Gave windows 8 a proper try, still sucks

[holden j caufield]

windows 7 with vmware is literally been the most stable platform for me. I run 3 vm's and I've had to reboot twice in the last year. That was mostly because vmware went a little wonky. I don't see myself moving to different os for awhile.

 

[Nelly]

I think i'll wait till at least December before deciding to switch to Windows 8, more mature drivers, bug updates etc, hopefully Microsoft will give an update option to let us have an official start menu, but I won't hold my breath on that lol.

 

[cboath]

Frankly, i'm still waiting for a valid reason for the hate. No start button? so what? No functionality is missing.

It's not harder to use the start screen than it was to use the start button.

It's OK to like the start menu, nothing wrong with it at all, but it's far from the end all be all. If you haven't used it before, do yourself a favor and go in with an open mind. If you go in with the pre-conceived notion that it sucks, it'll suck.

I did not have a good impression with the CP. I thought this might be the first version i wouldn't use up front or possibly at all. Gave the RTM a shot and was pleasantly surprised.

I could see the complaints if things simply didn't work any longer, or programs were no longer compatible, etc, but it's simply not the case - at least in my experience. Plus everything's a lot faster on the same machine.

 

[guskline]

I have Windows 8 preview on one of my older desktops. Boy it boots fast. The tiles confuse me but overall it's OK. For a Desktop user that has the rigs below why would I upgrade to Windows 8 ?

 

[dagamer34]

Still on Windows 7 as Microsoft hasn't started giving out WMC keys for Windows 8 RTM.

 

[Skel]

Frankly, i'm still waiting for a valid reason for the hate. No start button? so what? No functionality is missing.

It's not harder to use the start screen than it was to use the start button.

It's OK to like the start menu, nothing wrong with it at all, but it's far from the end all be all. If you haven't used it before, do yourself a favor and go in with an open mind. If you go in with the pre-conceived notion that it sucks, it'll suck.

I did not have a good impression with the CP. I thought this might be the first version i wouldn't use up front or possibly at all. Gave the RTM a shot and was pleasantly surprised.

I could see the complaints if things simply didn't work any longer, or programs were no longer compatible, etc, but it's simply not the case - at least in my experience. Plus everything's a lot faster on the same machine.

The biggest reason for all the hate is simple: People hate change, Win8 is a radical shift. Then you have people who hate Microsoft and will spew venom at them no matter what they do. If you look you can find people actively campaigning to FUD anything MS puts out.

 

[cboath]

Sadly, I have to agree with you. You'd think people would be beyond that, but apparently not.

 

[NickelPlate]

Haters gonna hate regardless, nothing you can do about that. Fanboys gonna love regardless, nothing you can do about that either.

But most computer users (myself included) and businesses I know and have worked with are very cautious about new Microsoft releases and the changes made to their core products. It's a reputation that MS quite honestly has earned over the years for better or worse. Some of the things they've done are great and other things have been just terrible disasters. Only time will tell if the computing masses accept Windows 8.

 

[cheez]

Windows getting too fancy. I think it's time for Microsoft to reset the UI to command prompts. It makes you look more intelligent by typing in all kinds of commands instead of clicking on fancy looking icons or buttons in dialogs n such.

 

[cheez]

Haters gonna hate regardless, nothing you can do about that. Fanboys gonna love regardless, nothing you can do about that either.

But most computer users (myself included) and businesses I know and have worked with are very cautious about new Microsoft releases and the changes made to their core products. It's a reputation that MS quite honestly has earned over the years for better or worse. Some of the things they've done are great and other things have been just terrible disasters. Only time will tell if the computing masses accept Windows 8.

Good post. It's a hell-no for businesses and plants. They can't afford to have catastrophic failure due to the bugs or user errors caused in Windows 8 or even 7. Windows XP is the safest bet. And of course, Server 2003.

