Windows 8 I've seen Da Light!

[jedi]

Well I've had more time to play with Windows 8 (it's been 24 hours now) and I am beginning to like it for it's speed!

I'm running it on a new Toshiba Laptop (model: C875-S7303) and upon first starting the machine I must have dropped a zillion F bombs! It's a huge change and it's an ugly change on a laptop. I do see now how it would help on a tablet with touchscreen but for a dkestop/laptop ***** no!

So first order of biz was installing a "startup shell" and being cheap I went with FREE! [FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Classic Shell (http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/)[/FONT]

Works real good and once installed you start up on the desktop again just like old times.

Next I made the recovery disc to restore it to it's factory settings should I ever have to nuke it. that they don't include these disc anymore. **** cheap-os! Lucky for me I had some spare DVDs. Thanks WD!

Next I got rid of all the c***ware that came with the machine. Norton EVERYTHING!, freebie games, Office Trial, Trial this and that! Installed some software that I do use (FireFox, Opera, Fireworks, MS Office 2010, PDFCreater) and was about to drop $30 for Acronis True Image to make a mirror image of the machine now with all my 'good' software[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif] but again being the cheap-o I found this!

[/FONT]Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
Reflect Free which does the same thing and you guess it it's FREE!!!
So running that right now and backing up the image to an external drive.
The speed on start up is what amazes me right now. There is very little to no boot time.

Only issues I have run into is my old scanner won't work on it. It's a scanner that was native to Windows 2000! No drivers for Win 8. Heck no drivers for Win 7 or VISTA either. My printer is a parallel port type so I'm going to have to find a USB-to-parallel port to get it to work. For now the printer has been moved to my main desktop.

What I don't see the point in (yet) is all these "apps" for the "startup screen". In addition apps are now installed under PROGRAM FILES while software is installed under PROGRAM FILES (x86).

Well baby steps I guess.

 

[downzero]

What were you using before? Was it x64 or is this your first bout with x64 windows?

 

[jedi]

My primary desktop is running windows XP sp3 (amd 3800 chip).
I have another desktop running windows 2000 amd k6 chip.
(Got some apps that need dos and a serial port to talk to lego mindstorm version 1 kits)
Plus have a few racing games that need windows 2000 to play with the wheel controller.

Primarly laptop before this one is running windows xp (ibm pentium 4)
Backup laptop (never on now a days) running win xp (toshiba pentium)

 

[CTS]

I dual booted for awhile and just got a new Intel 520 SSD so I decided to take the plunge. Between being on a UEFI Bios, Sata III, a top of the line SSD, and being on Windows 8 it had better boot before I think about turning it on (not that I turn it off that often).

I'm mainly uh...upgrading?...because I'll need to support it in the future and using it as my primary OS is the only way I'll force myself to get into the nitty gritty of it. I got pretty used to metro and can actually sort of see it as a bit of a benefit now, but what I truely detest is no hard on-screen button to bring it up (w/o installing any extras). I make heavy use of remote desktop and the interface is not very friendly, despite the improvements to remote desktop itself.

 

[hooky]

Windows 8? pfffttt I'm already on Windows 95...

Loser

Work laptop disk drive went south and they gave me solid state drive. I'm going to do a solid state drive in the home machine. That will probably keep me from dropping coin for another year on a new machine at home running 8.

 

[CTS]

If you're changing to an SSD make sure you go into your bios and change your HDD controller mode from IDE to ACHI. Otherwise you won't be able to take advantage of NCQ and some other improvements. If you want to keep your existing install (by imaging to the SSD) you can but you have to do a couple of registry edits before you switch over to ACHI mode or Windows won't play nice. Feel free to PM me if you are and want the details.

It's also not a bad idea to plug the SSD into an existing install first and make sure you're running the latest firmware before you put anything on it.

 

[jedi]

Only thing I noticed is with that shell installed I now can't get to that original start page even by using the window key. Oh well don't need it anyways. Heheheh...

 

[Fletch]

Microsoft? Are they still in business?

 

[jedi]

What r u using?
Linux/unix OK
Apple anything

 

[Fletch]

I'm just surprised, is all. This article asserts that it's been going so badly that Microsoft is essentially bribing developers to convert their apps, and given that I have a contract in the works to do exactly that (and for that reason), I'm starting to wonder if they're circling the drain.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/14/microsoft-has-failed/

 

[Benny]

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/14/microsoft-has-failed/

I'ma need cliff notes for that.

Both Apple and Microsoft have their pros and cons, so I'm staying away from that argument. It's tiresome.

 

[netsecurity]

I'm an MCSE and netadmin. My experience in the first hour was identical to yours. It sucks without a touch screen. I installed a free start menu after about 45 minutes of cussing. I didn't see any real improvements in the short time I was on it though, unless you are using a tablet.

