More Than 3 Out of 4 Enthusiasts Reject Windows 8

bobafetthotmail · 04 Aug 2013

They still think like the biggest fish in the pond. No more the case. And their pond is shrinking.

ICIT2LOL · 04 Aug 2013

Well back OT I have been using 8 on my main laptop for about tow months now and with the startup menu in 7 style I have the best of both worlds - speed and access.

The speed is just incredible and I am just about to try it out on the Sandy Bridge if the performance on the laptop is anything to go by I should be able to boot in 5 secs and shut down in less than one!

whs · 04 Aug 2013

John, be careful, you are liable to get whiplash.

SIW2 · 04 Aug 2013

If you are looking for speed, try Ubuntu - mint or mate. WHS has a video to show how much faster it is than 8.

I can't notice any difference in speed between 7 and 8 on my machine. 8 will boot faster than 7 using hybrid, much slower than 7 without it. No speed increase anywhere else that I can tell.

gregrocker · 04 Aug 2013

I agree. I once thought 8 was faster with Metro toggled off and not loaded into RAM by Windows 7 Start Menu for Windows 8 however I see no speed difference now and neither does anyone else I know who's stuck with it.

I notice the Big Box stores are removing all reference to Win8 as a feature or component in their Sunday ads, yet several have big banners offering "Windows 7" in the specs. Win7 is as surely a remedy for Win8 as it was for Vista. Just give us SP2 beta so we can check your work here at Win7's home.

Several more touchscreen PC's are showing up in Best Buy and Staples which seem nice at first touch, but after comparison with mouse I see no appreciable benefit to touch screen PC's since it takes your hand away from keyboard or mouse in a way that interrupts your work almost as badly as the Wall of Buttons guillotine slamming down on your work.

PaulGo · 04 Aug 2013

My Windows 8.1 Preview

My advice? Stay far, far away.

By John C. Dvorak

I installed Windows 8.1 preview edition and now I wonder why everyone is agog over the update. The changes are quite minor and actually reemphasize the psychotic nature of the OS.

...In my opinion, this GUI is not healthy. And as regular readers know, I've been struggling over the past couple of years trying to pin down all the problems I have with Windows 8. When Windows 8.1 was rolled out it was supposed to fix the awkwardness of Windows 8, but it's made it more schizoid, not less.

My Windows 8.1 Preview | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Night Hawk · 04 Aug 2013

lehnerus2000 said:

Dallas 7 said:

Agreed. In fact, I'm not sure they took ANYTHING into consideration.
MS believes their plan had to be right because they thought of it. No facts, just ego.
If they tell us to abandon our desktops and switch over to tablets and touch screens, we'll all do it because MS wants us to and they know best, right? Wrong!!

Agreed.

One thing I would have to caution here is that I don't believe MS has abandoned the desktop entirely! BUT! Note the "extended support" being provided for both Vista and 7 and the extra effort put in to make 7 a working OS for a change.

I suspect they smelled the trend of the slumping desktop market and decided to gear up for expanding into the mobile scene with the time taken to prepare for the tablet scene stripping out what wouldn't be used on tablet like Media Center and dvd playback and simply ended labeling the do it yourselfer install OS as Window 8 which became the big mistake of people expecting 8 to be the next desktop Windows as well. Not the case even while you can still run it on desktop it's not geared for it!

When you want a full featured Windows 7 Ultimate comes to mind! There is no Ultimate with 8 since they went off in the tablet direction. And that seems to the big reason why 7 had to be a champ OS for seeing it last a bit until they figure what to do next. They wanted to take the gamble in the mobile knowing people as well as businesses can be slow at upgrading as you have seen with companies still running XP until next year's expiration not having retooled to Vista or 7.

You have to remember this is corporate board room type thinking without looking at the subsequent end result as it now being full realized of veering off the previously established path MS had taken in all these past years. The gambit as it is called isn't working out too well. 8 and 8.1 suffuce far better on tablet however then Windows CE(Compact Edition) embedded which is not even much of any OS being too limited for anything but a pocket calculator size device. The failing however is in not forethought about having a desktop edition separate to follow 7 as they should have while still coming through with the Tablet DIY 8 and 8.1.

In the final analysis 7 is definitely here to stay for some time still until 2020! They would now need to come out with bombshell to top 7's success putting that same type of effort into a much more full feature choice of opinions to offer an adequate replacement.

ICIT2LOL · 05 Aug 2013

whs said:

John, be careful, you are liable to get whiplash.

yes I might good job I use the desk chair seat belts eh?

SIW yes mate I use Ubuntu a bit especially when I get drives I can't fix with Windows.

Now it is down to the Sandy Bridge and as the specs are better than the laptop I might even get close to the speed of light LOL!!

jimbo45 · 05 Aug 2013

Hi there
The start screen in Windows 8.1 is much improved -- there's actually TWO screens - 1) the standard hideous Metro start screen and 2) an Application screen and you can customize via a Navigation option in control panel which of these screens are shown when you go to START. The application screen is actually fine and saves scrolling. In some ways it's nicer than the W7 menu and search is a breeze.

Booting directly to the desktop, being able to disable the corner navigation (that's why there's a START button on W8.1) and having a separate APPLICATIONS screen when you want it gets rid of 99% of most of the irritations W8 had.

Since W8.1 is going to be a mandatory update once it's released around XMAS time we can safely say that W8 is now DEAD so perhaps we should kill this thread off completely and concentrate on W8.1

With W8.1 you can set it so that you will NEVER see the hideous metro stuff if you don't want to.

What is also essentially UNARGUABLE although there will be some that try -- Windows 8.1 is far superior for decently managing LARGE and MUILTIPLE monitors - windows 7 is a bit of a pain with THREE monitors (or more !!).

My main reason for not using W8.1 daily (it's only in preview) is that it uses IE11 which isn't yet ready for prime time -- video rendering is dubious -- so W7 people DON'T UPGRADE to IE11 just yet either).

Once IE11 is fixed I'll certainly give W8.1 another go --it's a start on what W8 should have been in the first place.

I certainly don't agree with the 8.1 Post a few back -- the guy (like most of these so called journalists never use their systems like a typical USER would). He's still Rabitting on about Metro -- YOU NEVER EVEN HAVE TO SEE IT ANYMORE with the couple of clicks of setting in the control panel and of course direct boot to desktop.

Also the START button does have a use --if you switch off corner navigation --he's said NOTHING about that -- then on the rare occasions you want to access the start screen (which you can set to show the APPLICATIONS screen first) then the start button is needed to get there.

These days I rarely read stuff from Rags like pc mag or whatever piece of bog paper that guy is writing his piece on. If you are testing something PLEASE DO IT PROPERLY even if you've made up your mind within 2 secs you don't like the product.

Cheers
jimbo

ICIT2LOL · 05 Aug 2013

I agree with what you say Jim but mate des this mean that we who have recently taken up 8 will have to shell out more for the 8.1 or do you think it will come as an update? I hope so cos I have spent enough time and money already.

Personally how I have mine set up now is fine by me it has turned my old Ford model 10 laptop into a Ferrari!