How real people will use Windows 8 on the desktop - Page 4

ViN86 · 03-19-12, 06:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekrosoft13

Metro is great news for Apple then.

new apple adds, hate the new windows? buy apple osx, our os is more normal (now).

market share will shift.

That's what Vista did.

Redeemed · 03-19-12, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melfranks

Who's going to pick up the slack then?
Software developers have an enormous investment in applications which run on Windows, what would be the incentive to ditch Windows and re-write applications for another operating system?

Really? How in the world can this be good for power users? How about have 10 different applications open at once, easily switching between them?

Not gonna' lie, I've yet to use Windows 8 for myself. Going off of what I have seen and the feedback, for a desktop and laptop Metro is the worst possible thing MS could have done. Not only that, but how is it possibly going to increase productivity in big-businesses on the client-side? Can you imaging a company that has thousands of work stations trying to switch to Windows 8 and train all their employees to use the new GUI?

Metro, as it is, will never be successful in the desktop space. So long as the keyboard and mouse are the primary input devices it will not catch on. It'd be more cost effective to switch over to Apple and run XP or 7 in parallels or bootcamp.

**nekrosoft13** · 03-19-12, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ViN86

That's what Vista did.

and windows 8 will really seal the deal

**nekrosoft13** · 03-19-12, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melfranks

Who's going to pick up the slack then?
Software developers have an enormous investment in applications which run on Windows, what would be the incentive to ditch Windows and re-write applications for another operating system?

how about people leaving the platform, what would be great incentive.

**jcrox** · 03-19-12, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeemed

Meh, if MS is really abandoning the Start Menu then they're also abandoning a great portion of their user base.

I wonder how many of my Steam games now work on MacOS.

All of the ones that don't rely solely on MICROSOFT Direct X....

See what they did thar?

If it wasn't for Direct X I would use nothing but Linux. Stupid Direct X

**Melfranks** · 03-19-12, 08:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeemed

Not gonna' lie, I've yet to use Windows 8 for myself.

Find a spare 50GB and install it, it's simple.

Redeemed · 03-19-12, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melfranks

Find a spare 50GB and install it, it's simple.

Gonna' be honest- I really don't care enough to. A client "accidentally" (he was at least 8 trillion years old so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt

) installed it on his laptop, and I had the unfortunate job of restoring it. It was a Dell and to access the recovery partition on dells you boot to the advanced boot menu (F8) and choose "Repair My Computer". From there you'll have the option to restore the computer to the original factory condition.

Well MS changed the advanced boot options menu, and I had no way of accessing the recovery partition! Wound up booting to a Windows 7 DVD, selecting "repair my computer" and from there the option to access the recovery partition was accessible.

That night mare was enough... I will install it if at the very least in a VM just so I can relate to any clients using Windows 8, and I'll have to become proficient at it. However I highly doubt it'll ever be my primary OS.

**TheOneAndOnly** · 03-20-12, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeemed

If you think back, every version of Windows since XP has allowed you to disable the new theme. With XP it was the Luna theme that you could disable and have it look like win2k or even Win95 if you wished. With Vista and 7 it is Aero you can disable to have it look like Win2k or even Win95 still if you wish.

I'm quite positive Metro will be the same. It might be Metro or the old school Win95/Win2k look but even if those are the only two options I'd still be pleased, so long as the option is there for the traditional desktop, taskbar, and start menu. Themes and such can be downloaded later. Heck, this could actually turn out to be very positive for MS- if all they incorporate is Metro or Win2k/Win95 themes, then third part developers can come up with "prettier" themes leaving MS to focus more on the functionality of the OS. I'm okay with that. I used to love messing with downloadable themes and shells for XP back in the day. Would be fun to start tinkering with that again.

Just so long as there is an option to disable metro and have a desktop, startmenu, and task bar I'll be happy.

Metro is not a theme. In fact, the "classic" desktop is now nothing more than a glorified app within the Metro UI. There is simply no way that I can think of that you can 'disable' Metro like you would a default theme in previous Windows versions.

The Metro UI is Windows 8. There is no disabling it, period. Or as Mel implies, "You can run, but you can't hide"

**Cylphid** · 03-20-12, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOneAndOnly

Metro is not a theme. In fact, the "classic" desktop is now nothing more than a glorified app within the Metro UI. There is simply no way that I can think of that you can 'disable' Metro like you would a default theme in previous Windows versions.

