"Windows 8 Survey: Half Who Have Tried the OS Wouldn't Recommend It"

[M1GU31]

I find this video amusing at 12:34 I agree with the lady

 

[Carleenjames]

Hi everyone I'm new to this forum,
Even I'm waiting to watch if they do something with the interface or not.

 

[Kyusaki]

It's a shame that the Win 8 is such an disapointment though i could recommend it as an tablet OS but not on regular computers, or atleast not for those who have been around since windows 95 atleast ^^, cause the os is made so that maybe a 3 year old can be using it and the most stupid fact is that when there aren't one start button will the results of this be a very not to do list on the most computer geeks department

though i was stupid enough to install a clean installation on the main harddrive without an dual boot so the first thing that i will do when i come home from work is to install windows 7 again to feel the "freedom" from the start button

 

[jorpe]

No, I'm assuming that many enterprises are still running xp, considering about 40 percent of the OS marketshare is WINDOWS XP.

That is exactly the point I was alluding to.
Businesses aren't going to swap to W8, just because you demand that they do.

I highly doubt many of the same programs that ran in Windows 7 won't run in 8. That is a random general assumption.

I never said that W7 programs wouldn't run in W8.

I specifically mentioned ""mission critical" software, which only runs on XP & IE6".



Programs I installed in W8 all worked the same as the W7 installs (except for my sound driver).

Even if some software doesn't work in 8 if it did in xp, Hyper-V is there. Even then, with a new OS upgrade, there is a chance to update or upgrade to different solutions. It sounds ridiculous to hinder an entire upgrade for the sake of one program.

It's ridiculous to disable equipment that literally makes millions of dollars/day (e.g. Oil rig equipment) just to play around with making it work in W8, using an XP VM.

Why spend millions of dollars upgrading computer equipment, just so that you can run XP in a VM on it, when the existing hardware already runs XP?

Some people (not you !!) I think just have their brains and vision limited by staring all day long into small Mobile phone screens and assuming if there isn't an app around then you are an old Technophobe who's afraid of upgrading.

Loads of EXPENSIVE equipment lasts years --I'm talking about highly specialized gear that often can cost 1000's or 100,000's of Dollars / Eur etc.

There is a HUGE amount of this type of legacy gear out there designed for W2K and XP that Still works fantastically well (on XP of course).

During the life cycle of the product (some of this equipment is often used for 20 - 30 years -- inconceivable to a lot of people these days brought up in the era of the "chuck it away and buy a new one" society) the manufacturer may well have gone out of business - and even if a new model is available that works on W7 the business can't afford the upgrade - and why should they if the gear still works properly.

Please note here I'm not talking about cheap printers, scanners, etc but highly specialized industrial grade equipment -- for example Blue print drawing equipment, Computerized cutting equipment, glass working gear, Oceanography gear, Oil rig equipment etc etc).

You are 100% correct.
Businesses don't throw away their working equipment, every six months, like some consumers do.

When I worked as a telecommunications technician, I literally had to work on 80+ year old switching equipment.
It was already installed, working and generating profits, therefore it wasn't replaced.

Equipment was only replaced, when it was deemed uneconomical to repair.

Just 3 years ago I was working on some land rigs still running equiment on win2k... It was interesting how many times their office monkey tech people had to come out and reload every system (usually off of 1 disc) or bring out another, equally dated win2k system.

 

[gregrocker]

"mission critical" software, which only runs on XP & IE6".

There is still "mission critical" software that will only run on a dead OS and browser?

XP will not even install on most modern hardware as it lacks SATA drivers and requires floppy support to insert them. There are generations that don't even know what a floppy is.

No security-minded business or consumer would run any except the latest browser.

 

[alphanumeric]

When I was still working we had plenty of PC's connected to equipment that never accessed the Internet. Said PC's were used to monitor equipment and do remote maintenance and trouble shooting over dedicated land lines. The software that was used to interface to the equipment was very propitiatory and designed for specific hardware and software. It often wouldn't install or run on newer hardware or a newer OS. I'm talking old stuff that lasted for years and years and did what it was designed to do. There was no off the shelf replacement for it. Some of it was running Windows NT4 workstation. Usually, the only time the PC was upgraded was when the actual equipment was replaced with a newer version or was decommissioned all together. I'd imagine that old NT4 stuff is all gone now but you get my point. For equipment like this there is no real advantage to upgrading the OS or the PC connected to it. Some of the equipment being monitored was very expensive so you don't replace it unless you really really have too. Even upgrades or redesigns can be very expensive and down time to do it can cost a lot of money.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Once bitten, twice shy

"mission critical" software, which only runs on XP & IE6".

There is still "mission critical" software that will only run on a dead OS and browser?

