Windows 8 release is just around the corner

[Draco1962]

The Windows 8 release is just around the corner - 10/26. Who is planning to upgrade?

[Adultery]

I'll upgrade one of my machines but not all of them, and only to stay on top of the tech. I'd only want to use it exclusively if I had a touchscreen, it looks kinda ugly on a regular monitor IMHO (I have a copy from DreamSpark, just hesitant on installing it).

[nullPointer]

I second Adultey's comments. If MS makes 8 available on TechNet I'll probably jump. I've got a machine running Ubuntu that I only use on an occasional basis, so I'll probably install Windows 8 over the top of that just to check it out for a bit.

[Draco1962]

I only have one machine at the moment (Dell XPS 420 - the one that I am on now and use for everything including GameEx) which originally came with Vista x86 and was later upgraded to Win 7 Pro x64. My wife has one of her own with Win 7 Pro x64.

I recall upgrading to Win 7 with little trepidation since it was really "Vista as it should have been" and had few issues with the jump. Windows 8 is a much bigger departure (UI and features) and I have seen mixed reviews from those in a mouse & keyboard environment only. I do not like the idea of having to switch back and forth between Modern UI and "classic" desktop with little to no choice at present which is apparently forced within the OS itself and no means of staying within one or the other exclusively. Loss of the Start button does not bother me but it is a preference to have it visually and functionally.

I have almost always been an early adopter whenever a new OS comes out and some of the features of Windows 8 are intriguing but I am not sure how will it will play with all I have. Also, I am debating if I do upgrade, do I do the live upgrade, order the upgrade DVD, and/or purchase the OEM System builder's DVD and install everything from scratch (which would have me doing quite a bit of backing up and reinstalling - which is not necessarily a bad thing to start entirely fresh which I have been tempted to do anyways).

I know that the startup and application speeds are supposed to be decreased quite a bit with 8, which may be worth taking the dive in and of itself.

Is there anyone that has installed the RTM or RC builds that can weigh in as well?

[celly]

I too might upgrade only one of my systems. Probably my laptop since its the least used. Honestly, i have iso of the comsumer release or whatever it was called but never really got around to fiddle with it too much outside of VB. I agree it would probably be a better touch screen tablet (like what is also coming out) OS than a full blown home pc system. I'll keep my Win7 for the meantime.

[Adultery]

I'll keep my Win7 for the meantime.

+1k

[hansolo77]

I would only upgrade to Windows 8 if I saw there was a marked improvement with the Media Center. I only have 1 computer in my room, which I use as a DVR. I only upgraded from XP Media Center to Vista because of the new DRM "requirement" to do so. Then I upgraded to Windows 7 because I wanted to use Media Browser (http://www.mediabrowser.tv/) which "required" Windows 7 Media Center. So for me personally, I won't be upgrading unless the Media Center is a better interface, and if some new app for it becomes available that is 8-necessary.

[Draco1962]

To be honest, I think that Windows Media Center is not included with any of the Windows 8 versions and will be a separate purchase.

EDIT: Read here. You can include it as part of the upgrade path per this link.

[Tom Speirs]

Ive been using the RTM pretty much in production for about a month. Its a little quicker but has a few bugs which I am sure will be addressed in an update. eg. IE 10 crashes a lot. I see no reason to upgrade from win 7 unless you have a special touch screen or tablet setup. The lack of start menu is an issue for me (for productivity reasons) which is why I wrote an app to put one back. Like I said I really so no reason to upgrade a regular PC. You actually lose more than you gain in my opinion. In fact its kind of a disappointment to me and I expect Ill be downgrading both the HTPC and workstation. EDIT: And yes it lacks both media center and DVD playback. I don't know if there are any improvements to media center. Ive not looked into it.

[Draco1962]

I am leaning towards maintaining status quo at least until I learn more about it. While I understand the direction that MS is trying to take, you cannot force upon organizations at the enterprise level to switch so drastically and hope to sell many licenses. It goes beyond updating to a new OS. It is retraining and redocumenting processes which is tremendous cost. It will be interesting to see if they offer a classic UI option that can override the Modern UI for the office setting and allow people to use that which they are familiar.

[Tom Speirs]

I think MS are just trying to cash in where the market is going and that is tablet over traditional PC and they must see that as more important than the business market place or have some other scheme in the works. They have basically said FU to a certain user base but that's not unusual for a big corp. I wish I could code an alternative and look after the user base

[Tom Speirs]

I am interested about the surface. I will probably buy one if I can and put it through the business.

[Tom Speirs]

I am leaning towards maintaining status quo at least until I learn more about it. While I understand the direction that MS is trying to take, you cannot force upon organizations at the enterprise level to switch so drastically and hope to sell many licenses. It goes beyond updating to a new OS. It is retraining and redocumenting processes which is tremendous cost. It will be interesting to see if they offer a classic UI option that can override the Modern UI for the office setting and allow people to use that which they are familiar.

That makes sense. Its not crap just not the ideal solution for all uses.

[headkaze]

I am interested about the surface. I will probably buy one if I can and put it through the business.

Don't buy the first version of Surface.. check out this quote..

