Windows 8 Update, Start button is back

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Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 3:41 pm

Microsoft seem to be having problems or is it for more publicity. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 6:00 pm

Quote:

In the first six months since its release, 100 million licences to use Windows 8 were issued - on the face of it, this isn't a disastrous performance, although licences issued doesn't necessarily translate directly into copies of Windows 8 sold

Always believe any story that uses '100 million' as an amount.......

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:11 pm

I've had direct experience dealing with Win8 through Senior Net here. It is the Edsel of all Programmes, the clunker of OS, a total mish mash of different ideas that separately work well, but not together. It makes Millenium look almost user friendly

I miss win 98 already

Very Happy

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 10:23 pm

^^^ Can I just keep XP????

Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 11:44 pm

Maybe it will go the way of the Bison er I mean Vista! I hung onto a 98 machine (at work) for years and finally settled into XP but then things went very wrong.

Oh well....

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 12:36 am

Is it as bad as Windows ME? Is that possible?

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 12:40 am

For serious high end CAD work 7pro is the weapon of choice now. 8 is not even considered to any extent.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

I hate to be that guy, but when will you people learn?

click

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 4:13 am

In a year or two will come Windows 9 and then in another year or two after will Windows 10 come out et cetera.

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 5:35 am

I'm also hanging on to xp, and fear the day that my system crashes. Is Linux faster then windows?

Baiting Guru Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Posts: 21158

I still have a couple of 95s. I think one even has the old 3.0 or something to that effect. I have all 95, 98, xp, me discs. I have the Vista for this machine. I don't think I even have the proper formatting discs for the older ones now. My floppies all kind of went kaput.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

the vampire wrote:

Is Linux faster then windows?

The answer is, it depends.

Linux is great on older machines. If one were to try a new version of Windows on a machine built when XP came out, I would say Linux has a huge advantage. Linux has many different distributions, from processor/graphics heavy to very light ones. You can pick one that matches your needs and/or machine.

Take for example Puppy Linux. The entire operating system is ~100 MB, compare that to Windows 7, tipping the scales at around 2.3 GB. Puppy will run entirely in RAM, making it damn fast.

Here is a pretty comprehensive list of the more popular distros out there. http://distrowatch.com/ The fact that there are so many 'flavors' of Linux out there can make it daunting but just think of it as Windows, with a ton of custom versions.

The fun is that you can try any of these out for the cost of a CD or DVD. You burn the .iso on your media of choice (even a usb stick) and boot the OS without touching whatever you have installed and give it a test drive.

I run Linux Mint on a ~6 year old machine and it runs fantastic.

Did I mention that you normally need no anti-virus or other anti-nasty protection. To get a virus/nasty on a Linux box you really have to try hard. There some out there, but they are few and far between. I have never had a problem, and I've visited some dangerous sites.

Edit: spelling

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 8:44 am

Vector is nice too. It's Slackware based so pretty minimal but very quick. Ubuntu is easy to live with and very capable. There are many choices in between but I'd say try Ubuntu as a first choice. It will guide you through all the steps quite nicely plus its Debian based, so lots of neat software to play with.

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 3:55 pm

I knew Microsoft read Eater Very Happy

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10882258

" Part of the problem is that Windows 8 tries to be all things to all people. It's designed to respond to touch-screen controls, but it also works with traditional mouse and keyboard commands. It offers a new layout that resembles tablet computers, but it also has a desktop mode that looks like previous versions of Windows. What results is confusion.

In addition, many of the controls to launch programs and change settings have been tucked away. That gives Windows 8 a cleaner look, but it also requires people to do more work finding all the controls.

Microsoft isn't saying much about what the new Windows 8 will have. Nor will it say whether it will charge for the upgrade."

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 4:13 pm

Wifey had a new laptop with Windows 8, took me 5 minutes to find out how to turn the damn thing off.
Mouse over right hand corner, click on settings, then power then shut down.
£5 says we get the start button back in the upgrade.

