The great Windows 8 debate

[Night Hawk]

Well I'm one that doesn't miss the Start button, OK I'm still playing around with it and haven't got everything installed yet that I have in Windows 7, but I'm quite enjoying the experience.

I'm spending more time using my Windows 8 machine than I am using the Windows 7 one. I've changed things, like my desktop and the way the Start screen looks, I've altered the login so I don't have to bother with my password everytime I start up. I'm finding quite a few things that are quicker to do than they were in 7.

All in all I like the new OS, alright it's different but how boring it would be if nothing changed at least it keeps us, well me anyway, alive and active instead of stagnating.

Could not agree more. Even though I have win 7 in a VM (always up and running on my third monitor) there are few times that I go to it. Also now that I have the games from win 7 there really is no reason to be on seven. But, like others I do find it hard to let go.

I don't simply one with the newer right away but make the comparisons and find out what works and doesn't before dumping the previous. While 7 was still beta I kept the old XP/Vista dual boot alive until it was found that the 32bit 7 could run the things I needed XP for! that wouldn't run on Vista due that version's compatibility gap. Likewise 8 is to many things on 7 and XP Vista was to XP!

As far as the Start button and All Programs there are ways around the need for it like having addon toolbars on the taskbar to work with and launch just about anything from there. It was the awkwardness of either bringing up the hidden Crawler bar or the Start screen to right click on the profile pic if not have created shutdown and restart shortcuts to pin somewhere being another element.

 

[sygnus21]

My take,

First, for the first time in my computing life (which for me began with Windows 95) I've skipped an OS (Windows 8). That is, Windows 8 is the only OS I've not previewed before release, nor had it installed day one upon release to general public.

Anyway from all that I've read, and seen thus far hasn't inspired me to jump from 7. However, having just recently (last week) received a free copy from my school, I'm now running it in WM mode so I can learn the darn thing.

For me, I simply hate the tile look. Sorry but I feel this is more geared towards the youngsters and hipsters than the serious users as it seems to fit the whole social media craze. And yeah, the lack of a Stat menu is excoriatingly annoying.

Now I know you can tweak the looks to your hearts desire, but that seems rather gimmicky to me. And this log in to this and that is a pain as well. To me, this is just a cell phone/tablet OS on steroids.

Despite that, if this is the future of operating systems, than we'll have to adapt and roll with the times. At any rate I'll eventually have a machine running it, though it'll be the tileless screen with the start menu button. And I'm sure I'll warm up to it as I play with it more and more, but I honestly see this more as a gimmick OS than something that would be used in the mainstream business world. I could be wrong though, but...

My two cents

 

[Night Hawk]

I think you have the general idea on how MS short changed the supposedly new Desktop? version by borrowing the MS Surface Tablet gui and slapped it over a stripped down but updated 7 core and called it 8! The concept for bringing in touchscreen support for the desktop platform is nothing new while this type change simply is not any working solution.

It was a shortcut to no end! just to make all 8s and the RT on Surface all look the same. I wouldn't consider the "way of the future" but a large fail on the MS side of things trying too hard to look pretty on the Mobile market while trashing their livelihood's main OS for the desktop platform. When you hear from another large corporation's chief gui designer about 8 being a "strategic disaster" you get the picture of how the bulk of MS business customers will be seeing a blonder rather then a wonder.

 

[sygnus21]

I wouldn't consider the "way of the future" but a large fail on the MS side of things trying too hard to look pretty on the Mobile market while trashing their livelihood's main OS for the desktop platform. When you hear from another large corporation's chief gui designer about 8 being a "strategic disaster" you get the picture of how the bulk of MS business customers will be seeing a blonder rather then a wonder.

To me 8 is an experiment yet to be finalized. The success or failure will determine where they go from there. Although, with mobile computing becoming the norm for the masses, I see an 8 type OS as the future, probably with some slight changes for the "desktop" business community.

We're moving into the next phase of computing... Mobile computing for the masses, which will require and OS to meet those needs. 8 is the opening door in that direction. A few tweaks here and there and the next version of 8 or whatever it's called should meet both "desktop" and mobile users need.

My two cents.

 

[scouser73]

A 3 year old child can run Windows 8 yet an adult can't, how did we ever get out of the Stone Age. Have these people heard of Google or Bing.

I agree, in the Internet age where search is ubiquitous, why people do not search for an answer is astounding.

 

[sygnus21]

A 3 year old child can run Windows 8 yet an adult can't, how did we ever get out of the Stone Age. Have these people heard of Google or Bing.

I agree, in the Internet age where search is ubiquitous, why people do not search for an answer is astounding.

A 3 year old child could operate a jet airplane if given the opportunity seeing they aren't filled with the biases one gains with age.

Anyway I agree with Google and such, but than why would we need forums?

