Windows 8

Steve Mann wrote on 9/15/2011, 12:18 PM

OK, I downloaded the pre-beta .iso from Microsoft, and installed Windows 8 on a 2.15GHz Athlon PC. Fresh install, not an upgrade.

The good: Installation was fast, and it boots fast.

The bad: Everything else.
First, it preloads a lot of crapware.
Second, since everything is animated (a-la- iPad), it is painfully slow. Opening Explorer took almost three seconds while the animated explorer window "flys" to the screen.

The Start Menu is now the desktop. Cute icons for a lot of games that I'll never play. Internet Explorer doesn't work, maybe I'll download FireFox on another PC and try running that.

I had planned to compare the Rendertest on the same hardware, just swapping out the boot disk from Win 7 (32-bit) to Win 8, but right now I think that would be a waste of my time.

Then, I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to shut-down the computer. There's no icon. There's no right-click on the Start button. clicking on the Start button just brings up a screen full of cute icons. I am about ready to pull the plug when I get the idea - this is an iPad wanna-be, so I did what I do on the iPad and press the power button. Sure enough, Windows goes into a shut-down.

Folks, windows 8 is going to be a disaster. Microsoft wants so much to be like Apple that I think they are going down the same rabbit hole with Windows O/S as Apple did with the "upgrade" to FCP-X.

This is an OS for a tablet or phone. But with a mouse on a desktop - it's just horrible. There's nothing here for professional use - everything is reduced to cutesy touch-pad icons. I predict that there will be few, if any corporate IT departments making a move to Windows 8.

My opinion - I'll keep playing with it (an apt term since the UI is so game-like) and try installing FireFox and Vegas. More to come.

(I'm sure glad that I have a spare PC for this kind of crap).

Steve

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Comments

Chienworks wrote on 9/18/2011, 9:18 PM

I've often wondered how small Windows would be if it really were just the operating system and GUI API. Of course, there's the endless debate about whether certain parts are worthy of being called part of the OS or not. For example, is a wifi-configuration and management program part of the OS or is it an add-on? Still though, i don't need my OS to be a calendar or a calculator or browse the web or be an email client or ... any of hundreds of other things Windows has accumulated over the years.

Back in the day we tried out something called Windows 98 Lite. It was a repackaging of Windows with everything non-essential removed. Not only was it about 1/6 the size of a full install, but it installed faster and ran faster, and there were a lot less problems down the road too. I don't recall any issues with all the missing parts being gone. I think Microsoft themselves should offer such an option with every version.

Steve Mann wrote on 9/18/2011, 9:46 PM

Way back when I was a youngster....
When I was the tech support manager for a small embedded PC company in San Jose, we licensed the "embedded" version of Windows 95 to install on our products. The build kits for that was what I would WANT from an O/S where the installer gets to decide on the components. We got the O/S into a 2716 EEPROM. (That's 8Kb at 16-bits).

DGates wrote on 9/19/2011, 6:28 AM

Compared to Vista, Windows 7 has been a joy.

But I have no interest in Windows 8. If Microsoft has taught us anything, it's to stay with the OS that gives you the least headaches.

JJKizak wrote on 9/19/2011, 6:46 AM

The only difference I noticed between Vista and Win 7 is when you get a blue screen Windows 7 will automatically try to fix it. Other than that it IMHO is the same OS.
JJK

Terje wrote on 9/20/2011, 3:41 PM

Compared to Vista, Windows 7 has been a joy. ... But I have no interest in Windows 8

Hmmm. That surprises me. From what I have experienced of Windows8 over the past few days, it seems to be an optimized, fast version of Windows 7 with an optional Metro interface. It seems to me that anyone who enjoys Win7 would do so doubly with Win8.

dxdy wrote on 10/9/2011, 8:44 AM

@Byron K

I also suffered the MS Word ribbons when my employer forced us into Office 2010. Now, at home, I have found UBitMenu, a plug in which gives you the option to use the old 2003 style menus. (Call me a dinosaur - but I work faster with the menus).

I have it installed on Office 2010 under Win 7 64 bit Home Premium.

And if the ribbon can do things faster, it is still there.

And it is free for personal use.

Dan Sherman wrote on 10/9/2011, 8:29 PM

Down the nerd nostalgia path again.
Was hoping to learn more about Windows 8,
Maybe as it might apply to editing with Vegas Pro.
The future.
That went off the track.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.