What is the verdict on Windows 8?

briansun1 said:

nope... this

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Is that actually a Centronics port on the motherboard!?

briansun1 said:

nope... this

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I wish I had such a gizmo to enable use of my beautiful Sun Sparc type 5 keyboard with a PC.

Proxish said:

Only reading the initial question, my opinion of Windows 8 in brief is.

Do not install this system unless you have a Quad Core system and an SSD.
I run this on both the system specified in my signature, and on my Acer Aspire 5742. The laptop is fast, but apps are incredibly slow, to the point of not bothering to even use them.

It is however a great operating system, but if you don't really know your way around a Windows OS, then you are best to avoid it until service pack 1.
Many games do not work on the system. It has an hour learning curve and an hour tweaking curve to get it to work to your hearts desire. After that it is smooth sailing.

In conclusion: Upgrade to Windows 8 if you have a Quad Core system, SSD and are capable of modifying files to play certain games.

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For those only reading this post, parts can be interpreted as correct or as incorrect as if they were said about Windows 7.

Windows 8, for all intense an purposes of an experienced user IS Windows 7. It has no more or less requirements than Windows 7 and its problematic Metro interface can be disabled in seconds using FREEWARE:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/ You therefore do not have to spend any time learning Windows 8, the freeware converts it to Windows 7. As a bonus you have the option to bring up the Windows 8 interface if you want.


So if your hardware can run Windows 7, it will run Windows 8 just as well. Also, there probably will not be any Service Packs. There probably will be Windows 9 and so forth. We don't know that yet for sure however, that's what it looks like now. The poster should start a thread about his specific problems, people will probably help him diagnose whatever is making his system sluggish.

Betsy601 said:

edited by mbentley; quoted a cookie stuffer

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I cant see your images.

Win 8 allows all the memory you could want. Also seems to play nicer with the memory. So well worth it for me.

c627627 said:

For those only reading this post, parts can be interpreted as correct or as incorrect as if they were said about Windows 7.

Windows 8, for all intense an purposes of an experienced user IS Windows 7. It has no more or less requirements than Windows 7 and its problematic Metro interface can be disabled in seconds using FREEWARE:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/files/ You therefore do not have to spend any time learning Windows 8, the freeware converts it to Windows 7. As a bonus you have the option to bring up the Windows 8 interface if you want.


So if your hardware can run Windows 7, it will run Windows 8 just as well. Also, there probably will not be any Service Packs. There probably will be Windows 9 and so forth. We don't know that yet for sure however, that's what it looks like now. The poster should start a thread about his specific problems, people will probably help him diagnose whatever is making his system sluggish.

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I was unaware of the freeware. That does sound quite interesting, I may use that in the future.

Would be pretty unbelivable if they didn't release a service pack, what with all the updates they have released, and all the software compatibility problems that are still encountered today...
But then again, it is Microsoft and they revel in our misery lol.

Proxish said:

I was unaware of the freeware. That does sound quite interesting, I may use that in the future.

Would be pretty unbelivable if they didn't release a service pack, what with all the updates they have released, and all the software compatibility problems that are still encountered today...
But then again, it is Microsoft and they revel in our misery lol.

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that...

Proxish said:

I was unaware of the freeware. That does sound quite interesting, I may use that in the future.

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If when you pressed on the power button to power your computer and it booted into Windows 7-looking Desktop complete with its Start Menu, all other complaints would be addressed as user errors because essentially for the most part, Windows 8 IS Windows 7.

Well, Windows 7 PLUS extras.

Click here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7428619&postcount=78

c627627 said:

Well, Windows 7 PLUS extrasannoyances.

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So we can make it look like the "standard" Windows with a little bit of extra effort, but we can still choose to be masochists and use "Metro".
We get a pretty little graph on the file copy dialog. (The transfer rates and items remaining are already there in Windows 7, it just doesn't have a useless animation).
We supposedly get a few seconds faster boot, though there are plenty of ways to shave a second or two off of Windows 7 (disabling the flag animation, and disabling multi-user mode).

Again, I ask, point out a WORTHWHILE extra, and don't evade with the "I'm not telling people to upgrade from already installed Windows 7" spiel, because I still don't see why I'd want it on a new machine, either.

EDIT: I should've also said don't evade with the "I'm not going to copy and paste everything" spiel, since you just used that, and there's all of one post with three bullet points that I see in this thread worth copying and pasting, and one of those points is a feature that's already in 7, anyway.

We've established that there is no "worthwhile" extra.


If you put Windows 8 on a new machine, you will have to loose 10 seconds of your life installing Classic Shell freeware. Those few seconds of time to install Classic Shell is the only CON I can think of. Compatibility should not be.


I agree with the term "masochist" you used. I did not complete my Windows 8 install for quite some time just to test the Windows 8 Metro interface fully. That's what it feels like using it I agree. But Classic Shell removes the dreaded Metro, while keeping it as an option for possible future needs (which do not exist now).


We went over what the minor extras are several times in this thread, I can copy-paste again to address the question but again, NONE of the extras are worthwhile upgrading from Windows 7. Only if installing from scratch, I ask, WHY would you go with Windows 7 if the only CON of Windows 8 is installing Classic Shell? It will take you less time to install Classic Shell than it takes you to compose a single post in this thread.


