What is the verdict on Windows 8?

[c627627]

5 second Classic Shell gives us the entire set of Windows 8 extras whereas they may or may not be available on Windows 7 per each individual example.


Remember, the question is should we here on the forums choose b/w 7 or 8 for a new install, if we had both discs costing equal $ in front of us?

There is nothing flawed about taking 5 seconds to turn Windows 8 into Windows 7, it's less time than it takes to reply to single post here.

 

[c627627]

advantages Win 7 has over Win 8.

After Classic Shell is installed on Windows 8, what advantage does 7 have over it?

 

[neo668]

After Classic Shell is installed on Windows 8, what advantage does 7 have over it?

I don't know about others but I have encountered problems with Win 8. I have 3 computers at home, 2 of which I tried to migrate to Win 8. In the end I had to revert all of them back to Win 7. I just feel Win 7 works better for me. I couldn't see any advantages with Win 8 when I used it on my main home computer. Granted, it did look nicer.

 

[c627627]

I understand you had upgrade problems. I would not take the time and risk to upgrade from Win7 to Win8. Installing it on a separate partition while leaving Win7 in tact and then dual boot is what I would do if possible.

If I tried to do that and if I had problems then I would ditch Win 8 too. But there is no experience on my Win7 partition that I can't replicate on my Win8. It's exactly the same from the moment I press the power button. I never see Metro, nor does anything else pop up.

 

[neo668]

I have a Win 8 HDD (Win 7, my main OS, is on my SSD) on my main home computer. I seldom use it unless I need to secure erase my SSD, install new SSD FW or reimage the SSD. In the end, ppl should just stick to what they are comfortable with. For me, I can't really see any obvious advantages of Win 8 over Win 7.

PS

Just now I booted into Win 8 to have some "fun" and immediately re-discovered a problem I had with Win 8. When I try to open a Favorites Group in Tab Group, only a few websites would open fully. I think out of 22 websites in the group, only 6 or 7 sites would open normally while the rest are only blank pages. Just saying.

 

[c627627]

I agree that people should use whatever they are comfortable with. Main reason against Windows 8 is not Metro, as it can be quickly removed, it is any compatibility problems.

The thing with that is that these appear to be individual user problems. Can problem X be replicated on every or most machines running the same OS? If not, then we can go down the list of every thread in this forum and start attributing individual problems to the OS. Windows 8 hasn't been out long enough to have as many probs as Windows 7 of the nature you describe, but that's not the point, if others can run program X and someone else cannot -- does that mean that program X is not compatible or has a problem with Windows 8? Or does it mean individual system problem?

Most complains are against Metro, not issues which can be replicated.

 

[petteyg359]

After Classic Shell is installed on Windows 8, what advantage does 7 have over it?

After QCopy or equivalent is installed on Windows 7, what advantage does 8 have over it?

The difference here is that one works from beginning, and you can add the features to it if you want them, while the other is broken from the beginning.

Should I pick a pre-installed OS with bloatware, just because it includes one program I want, since I can just uninstall the rest, or should I pick a clean install and then install that one program myself?

 

[c627627]

So just because you [there is nothing personal about this, so let's use the word someone] just because someone has no touch screen, does that mean no one else does, and no one else needs or wants to use touch screen monitors and devices?

Just because someone doesn't bench or wants to shave off every single second off of their boot time, does that mean no one else should have that option?

Just because someone doesn't have a large screen Plasma TV in addition to their PC monitor connected to their PC, does that mean no one else does?

Just because some doesn't like a single Metro App, does that mean a good one will NEVER be available or that someone else doesn't like an app or two?


Microsoft claims RAM and CPU advantages, what of that is true? Just because it's 'good enough' without them, does that mean everyone else should not take advantage of that, if it is free and they have an equal choice?


Just because someone doesn't even know what Hyper-V and Windows-To-Go, NFC is, does that mean no one else has use for them?


How many other features are there that can be labeled as 'useless'... while forgetting to say 'useless for me.'

 

[JimmyG]

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.

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.

