Advantages of Windows 8?

On Sun, 01 Jul 2012 19:43:00 -0400, Tony wrote:

If xp mode doesn't exist in windows 8 then it will be a long, long time. The only
selling feature of windows 7 was xp mode. So XP may be aroound longer than windows 7,
windows 8 and windows 9.

First of all, XP mode is available only in Professional and higher
versions of W7, so it's hardly a selling point for the majority of
users, who have lesser versions.

Second, most users are unlikely to even know about XP mode when they get
W7 or a W7 computer.

Third, there are alternatives, some free, and at least one is superior
to XP mode, in my direct experience of both.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

In message , Good Guy
writes:
[]
When a new OS is released, people always hate it but in time they get
used to it and come to like it more than previous OS's. For example,
when XP was first released, people hated it and kept using Windows 98SE
and Windows NT 4. Now it seems they can't live without XP!!! Even
Windows 7 was hated by many and now they love it.

Remember you are writing in a 7 'group, which is likely to be biased I
think ... and also the vast majority of users stay with whatever came
with their PC, whatever it is, and that is 7 at the moment.


--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove
that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are
right. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

In message ,
"(PeteCresswell)" writes:
Per :
So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.

I'm guessing "Yes" bc you will get the challenge and enjoyment of
figuring out where MS (yet again) moved the furniture to... -)

They really ought, by now, have started including some command - or
clickable icon - that made each new version look _and behave_ like the
previous one, as a matter of course. Sure, they offer (do they still, or
did that stop with XP?) offer "Classic Mode", but (a) that's almost
entirely just an appearance skin, and (b) the name is insulting.

There is a third party utility I use with Office 2010 that gives me the
old (pre-ribbon, i. e. 2003) interface, which has most things where I
know where to find them, illogical though that may be - and yet still
gives me access to all the new features (except the colour palette!). It
irritates me that it has to be a third party solution, though.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove
that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are
right. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

On 02/07/12 07:17, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

They really ought, by now, have started including some command - or
clickable icon - that made each new version look _and behave_ like the
previous one,

Yeah right.
So you own a car for ten years, then buy a brand new one. Do you expect
it to look and behave like one ten years old? On that logic we would
still be driving around in Austin 7 look-alikes....

On 01/07/2012 9:13 PM, John Williamson wrote:
On 01/07/2012 20:56, wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.

Sooner or later, some of your hardware or software will stop working
under Windows 7.

It will be a very long time, unless you run Windows 8 RT.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK


If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. — Mark Twain

On 01/07/2012 8:56 PM, wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.


I can see no advantages at all, and many disadvantages. Metro is a
silly, cumbersome, badly planned interface for toy computers, but you
can't remove it, only bypass it. As a consequence I can't see any
enterprise users giving it office room - for that matter, very few home
users either. I can't find anything that Windows 8 does that Windows 7
doesn't so far, and since there are a few things it doesn't do that
Windows 7 did, it's a none starter, as far as I can see. I forecast lean
times ahead for Microsoft - get rid of your shares now, before Windows 8
hits the streets (assuming they don't abandon it before the release date).

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK


Licentiae, quam stulti libertatem vocabant - Tacitus

On 02/07/2012 09:11, Gordon wrote:
On 02/07/12 07:17, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:

They really ought, by now, have started including some command - or
clickable icon - that made each new version look _and behave_ like the
previous one,

Yeah right.
So you own a car for ten years, then buy a brand new one. Do you expect
it to look and behave like one ten years old? On that logic we would
still be driving around in Austin 7 look-alikes....

Well, it makes sense for new features to be in a new place, but any
retained features, which haven't been upgraded or changed, should stay
where they were. They should also operate in the same way.

Why move the lighting stalk from one side of the steering wheel to the
other, and similar with the wiper control, if neither operation changes
in a new model? If the A/C control is on the bottom centre of central
console, why change it to top right? If a 3-speed fan operates by
turning clockwise to increase speed, why change it to anticlockwise?

Those are the sort of changes that MS make when redesigning an OS. Note
the word "redesign" - not "enhance", "upgrade", or "improve". It's
great if any of those three happen along with the redesign, but it's
rarely true. Google "Quartic steering wheel"...

