Windows Windows 8 Marmite thread... Because you either love it or hate it

Marginally....maybe?

I barely remember Win95, but the only things I remember being excited about in upgrading to ME (which I liked) was that Windows Media Player had cooler visualizations. The move from ME to XP was to get 64 bit and multiple processor support (The latter of which I still don't have on this version of W7). Likewise the reason I moved from XP to 7 was for the improved Windows Movie Maker and SSD support. Even now, when i boot into my XP partition the only real thing I notice as lacking is the slideshow desktop, which is hardly a necessity. If we were talking about just the OS then I would be happy to still be running XP, or perhaps even 95, but it's the accessories that make it worthwhile.

Certainly since XP the new operating systems haven't felt "better" just "different".

 

Uh oh, swinging those old man balls around again.

If you play enough with linux you end up doing things like that. Attested to by the guy with the penguin avatar.

 

There's no point to having them if you don't swing them, son.

Er.

 

lmao

 

Mozilla Discontinues Firefox for Windows 8.
https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2014/03/14/metro/

 

Not surprised. Where it is needed most (RT) it can't go. Microsoft really needs to open up the Win32 desktop in Windows RT.

 

I would've used the metro mode of Firefox more... if it weren't for the fact it was completely and utterly irredeemably terrible [imo]... last time I used it was such a car crash I'm not surprised they quit while they were behind and binned it...

 

This is crap. I wanted to use it. But it's extream buggy, and has some serious performance issue. The only thing that is smooth, is zooming in/out. This is both on my desktop and Surface Pro 2. Plus it does not support any add-ons or plugins.

I could not get myself to use it. I try and try, but I am sorry. It's bad.
It needed work to least justify this. At least work on smooth scrolling or something.

I was hopeful for the project. I mean it's only what alpha stage?

And if you needed testers, why didn't they say anything? I would use it daily if it mean that one day it will be good. Also, looking at other people comment, it would seam that people didn't even knew that Mozilla has a Windows 8 App version. No one looked, or tried Aurora releases for this feature.

 

Straight to 8: London's Met Police hatches Win XP escape plan
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/17/met_police_ditch_windows_xp_straight_to_windows_8/

 

For businesses I wouldn't go with 8, since its a transitional os. 9 is going to be out relatively soon. 8 is going to be like vista. Not in a success or failure kind of way. But in a sort of around for a couple of years and forgotten about way. I think a lot of businesses have taken to seven like xp It has proven stability and will be around for a long time.

 

8 is possibly even more stable than 7. And it runs well on older, slow hardware. The Met has a lot of older, slow hardware.

 

I would agree on that for sure. 8.1 can even feel snappy on older single core 1.xgHz cpu with only 1GB of memory... it's even better than Windows Thin which is a lighter version of 7 meant for thin clients. 8.x is so much more optimized for lesser hardware due to the tablet push than 7 since that wasn't really a concern then.

 

After playing with Windows 8 for a while as it was pre installed on my new laptop and first I found I liked it, but after a while I got fed up of not being to work the way I wanted too. I'm very very fussy about the way my OS is installed.

I hated even more how Lenovo had partitioned the hard drive leaving me shy of 50 gig or so from 1 TB drive. Not being able to find any installation Media for 8 and not getting anything other than an over sized recovery partition I got busy with a spare windows 7 license I have.

In my mind the way its set out does not suit a desktop or non touch screen device, whilst I did like how fast the thing booted I still don't see the need for a desktop/laptop system for 'apps' to be made available. On my Phone yes, but I have a full system with the power to cope with proper software. To be honest Windows 8 for me was quite a step back.

 

A new wrinkle to the future of Windows (but it's all good)

Since Satya Nadella has taken over as CEO I have seen some interesting moves happen in Microsoft. We all know that Nadella is a Cloud guy, who believes that the future of Microsoft lies a lot in cloud services. He may well be right.

Interestingly, since he has taken captain's chair, I have noticed an acceleration in the roll-out of cloud-based services and programs:

• OneNote is now free, and available for Windows and Mac, and all mobile platforms;
• Office 365 has had a price cut for single licences;
• Office is suddenly about to roll out on the iPad, while the original plan under Ballmer had been to defer this until the Metro/touch based Gemini version came out, and meanwhile
• Office for Mac is getting a refresh;
• Nokia has spawned a Microsoft Cloud-centric version of Android;
• OneDrive is hustling for business fiercely.

