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Anyone running Windows 8?

Y

YrrchSebor0000

Member
messing around with different OS's, i managed to misplace all my installable copies of Windows, so i downloaded and installed a free preview copy of Windows 8.... nothing really special i guess, seems to have 2 faces: the regular desktop, and the one for tablet devices. they also seem to be phasing out support for dvd playback. seems to basically work ok so far, just takes a bit of getting used to, as the layout has changed some.
 
I've been running it as a secondary OS and I don't really like it. Here are a couple reasons:


  • The new metro style start menu isn't really convenient on my non-touch PC, plus you can only scroll left/right by scrolling your mouse wheel up/down, which is awkward. [br]
  • The start menu icon is terrible and so is the clock that appears when your mouse is over the icon.
  • I dislike the "tablet" feel for my PC, and yet many things seem too small for tablets when using the Desktop view (such as clicking on notification icons).
  • The settings are confusing and fragmented, such as the control panel.
  • You can't close "metro apps": the alt-tab menu becomes bloated with apps you don't need anymore, resulting in a loss of productivity.
  • They removed the win-tab alternative to alt-tab, which was nice eye-candy.

  • It's ugly. Seriously, that green background thing, the log-in screen, etc, are ugly. I don't think that changing the color will fix it either (and it seems impossible with that build).
  • Many more that I can't think of right now because I haven't used it in a while.

I've always used Windows products and I'm disappointed. Hopefully the final version will be better.
 
haha, i got a small laugh out of your description..... i think ugly is a good word for it. i also think 'fragmented' is a perfect way to describe the disjointed feel of where the settings and menus are..... i actually had to Google to find out how to power it down!

i like the look of it in 'high contrast mode', or black mode, but the problem is, some text and links and buttons on web pages don't show up against the black background, which is bad. i also don't like having the 2 different versions of Internet Explorer, and i especially don't like the tablet version, on my pc anyway.

i too would hope that it is a ways from being finished, because i couldn't really imagine buying a pc, and getting this, haha. do you think the Metro panel would come with a pc, or are they just putting them together for developers and such? might be better on a touchscreen machine once it is tailored for each model.

but all in all i mainly wanted Windows back for Netfilx, and it does that perfectly well, once i got it going anyway..... i seem to remember having to troubleshot a bit with the browser and such.
 
The Metro UI angers me just looking at screenshots of it.

I plan to see a support group about that though.


As an aside, looking at the progress Linux has made since the last time I installed it (4-5 years ago), I am VERY encouraged by what I see. (installing Mint now)
 
DaSchmarotzer said:
I've been running it as a secondary OS and I don't really like it. Here are a couple reasons:


  • The new metro style start menu isn't really convenient on my non-touch PC, plus you can only scroll left/right by scrolling your mouse wheel up/down, which is awkward. [br]
  • The start menu icon is terrible and so is the clock that appears when your mouse is over the icon.
  • I dislike the "tablet" feel for my PC, and yet many things seem too small for tablets when using the Desktop view (such as clicking on notification icons).
  • The settings are confusing and fragmented, such as the control panel.
  • You can't close "metro apps": the alt-tab menu becomes bloated with apps you don't need anymore, resulting in a loss of productivity.
  • They removed the win-tab alternative to alt-tab, which was nice eye-candy.

  • It's ugly. Seriously, that green background thing, the log-in screen, etc, are ugly. I don't think that changing the color will fix it either (and it seems impossible with that build).
  • Many more that I can't think of right now because I haven't used it in a while.

I've always used Windows products and I'm disappointed. Hopefully the final version will be better.
Click to expand...

I haven't read much into Windows 8 but if this is accurate then DAMN, it might be the first OS I actually refuse to upgrade to...

I dislike when new OS's come out since you have to then keep your Windows 7 and Windows 8 discs should the OS ever become corrupted.

Granted I never install an OS unless I know it will work for how I use it, I use TrueCrypt to keep my OS, data partition, and external hard drive fully encrypted.
 
YrrchSebor0000 said:
they also seem to be phasing out support for dvd playback.
Click to expand...