I often believe that for MS (and many others - they don't have a
monopoly in this area) there is a large poster on the walls of their
design department which states "It's your job to make it a triumph of
design over function. Go to it!".

--

Jeff

On 7/2/2012 10:45 AM, Bob Henson wrote:


On 01/07/2012 8:56 PM, wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.


I can see no advantages at all, and many disadvantages. Metro is a
silly, cumbersome, badly planned interface for toy computers, but you
can't remove it, only bypass it. As a consequence I can't see any
enterprise users giving it office room - for that matter, very few home
users either. I can't find anything that Windows 8 does that Windows 7
doesn't so far, and since there are a few things it doesn't do that
Windows 7 did, it's a none starter, as far as I can see. I forecast lean
times ahead for Microsoft - get rid of your shares now, before Windows 8
hits the streets (assuming they don't abandon it before the release date).


Windows 8 will join Vista and Windows Me as another MS flop.

--
Alias

Bob Henson wrote:


On 01/07/2012 8:56 PM, wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.


I can see no advantages at all, and many disadvantages. Metro is a
silly, cumbersome, badly planned interface for toy computers, but you
can't remove it, only bypass it. As a consequence I can't see any
enterprise users giving it office room - for that matter, very few home
users either. I can't find anything that Windows 8 does that Windows 7
doesn't so far, and since there are a few things it doesn't do that
Windows 7 did, it's a none starter, as far as I can see. I forecast lean
times ahead for Microsoft - get rid of your shares now, before Windows 8
hits the streets (assuming they don't abandon it before the release date).


Win8 is fantastic at gobbling up any other OS it finds. I don't think
Win7 does anything comparable!
I had a dual boot where Win8 completely hid Win7. It took me ages to get
it back.
I've got the same set-up now on a spare machine. They're both still
there, but Win8 set the dirty bit on the Win7 partition so that at boot
it ran a disk scan. I've unset the dirty bit and it boots fine again.
But for how long?

This is great fun for a retired computer programmer. It's better than
playing the role games; even Napoleonic warfare!
I'm learning lots, and it will be productive knowledge to pass on to
other people and help them with their problems.

Ed

On Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:11:06 +0100, Gordon wrote:

So you own a car for ten years, then buy a brand new one. Do you expect
it to look and behave like one ten years old? On that logic we would
still be driving around in Austin 7 look-alikes....

Of course not.

I expect the fuel gauge to show me how hot the coolant is, the temperature
gauge to show me the speed, and the rev counter (which shows how much fuel is
left) to be hidden behind the folding arm rest between the rear seats, along
with the handbrake.

Driving is no fun if all the controls and gauges do what you expect them to.



--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.


I delayed purchasing a tablet until I knew more about Windows 8.

After trying the Preview on an esata drive I decided that I might as well go ahead
and buy an Android tablet.

I bought 2 Samsung tablets - one for my wife! I also use Samsung Note as my
main smart phone. With stylus it meets my need for replacement for windows
pocket PC I used in the past.

In my office we still have a few dos programs which work fine with 32 bit windows 7
in a window.

If this 32 bit option is removed from future Windows then those dos programs will have to
be replaced. I am however a medical professional aged 70 and will be quitting all
medical work in 5 years.

FD

Per Gordon:
Yeah right.
So you own a car for ten years, then buy a brand new one. Do you expect
it to look and behave like one ten years old? On that logic we would
still be driving around in Austin 7 look-alikes....

I expect the gas pedal and brake to be in the same place on both.
Likewise the emergency brake and ditto the turn signal and a
number of other features unless there is some arguable benefit
from moving them.

Given that XP has a control panel item called 'Add/Remove
Programs', I would want to hear a reason why it is changed to
another name under Windows 7 and moved to a different place in
the hierarchy.

OS's aren't personal automobiles and corporations with tens of
thousands of employees lose significant amounts of money when
everybody has take time away from their normal duties to figure
out where the furniture's been moved to.

