial improvement (added ~1Hr of battery life, among other things). The things I am hearing about the better multi-screen support and other great features for people like myself who do not have a standard desktop sounds promising, but I have not seen them in action yet, so I am not exactly sold on them yet.
 
So basically M$ is wanting $15 for what in the past was free upgrades. Love the PR attempts to twist this as cheap but past PC buys got free upgrades within 6 months of a new OS. This was never about a catalyst to lunch the OS but to sale out the millions of prebuilt OEM systems with an old OS. Given that many would rather have the old version tho I'm unsure how this will play out on the retail store selves. Customers will ask why has windows 8 been out for 2 months and these OEM PC's still have windows 7? IF windows 8 is a fail tho customers may pray please let find an OEM with windows 7 still on the selves. I think M$ doesn't want to risk a loss due to they are unsure. Get new PC buys to buy before we know if its a fail because the OEM's are not wanting to pay but for the few who demand windows 8.
 
I would say that $15 is wort it. Windows 8 is bringing a lot of management/maintenance improvements, such as improving on auto-defragmenting, running chkdsk during idle times and such. I like the improvements that windows is bringing (and yes, I like being able to run metro and non-metro applications/programs).
 
[citation][nom]cobra_comm@nder[/nom]With most users doing almost all their computing on a browser they barely care what OS they're running. I could sit any of these people in front of Windows, Mac, or Linux and as long as they can find the browser icon they are good to go. For these people, $15 is a good price so why not keep it there? Try convincing them to spend $100+ if not eligible for the discount and see how far you get. Love the fact that Apple charges "only" $29 for their new OSes. Hell, I only went all-in on Win7 after Microsoft offered it to students for $30. Wasn't hard finding someone with an .EDU email address. At $30, the upgrade is a no-brainer. $100+...meh, I can wait.[/citation]

You may have made the most intelligent comment of all those that came before you. Everyone knows the full retail version will likely cost upwards of $150. We also know that this deal won't apply to most of the people here complaining about their desktop since they likely build their desktop and wouldn't be eligible anyway. But the bottom line is that anyone who can shell out a mere $15 for an OS upgrade wouldn't really mind doing it. There's a lot of Win8 hate bandwagon type stuff going on right now. Come back a year from now and it won't be nearly this bad, you can bet on it.
 
Many people have a problem with Win8 now, but wait till the whole eco system gets in place phone tablet xbox and pc. Then it will eventually start feeling odd to jump back and forth. On the other hand you have power users who would be happy with a command line and feel like everything else gets in the way.
 
The only way I used the start button was to bring up the search feature that now is impossible to find. Windows Vista/7 was made really simple because all you needed to do was hit the start button and search for any file, program, or folder on the whole computer and hit enter. It made Windows much more simplistic for everyone: those who are computer deficient and those who know Windows in and out. Instead of hunting for the feature you wanted in control panel or searching through the start menu for the game you want to launch just type it in. I have used several computers that still use XP and it irritates me when I have to hunt for the program I am looking for.
 
I would have thought and I'm sure I will be corrected if I am wrong , but wouldn't a "Power user" Please... (shakes head). Any way these "Power users" wouldn't they build their own PC ? Install what they want ? why would these people need an upgrade option ?

So if we go with the main demographic, which is joe blogs with his wife and family who buy it, use it, surf the web with it then yes it will be fine. they don't know any different most of the time.

Those of us who do know what the time of day is and use a PC for Gaming maybe a bit of transcoding etc. Well most of us don't want it. End of.

Its not about what it can and cant do its about the feel of the thing. Keyboard mouse nice HD monitor.
that's all we want so leave us alone. You moved the furniture in Vista. Lots didn't like that but it was workable, just. Now you move the House and all the furniture and hide the door key.

Serious question. Why not just have a simple option under the Start button for the new UI. ON-OFF.
Start button is still there. Touch screen users need to press the screen twice to get to the UI M$ say they are all wanting. WIN-WIN.....Or am I missing something here ?
 
so listening from you all guys it sounds like this iteration of windows is gonna be an epic failure just like windows vista,
we don't want glittering eye candy, just show and no go
 
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