Windows 8

[Xellos-_^]

form all the reviews here and elsewhere. if you are using a pc, stick with win7. But if you are using a tablet try win8. since 2in8 is specific design for a tablet but will take some time getting use to since it a rebuilt form the ground up.

ps, any word on how much the windows tablet will cost?

[Random32]

The promo has been running for a pretty long time. $15 upgrade sorta makes sense when the promo started in June, but for back to school season, I think that free upgrade would be much better.

As for upgrades from 7. I'm upgrading my X220 as soon as Lenovo finishes the Windows 8 drivers for it. Desktop got a couple of minor improvements even though the main focus was Metro, faster boot up, longer battery life, totally worth my $40.

[monster]

I read that you can also buy an upgrade version of Windows 8 for ~$40 until the end of January of 2013.

[monster]

Windows 8 has been Released to Manufacturing.

People will be able get Windows 8 starting on October 26th either by upgrading for $39.99 or on a new PC or device. And if you buy an eligible Windows 7 PC today, you will be able to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (U.S.) through the Windows Upgrade Offer.

However, we have a number of programs that provides various audiences early access to the Windows 8 RTM code to help prepare for Windows 8 as it enters the marketplace this fall:
•August 15th: Developers will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via your MSDN subscriptions.
•August 15th: IT professionals testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through your TechNet subscriptions.
•August 16th: Customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC), allowing you to test, pilot and begin adopting Windows 8 Enterprise within your organization.
•August 16th: Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Windows 8.
•August 20th: Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to Windows 8.
•September 1st: Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers.

Please note: if a program you are in is not mentioned, please be patient as dates for Windows 8 RTM code availability for other programs will be communicated when the information becomes available.

[Vexx]

Yeah... I'll be on that August 15th release. Now to decide what poor device gets saddled with it while I start figuring out whether any of my clients can use it without it destroying their mission critical apps.

(that's the most common problem with any Windows upgrade -- business apps breaking)

As for the rest ... probably buying another 3-pack of win7 oem just to make sure I'm covered til win8 SP2 clears the gate (that's a long running Microsoft gag for the humor-impaired, never put a new OS in important devices til SP2 unless you're a cannon-fodder early adopter)

[monster]

Windows 8 tutorial from Microsoft for the RTM version:

[SeijiSensei]

Yawn.

Posted from my Kubuntu 12.04 machine.

[npal]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Yawn.

Posted from my Kubuntu 12.04 machine.

And I suppose your bored Kubuntu can play ALL my windows games?

[Dhomochevsky]

Windows 7 can play ALL your Windows games.

[npal]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Windows 7 can play ALL your Windows games.

True, but the desktop under the hood improvements in Windows 8 with a price tag of 40 dollars are kinda hard to ignore xP The only real serious issue I have is the retarded Asus Xonar D2 non-existent drivers, although the Win7 drivers seem to work in compatibility mode in Win8.

Plus I was remarking on the Kubuntu part :P

[SeijiSensei]

I don't play games on a computer; I have a PS3 for that. I've also gotten pretty bored with gaming in the past year or so as well. Among my age peers, I'm the only one I know who plays videogames on any platform.

What is it with you guys that it's always about gaming? You do realize that many, many people use computers every day and rarely if ever play games on them other than things like solitaire, right?

How about, e.g., your parents? How many hours a week do they spend playing PC games? How many hours do they spend using a computer? What do they do on a computer that they really, truly need Windows for? I fire up my VirtualBox VM with Win7 in it about one every couple of months to do a few database-related activities with MS Access. Other than that I use Linux for everything.

[npal]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I don't play games on a computer; I have a PS3 for that. I've also gotten pretty bored with gaming in the past year or so as well.

What is it with you guys that it's always about gaming? You do realize that many, many people use computers every day and rarely if ever play games on them other than things like solitaire, right?

How about, e.g., your parents? How many hours a week do they spend playing PC games? How many hours do they spend using a computer? What do they do on a computer that they really, truly need Windows for? I fire up my VirtualBox VM with Win7 in it about one every couple of months to do a few database-related activities with MS Access. Other than that I use Linux for everything.

My parents hardly use a pc :P

I'm a PC gamer so Linux is not an option for me, although I've been trying ubuntu whenever one of my disks is free. Then, the driver support is abysmal. I pay for a dedicated sound card, and all I get in Ubuntu is at best a 7.1 basic stereo replication while I get DTS and Dolby support on Windows.

