Windows 8

[baldjoeg]

The Toshiba laptop that I bought in September, 2009, came with Windows Vista, which is a program I detest. It was supposed to come with a free upgrade to Windows 7 which I never did. We were switching internet service providers at the time and I had to wait to get things working. I have really struggled with Vista but am considering an upgrade. I think that I have to go through Toshiba but I am not sure. Any advice anyone.?

[tomgallagher]

I think you will like Windows 7 Joe. Can't vouch for Windows 8 yet.

[Baldstu]

I used to run PC Linux OS several years ago and it was great. I'd like to go back to a Linus OS but I can't comprehend how to leave a Windoze partition. I have only one game on my computer and I simply refuse to not have it in working order. I tried installing an emulator called Wine but my game would not run and that just won't do! So for now I am stuck with 'Doze!

What ms dos ?.Mac man meself , gotta  emulator for windows programmes , crossover which just about copes with my amateur radio software

[Frontier Guy]

I think you will like Windows 7 Joe. Can't vouch for Windows 8 yet.

+1 for Windows 7 -- it really was a breath of fresh air after Vista. I'm in no rush to move to 8.

[Bluebriz]

I used to run PC Linux OS several years ago and it was great. I'd like to go back to a Linus OS but I can't comprehend how to leave a Windoze partition. I have only one game on my computer and I simply refuse to not have it in working order. I tried installing an emulator called Wine but my game would not run and that just won't do! So for now I am stuck with 'Doze!

If you we're to install something like Mint from the install DVD, it's all menu driven now, so it would give you the option of installing it alongside windows and choosing between them at startup.  The only reason I still have windows at all is for ITunes, which I really don't like anyway!

[andrew]

I just installed win 8 on my laptop, and so far, dislike it.   I'm sure it works well on touchscreen devices, but for non-touchscreen devices I really hate it.  Too many extra mouse clicks to do routine tasks.  Also, many non-intuitive navigation paths required for simple tasks.  I may re-install win 7.

I also installed Office 2013 and dislike that too.  The new user interface design reminds me of a word processor I used on a Sun SparkServer in the mid 90's.

I was thinking of buying the Microsoft Surface tablet, but now I'm leaning more toward another iPad.

[Rusty Shackleford]

A couple weeks ago my laptop took a couple dumps.  First the power supply died just like the power supply on my other Dell and then the HDD failed like the two before it. (Yup, 3 deaths in 23 months)  Since it was out of warranty I manually replaced the HDD and that was a massively complicated process since the HDD was held captive, under armed guard, in the deepest and most protective place within the laptop (Dell, seriously?).

I've restored the system but my wifi access and soundcard are not working.  I must have had to unplug something and either didn't get it back in right or didn't get it connected at all.

I've decided to get a new laptop on Black Friday.  I really want a Mac due to fact that Apple has this crazy thing called a QA lab and actually does this radical thing called testing on their OS and hardware.  Unfortunately I do not have a spare $1000 sitting around to pay for the premium of getting this Apple testing and Apple designer logo.

*sigh*

I'd rather not have another Windows OS, but everything else will be some obscure OS (like a Linux thing) which means nothing but aggravation anytime I want a peripheral.  I went through this non-standard OS thing when I used Windows NT 4 in the late 90s.  Almost nothing supported NT 4.0!


So I'm afraid this means Windows 7 or Windows 8.  If I get 8 I will be sure to get a touch screen, but from what I've seen the OS looks very cumbersome and unfriendly to someone who loves to have lots of windows open simultaneously.  Windows 7 is *OK*, it's probably the best Microsoft OS I've ever used, but it's still a Microsoft OS.

I've noticed Microsoft will sometimes fix minor things that really bug me when they release a new OS.   For example, XP (I think) fixed the problem with Notepad that imposed a small limit on the total number of characters a file could hold, and Windows 7 streamlined the absurdly cumbersome process of disconnecting and reconnecting to a wifi network (I also love snapping windows).  If Windows 8 quietly fixes things like that then maybe it would be worth it, but it just seems like a bipolar mess.

I also study and do Java, HTML5, CSS, and Javascript.  While much of that is web browser stuff and has (or should have) little interest in the OS running it, I feel like I should be on the most recent Windows OS to study this stuff properly.


UGH.  Who am I kidding?  This will probably all come down to the price when I go shopping Friday!

[Mr Jules]

Just got a new Windows 8 PC with touch screen monitor. I've taken to it straight away.

[VoodooSyxx]

I'm surprised to see several fellow Linux fans on here. Sweet. I've used various distros of Linux since 1995 or so, and have been a Linux Admin for the past 11 years. I don't really have anything against Windows. I just never used it so it's foreign to me. I did get a new sub-notebook a month or so back that had Windows 8 on it, and I played with it for 20 minutes or so, but it wasn't anywhere near as complete as a Linux system so it was switched to Ubuntu pretty quickly.