What do you think of Windows 8

[Pocus]

I had to buy a laptop for an acquaintance of mine that came with W8.

Oh my. Aside from the new sliding menu that I (and the acquaintance) don't need, the O/S regularly freezes, slow down or just masks information of importance. I'm wondering if some of you are also experimenting this unreliable behaviour? I even had a time where I could not shut down the laptop with the start button, and had to remove the battery so that the poor beast, deprived of all sources of power, could rest. During the operation I wondered with some unease if the computer would really stop or stay up thanks to some dark microsoftian magic

Bonus question, how one can access what was in the start menu? You know, the configuration, install/deinstall, system submenus? This is so well masked...

[Franciscus]

I know there are some 3rd party software that emulates the old start menu (Stardock has one, IIRC).

W8 ? - will never touch it. No better OS than OSX Mountain Lion. Regrettably I have to bootcamp to W7 because of Ageod games, only

[Boomer]

XP - Great.

Vista - O/S comedy of errors.

Win 7 - So so.

Win 8. Looks like a disaster.

I see a pattern developing. I'm sorry, but I don't need Windows to operate 56 different programs in the background just to manage a virtual network that I don't use or want. Higher memory waste and unnecessary programs just get worse and worse with every release.

[MarsRobert]

XP - Great.

Vista - O/S comedy of errors.

Win 7 - So so.

Win 8. Looks like a disaster.

I see a pattern developing. I'm sorry, but I don't need Windows to operate 56 different programs in the background just to manage a virtual network that I don't use or want. Higher memory waste and unnecessary programs just get worse and worse with every release.

Thanks Boomer. I was in no hurry to get W8, but after your comment here I think I'm going to put it off as long as I possibly can.

BTW all, it's been my understanding that the main new thing about W8 is touch screen technology, and I need this on my desktop because?????

As an adventurous aside, I miss the days when technology was about a lot of different things. Now when people say technology, they mean only one thing.....computers. I think Kubrick and ELP were right. Computing technology is going to be the death of humanity. Either our systems are going to get out of control (Doctor Strangelove, Space Odyssey), or the AI Entity is going to take over (Karn Evil Nine: Third Impression).

"Open the pod bay doors please HAL."

[Boomer]

What does have Win 8 have to offer? At least Win 7 had the bragging rights of being the first next gen 64 bit OS to hit major markets. Win 8 will have shinier bells and whistles, but I distrust what's going under the hood even more than the current version.

As an aside, I used to be an early adopter. I was the first person I knew to get a DVD player, a portable mp3 player (Ipod wasn't even around yet) and saw the benefits of certain techs WAY before the market grabbed a hold of the ideas.

Having said that, I'm also very wary of the direction technology is going these days, and definitely see the trend towards marketing less than stellar products intended to satisfy the absolute lowest common denominator. Within 5 years I expect to see mobile apps that will chew your food for you. Then people will just become large Hutt-like creatures that float around with iphone equipment jammed into their tiny little brains. People are mesmerized like hypnotized animals when they see things that blink and make noise. Convenience is what is promised, suppression of humanity is what's delivered.

[Warsage]

Four years ago I do all my work in Linux (Ubuntu). Windows (XP and 7) just for wargames.
Windows 8 is the confirmation of my right choice.

PD.: And... Steam may be about to take another shovel of dirt on the grave of Windows.

[Franciscus]

Four years ago I do all my work in Linux (Ubuntu). Windows (XP and 7) just for wargames.
Windows 8 is the confirmation of my right choice.

PD.: And... Steam may be about to take another shovel of dirt on the grave of Windows.

Hear, Hear !!

I just with game developers would/could make their games NOT OS dependent! And it's "just" the code, the data should not give much troubles, IMHO

[ERISS]

I just wish game developers would/could make their games NOT OS dependent!

Java?, that's very heavy.
And that's not enough: I wish game developers would/could make their games NOT PLATFORM dependent too (Steam drm, etc..).
At now, Ageod did not join the Borg.

[Taillebois]

It's horrible. Got it on HP laptop recently. It's confusing and adds nothing in what I want from windows 7. I would avoid it as long as you can. I even went out and bought a new win 7 net book and put it away for future use.

[Baris]

Java?, that's very heavy.
And that's not enough: I wish game developers would/could make their games NOT PLATFORM dependent too (Steam drm, etc..).
At now, Ageod did not join the Borg.

At least in steam you can play offline. In uplay it needs to synchronize all the time for logging in and exiting game. Have only 50 GB limit monthly for using fast internet. In future all the games will be played online so get used to it.

[Boomer]

At least in steam you can play offline. In uplay it needs to synchronize all the time for logging in and exiting game. Have only 50 GB limit monthly for using fast internet. In future all the games will be played online so get used to it.