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 4:46 pm

I have Win 8. When I got it, I spent the first 4 days banging my head into the wall, but then I figured out how to work around all the 8-ish stuff, and now, it's just plain old Windows with an inconvenient start button. It's actually faster than Win7, and he startup is the smoothest I've ever had.

And no matter what you do, do not download Skype's version Win8, get the desktop version instead for GODS sake. Those damn new "apps" will drive a good man bad in no time.

Posted: Wed May 08, 2013 5:41 pm

I dual boot Win 7 and Win 8 (for when I fancy a change) on the Win 8 I have installed a Win 7 Start Menu which makes it easier to navigate.

Hey and for the record I thought ME was not too bad an O/S... Laughing

Also tried Linux but I am kind of set in my ways and I like Win 7

Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 1:58 am

Windows tried to make their OS an Android platform...that's the impression I get.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

I have had Win 8 for quite a while (have a friend who works for MS so always get exposed to the latest toy). It is uncomfortable for about a week and then it is actually quite intuitive. I think it's best for tablets and consumer use. As mentioned, you can use the desktop mode if you want to just concentrate on running a business machine. The Apps are hit or miss and there simply aren't enough.

That said, the Win 8 Mobile is a pure delight (again, with the caveat that the app selection needs to catch up). The live tiles are awesome and the whole layout is just very pleasing. I don't miss my Android at all.

But I can see why enterprises would be loathe to switch from Win 7. Remember, most businesses stick with their heritage OS for several years. Even if Win 8 was the bees knees, does it justify the expense and time spent training to upgrade your entire office?

Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 1:55 pm

^^^ Where I'm currently working (major UK bank) we're only just starting to make the transition to Windows 7

Posted: Wed May 15, 2013 12:24 pm

sunshine wrote:

^^^ Where I'm currently working (major UK bank) we're only just starting to make the transition to Windows 7

Barrister at Barclays?

Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 10:37 am

Start button is back.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22714048

419Eater is my life Joined: 18 Jan 2010 Posts: 357

In terms of linux flavors, I personally like Debian, or, believe it or not, an hd install of knoppix(just never ever try to update it lol reinstall a new version instead or it can be a real headache).
Linux, although a great OS, just doesn't have enough corporate supoprt. Great community, yes, no question. But not nearly enough of the apps and drivers I need, and the high learning curve is also very off putting.
As for windows, I'm a fan, always have been. I certainly agree they have stumbled here and there, but as a whole I think they're the best game in town and have been for quite a while. Easy to use but with lots of power under the hood should you care to open it up and have a peak. I do think legacy support has held them back a little, but it's better than the alternative of just saying screw legacy devices(cough....Apple...cough). But I think I digress....Windows 8 is not great, but not nearly as bad as a lot of people seem to think. It took me about 1-2 hours of reading and playing with settings to get where I never needed their special apps or metro interface again. The version I tried did, however, still lack some support for things I needed to work, so I will stick with win7ult for a while yet until that gets ironed out.
Let's give Microsoft some credit though...the upgrade will be free unlike some other OS(cough...Apple...cough...how many times do I have to pay for OSX? -_-) and in addition to that, they have, at least, listened to their customers and are trying to give us something closer to what we want with the new update too(or say they say...guess we'll see).
Anyhoo, I think I got off on a few tangents, but that's my 3 cents lol

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

^ I hope I didn't give the impression that I was disrespecting Windows. Great OS for those that it works for. I was just trying to point out an alternative. Let's all be friends and hate OSX together!

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 11:30 am

Then there is Office 365, one year licence for up to 5 machines, but is only going to work for the 1 year.
But it is a lot cheaper than 1 x Office 2013 licence, however, reading the small print, you have to have Windows 8 to make it work. (can use Windows 7)
My PC is still Vista, and it appears that more than half the bloatware I have on it, won't make the transition to Windows 8. (which is £99 to buy)

We only bought Office365 as there is a memory issue when trying to process a lot of iterations in one go.
Office 365 cures that.

Does it? bo**ocks it does.

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