Windows 7 vs Windows 8

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I was quite excited to try Windows 8 and then I decided not to because it seems a bit pointless without a touch screen. I think the Surface tablets are cool though - hopefully the pro version will be a true laptop replacement. I think Microsoft has actually made a lot of good decisions recently.

Windows 7 is pretty good and I don't think Windows 8 is a replacement for it. Windows XP is still great for old computers, but I'm finding myself using Linux more and more for old computers. A lot less hassle to get software and licenses. If people are reluctant to try Linux, I just tell them it's like Apple and it has an app store. Seems to work.

Windows is by far the best with hardware and software compatibility.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/20/ ... led-my-pc/

This early Win 8 adopter ran into the driver issue I talked about.

Question:

If Windows 8 doesn't have a Start button, how do you get to start all your applications? Presumably you don't need to have icons on the desktop for everything?

2 ways, you can use the hot corner (lower left corner) where the start icon would normally be, or you can use the windows key which used to open the start menu to go to the new start and back into the last app.

Or if you like the long way you can use the right side hot corners to open the charm bar and press on the start charm. which does the same thing as the previous things mentioned


Now once in the start menu you can either right click on the background and click browse all applications, or just start typing the name of the app and it autosearches for it

It has a start *screen*, because Microsoft assumes you're running on an 8" screen and you don't have room for a start menu. That and they also assume you are using touch, and it's designed for touch, which a start menu doesn't really excel at.

I am hoping that this is the only major OS release that makes the dumbass mistake of thinking people want the same UI on an 8" tablet as on a 30" Dell.

I prefer Windows 7 all the way! Windows 8 doesn't look as bad as I thought, but I still don't really like it that much; it looks complicated and more like a mobile phone OS than a desktop computer OS. I'd use it if you gave me it, though, because anything is better than a Vista. I'd much rather have a 7 any day.

i know shortly after vista came out they canned it so im hoping that happens with 8. when do you thin the Sp will be out and what updates will it have?

In my opinion, Windows 8 has all the form and function of Windows 1, where its all gaudy colors, boxy aps, and choice between a tiny tile or being fullscreen with no actual Windows, except Microsoft doesn't have the Apple excuse anymore, it has Apple Lust. Except as it stands, Microsoft seems to have totally missed the idea why their OS is so fantastic and popular.

If you want to tweak, but don't want to be bogged down by unlimited options, you go with Microsoft. If you just want the thing to run, you go with Apple. And for unlimited options, Linux is the clear choice.

...and they're DESPERATE to get people using Win8 ASAP... I mean, when was the last time you could get a Microsoft OS for less than $40????

All so they can sell lots of apps like Apple does.... *barf*


(I remember Windows 2 during the DOS days and Tandy Deskmate! 3.0 & 3.1 really brought it mainstream!)

Correct, Microsoft is trying to change their business model with Windows to app store based, instead of charging for the OS upfront. This is going to fail on a couple of fronts:

- Their "apps" are full screen, so they're basically pissing on the entire large-screen desktop PC market. Just because this isn't a growth market doesn't make it small.
- Web apps are eventually going to become rich enough to kill the app store model. That Apple is disabling WebGL in iOS Safari in an attempt to stave this off tells us where things are going.

Windows 8 is garbage. Even Vista is better than it. I'm sticking to Windows 7 I think it's much better.

i like win8. if you can get your head into actually thinking instead of just doing what youve always done youll figure it out in a week or less and use it like a pro in under a month. Its also very resource friendly and the 'gestures' arent very hard or inconvenient. and ive yet to use it on a touchscreen which is where its supposed to shine

Well, it IS supposed to be THE OS to have if you've got 8 cores or more... it's more geared for multi-threading than 7...

...but surely 7 could have been updated to do the same?

I might have to try it again... but it's getting harder to teach me new tricks as I age.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with Win8 from a technical perspective. It appears to be a world class OS until you realize that your 30" display just got filled from edge to edge with a PDF reader you can't seem to be able to possibly shrink the window of.

Using a Windows RT tablet now and in desktop mode there are icons for Word, Excel etc on the taskbar. When I launch them, I'm able to run them in windowed mode. Why them and not the damn Bing Maps app, or the PDF reader? Why have desktop mode, which presumably people use if they want windows, and still force the full screen start menu?

I will say I prefer this to iOS, which is always in full screen "tablet" mode and can't really be used as a PC. I also prefer it to Android, which despite Google's efforts is still kind of a mess. I would just never install it on a PC, because I don't need to run a desktop PC in "tablet mode" and there are still too many UI issues.

I also fully expect that this will be sorted in the next Windows, which everyone will think is fine.

I just don't understand why MS insists on making willful, preventable mistakes in every other release.