 

[Zargon]

what you say:

windows 7 with vmware is literally been the most stable platform for me. I run 3 vm's and I've had to reboot twice in the last year. That was mostly because vmware went a little wonky. I don't see myself moving to different os for awhile.

what I hear:

My computer is an insecure virus riddled POS because I never install updates

I do like the startup look of going into metro

and in win7 all I ever do is winkey + type what I want........anyone who actually uses the start menu is NOT a power user no matter what they say and probably 2 finger touch types

I do hate what they did with networking in CP in vista and up though

Good post. It's a hell-no for businesses and plants. They can't afford to have catastrophic failure due to the bugs or user errors caused in Windows 8 or even 7. Windows XP is the safest bet. And of course, Server 2003.

psh only because they EOL'd server 2k and NT 4/win 2k!

 

[Tom]

Not trying to be a hater but..

I like my phone the way I want it, I like my tablet the way I want it, and my pc the way I want it.

Not the way MS decides I should have it. I don't want what is on my main screen dictated to me on any of these devices.

So I doubt I'll every have a Windows phone or tablet, and if I have to use Windows 8 I'll just make it as much like older Windows as I can.

 

[Dominato3r]

Not trying to be a hater but..

I like my phone the way I want it, I like my tablet the way I want it, and my pc the way I want it.

Not the way MS decides I should have it. I don't want what is on my main screen dictated to me on any of these devices.

So I doubt I'll every have a Windows phone or tablet, and if I have to use Windows 8 I'll just make it as much like older Windows as I can.

Hasn't MS decided the past 2 decades that your PC should have a start button and taskbar? I think they've always decided what their operating system should work like.

The only "open" and "free" part of Windows was that it was an ubiquitous platform that put little to no limit on the application developer.

 

[Tom]

Hasn't MS decided the past 2 decades that your PC should have a start button and taskbar? I think they've always decided what their operating system should work like.

The only "open" and "free" part of Windows was that it was an ubiquitous platform that put little to no limit on the application developer.

They can tinker with the periphery of my screen. To me that's what the Start and task bar do.

I don't know enough about W8 to know if the big icons in the middle of the screen are optional or mandatory, but I know that isn't what I want there.

Even updating things, like weather, email, rss feeds, I want them to the side, like gadgets in W7, not in the middle of the screen.

Oh, and gestures with a mouse or trackpad ? No thanks.

 

[cboath]

Works fine with a mouse. Plus you can arrange them however you want on the screen. On top of that, you can get rid of the ones you don't want and add ones you do. The only 'limit' is the tile system is limited to a size of 3 squares wide and 6 squared high 'per column' and you can have as many columns as you want.

On top of that, if you don't like it - or spend most of your time on the desktop (as most computer users will - you'll see it a grand total of 5 seconds a day.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I am still undecided. I hate metro but I do like to have the latest updates and software the start8 option looks good actually. I suppose I will reserve final judgment until it has been out a few months. Then decide based on user experiences.

 

[rudeguy]

Ive gotten windows 8 pro for free through dreamspark premium so i thought i would give it a proper try and use it as my main OS, doing all my day to day things on it and see how it fares. I tried windows 8 CP on a VM a while ago and didn't like it but maybe if i gave it a proper go for a few days it may change. Well i was wrong, its just worse in every way than windows 7, the improved task manager and pausing file transfers and all that additional jazz is nice don't get me wrong but it isnt worth squat if the UI is garbage which is the thing you spend most of your time with.

Its not like avoiding metro will work either because metro effectively is the start menu, so if you install something and no desktop icon appears theres two options C:\program files\folder\yourprogram and make a fkin shortcut yourself which sucks, or navigate metro and find it in that mess then pin it to "start" and go back to metro every time you want to open it. The UI has absolutely no advantages over windows 7 and that is what damns this OS to failure.