 

[netsecurity]

I'm just surprised, is all. This article asserts that it's been going so badly that Microsoft is essentially bribing developers to convert their apps, and given that I have a contract in the works to do exactly that (and for that reason), I'm starting to wonder if they're circling the drain.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/14/microsoft-has-failed/

That article is crap. MS still runs on office networks by like 90+% doesn't it? And what about their server market share? Not to mention the amazing .Net programming languages, which Apple has no answer to, and even if they tried it would take ten years to catch up...

 

[Fletch]

I'ma need cliff notes for that.

In a nutshell, every new version of windows has lower adoption rates than its predecessor, Microsoft keeps raising barriers to entry, they're driving people to competitors who have more reasonable licensing, and Surface is a giant turd compared to Android or iOS. They're literally bribing developers to convert apps, which as I've said I can personally verify.

 

[jedi]

I'm just surprised, is all. This article asserts that it's been going so badly that Microsoft is essentially bribing developers to convert their apps, and given that I have a contract in the works to do exactly that (and for that reason), I'm starting to wonder if they're circling the drain.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/14/microsoft-has-failed/

I'ma need cliff notes for that.

Both Apple and Microsoft have their pros and cons, so I'm staying away from that argument. It's tiresome.

Well fletch as you saw in my post above there *IS* a way via 3rd party apps to get 'rid/hide' all that touch screen stuff from windows 8 and start at an old desktop like win95-win7 so on that point the article is wrong.

Benny its not an apple vs ms issue. Its more that the entire computer world is changing. The desktop will still be needed by some (hard core gamers, autocad users, accountants that number crunch big sheets) but for the rest of the world their phone and the tablet is what they are using more and more and that does not need windows at all. Android based tablets are what is going to be the future with cloud storage and free apps (google docs), etc... at this point there is no need for the avg user to pay for anything and via the phone/tablet we can finally release the chains of the win os.

I'm stuck in the win world as I was a hard core gamer and if the next big game required win whatever I'm set. But as soon as the games go to say os 123 that is where Iam going. I jsut don't see games going that route. Ms still has a monolpy on that via the graphic card code.

 

[netsecurity]

In a nutshell, every new version of windows has lower adoption rates than its predecessor, Microsoft keeps raising barriers to entry, they're driving people to competitors who have more reasonable licensing, and Surface is a giant turd compared to Android or iOS. They're literally bribing developers to convert apps, which as I've said I can personally verify.

Won't argue with that, except to say that MS has always bribed developers, which is why they have millions more apps for PC than Mac. They also have a more open development environment, which is why they can. Have you ever been bribed to write Mac software?

 

[Fletch]

That article is crap. MS still runs on office networks by like 90+% doesn't it? And what about their server market share? Not to mentiin the amazing .Net programming languages, which Apple has no answer to, and even if they tried it would take ten years to catch up...

I remember the same arguments from 20 years ago, about IBM. Bought any AS400's lately? Done some Smalltalk programming?

 

[Fletch]

Won't argue with that, except to say that MS has always bribed developers, which is why they have millions more apps for PC than Mac. They also have a more open development environment, which is why they can. Have you ever been bribed to write Mac software?

I've written software for both platforms (Unix too) professionally, and I can say without reservation that I have just as much hate for .Net as for ObjC. It's been my experience though, that Apple makes a better development partner, so putting up with ObjC is at least mitigated by that.

 

[netsecurity]

I've written software for both platforms (Unix too) professionally, and I can say without reservation that I have just as much hate for .Net as for ObjC. It's been my experience though, that Apple makes a better development partner, so putting up with ObjC is at least mitigated by that.

I dunno where your hate for dotnet comes from. It is what all the businesses and vendors I've seen are using for rapid development. I thought it was the most advanced language in existence. C# is like "C+++". ObjC is just plain C++ isn't it? I will be writing Windows 8 apps with it as soon as I finish my Android apps.

To summarize, yes Windows is on the decline, because PC's are on the decline in the consumer market. But I think dotnet (IIS, ASP.net, C#, etc. as a platform) s worth billions.

 

[Fletch]

I dunno where your hate for dotnet comes from. It is what all the businesses and vendors I've seen are using for rapid development. I thought it was the most advanced language in existence. C# is like "C+++". ObjC is just plain C++ isn't it?

No. Objective C solves the same problems in much the same ways as C#. It doesn't look the same, and the syntax can make you go crosseyed from time to time, but you'll find the same metaphors and the same toolkits and the same RAD advantages in both. You'll also find the same headaches.

I think we're likely to see Microsoft go the way of IBM, Google taking their place in the "everyman" space, and Apple continuing to gain marketshare to a point. Apple stuff will never be bargain priced, so it won't appeal to the masses generally. Google has their fingers in everybody's pie, and there's far too many ways to use Office documents without paying Microsoft for Office (as one example), so it's only a matter of time before the enterprise decides it's not worth doing anymore. Some would argue that the tide is already turning, like in the article. From my lowly position in the corporate world, I can clearly see that fewer of the businesses in my immediate circle are willing to pay exorbitant fees for what they can get for free or very very cheap.