You're basically preaching to the wrong crowd, I don't have much against Linux in general, but every time I try it, it doesn't fulfill my needs and that also includes PC gaming. Even if I played no game on Windows for years, I want my options open. I'm not about to have something as main OS when it can't do what I'm already doing on another OS. I certainly won't bother VMing or dual booting if I'm going to spend more time in the VM OS. I've tried dual booting in the past. It's basically pointless. Why dual boot when an OS already does whatever I want it to do? The only thing I miss from Ubuntu is that it boots really fast and has that centralized software manager with a crapload of free applications. Oh, and some neat 3D effects I recall. But other than that, I'd rather keep using Windows as main for now.

[Dhomochevsky]

The games argument is just a subset of the general software/hardware support issue.
And that is a valid one.

Windows, by it's market share, forces every hardware and software developer to support it. On Linux, even slightly odd hardware choices can get you in trouble.
Software is not such a big problem, with the huge amount of OSS available, unless you are forced into a certain product for some reason. Then you're screwed.

And the one thing I personally hate about desktop Linux is, that they don't distinguish between security updates/bugfixes and feature updates. You run the upgrade and all kinds of things break all the time.
I haven't had a single Ubuntu, that survived more than one version upgrade without cippling itself.
For example, right now my HTPC, which is running XBMC on top of Mint can only manage to get 1Mbit/s halfduplex over a perfectly fine Gigabit network, because support of a driver, that was working fine 3 versions ago broke some time in between. That's not even enough for streaming anime, so even though I have an NAS, I'm now stuck with watching off USB sticks again.
I invested several days already and couldn't fix it yet. Something like this ALWAYS happens, even with minor updates. Before that, it was HDMI audio support and before that it was some weird flag, that stopped the machine from booting all together. All popped up after updating a working machine.
I'm as computer literate as I could possibly be without becoming a Linux kernel hacker, but this is just something I can't be bothered to put up with anymore.
I don't want to imagine what happend if more people in my periphery used Linux. I would have to constantly run around and troubleshoot their broken machines...

[SeijiSensei]

I'm not here to preach....

Canonical certainly differentiates between security updates and other updates. You can configure your Ubuntu installation to only take security updates and ignore the rest. If you want stability, you can use the LTS versions of Ubuntu like the current 12.04. If you want something really stable, use Debian or CentOS.

In my over fifteen years of using Linux the only devices that I cannot get to work with Linux are an HP scanner that someone gave me and my cell phones that won't mount as USB mass storage (Bluetooth works fine). I generally stick to vanilla machines and never have the problems you report. My NVIDIA card works just fine as does all my networking hardware. I'm careful to check on Linux compatability before I buy a device like a wifi adapter. The last one I purchased uses the well-supported Atheros chip.

Here's a list of the major things I use a PC for, all of which I can do in Linux without a problem -- browse the web, use email, write code, build and manage SQL databases, edit graphics, use spreadsheets and word processors, listen/watch local and streaming media, run Windows in a VM. That leaves aside the (virtual) machines I have running as servers handling web, mail, DNS, and SQL. I'm sure there are others if I thought hard enough.

[monster]

Having used several more current Linux-based operating systems as my main operating system in the recent past, I think they could fill many people's daily need for a desktop/laptop operating system. They have certainly come a long way in 20 years.

That said, this doesn't really have anything to do with this thread, which is supposed to be about Windows 8.

[felix]

Originally Posted by monster

Having used several more current Linux-based operating systems as my main operating system in the recent past, I think they could fill many people's daily need for a desktop/laptop operating system. They have certainly come a long way in 20 years.

That said, this doesn't really have anything to do with this thread, which is supposed to be about Windows 8.

This argument is completely irrelevant these days. There are a million and one options to do anything. People don't care. They don't want a program that kind-of-does-the-thing, they just want the best. And the best is on windows and macs at the moment. See the problem? To make things worse, the linux community continuesly shoots itself in the foot by calling everything they do "kind of like [...]" instead of "the best way to do [...]"

As for the average joe, they want familiarity, forgiving interface, and ease of use, yet another domain linux ignores, and linux community isn't good at.

[SeijiSensei]

Actually, these days, many people just want a tablet. We're moving quickly into a world where most computer users are largely consumers of content rather than producers.

[felix]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Actually, these days, many people just want a tablet. We're moving quickly into a world where most computer users are largely consumers of content rather than producers.

True enough.

[monster]

Originally Posted by felix

This argument is completely irrelevant these days.

It's not an argument on my part, merely a statement of observation.

[RRW]

YouTube

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