At the MS Office application level, I've had bond traders tell me
"If this change involves me having to deal with Excel 2010
instead of the one I have now, just forget it." They're
willing to accept new functionality if it helps them do their
job... but just moving things around? They're on a fast-moving
treadmill as it is - living and dying by thousandths of a percent
return - and they don't need or want to have to take time to deal
with gratuitous changes.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Mon, 02 Jul 2012 09:58:24 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Gordon:
Yeah right.
So you own a car for ten years, then buy a brand new one. Do you expect
it to look and behave like one ten years old? On that logic we would
still be driving around in Austin 7 look-alikes....

I expect the gas pedal and brake to be in the same place on both.
Likewise the emergency brake and ditto the turn signal and a
number of other features unless there is some arguable benefit
from moving them.

Since you mentioned the emergency brake, it's interesting to point out
that it's been much more of a parking brake for nearly all of its life
than ever being an emergency brake. In addition, it's disappearing
from some new cars and may be on the way out. Personally, I haven't
used a parking brake (except once when playing in the snow - it allows
fantastic skids) in at least 25-30 years, so I wouldn't miss it.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/05/31/is-handbrake-grappling-with-extinction/

Given that XP has a control panel item called 'Add/Remove
Programs', I would want to hear a reason why it is changed to
another name under Windows 7 and moved to a different place in
the hierarchy.

It's still called "Add or Remove Programs". Isn't that close enough to
remove all doubt? As for where things like Control Panel applets are
located, you don't really need to know, anymore. I wasn't a big fan at
first, but I've grown to embrace 7's ability to find things as I type
the first few letters. In this case, I type "add rem" after clicking
the Start orb and there it is, right at the top of the list.

--

Char Jackson

FD wrote:
wrote:
When this new Windows 8 is released, is there any advantages to
upgrading from
Windows 7 Professional? I've heard that it has a lot of bells and
whistles for
portable devices or some such. I never pay attention to that stuff
because the
only portable devies I have are a Sony Walkman, which I load mp3;s
directly to
from my desktop, an Android tablet and an Android phone. So is there
any benefit
to "upgrading" to Windows 8 in the future? Thanks.


I delayed purchasing a tablet until I knew more about Windows 8.

After trying the Preview on an esata drive I decided that I might as
well go ahead
and buy an Android tablet.

I bought 2 Samsung tablets - one for my wife! I also use Samsung Note
as my
main smart phone. With stylus it meets my need for replacement for windows
pocket PC I used in the past.

In my office we still have a few dos programs which work fine with 32
bit windows 7
in a window.

If this 32 bit option is removed from future Windows then those dos
programs will have to
be replaced. I am however a medical professional aged 70 and will be
quitting all
medical work in 5 years.

FD

You can run a guest OS in a virtual machine, if you need
older characteristics in an OS. I have a whole bunch of
guest OSes loaded in virtual machines, for all occasions.
Even Solaris is loaded in there, but the networking doesn't
work (which makes that virtual machine, dead).

VirtualBox is just one example. There are lots to choose from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...rtual_machines

Paul

On Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:51:35 +0100, Good Guy
wrote:


When a new OS is released, people always hate it


A giant overstatement! *Some* people hate it. And of those that hate
it, they *sometimes* do, with *some* new operating systems.

As an example of what I mean, I have never hated a new version of
Windows, and have almost always liked it better than its predecessor.

I'm not yet sure how I feel about Windows 8. So far I've only seen
pre-release versions of it, and I have mixed feelings about it. And I
don't yet know what differences there will be in the released
versions, nor all of what third-party programs will be available to
let me configure it to the way I will want it. Nor which, if any, of
the apps I run that are important to me will run under Windows 8.

When it's released, I'll probably run it in a virtual machine, and try
running under it all the apps that are important to me. Depending on
how that works out, I'll decide whether I will want to replace Windows
7 with it.

But even if I don't switch to Windows 8 soon after release, almost
certainly I will at some time in the future.



but in time they get used to it


Again, true of many people, but far from all.


and come to like it more than previous OS's.



Once again, true of many people, but far from all. Many people still
prefer previous versions of Windows to Windows 7.



For example,
when XP was first released, people hated it and kept using Windows 98SE
and Windows NT 4. Now it seems they can't live without XP!!! Even
Windows 7 was hated by many and now they love it.



Yes, I agree with that last sentence. But that's the first time you
said "many people" instead of "people" (which implies *all* people).