IMO, the "Vista vs OEM" debacle is partially responsible.
XP's ~40% market share must be mainly business users (and poor countries).

I regularly see people complaining (on other forums) that they have some business-specific, custom program(s) that were written for (and only run properly) with IE6.
The other complaint is that some software companies refuse to update these old programs (to run on newer operating systems).

I have one game (obviously not "mission critical") which will not run on anything, except a HW install of XP.
It won't run in any version of W7 (32 or 64 bit) or an XP VM.

I have ~150 programs and games installed in my various operating systems.
If the software failure rate "at large" is equivalent to my experience, then given the enormous number of Windows programs, there must be literally thousands of programs, which won't "play nice" with anything newer than XP.

XP will not even install on most modern hardware as it lacks SATA drivers and requires floppy support to insert them. There are generations that don't even know what a floppy is.

Did you mean AHCI?
I have no problems installing XP on my machine without AHCI.
The AHCI drivers don't want to cooperate.

No security-minded business or consumer would run any except the latest browser.

Assuming they don't mind their profit-making equipment being off-line for days (or longer).

As other people have mentioned, there are still systems using W2K and earlier operating systems.
The equipment works and generates income, so they see no reason to change.

If the equipment isn't networked (LAN or Internet) these older operating systems are fairly secure.

I can't remember the last time my XP system caught a "nasty".
However, since W7 b7048 came out, I've hardly used my XP install.
I normally only turn it on to install Windows and program updates.

I have an XP VM full of games that I use regularly, though.

Of course these businesses are going to be in real trouble, when MS drops all support for XP.

 

[pparks1]

@Gregrocker....there are plenty of crm apps and the like which are not often compatible with the latest browsers. Mission critical might not be the right word, but important to the functioning of the business. these types of issues can make something simple like a browser upgrade a real pain, or simply an impossibility.

 

[gregrocker]

I shouldn't have mentioned business since I only do consumer. I guess I assumed they'd be at least as secure as consumers where the rule of thumb is always to get the latest browser version for security's sake.

Through thousands of posts over nearly three years working in the (1.7 million views) Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP, we've watched XP grow so crusty hardly anyone with new hardware can install it any longer without slipstreaming the SATA/AHCI drivers. The trend for months now is virtualizing.

 

[pparks1]

Yeah, virtualizing is often the way to go. The problem in the corporate world becomes
1). Host PC's are too crappy to get decent performance running VM's
2). IT groups now have 2x as many computers to manage if everybody has a virtualized machine as well as a physical.
3). Licensing costs of running multiple OS's on tons of desktops.

 

[arkhi]

"mission critical" software, which only runs on XP & IE6".

No security-minded business or consumer would run any except the latest browser.

A couple of US Army-owned laptops and PCs we use (actually almost all of them) run WinXP on IE6. Yes IE6. It drives me nuts because even the army websites we use aren't code for IE6 (*.army.mil) but for newer versions and even for Firefox.

 

[cccangel]

I don't like the start menu because now it seems like i cannot organize my programs like I used to. Instead they are giant buttons on my laptop and... its a pain to find shutdown, restart and sleep buttons and instead I have to resort to power button for shutdown or close laptop for sleep (if power settings are set) but then it wasn't even working right after an update... so i had to remove it.

 

[Mike Lonewolf]

I keep booting it up and trying, but I just cant find the slightest bit of love for it and the server version may well turn me to linux.

NOW you don't want to do that. Tell you what to try, move your mouse over to the lower left corner in "Desktop, and right-click it. NOW looky there, something you can use in Windows 8 to get you going, and give you that home feeling again

 

[CLassicD]

Its fine with windows 8 new UI to have the consumer friendly approach, in fact I quite like it but please have the option to boot to either desktop or metro UI. Its far too big a change. I like it for quickness and ease of use to check emails/read a book etc. plus it seems more responsive but apart from that, meh. Plus if i was having multiple programs/word docs/PDFs/e-mail clients/browsers etc. running at once in the metro UI forget it.

As for the server 8, is this the new consumer version for everyone to use or just professionals. Its just not right keep it professional, please not.....

Windows 8 server kindergarten edition.

 

[gregrocker]

NOW you don't want to do that. Tell you what to try, move your mouse over to the lower left corner in "Desktop, and right-click it. NOW looky there, something you can use in Windows 8 to get you going, and give you that home feeling again

Thanks. Nice to find some tools on desktop after a month of using it.

It does have to be in the very bottom left of taskbar where left-click also accesses Start page.

 

[Paarkhi]

I tried win 8 cp but somehow didn't feel comfortable so back on win7 and I don't plan to shift on win 8 as long as they don't give a choice for disabling some of the metro features.