The slate is wiped clean when you are facing a new install. It is up to someone else to give reasons why to abandon Windows 7 for Windows 8. You shouldn't abandon Windows 7 to switch. But is it is up to the new installer to give reasons why not go with Windows 8. They should install Windows 8 on new installs. What other reason, besides spending few seconds to install Classic Shell is there to not do it?

So we have a net negative for 8, and zero for 7. Why shouldn't we choose what is better? That is what I am asking you. You're a die-hard promoter of something that you admit is worse than the alternative, and that makes no sense.

Rather than copy-pasting the + options of Windows 8 not found in Windows 7, only to get a "that's not a + for me, give me a + for me!" how about a new one:

At some point in the future the original builder of the new machine / or their relative / friend / son / daughter will click on Windows Update only to find Windows 7 has reached End Of Life status - no more Windows Updates.


When they ask the original builder, "why did you not install Windows 8, I could have had at least 3 extra years of Windows Updates," the original installer would explain how how they didn't want to spend extra 5 seconds installing Classic Shell. At that point, whoever is using that machine may or may not think how that was a foolish decision.





However many +'s Windows 8 has, there will always be someone who'll say it's not a big deal and "I don't need that." And that makes perfect sense until you have an EQUAL choice b/w the two and you are then, for some reason, deciding to give up these small things whose price is 5 seconds of time installing Classic Shell. I am simply saying that does not make sense.

according to this Windows 7 get's extended support till 2020..yeah i know it's wikipedia but
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

by 2020 there will probably be another couple of editions of windows after 8.

I don't know if it's been mentioned. But Windows 8 does have the use of Apps, which I have found incredibly useful in a few areas. The Steam App is absolutely beautiful.
But like I have said previously, apps are almost un-usable without a SSD.

SSD is always recommended for OS partition since they are so inexpensive just to install Windows on. But modern fast mechanical hard drives can handle those Apps too. Your problem is not SSD related.

95blackz26 said:

according to this Windows 7 get's extended support till 2020..yeah i know it's wikipedia but
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7

by 2020 there will probably be another couple of editions of windows after 8.

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I have a few dual boot Windows 2000/XP machines in the family. While Windows 2000 is End Of Life -- Windows XP is good until Windows 9 comes out. And those are machines made more than 10 years ago. Perfectly fine for young'uns, grandparents, perfectly fine for everything they do.


I taught them not to save anything to C drive so they can reboot from one OS into the other and reimage it whenever something goes wrong - a permanent solution to everything that ever may go wrong. And their 10+ year old systems will get updates for a while still.

Today I was transferring large number of files to a laptop, many tens of GB.


File transfer had another 14 minutes to go after running for multiple hours. I was leaving for a few hours and I had other large transfers to make.


Option 1: Start multiple transfers which would slow the transfer time to a crawl as anyone trying to do multiple copy-paste operations on a slow laptop HD knows.

Option 2: PAUSE the file transfer with 14 minutes to go. Start the new transfer.



After a few hours I came back and the second transfer only had 5 minutes to go. I waited 5 minutes then UNPAUSED the original transfer. 14 minutes later it was finished too.


This is a true story that just happened. If I was using Windows 7, that would be extra few hours right there. Or spend time file comparing etc. COPY PAUSE was Windows 8 feature I thought was good but not "worthwhile". Well it was worthwhile today.

c627627 said:

Today I was transferring large number of files to a laptop, many tens of GB.


File transfer had another 14 minutes to go after running for multiple hours. I was leaving for a few hours and I had other large transfers to make.


Option 1: Start multiple transfers which would slow the transfer time to a crawl as anyone trying to do multiple copy-paste operations on a slow laptop HD knows.

Option 2: PAUSE the file transfer with 14 minutes to go. Start the new transfer.



After a few hours I came back and the second transfer only had 5 minutes to go. I waited 5 minutes then UNPAUSED the original transfer. 14 minutes later it was finished too.


This is a true story that just happened. If I was using Windows 7, that would be extra few hours right there. Or spend time file comparing etc. COPY PAUSE was Windows 8 feature I thought was good but not "worthwhile". Well it was worthwhile today.

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QCopy - for Windows 7

Rather than copying and pasting all the... Oh, wait. Somebody already said that.

Aha So it's ok to spend time installing QCopy instead of just simply slapping Classic Shell over Windows 8 in 5 seconds?

c627627 said:

Aha So it's ok to spend time installing QCopy instead of just simply slapping Classic Shell over Windows 8 in 5 seconds?

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Aha. So it's okay to admit your argument has been flawed since the beginning.

Your supposed features that Windows 8 is worth spending 5 seconds to install Classic Shell can be had with 5 seconds in Windows 7.

If there are any improvements in Win 8 over Win 7 on the desktop they are, at best, hidden. Unless you are a fan of the Metro GUI. All in all, any improvements are, more or less, balanced off by the advantages Win 7 has over Win 8. In the end, the net result is about the same. This is my opinion only.