Just another way of looking at things

 

[Night Hawk]

I wouldn't consider the "way of the future" but a large fail on the MS side of things trying too hard to look pretty on the Mobile market while trashing their livelihood's main OS for the desktop platform. When you hear from another large corporation's chief gui designer about 8 being a "strategic disaster" you get the picture of how the bulk of MS business customers will be seeing a blonder rather then a wonder.

To me 8 is an experiment yet to be finalized. The success or failure will determine where they go from there. Although, with mobile computing becoming the norm for the masses, I see an 8 type OS as the future, probably with some slight changes for the "desktop" business community.

We're moving into the next phase of computing... Mobile computing for the masses, which will require and OS to meet those needs. 8 is the opening door in that direction. A few tweaks here and there and the next version of 8 or whatever it's called should meet both "desktop" and mobile users need.

My two cents.

Smaller in size bur not always geared strictly for mobile is what MS should be looking at since lately some microatx boards have been seen that pack a punch along with their larger atx siblings.

I was just talking to a friend who was asking about 8 and was showed the 8 RP install on a VM here with a basic explanation of how to find different things. He had only recently bought a Dell 7 desktop with touchscreen and found he gave up fast on using touchscreen! "I have it but it's not for me!" was one remark about that.

What was interesting is that he had the MS SE running on 7 until I showed him how the 7 version not the one now included in 8 was below industry standards for things like Zero Day bugs and other flaws with web browsers. I explained how a good program with web filtering will fare far bettter in that dept. while the updated MS SE in 8 actually will find and remove malwares for a change.

He wasn't too happy about finding out the SE wasn't upto par like it should have been. Neither was he thrilled when seeing how you move around in 8 even when having Classic Shell on! "All that seems to be too complicated!" was the reaction upon a good lookover of the VM and responding with he will be staying with 7.

He's not a total noob but not a custom case builder either and drew the same conclusion "without" any opinions on what changes had been made in 8 being mentioned first. I wanted to get his own initial reaction which compares to what a good number of others have stated about how they felt.

That kind of throws away the "3yr. old can run 8" type of statement when the average user doesn't want to work hard to run the OS but find the OS is child's play to use. A 3yr. old would lost period while the grown adult gets frustrated trying to figure out the hidden this's and hidden that's especially after showing how only part of the CP is in the right click corner where the Start screen popup is also seen meshing things together to make that a bit awkward.

The "Great Experiment" MS is trying to pull off place RT on desktop simply is meeting up with the immediate negative feedback from uinswayed sources. Placing a Tablet on the desltop platform to start with wouldn't be an experiment in redesign of the desktop gui but a cheap way to avoid coming up with a newer desktop to begin with when promoting the new Tablet and having each of the new versions's edition looking the same.

For most touchscreen becomes too cumbersome in no time as the friend found for himself saying he could point and click just as fast! For a large sales presentation at company meeting or other large screen being viewed by a large group you saw touchscreen improvements realized with 7. The main problem with the desktop 8 is all too obviously not thinking ahead and developing a touchscreen for desktop but slapping the Tablet touch & swipe type gui on instead.

 

[sygnus21]

That's and interesting point of view. Anyway I wanted to address this specifically...

What was interesting is that he had the MS SE running on 7 until I showed him how the 7 version not the one now included in 8 was below industry standards for things like Zero Day bugs and other flaws with web browsers. I explained how a good program with web filtering will fare far better in that dept. while the updated MS SE in 8 actually will find and remove malwares for a change.

Hmm... I've not found an issue with MSE on 7. In fact I ran Malwarebytes just to see if it picked up anything MSE didn't, and except for a couple of false alarms (MS office 2013 files. Don't know what that was about), It found nothing, just like MSE. Now for me, I don't go willy nilly to just any website, nor do I download anything and everything. So with that I guess my virus scanner doesn't have to work extra hard in keeping me safe since I try to practice safe computing and browsing.

Oh and I didn't realize there is a separate version of MSE for Win 8. I'll have to look into it.

Thanks.

 

[Night Hawk]

There's no separate version of the MS SE for 8. Instead of downloading an updated form that works MS replaced the useless Windows Defender with the new working form of MS SE and renamed to W.D.! When first getting the 8 CP on I noticed right off with the initial scan it discovered bugs hidden away on one of the storage drives originally downloaded to try out on XP! The only other av program that could even find them was VIPRE still in use and why they are still stashed away in a folder on a separate drive is for testing the effectiveness of each program looked at.

The new form of MS SE still lacks what others like VIPRE Internet Security 2013 and other programs with web protection have to offer there. And even with web filters that block out bad sites the user can still be tricked when clicking on the wrong things! It's up to the av program to remove them only after you have disabled a bug ware's main process or processes if not using a special removal tool. The thing to watch out for more at this is fake, scam wares floating around since those are on the rise over the last few years.