The first version of the Surface doesn't have a regular Intel-style PC processor and won't run regular PC software, but it does include a version of the Office suite.

Microsoft plans to release another version of the Surface some months later with a more traditional processor and the ability to run regular Windows programs. It did not disclose prices for that model.

[Draco1962]

The first Surface is on an ARM processor so will not be compatible with other Windows programs.

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for the heads up.

[snarls]

Draco is right. The WinRT/Metro only apps will only be able to be run on the arm devices and the regular windows mode apps and old win 7 apps won't run on those mobile devices. Personally I will only deal with win 8 on a cursory level with work-related software support. I can tell you from a major client's web stats that up until now windows mobile uptake has been in the very very small fractions of a percent. So much so that even a small $50K project isn't worth them doing because the traffic is so low and not trending up at all. It was so bad, MS themselves offered to pay for & dev a win mobile version of our app just to get some presence.

What this means with Win 8 and the new surface tablets I'm not sure - but MS has an opportunity if they significantly drop their prices and undercut the iOS and Android tablets for this Christmas season, they might get enough momentum to survive andmaybe even compete.

The landscape has definitely changed and desktop computers (and to some extent laptops) are getting very marginalized (primarily outside of corporates) and becoming niche markets as the mainstream doesn't need a desktop for facebook and webbrowsing. Content creators like myself will soon have to pay more for now "specialized devices" like PCs as the masses just don't use computers the way we do. I personally can't live without highend video editing (upgrading to quadro k5000 soon for 4K video), super low latency audio and multi-cores for vst emulation, and fast fast 3D rendering. Gaming & emulation is just a bonus for me on my htpc and cant see needing win 8 unless i pick up a surface tablet cheap or if (and this is a big IF) it becomes a viable platform for sales like the iOS and Android stores are.

So far, win 8 feels like a Vista to me and maybe skippable...? I love win 7 64 and just dont see anything compelling in 8 yet. I want MS to do well, but they seem to be floundering a little playing catchup now. I'll keep an open mind though, but high end content creation doesn't seem very doable in 8 so far.

sorry for the long rant

[snarls]

I know that the startup and application speeds are supposed to be decreased quite a bit with 8, which may be worth taking the dive in and of itself.

Draco, if startup speeds and very snappy resposiveness is what you are after you can get that now. You know what I'm going to say. Yes.... an SSD (and extra RAM). I've just upgraded my Dad's old sony vaio all-in-one vista desktop (which used to boot in a good 20-25min (for all services to start and it be idle and ready- and it was a fast machine) putting win 7 64 new ram and a cheap nice Samsung 830 SSD made it boot in 30-37 seconds. Put the same in my gf's HP laptop and its speedy as hell now.

I even put a WD hybrid ssd drive in an old gaming Dell XPS machine and it is a demon now- Photoshop CS6 launches instantly now! I highly recommend upgrading your boot drive to a Samsung SSD or of the 480GB Sandisks which are good value on Amazon now. Btw the Samsungs come with Norton Ghost, but I used Acronis True Image to clone the old drives onto the SSD via an $11 Sata USB connector off Amazon and it was super easy and quick to replace the old drives with SSDs...

[Tom Speirs]

On a slightly more positive side - Once you put the start menu back and if you don't mind the IE 10 issues right now and initial lack of dvd/media center its fine as an upgrade path for windows 7 if you must have or are forced into the latest. As I said before its not that its crap its just it does not really offer any more for a certain user group.

[Adultery]

@snarls: So you're really plugging solid state drives?

The amount of heat those things generate should be contributing to global warming! It's fricking insane. Laptops are already hot enough, and adding a ssd to that will cook your children right in your nutsack. Just sayin. Let's see how many people jump in to deny these claims! LOL!

@Tom: I'll wait until the first SP comes out, then maybe consider the upgrade.

[Tom Speirs]

I have to admit I am a big fan of SSDs. Didn't realize they were destroying the planet though I thought they were less power hungry.

[snarls]

hey adultery, nope I don't have stock in the companies or anything - just was surprised at how incredible the performance boosts to Win 7 were. And i can't tell if youre joking because the actual temperatures of the SSDs are much cooler than the spinning drives and use less energy. Or did you mean in the manufacturing of them? I don't know too much about how much energy is expended in that- a link would be cool if you have one.

And I won't get political here for fear of alienating myself from all the helpful people here, but if we're gonna boycott tech for good reasons, there always the reasons (or a main one) we're spending billions over in a war a bit north of india. Yup, the world's biggest concentration of rare earth metals needed for tech is under them there caves...

sorry for going off-topic...

[Adultery]

Sorry gang, I was trying to use sarcasm, albeit poorly.

http://tinyurl.com/cbgkd36

[snarls]

lol nothing to apologize for. I just didnt get it - i'm a bit slow maybe

[rockyrocket]

I have a win 8 partition on my HTPC and can see no difference between the W7 and W8 media centers, atleast in the 8400 trail build not the final.

Am using the start8 app to put the start orb back and to be honest once the beta key expires I will not be buying a licence, maybe in a year or two when lots of tweaking has happended but not yet.