Windows 8

[Protoevangel]

I'd never even considered the server platform would get Metro. I bet you won't have to push for Linux servers so hard in the future...

Microsoft (IMHO) seem to be playing Russian roulette at the moment, one of those chambers has a bullet in it...

I'm expecting that at the very least, when the retail version is released, there will be a "Legacy Mode" option. Some OEMs might even have it checked by default, unless M$ restricts them from doing so. Also, M$ does recommend Server Core over the GUI. With Metro, who can blame them?

But I am a fan of Linux, and of competition in general. I would not be disappointed if M$ loses major market share over this.

 

[Philonephius]

It's okay. I don't think it belongs in an enterprise environment, though. I'll probably keep all the workstations at my workplace on W7 for the foreseeable future.

 

[theFijian]

What particularly has hacked off a lot of HTPC enthusiasts is that WMC will only come as as paid-for add once you have forked out the extra for the pro edition of win8. I'll certainly be sticking with Win7 for as long as possible.

 

[tannicv2]

I tend to wait a few months to give MS the time to fix all of it's holes before I put my hands on it. I've just recently started using windows 7. Vista Ultimate was finally where it needed to before my hard drive died on me. I've been looking into MAC and Linux but I don't think they will suite me well on the development side of things. Which I develop on just about everything I can get my hands on. .NET, MS products, web Development, Java, Android which I'm looking into Ruby on Rails and Python in the near future.

 

[m.a.r.X]

What a gamble by Microsoft !

Having tried the preview version, I've to admire their boldness. Its a big step....but in which direction ?
BTW, I still use Windows XP and Mandriva 2009.1 and won't be upgrading it !

 

[C-Man]

Its a big step....but in which direction ? !

Bankruptcy court, of course.

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

I've been looking at the benchmarks between 7 and 8 and I'm actually very impressed. Using the same hardware, 8 is much faster at running the production applications I use enough that I'm seriously considering switching my studio over despite the whole Metro thing. Metro is only used for applications being built on the Metro language. Everything else ends up on the desktop.

I do hope they return the start menu to the desktop. That is one thing that really annoys.

The ability to sync all your mobile devices using 8 is a major plus as well. I'm going to be looking at the new Surface tablet instead of going with the Infinity like I originally planned.

 

[m.a.r.X]

I've been looking at the benchmarks between 7 and 8 and I'm actually very impressed. Using the same hardware, 8 is much faster at running the production applications I use enough that I'm seriously considering switching my studio over despite the whole Metro thing.

Yup, its a benchmarks scorcher....especially the booting.

Comparing it to the W7 is not 'right' IMO, how about Windows 8 vs Mac OSX Mountain Lion vs SUSE Linux 12.1 !

 

[paul1149]

Much of Win8's boot time gain is had by employing hibernation. I already use that a lot around here, and consequently enjoy very quick boot-ups in XP and 7. I set my laptops to hibernate when the lids are closed. With Windows, every few days you have to do a full boot-down to refresh everything, but the normal quick boot-ups are nice.

About rigid UI's, though, it seems MS does not have the monopoly quite yet. I'm working with ubuntu 12.04, and while I like the Unity desktop for what it does, it's what it doesn't do that sinks it. I don't want to search for every app on the machine, I want to be able to browse for it as well. Redundancy has long been a major strength of software, and now it's being intentionally being done away with. I can't think of a more foolish choice for a software designer to make, and Unity's lack of configurability is horrendous. The lack of a dynamic taskbar for quickly switching among applications is also a major step backward. I'm installing Gnome 3 as I type.

 

[Qyöt27]

Unity for me is a lot more tolerable than it was when Canonical first hoisted it on everyone (I'd already gotten used to using LXDE as my main DE when 11.10 came along). Recently I've been rather interested in the possibilities surrounding Dash extensions, though.

But for a traditional menu, yeah, much left to be desired. Although that's easily remedied by using classicmenu-indicator or cardapio.




