What's the general consensus here of Windows 8?

**The Stig** · 2012-10-14 08:25

I'm feeling like getting a laptop at the moment. Windows 8 comes out soon. Currently, in the UK, most laptops have a "Windows 8 Upgrade" offer for £15 (approx $30), so basically you fill out a form and recieve a Windows 8 CD to upgrade your Windows 7.

As much as I want to use 8, we all know 7 is more or less perfect/optimal at the moment. I have nothing in 8 I really need to use. But the risk of waiting a bit more for Windows 8 seems high at the moment given the track record for Microsoft:

(98-awesome > me-fail > xp-awesome > vista-fail > 7-awesome > 8-fail(?))

I've not really tested it personally except at work, but that was under supervision of someone who had it installed, so I didn't get any chance to do much.

Just wondered if anyone here is thinking this is going to tank or succeed?

**Kaisha** · 2012-10-14 08:38

Couldn't hurt to fill out the form just so you have a copy of Win8 sitting there in the offchance it ends up being superior to 7 in other means a service pack or two down the road, to which you can upgrade later.

It'll probably be awhile before that happens though.

Spoiler: show

**The Stig** · 2012-10-14 08:48

Yeh I was going to fill out the form anyway if I got it now. There's one minor problem with that. Unless you seek elsewhere/3rd party, I've noticed that if your laptop has all these fancy onboard functions, driver support for it seems very limited or damn impossible to get hold of. I can't speak for all manufacturers but I noticed Dell kind of just dropped my laptop (an alienware lol) and forgot about it when Windows 7 came out.

This makes upgrade a significant risk unless you know you've got the correct drivers for everything. Still, it's just something in my mind for consideration.

I'm trying to remember if I got Win98SE or Win98 first now. It's been so so long ...

**Tajin** · 2012-10-14 08:54

I'll stick with 7 and a VM to develop metro apps.

**Niya** · 2012-10-14 10:11

Already tried Win8 out in a VM, and my personal opinion is that it will probably become a second WinVista in terms of "no one wants this sh*t...". The usage without a touch screen is just horrible, the gestures are completely different between touch and mouse and in no way logical... Plus, this "let's drop the start menu and force everyone to use metro" is the main reason why i'll never like Win8.
Read in a PC magazine that they tried out Win8 on recent laptops with the upgrade offer. Drivers aren't that much of a problem since Win8 has an even bigger built in driver database than Win7 already had. The problem is special software the manufacturers use for hotkeys or special stuff like the camera. Some of those aren't compatible (yet) with Win8 and you lose functionality when you upgrade.

If you want to, get the upgrade offer. But i'd say stick to 7 for now and see how 8 evolves. I kind of hope they realize themselves what they've done and bring back the registry switch from the first developer preview that allowed you to disable metro and bring back the start menu...

**orinthia** · 2012-10-14 11:59

I like win8 a fair bit. It does a few things better than win7; task manager, general memory usage, finally has the damn up-folder button in explorer, etc. It supported my 1-year old laptop without a hitch, everything in it worked nearly right off the bat (and that was the CP version). The only thing that I found a little annoying in the start screen is the search function being a little different from win7 and that older programs dump tons of icon into the start screen needlessly (of course, how could they not?). Other than that, and multitouch being a little odd (you move up/down with two fingers to scroll sideways with the horizontal scroll bars in metro...), had no real issue with it.

Also remember that winXP was pretty bad when it first came out. Suffered a lot of backlash from the win2k users, as 2k was much better until xp had a couple SPs and a point to even upgrade. 7 to 8 is much like 2k to xp in the early years; 8 though performs a little better than 7 off the bat, but not much reason to upgrade right now unless you like using new things.

Win7 support will be around a long while, so there's no real pressure to upgrade. For $15 it's good to go ahead and get, but double that (£15)... eh.

**Omniyoji** · 2012-10-14 12:14

The start up speed of Win 8 is pretty nice. Installed it on some old laptop and it boots pretty quickly. The new start screen is annoying as well as a few other changes but for the most part it's Win 7 with touch capabilities added... which reminds me of that upcoming yoga tabtop (Lenovo). That thing is sexy just like yoga girls <_<

**xerodok** · 2012-10-15 09:34

God tier for tablets, shit for conventional use

**bluefan** · 2012-10-15 12:34

Originally Posted by xerodok

God tier for tablets, shit for conventional use

^

Getting it on a tablet myself, but I'll skip 8 on my PCs.

**Isiolia** · 2012-10-15 13:07

I'm definitely keeping an eye on the wave of tablet PCs hitting the market along with 8, and will probably leave 8 on if/when I buy one. Though, I'm only considering the "Pro" tablets with a stylus, not Windows RT.