Some people cite "getting used to it" well thats difficult when you know theres a much better UI in windows 7 that wont cause issues, other say "fear of change" which IMO is also bollocks, change is great when its for the better and this unfortunately is not one of those occasions. In fact the reason im so ticked at this is because i was looking forward to a change, i like new things im always updating applications/drivers/BIOS etc and plenty of them come with new UI's, XBMC and the asrock UEFI are recent examples, i also liked the ribbon they added in office 2007. These examples have better UI's than the previous versions windows 8 does not and i think it will be a fail on the scale of vista however this time its entirely microsofts fault, nothing to do with 3rd party's crummy drivers etc.

tl;dr
- windows 8 is balls
- tablet OS sucks on desktop
- i anticipate massive amounts of backpedaling with windows 9
- you probably already know this but hey ho i felt like sharing

Same for me.

I ran it for 2 days and tried doing all my regular stuff. It sucked balls.

I never log into facebook unless I have to contact someone on there. This is maybe once a month. However W8 decided that anyone should be available to message me at any time. I never shut my computer down, so this got very frustrating. Sure maybe there is a setting but it still sucked.

Obvious driver and software conflicts. Most things could be manually installed using W7 drivers but still a pain.

And then there was the terrible UI. I run dual monitors but one is used for a TV display. Windows could not understand this and it made for a very terrible experience. To make it usable I had to basically turn it into W7 minus a start button. What's the point in a new OS if you have to treat it like a stripped down version of the previous OS?


Hopefully by launch day its great. I'd really, really, really like to be able to play mobile games on my desktop. Maybe their tablet style OS will allow that? It would make it usable if they did.

 

[kmmatney]

I like Windows 8 under-the-hood. ClassicShell is an awesome start menu replacement, since you can select several different styles, and makes it much easier to shut the computer down. I can see how the Start8 tiles would be nice for a tablet, but it's really not great for a desktop. So I like some of the new features of Windows 8, and looking forward to Storage Spaces, but would prefer it to look like Windows 7 (but with a Windows 2000 start-menu!)

I get he impression that Windows 8 is 2 OSes. A tablet OS to run Tablet apps, and a regalar desktop OS. There are too many things about the tablet part of it that suck when using a mouse. For example, if I launch the news App, it is a pain to get back to the Metro start window again. I have to hover the mouse near the bottom left corner, and wait for the Start icon to appear. It usually take many tries for the icon to come up so I can get back to the start screen. The Metro Email app sucks as well. Their are no checkboxes for multi-delete, and the trash icon is way across the screen. You have to use the keyboard DEL key to get rid of messages in a timely manner. I went to the camera App, and again, the shortcut to go back to the Start menu didn't appear aqt the lower left, so the only way out was to switch out of the app. That's fine for a tablet, but not for the desktop.

Maybe I only have to see the Metro stuff for 5 seconds, but I'd really prefer not to see it at all, on systems without a touchscreen.

 

[rudeguy]

I like Windows 8 under-the-hood. ClassicShell is an awesome start menu replacement, since you can select several different styles, and makes it much easier to shut the computer down. I can see how the Start8 tiles would be nice for a tablet, but it's really not great for a desktop. So I like some of the new features of Windows 8, and looking forward to Storage Spaces, but would prefer it to look like Windows 7 (but with a Windows 2000 start-menu!)

I get he impression that Windows 8 is 2 OSes. A tablet OS to run Tablet apps, and a regalar desktop OS. There are too many things about the tablet part of it that suck when using a mouse. For example, if I launch the news App, it is a pain to get back to the Metro start window again. I have to hover the mouse near the bottom left corner, and wait for the Start icon to appear. It usually take many tries for the icon to come up so I can get back to the start screen. The Metro Email app sucks as well. Their are no checkboxes for multi-delete, and the trash icon is way across the screen. You have to use the keyboard DEL key to get rid of messages in a timely manner. I went to the camera App, and again, the shortcut to go back to the Start menu didn't appear aqt the lower left, so the only way out was to switch out of the app. That's fine for a tablet, but not for the desktop.

Maybe I only have to see the Metro stuff for 5 seconds, but I'd really prefer not to see it at all, on systems without a touchscreen.