Only if that is what you choose. I for one am glad AGEOD hasn't joined the Borg collective. Resistance is NOT futile.

[Pocus]

It's horrible. Got it on HP laptop recently. It's confusing and adds nothing in what I want from windows 7. I would avoid it as long as you can. I even went out and bought a new win 7 net book and put it away for future use.

Just bought from Stardock the 4.99$ thingy that add up the start menu to Windows 8. It allows you among others things to get back to menus like the deinstall one easily...

Now, why half of the RAM and CPU is used by the O/S?

[Boomer]

Too much fat on the hog. Much of that RAM and CPU usage is for the 64 bit architecture, however a lot of it is redundant and could easily be modified or even removed and your system would operate just as well... with the added RAM freed up as a bonus. Taskhost, desktop management, various updaters and installers, svhost exe, all of those type of executables are just fancy programs that do very little. A little edit here, a little modification there and you can cut your system management tasks in half.

[Taillebois]

I'm seriously worried now if Pocus is struggling.

Us mere mortals have no chance.

It's staggering MS could release it the way they did. They must have all been drinking gallons of Kool-Aid.

[ess1]

I'm seriously worried now if Pocus is struggling.

Us mere mortals have no chance.

It's staggering MS could release it the way they did. They must have all been drinking gallons of Kool-Aid.

Moles placed by Apple???

[Pocus]

In the end I got reimbursed for the laptop, I found it too slow (the GPU mostly, but perhaps W8 did not help) and I plan to buy a pricer one (from same supplier, their post sell services are very good). So the evil and secret scheme from my supplier has worked Although the new one will feature W7 (and a much stronger GPU). Santa Claus is not far

[ess1]

Bravo Sir. Would you like to purchase my wife's Vista laptop? After all its is Christmas!!

[Pocus]

No thanks, I had enough of Vista

[gekkoguy82]

For what it's worth, unlike most folks here I actually like 8. I upgraded from 7 on my laptop and it runs like a champ. I've tried to have an open mind regarding the changes, and it hasn't been overly difficult to adjust, in my opinion. Using the desktop looks no different than Win 7, aside from the lack of a start button, and AGEOD games run like nothing has changed. Everyone's experience is different, but for my part, the switch Windows 8 has been a positive one. Just takes a little time and patience

[Pocus]

Mmmh, so how do you access (easily I mean) the content of the start button? Not only the apps, but also the configuration panel, and execute command line?

Side question, we have lost since XP two very neat features. One was to list the total weight in bytes of the files of a directory or the currently selected list of files. It has disappeared in Vista and never came back I believe. You have to select some files and then right click to access properties. How convenient that is??

Second, more subttle but very useful still is that when (in XP) you ctrl clicked on the 'up one level' folder button, it duplicated the current window. This was extremely handy when you have to open several folders at once (I do that continuously when programming the games).

Progress?

[Jarkko]

Second, more subttle but very useful still is that when (in XP) you ctrl clicked on the 'up one level' folder button, it duplicated the current window. This was extremely handy when you have to open several folders at once (I do that continuously when programming the games).

For that the middle mouse button works for me in W7. Altough to be honest, I am not sure if it is some gadget I installed, but anyway, it is much more convenient than the ctrl-click method to open up several folders.

[richfed]

Just bought from Stardock the 4.99$ thingy that add up the start menu to Windows 8. It allows you among others things to get back to menus like the deinstall one easily...

Now, why half of the RAM and CPU is used by the O/S?

Best $5 I ever spent ... makes Windows 8 near perfect. I cannot fathom why Microsoft took the Start button away. Anyway, I am quite happy with Windows 8. Had no problems.

[Pocus]

For that the middle mouse button works for me in W7. Altough to be honest, I am not sure if it is some gadget I installed, but anyway, it is much more convenient than the ctrl-click method to open up several folders.

Ah no it don't work for me. I miss that.

[Taillebois]

I've downloaded a thing called "Classic Shell" and now I've got rid of most Widows8 annoyances. It was free.

[Bertram]

Just bought from Stardock the 4.99$ thingy that add up the start menu to Windows 8. It allows you among others things to get back to menus like the deinstall one easily...

Now, why half of the RAM and CPU is used by the O/S?

Windows 8 has an option that lets you set the interface to "classic" (that is windows 7). It has the start button that some people seem to love . The thing most programs like the Stardock one do is accessing this build in Window 8 option.
Whether you like the niew interface or not is personal. Most people I know that have W8 get to like it after getting used to it, some dont even after a long time. Might be interesting to do an experiment if there is a difference between those groups, like visual/textual orientation, or something like that (yes I studied experimental Psych, with a dose of AI and Human machine interface).
It sounds like your laptop is either defect or its specs are way down - W8 should be running at least as fast as W7 as far as I am aware.