Windows 8

[James]

Don't give cheek.

[Dae]

Accept you'll rarely see it on a mac.

I see kernel panics on Macs more often than I do on PCs but that could be due to me working with Macs in production environment more often these days. Generally I'd say the chances are about the same, if we compare to a well-built PC.

[Aidan]

Accept you'll rarely see it on a mac.

I see kernel panics on Macs more often than I do on PCs but that could be due to me working with Macs in production environment more often these days. Generally I'd say the chances are about the same, if we compare to a well-built PC.

That's a good point.

I currently work at Futureshop as a Connect Pro - Tech Associate.

A LOT of people buy PC-Laptops, and A LOT of people suck at using them.

A 'standard everyday user' that uses a PC opposed to a Mac has a higher chance of BSOD than a Mac user.

Hopefully this means less pissed of customers banging on my wall to..

"FIX MY WINDOZ U BROK IT IZ UR FAULT!!!!!!!"

Maybe it'll be more like this next year..

"There's a sad face on my PC Can you fix whatever 'windows can't handle' please?"

Thank god HP is pulling out of the PC market soon.

[Dae]

Thank god HP is pulling out of the PC market soon.

What's wrong with them? I know they used to make good business-class laptops.

"FIX MY WINDOZ U BROK IT IZ UR FAULT!!!!!!!"

I think kernel panics in most cases are caused by hardware problems or problems with the drivers.

It may of course be related to "culture" of using a computer, e.g. if a user likes to "pimp out" his system with 3rd party drivers for every possible component and peripheral they may use.

With Macs, Apple's philosophy is "one-driver-fits-all", and the OS will never (or very rarely) ask you to download a 3rd party driver, let alone doing it automatically on its own. People barely use drivers which come with the mice, for example, because the OS allows you to remap buttons out-of-the-box, and a mouse itself works immediately when you connect it. (In Windows, on contrary, a new mouse will start working in 30 seconds at best, especially if you haven't used it before).

On the other hand, in cases when a device can't operate with the default driver (usually professional or semi-professional equipment), a driver which comes with it may turn out to be a pure garbage because of lack of testing or lack of skilled system programmers who work with OS X.

[Aidan]

I'll break it down like this..

50% - User's Fault (be it by 3rd party executables or dealing with system data they have no idea what to do with)

The OTHER 50% - The shit PC they're using.

I completely agree with what you said. I can also agree that Apple makes the most solid PC's out of any other company. However, as of recent, we've been getting a lot of Mac's in as well. Now that apple has burnt the image of professionally built PC's.. They now slap them together, and have a higher failure rate than before. Granted it is still a very low failure rate amongst other PC's.

HP is a smart company that makes shit products. In our back room, a good 40% of broken PC's are HP's, and another 40% are Acer computers.

Technology is now a MASSIVE money making industry. Now that many computers notice this, they realize they aren't going to make AS MUCH money if they create products that last. This is why PC's aren't built as well as they were 5-10 years back. (e.g a friend of mine has an HP tower that has lasted 7 years so far, whilst many people buy HP towers that break within 1 year).

Whenever a customer asks me what laptop to buy, I suggest a mac. If they don't want a mac, I suggest an Asus PC. -and NOTHING ELSE

I think the new BSOD is for the better in terms of calming down non-technical users. Means less stress and straight faces for me

[James]

Public consumer demo has been out for some time, a lot of comparisons to Vista (introducing new features etc) but does that actually mean anything?

Anyone here had hands on with it?

[Aidan]

Yes, it's great. More details after I get back from my girlfriend's house..

UI is HTML based and is much more efficient on system resources, and is much more responsive.

[Professor Layton]

What's the memory/cpu usage in an idle state?

[Aidan]

Well.. On windows7 my PC idles at around 0-2% CPU usually. On win8, I don't see that "2" quite often. I might install it on an older PC I have for better speculations on system performance.

I find it barely uses any memory compared to win7.

I love the tile system. Not really for myself though.. For others that aren't real keen computer users (I have customers call me about...

"yeah soo i clicked on the e and the google net isnt working"

"well what do you see in front of you?"

