Anyone loving or hating windows 8?

[JeffDTD]

So I consider most of you here to be among the most rational of technology critics...

 

I have a 5 year old laptop that , well... is falling apart.

 

I've considered just buying a refurb or low spec device (like a chromebook) for word processing/paying bills (about all I do at home due to being glued to a desktop at work) and considering my tablet and GS3 get most of my attention.... but then I find myself wondering if I would love or hate windows 8. I used a pre-launch version months ago and left it feeling... indifferent. Then I catch myself at best buy last week trying to use a touchscreen with it.... and it feels about as foreign as a mac. I don't NEED a mac, either. Don't walk me down that road.

 

Does anyone love or hate windows 8? Save my money? Do you expect it to take off, or do you expect the prices of these new devices will spiral down when/if sales are less than expected?

[jefbal99]

I haven't used Windows 8, but what I've been told is it is great for Tablets and Touchscreen devices, but not so great for regular displays.

[A454nova]

Its fun to mess with on a Tablet. Annoying as ever on the Desktop. I'll be sticking with 7 for a while. As a rule Microsoft puts out a good OS every other version.

 

3.1, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 9?

[peteyz24]

I am/was dual booting it on my laptop along side windows 7. I did not play with it very much as I didnt like it. Navigating it with a mouse seemed very clumsy to me. Not to mention, like previoulsy stated, Microsoft is known to pretty much fail on every ther os. Id stick with 7.

[digiblur]

Its fun to mess with on a Tablet. Annoying as ever on the Desktop. I'll be sticking with 7 for a while. As a rule Microsoft puts out a good OS every other version. 3.1, 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 9?

 

My thoughts exactly!

[shaunm82]

I haven't used Windows 8, but what I've been told is it is great for Tablets and Touchscreen devices, but not so great for regular displays.

 

Thats my take on it. I have it on our All-in-One desktop, that is a touchscreen and its working out pretty nice. I haven't dove too far into it yet. But from what I have seen, I don't think its a great OS for a non-touch screen device.

[EliBohnert]

I'm using Windows 8 on my 8 month old Windows 7 laptop and I think its pretty good. At first it feels funny using the home screen without a touch screen but you get used to it. But Xbox music feels like a child designed it. You can't edit anything on the music name ect. Besides that I think its pretty good.

[SpenceSouth]

I develop for Windows 8, but I certainly won't be switching to it myself. It's a decent OS for a tablet, but falls sub-par for my desktop.

[A454nova]

Its said that Windows 7 is still out performing 8 in the game world. So if your a gamer, hold out for right now. Windows 8 brings a lot of new stuff to the plate, thing we needed. I think they where dumb for not giving us the option to switch from "Metro" to "Classic". I also would like to keep the Aero Glass theme too. They are defiantly locking down the OS more too.

[Ascertion]

Its said that Windows 7 is still out performing 8 in the game world. So if your a gamer, hold out for right now. Windows 8 brings a lot of new stuff to the plate, thing we needed. I think they where dumb for not giving us the option to switch from "Metro" to "Classic". I also would like to keep the Aero Glass theme too. They are defiantly locking down the OS more too.

"We're making record breaking profits on PC! Wait, we're not making enough? LOCK DOWN THE OS!"

 

Why do companies do this? The reason they became big was because it was just so universal. Motorola locks down their OS, HTC started locking theirs down and now Microsoft is. Why must all good things come to an end?

[nahum365]

Its said that Windows 7 is still out performing 8 in the game world. So if your a gamer, hold out for right now. Windows 8 brings a lot of new stuff to the plate, thing we needed. I think they where dumb for not giving us the option to switch from "Metro" to "Classic". I also would like to keep the Aero Glass theme too. They are defiantly locking down the OS more too.

 

There are already multiple applications to put you in the Classic Desktop by default. A good example of this is Start8. When you boot, you are put in the Windows 8 desktop with the addition of a start button. You can configure the start button to open a mini Metro interface, or your standard Win7 start menu. There is a Start Menu option to put you into Metro as well, so you can download apps and stuff.

[A454nova]

There are already multiple applications to put you in the Classic Desktop by default. A good example of this is Start8. When you boot, you are put in the Windows 8 desktop with the addition of a start button. You can configure the start button to open a mini Metro interface, or your standard Win7 start menu. There is a Start Menu option to put you into Metro as well, so you can download apps and stuff.

 

I know that, Its the idea of it tho. You know its going to cause an issue. Just more OS drama. lol

[DaQue]

You can make it act like a desktop if you work at it and make changes. You shouldn't have to. Do you want a system that really wants push you to use a desktop like a tablet or big phone? A buddy of mine had a cheap $15 upgrade to Windows 8 and ran the upgrade advisor program to check if there would be issues. It left the system hung and he had to reinstall. He wasn't even installing 8 just running the program to check if it was compatible.

 

I am sticking to 7 on this machine and XP on another. Windows 7 won't let me run a couple programs I need for programing some microcontrolers.

[SpenceSouth]

Just tried Start8 on the RTM-Windows 8 I am running on Virtualbox to develop on, and I'm just going to say that I would totally buy this program. Gives Windows 8 the iconic windows feel it is missing.

[A454nova]

Just tried Start8 on the RTM-Windows 8 I am running on Virtualbox to develop on, and I'm just going to say that I would totally buy this program. Gives Windows 8 the iconic windows feel it is missing.

 

That's the golden ticket Stardock needed huh. I to played with it in VMware, and I must say I like...

 

kudos Stardock.

 

 

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/

[TheForce627]

I can't wait to get my hands on a surface pro. Just seems like it would be weird on a desktop but I love the design for a tablet

[iansltx]

From what I've heard, Win8 performs within a frame per second of Win7 on most games. There are some compatiblity issues, but it looks like nearly every game has the same experience across both OSes.

 

+1 for Win8 feeling odd without a touch-screen...and that's with a multitouch trackpad (albeit Apple's, so maybe the gestures aren't quite optimized yet). But I'm not going to complain too much...it takes one click to get back to my desktop, and Start8 et al are available if I want my start menu back badly enough.