Windows 8

[AmethystAnne]

My DH decided to put the new Windows on his laptop.

To his great surprise and disgust, Windows 8 turned his laptop into something that acts like my iPad.

All his previous programs are gone. He cannot play any DVDs on the laptop. His virus protection is gone.

A screen comes up where he can get apps for it.

To turn it off, he pushes the On button.

How weird!

[Redsoil]

A friend of mine is currently assisting someone who bought a new computer with Windows 8 installed.  She's generally pretty good with figuring glitches out, but I gather Windows 8 is taxing her ingenuity!

I tend not to upgrade anything until new systems are proven reliable.  Saves a lot of grief.  Can your husband go back to his previous configuration?  Any time I make changes, I'll "save" the old configuration in case there are difficulties - makes life a bit easier if I can just return all settings to last functional operation.

[sevenday]

When they announced Win8, I winced. It's a great lightweight OS for tablets and to some extent laptops. But when they extended it to include desktops also, I facepalmed.  It is designed to be touch-friendly, but the vast majority of desktops do not use touchscreens.  Desktops, due to greater storage and capabilities, are generally required to be more flexible and customizable than tablets or laptops, and with Win8, it really forces things to "fit" - square pegs, round hole, etc.  I really wish MS had just released it as a tablet OS, possibly laptop as well, and allowed their dev team to build something more dynamic for desktops.  I realize that touchscreen based OSes, like for tablets and mobile phones, are becoming more familiar to users, but many of us do NOT have experience with the "tiled" motif that they used. The reasoning for that tiling and the odd choices, I'm told, is because they determined that mobile phones/tablets were big thing and they should cater to that. No argument there but... yeah, no.  The only way you'll catch me with win 8 is when I have to eventually learn it for my chosen career (IT).  Otherwise, I will sit on Win 7 and wait for the next one.  If MS doesn't get their head out their (ahem) for the next release, I will jump ship to a non-Win based OS.

[artk2002]

1) Never be an early adopter with software. The x.0 release is invariably full of bugs. Always wait until x.1 or later.
2) "Newer" is seldom the same as "better". To justify their existence, software engineers in particular will redo stuff that doesn't need redoing. Also because it's fun.
3) I'm told that there is a way to restore the traditional UI in Windows 8. I haven't installed 8 yet (just started upgrading from XP to Win 7 on some systems), so I don't know what it is.
4) Losing the DVD and virus protection: Did he do an upgrade in place or a fresh install? It sounds like your DVD codecs got deleted along with the virus protection
5) Always take a full system backup before performing something major like an OS upgrade; I use Norton Ghost and an enormous backup drive

[AmethystAnne]

Thank you for the responses!

I just read them to DH. He chuckled at some, nodded at others, and was interested in all of them.

He has decided that he's going to work with what he has ended up with. So far, he has put 3 games on it (Mahjongg, cribbage, and "Cut The Rope"). 

He said that the DVD player is now working if he runs a program with it.

He likes to try out new technologies, and this will be a challenge to play around with.
 

[PastryGoddess]

I have learned to never ever trust an even numbered Microsoft release. 

Always always always wait for odd numbered releases as most of the bugs will be knocked out and it will be usable.

[Redsoil]

I have to admit, I held grimly onto Win 98 SE for years!  Totally ignored Millenium, XP and Vista - went straight to Windows 7.  It'll be a loong time before they get me away from Win 7!

In fact, after my friend's experience, I raced out to get another laptop for hubby yesterday (who I'm dragging kicking and screaming into the computer age - finally!), so I could make sure to get one of the last Windows 7 systems available.

[PastryGoddess]

XP was good. ME was *shudder*  I think that is the only computer I took outside and beat with a baseball bat.

[Redsoil]

I've actually shot a computer.  It was very therapeutic!


*Admittedly, it was an old computer that I was discarding.  I removed the innards, and to make sure no info could be used when it was tossed out, I shot it.  Several times.

[siamesecat2965]

XP was good. ME was *shudder*  I think that is the only computer I took outside and beat with a baseball bat.

HAHA - my very first computer, and I knew nothing about them, or the OS, had ME. it was buggy, would randomly shut down for no reason, etc. but the darn thing lasted and limped along for SIX years until the hard drive went kaplooey! second one had XP, and it lasted a couple of years.  It was also a Dell as my first one had been.  when that died, I bought an HP laptop, which is going on 2.5 years, I htink, with windows 7.  Love it.  Haven't had one issue at all with it. So no plans for Windows 8 anytime in the near future.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it

[lady_disdain]

I never had any problem with ME. As a matter of fact, I have a computer that still runs it (for older games).  I liked XP, as well.

My laptop runs on Vista and I am not a huge fan. I have no intention of going to 8. I hate the look and I dislike what I read about the operation. I like my desktop, thank you very much.

[Kaora]

I had a machine with ME, and I loved it.  Then again, we just switched from 95, first edition.

Our original Windows machine had Win 3.1... it was perfect.  I can't understand why we have to have this new fangled GUI stuff, at least 95's sort of resembled 3.x's GUIs...

But Win 8, I'm scratching.  I am going to be testing it on a friend's machine soon, I'll report back then.

[magicdomino]

I tend to skip every other major Windows release.  Let's see, Windows 3.1, 98 (I think), XP, and now 7.  I don't get a later version until the current computer is nearly useless.

Cutting edge, technology types consider desktops to be obsolete; recently, I've seen forum posts calling desktops "dinosaurs" and wondering why they are still made.  So, I'm not surprised that Microsoft would fail to address that market.  I'm surprised that they would ignore the laptop market, though.  Not all of us want a tablet or smartphone as our "workhorse" computer.

[lady_disdain]

There is a strong tendency to proclaim older technologies dead. In most cases, it is either grossly premature or wrong. Desktops are not exciting any more, they aren't going to show sales growth, etc. However, I doubt they are going to die. For a lot of situations, they are still the best solution: reliable, upgradeable, cheaper. In office environments, a desktop is a great solution, specially since, in general, only a part of the employees require mobility. Many gamers also prefer desktops, as they can be customized, upgraded, etc, in ways that a laptop can't. They are more powerful machines for a cheaper price.

[Kaora]

There is a strong tendency to proclaim older technologies dead. In most cases, it is either grossly premature or wrong. Desktops are not exciting any more, they aren't going to show sales growth, etc. However, I doubt they are going to die. For a lot of situations, they are still the best solution: reliable, upgradeable, cheaper. In office environments, a desktop is a great solution, specially since, in general, only a part of the employees require mobility. Many gamers also prefer desktops, as they can be customized, upgraded, etc, in ways that a laptop can't. They are more powerful machines for a cheaper price.

Exactly why I keep mine.  I can see some people could be happy with just a tablet or a light laptop, but me?  I build my computers, because I tinker with their insides and love to upkeep them.  My desktop is also much better for doing a chunk of my 3D picture renders, with a lot more power to it.

Macs drive me crazy for this reason-- a lot of New World Macs, except some really pricey high end ones, you can't open and toy with.  My sister's MacBook you can open to replace the RAM and Hark Disk, but its through a really tiny opening from the battery.  Its more a pain than what its worth.

The desktop will never exactly die, but it will fall into the background.  Still, their uses are useful.

(P.S. I love Old World Macs, the iMac DV and anything before it.  Systems 7 and 9 will be my love, especially since there's handy programs whose functionality I can't find anywhere else.)