Buy windows 7 now or wait for windows 8 (for parents PC)

warren_1979 said:
Sorry to butt in but I'm wondering if the Windows 8 upgrade for £25 will be open to XP users?

Thanks.
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ChileanLlama said:
Yes - XP, Vista and 7.
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Got enough bits in spares box, & a copy of XP to cobble together another pc, & worth spending £25, just to see what's all the the fuss is about Window 8.

But, I will stick to W7 64 on all my other pc's, just couldn't afford to upgrade all of them.
 
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I tried the preview of Win8.
And I despised it.
I actually HATED a piece of code for the first time in my life.

WIN7 FTW !!! :D
 
Moonpie2 said:
I tried the preview of Win8.
And I despised it.
I actually HATED a piece of code for the first time in my life.

WIN7 FTW !!! :D
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So how long did you give it? How many of its features and advantages did you find? In essence, Windows 8 has the same desktop, the same functionality but juts goes faster and does some clever things.

Sure the 'Metro' desktop takes some getting used to though it can be customised to suit the user and is faster to use, once customised, than the traditional start menu. One click moves to 'Metro' and one click open the application. Try that in Windows 7.

An OS takes a while to get used to and instant opinions are usually wrong ones.
 
I tried it for long enough to know that there are 0 reasons I should force myself to endure Win8 over Win7.
But that's me.

I found myself confused and angry and shaken after using Win8.
WHY MICROSOFT, WHY DID YOU DO THIS ?

Still each to their own. If you like Win8 then that's cool too.
:)
 
Moonpie2 said:
I tried it for long enough to know that there are 0 reasons I should force myself to endure Win8 over Win7.
But that's me.
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I felt the same way when Window s95 launched, you didn't give it long enough, 8 does everything 7 does only better.

The only major major difference between 7 and 8 is the Metro/Start change, and Metro is better in every way possible, there's no real comparison, the only people who say different are the ones who either made their mind up to hate it in advance or just didn't know what their doing.
 
I was actually looking forwards to enjoying the new Windows before I tried it, and I've been using PCs for like 15+ years, so that's your argument blown straight out of the water.

At the end of the day (if you're still reading OP) try Win8 for yourself.
Find a friend who has it or download the preview or pop into Curry's or whatever electronics store isn't shut down near you.

If none of those things are an option then try to find 2 or 3 unbiased reviews from professional sites on YouTube.

The only advice that I can give is to NOT get Win8 and hope for the best.... I cannot stress that strongly enough.
 
Moonpie2 said:
I was actually looking forwards to enjoying the new Windows before I tried it, and I've been using PCs for like 15+ years, so that's your argument blown straight out of the water.

At the end of the day (if you're still reading OP) try Win8 for yourself.
Find a friend who has it or download the preview or pop into Curry's or whatever electronics store isn't shut down near you.

If none of those things are an option then try to find 2 or 3 unbiased reviews from professional sites on YouTube.

The only advice that I can give is to NOT get Win8 and hope for the best.... I cannot stress that strongly enough.
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Your advice is good to a point but advising people not to buy Windows 8 is really going too far. people can read on these threads or elsewhere of all the improvements Microsoft have made to the basic OS in Windows 8. They have speeded up boot times for example.

Yet, despite the Metro interface, the desktop works juts as it always did, but faster and with more control. Anyone who is a user of desktop applications will find it works just as it did in Windows 7 but a bit faster and smoother. Sure there's no start button but anyone using the system for even a short time will fine the applications can have short-cuts on the Quick launch Bar, on the desktop leaving the system working just as before.

Metro adds a different way of accessing applications - one which is quicker to use that the start menu and which can be arranged as the user wants. I'm no fan of the large square and rectangular buttons but they works fine.

Finally, for some people, the Metro apps may be all they need. Mail, calendar and contacts together with a browser will all work fine in Metro and such users may not even need a desktop. We ought not to exclude people who would find this useful. If I knew a person who wanted to try computing, I'd say the Metro interface would be ideal to learn on..

Of course we haven't mentioned the price yet. The price of the upgrade of Windows 7 users will be the earth-shatteringly large £25. For that much, a Windows 7 machine can be upgraded to a faster and better machine. really, it's such a small price that its got to be worth a go.
 
Windows 8 represents the third significant design change to the Windows GUI, this has happened before when we moved from Windows 3.x to 95. I remember the resistance to Windows 95 and people insisting that they still had Windows 3.11 on new PCs after Windows 95 was released. I recall the same thing happening when we moved from XP to Vista, granted that was a slightly different situation.