From what I've used of the release preview (I have the MSDN ISOs sitting here too) I'm in no rush to put it on my desktop. The internals of the OS are nice, but the mix of Start Screen/interface formerly known as Metro and the desktop just doesn't really appeal to me. Were it being released with those aspects as completely optional, I'd be upgrading. Not in the sense of "oh but you can just go to the desktop" I mean never seeing so much as a damn pixel of it, ever, without toggling an option.
As it is, I'm sticking with 7 on my primary desktop. Which may not work in the long run if Windows Runtime apps take off like MS seems to want them to.

**Seraph** · 2012-10-15 14:29

Being a power laptop user, Windows 8 offers me absolutely nothing I personally desire over Windows 7 Professional. I wanted the 192GB Ram limit to future proof my existing machine(s), otherwise I could have used a cheaper version. That doesn't mean there isnt existing shit they moved around or changed to fuck with you new features in Windows 8, but none of them impress me enough to waste a single dollar on. If the upgrade was free I might consider it since I could always roll back if the experience was that bad, but otherwise absolutely not.

**chiyio** · 2012-10-15 15:23

I actually switched my workstation at work and my home pc to 8. We had a bunch of licenses through software assurance and I just decided to dive in and figure it out. 15 min of "what the fuck", but then I figured it out. works great. runs snappier, everything works no problem. If you're not retarded it's really easy to figure out how to use correctly. Instead of a start menu, you have a start page. You'll spend 99% of the time on the "desktop" and that works and looks just like windows 7 with some nicer animations. After using it for a few weeks now, I don't get the hate at all.

and ya, that 3 second boot up time (after going through the bios screens) is nice.

Once you figure it out, you never see metro really. and you never have to run a metro app. It's a nicer looking, faster running windows 7.

**Cadsuane** · 2012-10-21 12:19

I have a windows 7 tablet PC so this upgrade is mandatory for me. Speaking of which, my advice is get a windows tablet PC.

**Caiyuo** · 2012-10-21 17:02

Is there still a lengthy preview period for new installs? I just built a new desktop and was considering trying 8.

**Obiron** · 2012-10-21 19:05

Originally Posted by Caiyuo

Is there still a lengthy preview period for new installs? I just built a new desktop and was considering trying 8.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...elease-preview

I believe the preview expires in January, so you get a couple months to try it out.

**Kerberoz** · 2012-10-22 02:06

I don't see any point in upgrading until 7 stops being compatible with new hardware/software, at which point 8 will probably be obsolete as well.

Originally Posted by chiyio

You'll spend 99% of the time on the "desktop" and that works and looks just like windows 7 with some nicer animations.

fuck that fuck that fuck that fuck that fuuuuuck that

No desktop icons, no widgets, no recycle bin, start menu tiny and vertical on secondary monitor. Can't have my shit cluttered.

**notorious bum** · 2012-10-22 02:32

Windows 8 is basically going to be forgotten, except for the niche tablet market. Shit OS that isn't user friendly to power users or casuals(people who aren't new to computers). I don't want my PC to function like a fucking cellphone, that's dumb and backwards. Are they trying to 1-up Macs with which OS can be the least customizable or personable? I'd rather bend over for Apple if I was forced to use Win8 on a new PC purchase.

**hey** · 2012-10-22 10:43

Originally Posted by Kerberoz

I don't see any point in upgrading until 7 stops being compatible with new hardware/software, at which point 8 will probably be obsolete as well.

fuck that fuck that fuck that fuck that fuuuuuck that

No desktop icons, no widgets, no recycle bin, start menu tiny and vertical on secondary monitor. Can't have my shit cluttered.

What's a desktop?

**Timwakefield** · 2012-10-22 13:08

It's kind of a shame because it has some really useful features (inherent pdf reader, storage combination, store: potentially) and some shit-tier ones (IE10, 9 million taskbars, wat). As was said, tablet OS, etc. I'll probably buy it, because the biggest step forward they made imo was dropping the absurd $199, $299, $399 pricing shit. $40 is completely reasonable for me to try it on a secondary machine.

**chiyio** · 2012-10-22 13:53

Originally Posted by Kerberoz

I don't see any point in upgrading until 7 stops being compatible with new hardware/software, at which point 8 will probably be obsolete as well.

fuck that fuck that fuck that fuck that fuuuuuck that

No desktop icons, no widgets, no recycle bin, start menu tiny and vertical on secondary monitor. Can't have my shit cluttered.

.... I don't think you're understanding how it works at all. You could set it up basically exactly as how you have it now.

There's nothing stopping you from using it exactly like windows 7 if that's what you want. What are you saying fuck to exactly?

maybe you're not understanding what I mean by desktop. In windows 8, the "desktop" takes you to what basically looks and acts exactly like the whole windows 7 gui, but a bit snappier and with nicer animations for task manager (actually, the task manager is MUCH better, with way more information), file copy, etc.

Where are you getting all these desktop icons and widgets from?

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