I work for a government contractor. All (except a very few) of the PCs in use are still running XP. The reason given by our IT provider is numerous commercial applications that run on XP will not run on Win 7. Heaven forbid that they upgrade to Win 8. We are told that in spite of all of these excuses, our IT department plans to upgrade to Win 7 this month. So far it is nowhere in sight. By the way, my organization has a home grown state of the art application that will only run on Win 7 (I don't know if it will run on Win 8). So, we have a few computers with Win 7 on them to run this application. The consequences encountered are a handfull of incompatibilities of Win 7 with existing applications in the XP environment. There are clearly consequences from changing operating systems.

 

[c627627]

Windows XP is supported with updates until 2H 2014. It would be a HUGE expense to abandon Windows XP for a large organization. The cost in most cases is not justified. A lot of them will keep using Windows XP into 2015 and later without updates.

From the cost perspective of update availability, Windows 8 will last at least 3 years longer than Windows 7.


But most employees would not be happy if a large company installs Windows 8 without disabling Metro. It would negatively affect their productivity. I never understood people using the term "getting used to it." If Metro takes longer to accomplish common tasks then that is not "getting used to it" that is reducing productivity.

Can Classic Shell be used by large organizations as freeware?

 

[cullam3n]

I work for a government contractor. All (except a very few) of the PCs in use are still running XP. The reason given by our IT provider is numerous commercial applications that run on XP will not run on Win 7. Heaven forbid that they upgrade to Win 8. We are told that in spite of all of these excuses, our IT department plans to upgrade to Win 7 this month. So far it is nowhere in sight. By the way, my organization has a home grown state of the art application that will only run on Win 7 (I don't know if it will run on Win 8). So, we have a few computers with Win 7 on them to run this application. The consequences encountered are a handfull of incompatibilities of Win 7 with existing applications in the XP environment. There are clearly consequences from changing operating systems.

I can believe it. Even though DISA is already pushing for a Windows 8 SDC across DoD, I still see computers (on several different networks) frequently on XP SP3. I think the more specialized the industry, the worse they are at upgrading since they don't want to lose critical functionality. Medical networks are among the worst when it comes testing software compatibility to upgrade their OS and patches. If it works, they don't want to touch it. Financial institutions are also a runner-up.

Personally I haven't run into any compatibility issues on my Windows 8 laptop with any software I use. Like I've said before, I'm not sure if I would upgrade from Win7 to Win8, but I wouldn't have an issue going from XP or Vista to Win8 for home use.

 

[briansun1]

um can you say that in layman terms?

 

[goose90proof]

I don't like it; therefore, it is bad. And don't you dare bring your logic in here!

 

[briansun1]

yea I got that part... but not alll the abbreviations

 

[cullam3n]

um can you say that in layman terms?

Basically the Department of Defense is already looking into a workstation standard for Windows 8, so it can be implemented on a variety of workstations. However there are still plenty of computers within the DoD that are not even on Windows 7 yet; I've seen plenty still running XP.

DISA = Defense Information Systems Agency, an agency under DoD responsible for all long haul communications and internet access points for all of the Department of Defense, among other things.

 

[goose90proof]

In all seriousness, it's not that bad. We use it at work to QA test products, so I've got to play with it extensively, but personally, I like Windows 7 better. I know where everything is.

 

[wingman99]

I like windows 7 because I don't know where everything is however if i need to find something I can vary easy with seamless navigation.

 

[neo668]

Heard that Windows Blue will be out soon. Wonder if I will have to pay again to upgrade from my already paid version of Windows 8?

 

[briansun1]

probably... read my sig...

 

[Culbrelai]

I can believe it. Even though DISA is already pushing for a Windows 8 SDC across DoD, I still see computers (on several different networks) frequently on XP SP3. I think the more specialized the industry, the worse they are at upgrading since they don't want to lose critical functionality. Medical networks are among the worst when it comes testing software compatibility to upgrade their OS and patches. If it works, they don't want to touch it. Financial institutions are also a runner-up.

Personally I haven't run into any compatibility issues on my Windows 8 laptop with any software I use. Like I've said before, I'm not sure if I would upgrade from Win7 to Win8, but I wouldn't have an issue going from XP or Vista to Win8 for home use.

The DoD really uses Windows systems? That's hysterical, you'd think they'd get their whacky hackers to create their own, custom OS, with better security (similar to the reason why they used to use BlackBerrys, due to better security)

But XP is full of security holes with all of its updates, and it will be full of it without updates. I don't really know why updates matter really that much, when a good firewall can plug those holes without breaking a sweat.