It is as if Microsoft's strategy now is to establish its cloud and Office services everywhere, on all platforms, rather than to try and increase the attraction of Windows OS and devices by keeping these services tied exclusively to those. It may just work out well for all of us. Here's how.

A recent review of the Lenovo Thinkpad 8 pointed out that yes, nice tablet, yes, nice all-purpose Windows OS that allows it to function as a tablet and a full-fat PC. Yet the future may not lie in one device (and hence one OS) for all purposes. Instead, what really struck the reviewer was how easy it was to set the tablet up. Enter his Microsoft account log-on, click select all (apps), click install, and within three minutes the device was set up exactly as his desktop PC, with all his work accessible on it. Thanks to the cloud. He postulated: instead of one device and one OS for all purposes, the future is one desktop on all devices, tailor fit to their specific purpose. No matter what device you log on to --whether tablet, PC or mobile-- there you are: all your apps, all your files. The future is not a lighter briefcase with only one device, but no briefcase at all. Because all your sh*t is in the cloud.

What does this mean? This means that devices can be tailored to one use only, because your data is everywhere. You don't need a multifunctional device that carries all your sh*t, because your sh*t will travel from device to device.

This would mean a change in strategy for Microsoft, back to the stuff that it is best at. Not so much devices, much more services. Why will people like that?

Devices can be left to companies that are good at making that stuff (Apple and quality OEMs like Asus, Lenovo), while Microsoft makes the essential services available on them: Office, OneNote, OneDrive etc.

Windows can be tailor fit to specific device roles again (I can hear impar and Corky45 cheering): a Metro OS for tablets/mobiles only; a desktop Windows for PCs and laptops only. No more hybrid OS, just shared data through the cloud.

The future would be: log in through your iPhone and you have all your Office, OneNote and other sh*t. Log in on your Android Nexus tablet and you have the same Office, OneNote and other sh*t. Log in on your Windows PC and you have the same Office, OneNote and other sh*t. Microsoft software, serviced and data on all your devices, all your OSs.

That is where I think Nadella is going. Expect Windows 9 to look very different again...

 

Possibly neither means is stable nor isn't.

7 has the proven track record and as of now is only about 1.5 years behind the Windows cutting edge. I would put proven stability over performance in a business machine. This is coming from someone who loves performance and can't deal with slowness.

If any machines collapse under seven they should be flat out replaced.

 

So I've been fluting about tonight, setting up a windows 8 VM for myself. A couple of things I have noticed since I haven't installed a start menu is:

I went to change pc settings. I then dragged the pc settings metro panel to a smaller size. When doing that, it doesn't bring the desktop in beside it (or last used open metro app). It leaves a big blank area. Then when you click on the blank area. It brings you back to the start screen instead of your last app or desktop. A small point but irksome none the less.

Another thing I did for sheets and giggles was to take a print screen of the desktop and set that picture as my wall paper. I then set the start screen to use my wall paper as the background. When I hit the start button, the start screen just glides in over your "desktop". The difference is subtle. But I think it softens the transition from desktop to start screen even more.

I think it looks a lot better, but there is never any icons on any of my desktops. I'm not sure how it would fair if you have a messy desktop.

 

There is an option to set the background of the Start Screen the same as your desktop.
There is a bug in Windows 8.1 where if you have a black background on the desktop, and set the Start Screen to use the desktop background, sometimes it will cause it to continue to display desktop icons. I also had it happen on the wIn8 default background.

If you have many icons on the desktop, it becomes a mess. I tried it.

 

Maybe senility is setting in, but i could have sworn i said something similar, probably not as succinctly as you though
TBH i wouldn't expect to see much of it with Windows 9, it has been rumored Windows 10 is going to be a cloud based OS. I just hope they get the security side of things right and allow the customer to choose what is stored on the local, ISP and Microsoft cloud.

 

Possibly, but I haven't the stamina to go back and reread the whole thread. But it was not until Windows 8.1's SkyDrive/OneDrive integration that I could actually see it work. Google Chrome has tried it before and the results were, well, less impressive.

This strategy also fits Microsoft's usual approach of "embrace (the competition) and extinguish (take over)".

 

Greetings!

Nice.