The Metro UI is Windows 8. There is no disabling it, period. Or as Mel implies, "You can run, but you can't hide"

There are hacks out there to do this (google, you'll also find an app that does it for you) , but I didn't bother with them. I'm not going to use an OS that I have to hack to death to be happy with.

**TheOneAndOnly** · 03-20-12, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cylphid

There are hacks out there to do this (google, you'll also find an app that does it for you) , but I didn't bother with them. I'm not going to use an OS that I have to hack to death to be happy with.

I understand there are hacks. The question (the way I read it) was whether MS would enable a Metro "off" switch to disable it. From everything I can tell, that would be a no.

As far as hacks are concerned, I agree with you. I see no reason to waste my time just to end with a hacked, potentially unstable Windows 7 SP2 with an upgraded task manager. If I wanted that, I would wait for the real deal---without the upgraded task manager.

Unless some major changes are put into effect that ease my concerns in how Metro makes things more difficult on the desktop, I will be officially skipping this version. I will go no further than purchasing a copy to run on a VM just for educational purposes. Then I can be prepared to rake in the dough when unwitting customers upgrade to this mess and wonder WTF they were thinking and call me for assistance

**Melfranks** · 03-20-12, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redeemed

That night mare was enough... I will install it if at the very least in a VM just so I can relate to any clients using Windows 8, and I'll have to become proficient at it. However I highly doubt it'll ever be my primary OS.

I can't imagine anyone installing a preview version over the top of their main OS.

I had a similar issue with a dual boot scenario, I had to boot from my Windows 7 CD and repair to get the "new" OS selection screen.
I've since removed my Windows 7 drive and installed Windows 8 on a 120GB SSD.

You would be doing yourself a disservice installing Windows 8 on a VM, this was one of the main reasons so many people complained about the new "hot corners". It's pathetically simple to hit them when you are in full screen, which any sane person would be running their OS in.
In a VM however it's much harder to find the corners, and some people actually thought Microsoft intended it to be that way. "I can't find that corner pixel for the Start menu!!1"

It's really interesting seeing the opinions so divided on this preview. I doubt I will ever go back to my Windows 7 installation, there is simply no reason to.
Others swear they will go Mac before they use Windows 8. Go figure...
The nice thing about the preview is it's free to try and easy to install. Just create a small partition, burn an ISO and have at it.

**Cylphid** · 03-20-12, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOneAndOnly

I understand there are hacks. The question (the way I read it) was whether MS would enable a Metro "off" switch to disable it. From everything I can tell, that would be a no.

As far as hacks are concerned, I agree with you. I see no reason to waste my time just to end with a hacked, potentially unstable Windows 7 SP2 with an upgraded task manager. If I wanted that, I would wait for the real deal---without the upgraded task manager.

Unless some major changes are put into effect that ease my concerns in how Metro makes things more difficult on the desktop, I will be officially skipping this version. I will go no further than purchasing a copy to run on a VM just for educational purposes. Then I can be prepared to rake in the dough when unwitting customers upgrade to this mess and wonder WTF they were thinking and call me for assistance

So true, and I laughed

That's one thing win 8 will be good for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melfranks

I can't imagine anyone installing a preview version over the top of their main OS.

I had a similar issue with a dual boot scenario, I had to boot from my Windows 7 CD and repair to get the "new" OS selection screen.
I've since removed my Windows 7 drive and installed Windows 8 on a 120GB SSD.

You would be doing yourself a disservice installing Windows 8 on a VM, this was one of the main reasons so many people complained about the new "hot corners". It's pathetically simple to hit them when you are in full screen, which any sane person would be running their OS in.
In a VM however it's much harder to find the corners, and some people actually thought Microsoft intended it to be that way. "I can't find that corner pixel for the Start menu!!1"

It's really interesting seeing the opinions so divided on this preview. I doubt I will ever go back to my Windows 7 installation, there is simply no reason to.
Others swear they will go Mac before they use Windows 8. Go figure...
The nice thing about the preview is it's free to try and easy to install. Just create a small partition, burn an ISO and have at it.

Been reading up on it.

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/ind...owtopic=268203

As the functionality sits right now, windows 8 is very much a love it or absolutely loath it OS. Metro has no place on my non touch screen laptops. That said, I'm getting very tired of my linux partition constantly freezing up on me, so this whole experience just spurs me to try another, better OS than windows 8.