However, Windows 8 is more than that, it represents a significant shift in Microsoft's strategy and the unification of the PC the tablet and the phone. This combined with the revamped 'cloud' services such as SkyDrive, Office web and Outlook.com make Windows 8 an incredibly powerful platform. I think we will see an explosion of Metro apps and the fact that a metro app will work on any Windows 8 platform: x86, x64, ARM (Win8 RT) and with some modification Windows Phone 8 is I think incredible. Microsoft is drawing on it's proven strengths in Windows and Office and pushing these products into a new era.

Yes, we are enthusiasts and for the most part don't subscribe to what most in the wider population do when it comes to IT (i.e. I don't care how it does it, I just want to send an e-mail and I want it to be easy etc) However, the desktop is alive and well and as powerful as it ever was (even more so now) it has seen some fantastic improvements. I still use and enjoy my PC, even more so now. Yes, it took a little getting used to, but give it a chance and keep an open mind and you'll wonder what all the fuss is about, you may even like it. There are some things which I am not completely happy with e.g. The new SkyDrive desktop sync app vs the previous LiveMesh app, but that is life.

I think Microsoft have done a fantastic thing here and I look forward to seeing how this new unified PC, tablet, phone and cloud strategy plays out. I hope they succeed. Windows 8 is much more than just a new OS.
 
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Changed my mind, just had a dabble at a friend's, Windows 8 is terrible, certainly wouldn't waste £25 on it, detest the large square and rectangular buttons.

XP lasted me about 7 years or so, hopefully Windows 7 will do the same,unless MS comes out with something really special, which makes upgrading earlier worth while.
 
Glaucus said:
W8, will be excellent for parents computers and will leave you with a lot less hassle. It has a bunch of great dpfeatures that make support for parents far easier. Including the supyncing and refresh features. And one you teach them for an hour it is easy to use.
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Agreed, I recently upgraded my Mum's PC and dumped Vista for Windows 7 but think I'll be getting her Windows 8 as looks nice and simple and think she'll cope much better with that. Doubt I'll be moving for sometime... :)

Trying to get her to install something in Win7 would be impossible, she can just about cope with Steam so a simple MS store might work well for her and the interface should make it nice and easy.
 
Windows 8 upgrade edition will apparently be really cheap, and windows 7 won't be going anywhere any time soon. I am going to stick with 7 and if I like the look of 8 and it is a cheap upgrade then I will move to that later
 
It's really cheap as MS are desperate to get people using it. Like Vista it's an unfinished product unfortunately.

It is good looking until you install non metro designed apps, then have to spend wasted minutes removing start items that would once have been hidden away in a folder in the old menu.

For people that just use a PC for news sites, email, social media etc they should probably be using a tablet, which Win 8 is good on.

If you use the PC as a work tool you may well find that those little extra clicks and keystrokes now needed get annoying over time, like an un-scratchable itch.

Win 9 should see MS complete the move to full Modern UI integration.

As has been said, people really need to try it for themselves to see if they can live with it.
 
roger that said:
It's really cheap as MS are desperate to get people using it. Like Vista it's an unfinished product unfortunately.
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In what way?


roger that said:
It is good looking until you install non metro designed apps, then have to spend wasted minutes removing start items that would once have been hidden away in a folder in the old menu.
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Because "right click > unpin" takes how long?


roger that said:
If you use the PC as a work tool you may well find that those little extra clicks and keystrokes now needed get annoying over time, like an un-scratchable itch.
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Can you give an example of that? I was enjoying the way 8 needs less clicks than 7...
 
I'm not sure what you don't like about Windows 8 Roger, but it is really a matter of making sure you have the right short-cuts as tiles on the Metro screen (and dump all you don't use) and to start a traditional application it is

1. Click to go to Metro
2. Click the application

and you are back at the desktop with your application running. That is quicker than clicking the start button, clicking all programs, scrolling down to find the right folder, opening the folder and, finally clicking the right short-cut by quite a long way.

That and the new improved security, the speeded up boot times, all the other handy updates, I fail to see why this is not the bargain we have all been waiting for. As for being an unfinished product, well there are always things to add and more things one can do to any project, software or real, physical life but one has to stop somewhere and what Windows 8 does is to help out the touch screen users whilst also providing power users with a faster and more secure platform.

Why would this not be something we all want especially at the price?
 
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