"ummmmm, facebook?"

)

Working in technical repair, I can say I support win8 because it's very easy to use for people that use their computer for general purpose oh my god this is a large run-on sentence. I do wonder if this new tile scheme is going to throw everyone off, and cue a billion questions for them to ask me about it :/

Tiles = Easy mode (can be cool for any user when you get used to it)

THERE IS a desktop mode (which I'm positive most of us will use)

Even when you're in your tile layout, the desktop tile will take you there instantly.

I was originally pondering with why they made such a drastic change to the layout when MS is developing another OS from the ground up, and breaking free of the "windows" name altogether. Afterward, I had realized it's a good idea, because it'll keep their stocks up, and entertain people with a new design concept.

In the grand scheme of things, windows8 is super-efficient, and cool. However, I'm much more interested for what kind of OS Microsoft has up their sleeve next.

[Psychotic]

UI is HTML based and is much more efficient on system resources, and is much more responsive.

That's intriguing.

What I'm wondering is how it works. Is it similar to Active Desktop?

[Aidan]

Yes, it's very similar in that sense. It's almost as if they looked back at great ideas they had in the past, and are putting them in to effect in an apple-esk manner.

[Psychotic]

This could turn out to be pretty friggin' awesome.

[Shinobi]

#1 - Ya can't close shit. Seriously it's like using an android... just wait for it to close itself... (just not good, like android OS is).

#2 - No start button. Windows is the PC wheel... why make it square?

#3 - It took me ten minutes to figure out how to shut my PC down

#4 - Constantly being signed in to this n that is a security concern no matter how ya dress it up

#5 - Two versions of IE... one which looks too much like Windows Phone 7 to be trustworthy.... oh by the way did I mention that this version DOES NOT SUPPORT FLASH. So ya gotta switch over to old desktop IE to use youtube etc.

#6 - It's just really counter-intuitive. Start panels 'n' shizzle should be like Windows Media Center... have the ability to be turned off and forgotten about.

I am by no means an expert but defo by no means a novice PC user. But I didn't find it intuitive at all. I like the look and feel and AWESOME (truly awesome) speed of... well everything... on my PC... but they need to separate the old from the new I think.

EDIT: I felt like I was back in 2003 and I'd just installed Litestep with a dodgy theme...

[Siva]

I think I will just use Win7, if as and when the successor to Win8 comes out and it's equally stupid I will bite the bullet, install a Linux distro and keep Windows around just for gaming

[Shinobi]

^ Kudos.

I use Ubuntu for surfing/web-work and windows only for gaming.

[Psychotic]

I think I will just use Win7, if as and when the successor to Win8 comes out and it's equally stupid I will bite the bullet, install a Linux distro and keep Windows around just for gaming

I tried to do this but just got annoyed at the inconvenience of swapping out OS' every time I wanted to do something in Windows, or vice versa.

I prefer Linux or Windows, I just wish more of the software I use was supported in it. There's decent alternatives for most things, but they're either difficult for me to use or are fairly large downloads to get.

[Aidan]

I think I will just use Win7, if as and when the successor to Win8 comes out and it's equally stupid I will bite the bullet, install a Linux distro and keep Windows around just for gaming

I tried to do this but just got annoyed at the inconvenience of swapping out OS' every time I wanted to do something in Windows, or vice versa.

I prefer Linux or Windows, I just wish more of the software I use was supported in it. There's decent alternatives for most things, but they're either difficult for me to use or are fairly large downloads to get.

Exactly. This is why I only use windows, and have never had any issues really...

I have MSE installed, and it works like a charm.

[Psychotic]

I have MSE installed, and it works like a charm.

I always saw the selling point that operating systems such as the Mac and Linux have "no viruses" as a gimmick, to be honest.

Whilst they don't have as many of the problems in that regard as Windows do, they still do have problems. They're not entirely immune, and only the truly naive or ignorant would think anything but.

Whilst I would recommend them based on their security in comparison to Windows, I'll still say that some security is better than no security, even in a Linux distro. Ubuntu, for example, comes with it's own security software.

