Real World Benefits - Win8 v's Win7

[mart4494]

I installed Win8 onto a separate partition and I suppose the MetroUI is a matter of personal taste. Personally not really for me but who knows what the final release will be. Maybe Microsoft are testing the waters and if there are enough negatives may give the option for a classic look otherwise as has been mentioned elsewhere, they could have a Vista mk2 on their hands. Read a great deal on here and elsewhere about the new version but I've yet to read anywhere exactly what the real world day to day benefits will be to change from Win7 64bit to Win8. With my limited experience there doesn't appear to be any difference in speed and it's really no big deal if it should shave a few seconds off the boot time. Once the PC is switched on then that's it. No doubt things are different in the touch screen world but for the vast majority of users that are still with a keyboard and mouse can anyone a, b, c those real world benefits??

 

[mart4494]

Apologies - posted in wrong forum - please ignore

 

[Britton30]

LOL, that's fine.
A. I see no use for Windows 8 as presented thus far.

 

[gregrocker]

It's surely for touch. Why else would they need to improve Win7, except maybe backup imaging. Anyone with 8 see if they fixed that yet?

 

[fafhrd]

The benefit to Microsoft is a single codebase for all Microsoft Operating Systems - whether running on 32- or 64-bit PCs, embedded systems or on ARM devices (including tablets and smartphones). Thus the possibility of a single army of OS developers, rather than the multiple teams that have existed ever since Windows 3.1 became a serious alternative to MS-DOS for running applications on the PC.

In other words, why have separate OSs for Windows Phone, Windows CE, Windows, and Windows server etc all being developed by different teams when one big team can be working on a single modular, scalable OS.

Microsoft makes most of its "bread and butter" money from OEMs who bundle Windows with PCs, and the rest from enterprise customers. The mobile phone market sells more units than PCs, yet Windows Phone is not competing well with the others like iPhone and Android, so that phone OEM market is where Microsoft sees opportunities.

Microsoft wants a bigger piece of the action and Windows 8 codebase on all OEM products is what they are aiming for. So it has the same apps, touch screen features as a tablet, and indeed a phone, which can all access the same data via the cloud, BranchCache, or Active Directory Domain Services. Underlying this, the familiar desktop or notepad keyboard and mouse.

Windows 8 is targeting the enterprise, rather than the home user, who has been happy enough with most of the OS offerings from Microsoft over the last decade.

For the enterprise, the great advantage Windows has over all the other mobile OSs is the security features that have been hardened over the years by the development of enterprise-wide Windows installations. If you want to trust your online business security - would you entrust it to a Google product? or a Microsoft one? At least that is what is implied.

If you want Microsoft's words on this, look here:

Download: Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

The benefit to home users is that we get to become unpaid beta testers with ever greater ease, pulling apart all the seams and poking around in the stuffing of the full preview version, even before the product (as a cut-down basic version) is preloaded on the next PC we need to buy, with the option of an upgrade for a few dollars more.

 

[Ztruker]

So it looks like I need a iso file to create a DVD or Flash drive from so I can install to a separate drive or partition, otherwise it replaces what you currently have and can't be uninstalled. To remove it you would have to reinstall your Windows 7, at least that's what the FAQ says.

I wonder why they do not allow install to a different drive/partition from the download installer?

 

[lehnerus2000]

RAM Usage

It uses 1/3 less RAM on my PC, compared to W7 (800 MB vs 1200MB).

 

[gregrocker]

Always best to boot the installer, Rich, so the booted OS is C instead of taking another letter.

 

[Britton30]

You can use the W8CP .iso as a stand-alone installer too and can be installed to another partition or VM.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I see no use for Windows 8 as presented thus far.

That's how I feel. Considering my current primary tower doesn't have a touch screen, I see no reason to upgrade it to Windows 8.

 

[Bongo]

I see no use for Windows 8 as presented thus far.

That's how I feel. Considering my current primary tower doesn't have a touch screen, I see no reason to upgrade it to Windows 8.

I feel that same way to.

 

[Britton30]

With the Vista debacle of incompatible drivers you'd think they learned. I won't buy a touch screen because a new OS works better with it. Win 7 also supports touch but I don't use it.

 

[FliGi7]

Windows 8 might as well be Vista 2012. It is seeming more and more like an in-between OS that only answers problems that never were. I think they got way too excited that Windows 7 took off like it did and tried to mimic the Apple rollout schedule of something new every year or less instead of taking the time to think how much sense it actually made.

JMHO.

 

[Qdos]

I believe there are some fundamental changes to file system storage, advances over NTFS, and that W8 is capable of bunching a stack of hard drives together as a single volume... and not quite like a JBOD array...

But that awful logo and the Metro interface, well they suck big time...

Needless to say, most desktop users will give it a miss... :huh:

 

[FliGi7]

Right, the hard drive pooling is the only thing I'd really use in Windows 8. Everything else looks gimmicky to the point of near un-usability being that they designed it for touch interfaces.

 

[LittleJay]

If history is any indicator, Windows 98SE , Windows Millenium , Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, then I plan to pass on Windows 8, just like I did with Vista.

 

[AddRAM]

Windows 8 S@#ks. Just my opinion.

 

[gregrocker]

The talk here at the MVP Global Summit in Seattle is that they'll likely add back in the Start Menu and mouse/keyboard support before RTM.

There is too much Support still needed for Win7 to split focus so early. Millions more will migrate to Seven before 8 is released. Plus it is madness to kiss off the best OS ever before even half of the potential users get at it.

You can see I don't have my head wrapped around it and can't see the priority to do so yet. And I'm stunned by 7 being treated as a dead OS here, already given a 2020 expiry.

If improvements are already evident, how about Backup Imaging? It's the weak link in Win7, not up to the OS's own standards. Need to reinstall to check that and if one can easily get to a desktop experience comparable to 7 and without the useless buttons mosaic.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Drive pooling may be nice, but it was pulled from WHS 2011 because of issues. So, given that, I'd have to see how it performed after the RTM for a while before deciding. I'm sure I'll give it a shot thanks to TechNet, but I won't be using it on anything other than a test system for quite some time.

 

[Teerex]

I see no upside here for my Full HD Laptop. Up till now I liked every Windows better than the previous one. This is a first for me. :shock:

Also, Intel Turbo Boost doesn't seem to work on Win 8 CP, according to Task Manager. :sarc: