Windows 8

[vestcoat]

Comes out tomorrow. Anything cool in the works or is it just a bunch of touchscreen crap for tablets? Will Windows 8 Pro have the same expanded backwards compatibility as 7's Professional Edition? It's cheaper.

[Arkhan]

It sucks.

Don't even bother.

You can pay 15$ to upgrade to windows 8 if you buy a computer at like BestBuy.

What's that tell you, lol

[Opethian]

tiles is the touch screen UI that is pretty much all you get in Win8 for phone and tablet (arm processor)

desktop mode is used to run all the x86 stuff like win7.

I loaded win8 RTM on a machine here and I dont see the need to install it anywhere until they lock the next version of drectx to it forcing gamers to upgrade.

[SignOfZeta]

Not being a tablet person I don't have much use for this. People I know who are running it now do seem to like it though.

The one thing I like is the price. Hopefully its a step towards Apple's way of distributing the OS; no key, no DRM, unlimited downloads, unlimited licenses in the home, $30. With a new Mac you can litterally throw the HD in the trash, put a new one in, turn it on, and the thing will start downloading the OS. Now that MS is making entire machines I see no reason they shouldn't do this too. No more hunting for CDs and serials. Personally, I keep track of my shit. The public on the other hand and spoken, loud and clear, "I throw all the documentation that came with my purchase in the garbage can as soon as I buy the computer." There is no need to perpetuate the pretense that they don't do this.

This thing MS has been doing for 15+ years now where they put $180 retail copies of Windows on the shelf at Target that NOBODY BUYS has always been a mystery to me. Seriously, why do this do this? Is it basically just their round about way of renting ad space?

[BigusSchmuck]

Windows 8 sucks ass for a few reasons:
1. There is no system imaging available. In other words, if your hard drive crashes, guess what? You'll have to do a reinstall. It does backup your files though...
2. No native DVD playback. Not really a big deal if you use vlc player but it means you'll have to download the codecs and such in order to play dvds in windows media player.
3. The search feature is fubarbed. You can't do a search for all files and folders anymore.
A good balanced review here:
http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-8-1093002/review#articleContent
Not getting any brownie points over here at my work as we just now finished getting almost all of our users on Windows 7. I'll probably stick to 7 for now unless of course 8 decides to go 128 bit of course...

[_joshuaTurbo]

Wow, huh- it really is inexpensive.. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/windows-8-pro-costs-40-if-youre-running-xp-vista-858859

I'm just curious if you could take the installer and make your own disc.

I'll prolly stick with my Linux Mint set up I have, but I could take our XP tower and upgrade it just to try it out.

[BigusSchmuck]

Wow, huh- it really is inexpensive.. http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/windows-8-pro-costs-40-if-youre-running-xp-vista-858859

I'm just curious if you could take the installer and make your own disc.

I'll prolly stick with my Linux Mint set up I have, but I could take our XP tower and upgrade it just to try it out.

Been trying to talk my bosses into getting it just to try it out on a xp machine. I know it doesn't transfer programs from xp to 8, but it does transfer documents and files and such.

[SignOfZeta]

I made a DVD of the "download only" Win 7 "student" upgrade version. It launches and installs Win 7 on blank discs no problem. Hopefully this will be possible with Win 8.

[Mishran]

If its that cheap, I may put it alongside 7 as a dual boot on my notebook. Push comes to shove, virtual box that bitch.

I tried the prerelease version, and it isn't bad, but it is definitely meant for touch screen systems.

[vestcoat]

http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-8-1093002/review#articleContent

Thanks for posting this Bigus. It looks like it boots faster, but I don't see anything new that I need. The new interface is cutesy and a big departure, I don't need cloud storage, I don't have a cell phone or a tablet and my video games are technologically ancient.

2. No native DVD playback. Not really a big deal if you use vlc player but it means you'll have to download the codecs and such in order to play dvds in windows media player.

I'm surprised they took DVDs out. It's fine if one buys OEM drives, but I buy a lot of used and refurbished stuff. I was just installing a used BD-ROM in my laptop the other night and dismayed to find the codecs weren't supported in Windows 7. I told myself, "well, it's a new technology, I'm sure it will be supported in Windows 8, like DVD's were in 7." I'm more surprised that Media Center is gone and that it apparently wasn't popular. It was sweet having music, DVD's, Netflix, my TV Tuner, and internet TV all in one place. The add-on key is free in 8, but how long will that last?

Wow, huh- it really is inexpensive..

Yeah, it's cheap, but Windows has followed Mac's model of more frequent, incremental upgrades. They'll probably be trying to sell us 9 soon.

[soop]

apparantly it's more lightweight than 7, and from what I've heard it's going to make my netbook a bit faster/more efficient.  So I'd say it's worth the £10 for me.

*edit* Maybe "lightweight" is the wrong word.  Less bloaty, more efficient.

[vestcoat]

apparantly it's more lightweight than 7, and from what I've heard it's going to make my netbook a bit faster/more efficient.

Yeah, I guess the benefit of making an OS for tablets is that it can run on dinky little computers. The interface doesn't appeal to me, but it's cool to see a new OS that doesn't require any more memory or processor power than the previous release. Maybe it would be good for my GF's netbook as well.

[KnightWarrior]

How much Ram will it take?

[Mishran]

My question of the day involves Xbox Live Arcade games. The preview releases of Windows 8 had tiles for a couple of XLA games, but they didn't seem to do anything on my PC. Can 8 actually play the games? Gotta admit, that would be cool.

As a side note, every place I called about Windows 8 had sold out of copies within 20 minutes of placing them on the shelf. Not that it matters, since my netbook lacks an optical drive anyway. :-"

[SignOfZeta]

How much Ram will it take?

All of it.