Win8, I'm honestly hesitant, mostly due to Metro. I'll probably end up doing the same thing I did with XP - right before Win7 is pulled from retail, I may end up buying it so I have it to fall back on. I still have the XP Pro retail box waiting for installation on a setup I have yet to buy components for. Seems rather odd to still be waiting on, but I'd rather have a dedicated install than have to resort to running it through a compatibility mode.

Not to mention I don't even have a computer spec'ed to run Win8. It requires a processor that supports SSE2 (which mine doesn't), and that $40 upgrade deal seems shaky about bittage. Supposedly, it's 32-bit for 32-bit, 64-bit for 64-bit, but as they have the deal extended for XP as well, and most users with a copy of XP do not have the 64-bit edition (unlike Vista or Win7, when 64-bit installs were a lot more common to find or get a hold of), are they going to restrict them to only Win8 32-bit? Doesn't make any sense.

 

[m.a.r.X]

@paul
Yeah, I do hibernate on my XP SP3 too, its very fast.

@Qyöt27
I never liked Ubuntu. Debian based distros never worked for me. I have an ancient, Mandriva 2009.1 with KDE (3.6?) live DVD when I need it.
Wondering how usable the KDE is now !
And, what happened to XFCE ?
How good is it now ?

 

[Protoevangel]

@paul
Yeah, I do hibernate on my XP SP3 too, its very fast.

@Qyöt27
I never liked Ubuntu. Debian based distros never worked for me. I have an ancient, Mandriva 2009.1 with KDE (3.6?) live DVD when I need it.
Wondering how usable the KDE is now !
And, what happened to XFCE ?
How good is it now ?

Xfce is still going strong. I use it more than any other, especially on older systems.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Xfce is still going strong. I use it more than any other, especially on older systems.

XFCE may end up with quite a big following due to all these errant desktop shuffles from MS, Gnome and KDE. It's now my choice for a desktop - mature, stable and quick.

 

[EphesiaNZ]

I never liked Ubuntu. Debian based distros never worked for me. I have an ancient, Mandriva 2009.1 with KDE (3.6?) live DVD when I need it.
Wondering how usable the KDE is now !
And, what happened to XFCE ?
How good is it now ?

Why has Debian never worked for you, for anyone with a bit of Linux know how it should be quite simple.

KDE is (IMHO) buggy and far too much eye candy and gizmo's - reason for bugginess?

XFCE is going along quite nicely. Version 4.10 has recently been released and is quite good. These guys have the right attitude - don't fix what ain't broken...

 

[paul1149]

I have a Pentium 4 box that I'm experimenting with.using Ubuntu 12.04. I went through unity and then gnome 3. unity was unworkable, gnome didn't grab me. I tried lxde and then lubuntu, and went back to lxde. It's much faster than the others, very configurable, and does what you need it to. It's amazing how far from the basics so many others have veered.

I'm very pleased with this linux setup. This may be my stepping-off point from MS. I even have theWord running fine on it via Wine (except it doesn't monitor the clipboard as it does natively installed, which is a significant loss).

 

[m.a.r.X]

Why has Debian never worked for you, for anyone with a bit of Linux know how it should be quite simple.

KDE is (IMHO) buggy and far too much eye candy and gizmo's - reason for bugginess?

XFCE is going along quite nicely. Version 4.10 has recently been released and is quite good. These guys have the right attitude - don't fix what ain't broken...

I don't know but Ubuntu, Debian....and the rest had trouble with my onboard graphics and tethering mobile phones. But, PCLinux and Mandriva worked really well.
I love eyecandy lol (about KDE)

 

[EphesiaNZ]

Just saw this on a Linux forum, an uncanny resemblance and possible omen

 

[m.a.r.X]

LOL
But I like it on tablets and mobile phones though !

 

[NiobiumTragedy]

Just saw this on a Linux forum, an uncanny resemblance and possible omen

Times are different now. The same could have been said for the iPad. Tablet computers were nothing new, but it was smart marketing and a sleek design along side the desire to make personal computing more mobile that launched it into popularity so that image really holds no weight.

Everyone I've talked to who have actually used 8 for more than an hour seem to really like it. The problem I've found is that most of the people who have a negative reaction towards it have never even used it or have used it for such a short amount of time that it's hard to base an educated decision on it.