Doesn't surprise me. TBH I don't think MS really had its heart in it when it come to DVD playback in Windows. For a long time Windows would recognise what a DVD was, but just gave a message about installing a third-party player. MS doesn't seem to be doing much to push Media Center and HTPCs either, They're sort of languishing.

I think many people watch things online now with their PCs, like Hulu, iPlayer, etc. Video CDs, DVDs and EVDs are still very popular here though, but then they're plenty of third-party players available, so it won't be a problem.
 
I'm with SoulTerror.
Nearly every other OS has been a flop in my eyes. Though Win2k was good as I switched to that from Win98. Then I eventually went to XP once I realized it was at least as stable as 2k. I avoided Vista all together much like I did ME. I'm using Win7 at work and liking it a lot. I'll be switching to it at some point at home as well. From what I've read thus far I think I'll be using 8 about as much as I used Vista and ME.
 
SoulTerror said:
I plan on avoiding it. It appears that their history of every other OS sucking is going to be true just from reading this.

-Windows ME = sucked
- XP = great
- Vista = sucked
- 7 = great
- 8 = ??(probably going to suck)
Click to expand...

Did you nail it or what? ;) I'm even thinking back a bit farther (hey, I'm old :D), as 98 was the first "good Windows" imo, 95 being a big crashy mess, 98 less so.

Never tried NT, but 2000 was ok, then on to the every other thing again.
 
Frisco said:
Did you nail it or what? ;) I'm even thinking back a bit farther (hey, I'm old :D), as 98 was the first "good Windows" imo, 95 being a big crashy mess, 98 less so.

Never tried NT, but 2000 was ok, then on to the every other thing again.
Click to expand...

windows 95 was a respectable mess... it was a mess because MS was seeing how the whole task-bar/start button UI would work out it was all in
 
Vehtemas said:
You know, I never really thought about it but I have always downloaded an application to play DVDs and have never really bothered with it... And I have watched one DVD in the past 6 months now 0o
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it I don't think I've ever really used media player for much of anything. I've always used 3rd party apps like vlc, winamp, or other similar type apps for music, movies, and disc playback.
 
Vehtemas said:
You know, I never really thought about it but I have always downloaded an application to play DVDs and have never really bothered with it... And I have watched one DVD in the past 6 months now 0o
Click to expand...


Haha, i mainly checked for dvd support because my gf has a few. Didn't have any luck installing a player, but didn't spend a lot of time on it. I agree that everything is going toward Hulu/Netflix, etc., and toward tablet devices with no dvd drives.

Windows 8 looks like a bit of a mess so far, I mainly dual-booted it for Netflix, and because i lost my Windows 7..... Otherwise i'm right at home in Ubuntu 10.04(not a fan of Unity so far). Linux Mint sounds interesting tho...
 
YrrchSebor0000 said:
Haha, i mainly checked for dvd support because my gf has a few. Didn't have any luck installing a player, but didn't spend a lot of time on it. I agree that everything is going toward Hulu/Netflix, etc., and toward tablet devices with no dvd drives.

Windows 8 looks like a bit of a mess so far, I mainly dual-booted it for Netflix, and because i lost my Windows 7..... Otherwise i'm right at home in Ubuntu 10.04(not a fan of Unity so far). Linux Mint sounds interesting tho...
Click to expand...

I hope it gets polished up because quite a few things sound promising to me about it.
 
I posted many moons back that I was already running it - more than once.

Metro is not mandatory - you can get rid of it and go back to a non Metro style easily enough (well, at least in the leaked versions we could - I haven't gotten around to installing the dev preview yet).

Since I have a Wacom Bamboo Touch CTT460 touchpad it made nav in Metro fun - very much like using a smartphone. At the same time, though, I also had another install that I refused to enable Metro on, and it was a slightly jazzed up version of the Windows 7 UI - a little too fancy, since I like the way I have my current Win 7 setup, but rerally not all that different.

The underpinnings of this OS, though, are staggering - the Taskmanager app alone is to die for - for once I didn't see me installing Process Explorer / Process hacker immediately to replace what, to me, was a gross oversight by Microsoft all these years (them hiring Mark Russinovich probably had something to do with that lol).

Hopefully within a couple of weeks I'll be able to install the Dev Preview as an upgrade to my current build and see how well it works again with my current setup - including all the games that I have.
 
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