Hmmm....

 

[kmmatney]

Well - I just bought a copy of the pro version at Newegg for $59. I'm currently running Windows 7 32-bit Ultimate (which I got free at a Microsoft conference), but want to be able to increase RAM to 16GB, so need a 64-bit OS. I'm sure someone will come up with a way to go straight to the desktop, and I'll use ClassicShell for a start menu. I'm looking forward to playing around with storage spaces, as I have quite a few smaller SSDs I'd like to pool together. So I plan on making it as close to Windows 7 as possible, while making use Storage Spaces. I look forward to it. I still don't like metro and having to move the mouse to the corners of my huge 24" screen to get things done, but I'll try to avoid metro as much as possible.

 

[rudeguy]

can anyone point me to a good Windows 8 walkthrough?

I'd like to give it another shot but I really have no idea what I'm doing.

 

[rgallant]

I can see win7 being nerf over time to push people to run this tablet app. on their PC's.

-but what would you expect from the programing world given small low res. monitors given to use or they use their own high tech .lappy -programing will tend to reflect the the portable world.
-still piss's me off when say NVIDA CP opens @ 3" x 3.5 "UI the rest is blank white screen on a 27" monitor. WTF idiots

 

[KeypoX]

Frankly, i'm still waiting for a valid reason for the hate. No start button? so what? No functionality is missing.

It's not harder to use the start screen than it was to use the start button.

It's OK to like the start menu, nothing wrong with it at all, but it's far from the end all be all. If you haven't used it before, do yourself a favor and go in with an open mind. If you go in with the pre-conceived notion that it sucks, it'll suck.

I did not have a good impression with the CP. I thought this might be the first version i wouldn't use up front or possibly at all. Gave the RTM a shot and was pleasantly surprised.

I could see the complaints if things simply didn't work any longer, or programs were no longer compatible, etc, but it's simply not the case - at least in my experience. Plus everything's a lot faster on the same machine.

Functionality is missing, you're just to blind to see it. The start menu should have been minimized, not a full screen transition.

The smallest of changes can have the biggest effects.

Many have gone into the details of how metro is worse, its not a get used to it or a trivial deal. It is horrid

 

[alpha88]

My impressions after using Windows Server 2012 for the last three weeks.

It was really annoying for the first week, as it took a while to figure out the most basic of things and I was frequently misclicking on the hotspots.

When my wife first saw it, she thought it looked really cool and is excited to try it out when I roll it out to her computers. (She hasn't used it yet)

I've finally gotten to the point where I feel comfortable with the new interface and am generally doing things at the same speed I was on windows 7.

I'm looking forward to more windows 8 metro apps and the integration with windows phone.

 

[cboath]

Functionality is missing, you're just to blind to see it. The start menu should have been minimized, not a full screen transition.

The smallest of changes can have the biggest effects.

Many have gone into the details of how metro is worse, its not a get used to it or a trivial deal. It is horrid

The problem there is the assumption you have to use Metro apps. You don't. Now, granted, if you're trying to implement apps into a desktop OS they should run and function better. I've seen many a spec for tablets for win8 and the requirements seem fairly rigid. I can't see running via a 50" TV at a scaled non-standard resolution working very well.

I like the concept of running an app on the side of my screen and the rest being the desktop - but it's not something that's for me. I don't like limiting the split to 80/20 either, but I understand why it's that way. It's sort of the same thing apple does. On an iphone or ipad, the app 'has' to run at a specific resolution and ratio. MS's doing the same thing, hence the 80/20. They're taking it further it seems with the multiple different resolutions and orientations.

But, while they should work better, none are required for using the system. People complain that it should be desktop only/first and no metro stuff. Well, use it that way.

There's nothing you can't do now that you could do before. It may seem harder at first, but it's not that hard to get used to the new way.

It's hard to argue the point that the apps should work/function better, though. Still doesn't make the whole thing bad.