Putting two and two together isn't hard: If there was nothing that could potentially affect the security and performance of your system under Ubuntu, then the software wouldn't need to be added.

[Shinobi]

WINE is fine for some apps but as anybody who has tried linux (in any flavour) will know... it's not the most intuitive thing to get to grips with.

Windows 8, for me, was harder to get to grips with than the first time I ever tried Linux (and I tried Slackware!!!)

I'm not complaining about a change, I like change, but only when it makes life easier, and this ridiculous Metro interface (as nice as it really does look) is just a pain in the testicles.

Has anybody got any usage tips for Windows 8 so far? I'm struggling most to accept that I can't close IE once I open it unless I use task manager (which, if you haven't seen it yet, has undergone some... changes...).

[Psychotic]

Yeah, here's my advice: Use it on a touchscreen, since that's what Windows 8 is primarily being designed for. That's why there's the "Metro" screen and why it works the way it does.

[Shinobi]

I like how tech is progressing and becoming more synched-up/clouded-up/mobiled-up but hey....... what about those of us who use desktops BECAUSE they are better and more fully-functional than laptops/netbooks/smartphones etc.... (thats a matter of opinion of course)..... people like ME who use a PC because they LIKE having lots of complicated menus and options and customisable stuffs... im not making any sense but i think windows is rapidly becoming a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none....

[Tantalus]

Yeah, here's my advice: Use it on a touchscreen, since that's what Windows 8 is primarily being designed for. That's why there's the "Metro" screen and why it works the way it does.

Or get a Kinect so Microsoft can have ALL OF YOUR MONEY...


...And so you can give voice commands on ME3.

[Psychotic]

Yeah, here's my advice: Use it on a touchscreen, since that's what Windows 8 is primarily being designed for. That's why there's the "Metro" screen and why it works the way it does.

Or get a Kinect so Microsoft can have ALL OF YOUR MONEY...


...And so you can give voice commands on ME3.

Going to be frank: When I want what I consider to be a gimmick console thing then yeah, maybe I'll buy a Kinect and the Xbox to go with it. Until then, I'm fine with Windows.

[Tantalus]

Going to be frank: When I want what I consider to be a gimmick console thing then yeah, maybe I'll buy a Kinect and the Xbox to go with it. Until then, I'm fine with Windows.

No, as in they're selling Kinect for Windows, in which you can use gestures instead of a touch screen.

[Shinobi]

They are??


Oohh!! Minority report, anyone??

[Aidan]

I really don't see why there is so much rukkus in here about win8.


I won't be buying it.. Nor will most of us.

-but the thing is..... Windows 8 isn't made for people like us. It's made to dumb down windows for those who are pc-illiterate, and create a nice clean UI that is easy to use on a tablet.

[Shinobi]

Because it's radically different to windows 7... well it's the same with a radically different layer ("interface") tacked on top.

And it sucketh.

[Aidan]

I just edited my post a moment after you posted.


If you ask me.. Things are looking good for Microsoft right now.

"The New iPad" has proven that Apple is lacking revolutionary development, and is only currently evolutionizing products.


Microsoft is releasing windows 8 making is easy to use for the majority of the population who fail to learn how to use normal windows.


Microsoft is ditching the scarred-for-many-a-year 'Windows' name after windows 8, and is creating a new OS.

The failure rate on Apple products has gone up, as they have switched to cheaper part brands to save money.

I now often see mac viruses at work. So much for apples "do you have viruses pc? I don't".

Apple has lost some of their luster lately, and isn't really impressing anyone who shares common knowledge in the pc world.

Microsoft seems to be filling the creative shoes apple once wore.

[Shinobi]

Timing!

I agree with your point about Win 8's target audience. I'm not "clever" enough to become a linux-convert, and I need windows for compatibility, but I'm slowly getting sick of each windows getting dumber than the last...

I still have Win98SE on 2 of my computers, and XP alongside 7 on my main one.

[ynnaD]

My boss uses the worst looking Windows 7 theme i've ever seen, it looks like an old Windows 95, what a waste