My first Windows 8 experience...

[mrwho]

... was nearly as bad as the worst day I can remember as a tech.

Am I the only one who gets easily lost trying to move around on 8? I'm skipping this update...

[mojorolla]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

No "start" button, issues with scanning, and those horrible pop up screens. Check out this program called Classic Shell:
Welcome to Classic Shell
Gives you the familiar start button and makes navigation much easier. It is not a theme, but a program, so it can be used as needed or removed when using customer PC's.

[mrwho]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

Come on guys we know that at the first we will getting lost and may about a day or two we'll get the hang of it.

fry.jpg

Not sure if clever bot or really interested spammer person.

[davidj7]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

hell i got lost when Vista first came . Xp still is my favourate running on all my work computers and laptops and I have my home computer on Win 7.

[mrwho]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

hell i got lost when Vista first came . Xp still is my favourate running on all my work computers and laptops and I have my home computer on Win 7.

My only gripe when moving from XP to Vista/7 was the Network and Sharing Center, which I believe made it unecessarily more complicated doing simple tasks like checking the IP address and other info using the Gui (I now go directly to the command line and type IPCONFIG).

[JustManuals]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

I hate Windoze 7 and I'm certainly not going to Windoze 8. I see a MAC in my future.

Paul

[Jules Winfield]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

8 is cool, you just need to learn all the keyboard shortcuts if you're running it on a device without a touchscreen.

[mrwho]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

I hate Windoze 7 and I'm certainly not going to Windoze 8. I see a MAC in my future.

Paul

Try Ubuntu. I've been dual-booting it and it's great. My problem with Macs is to pay double or triple the price of a similar spec PC. Oh, and I don't like MacOS X (although I agree that Windows 8 is much worse - and I'm a Windows person).

[rthonpm]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

I hate Windoze 7 and I'm certainly not going to Windoze 8. I see a MAC in my future.Paul

That's a whole different batch of issues: overly expensive hardware, proprietary adapters, and terrible ideas like no Ethernet cards. The griping about Windows 8 reminds me of all the bitching and moaning I heard from Windows 95 users when XP came out. 8 may have some quirks but it's a step towards a new type of computing.

[mrwho]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

That's a whole different batch of issues: overly expensive hardware, proprietary adapters, and terrible ideas like no Ethernet cards. The griping about Windows 8 reminds me of all the bitching and moaning I heard from Windows 95 users when XP came out. 8 may have some quirks but it's a step towards a new type of computing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against change - I like the option to change. It's the fact that they're trying to shove it down my throat that makes me mad. Why no customization options for those who like it the way it was?

[zed255]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

Because everyone would immediately set it to 'classic' mode and never see the 'improvements'. I haven't seen a full release, but I'm not liking what I've seen in testing versions. Much more intuitive if a touch-screen is available, but still a nuisance.

Learn to like it boys, the mighty M$ machine sez that's how it's gonna be!

[Hansoon]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

I heard from Windows 95 users when XP came out

Sure, that's a jump. Why didn't they go to NT and W2000 in between?

My very personal opinion is that W7 is very good in the mean time but W8 is ridiculous without touch screen. Might be good or even very good for tablet computers but not for an office workstation. MS is not introducing this to improve technology or to simplifying our life, its for sure only done to forcefully re-create a marketshare for them going hand in hand ofcourse with slobbering hardware suppliers.


Hans

[mrwho]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

I, for one, will not buy a touchscreen just because MS says so. I don't like a touchscreen for computer use at home. It's nice on a tablet, and for most actions on a mobile phone, but on my desk I still very much prefer the mouse+keyboard combo, even more because I'm still a gamer (when I have the time).

[mojorolla]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

We've come a long way baby...
historical-photos-pt4-windows-95-launch.jpg
...er, maybe not.

[Shadow1]

Re: My first Windows 8 experience...

Win8 is probably great if you have a tablet with a 10 inch touch screen. Sux for a desktop or even laptop computer. I have not run any version of Windows on either my personal laptop or desktop in more than 5 years. I do not miss it a bit, and the only program I've had any trouble with is TurboTax (Requires .Net 3.5 which won't run without WGA checks passed)

If you like the Windows XP experience look into Linux Mint. If you prefer OSX then Pear Linux is your option. I'd steer clear of Ubuntu right now - since they adopted the Gnome 3 interface it reminds me too much of Win8, and they've fallen off the top of Distrowatch.com

Both of these OS's are extremely stable and robust - Installation is much simpler than windows - it just flat plain works when it installs, no drivers to hunt down, etc. There are native Linux versions or replacements for all major software (Tens or hundreds of thousands of apps including: OpenOffice, FireFox, Chrome, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Scribus, Gimp, Thousands of games, and if that's not good enough the VAST majority of Windows Native programs will install and run just fine under Wine.)

Viruses and spyware are virtually non-existant on any Unix based OS, not because of their lower (but growing) popularity, but because of their superior security model. Being an Open Source Code project where anybody can see exactly how the computer code is written has advantages, too. It makes it much easier to see any possible vulnerabilities, and some geek around the world will have a patch ready within hours... just for bragging rights. In fact, the only reason I have a virus scanner on my system is so I can scan other people's drive with a USB jumper cable when I work on their computer.

And the best part is that it's all absolutely free.

Linux has a reputation as the Geek Operating System - which Microsoft certainly perpetuates, and it used to be true... Not any more - it's much more user friendly than Win8, and any Mac fan will tell you OSX is based off of a Unix derivative called BSD, which is a very close cousin to Linux.