windows 8 any good?

Microsoft is trying to killed off start button as they are furious that peoples find a way to get a third party to bring back start button. How sad is that ? Why isn't Microsoft not listen to customers "I want a start button or I stick to windows 7". Afterall, Microsoft doesn't care!

Persistent rumors say Microsoft is busy defenestrating the old Start button and making it impossible for third-party programs to bring back Start. Paul Thurrott reports that "Microsoft has been furiously ripping out legacy code in Windows 8 that would have enabled third parties to bring back the Start button, Start Menu, and other software bits that could have made this new OS look and work like its predecessor." It remains to be seen if Microsoft will succeed at tearing Start asunder, but the three major third-party Start button replacements, LeeSoft's ViStart, Stardock's Start8, and Classic Shell, all work with RP.
 
Funny thing is when you put the internet rumours/hate aside and actually read the blogs from the ui designers it makes sense. Glaucus has summed it up really. I hardly ever use the start button any more, not since pinning apps to the task bar arrived, and 9 times out of 10 I just hit the windows key followed by whatever I'm looking for - which is basically all that button/key/bx is used for these days (as the data ms released highlighted).

On the internet anyone can have an opinion, but remember there is no intellectual or factual prerequisites for using the itnernet. Vocal minority hates changes a year before release, hates changes a year after release, disappears after that. Which 2 recent os releases could that be ascribed to?

Also, ask yourself how many of the enraged comments were posted 5 min after people first trying it i.e. before they even had a chance to learn to use it? There are hundreds of small improvements - which add up to something rather good - yet people seem to focus on the first negative thing they see.
 
Here is the product key for add on features to add windows media center (this key is not for installation of windows 8)

MBFBV-W3DP2-2MVKN-PJCQD-KKTF7 (For Windows Media Center add on feature only)
Thanks Microsoft for giving me this to test out Windows Media Center with TV hardware.
 
I have too much investment in win7 at the moment to contemplate moving to win8. I usually do the approximate alternate versions moving from MSDos 6 to 3.11 to 98se to 2000 to XP to win7.

Roll on windows 9 :)
 
bulldog147 said:
Microsoft is trying to killed off start button as they are furious that peoples find a way to get a third party to bring back start button. How sad is that ? Why isn't Microsoft not listen to customers "I want a start button or I stick to windows 7". Afterall, Microsoft doesn't care!
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You could look at it another way - if Microsoft aren't offering it as a feature then it's essentially dead code, so why leave it in? I wish they did it more often tbh
 
Tute said:
I personally don't like Metro. But there is no right or wrong answer, just opinion. You really need to try it for yourself. :)
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+1 although with a caveat - I love Metro on my wife's phone, I just don't like it on desktop yet. If they allowed click/drag on icons etc rather than the scroll bar it'd be passable though.
 
I think poeple are on a bandwagon, or they havnt used what Win8 and Metro is, truth is Metro doent interfere in the day to day desk top usage, which remains the exact same ( though I like all the background stuff that you dont see) and some cosmetics.

To me Metro is like a whole seperate thing, which may make casual users more at home with their email and things like Photo managment etc.
 
Already up dated four pc's from XP to W7 Pro when it first came out, cost me a fortune.
XP lasted me nearly 10 years, so I hope the W7 pro will last the same number of years.
 
Nightglow said:
Already up dated four pc's from XP to W7 Pro when it first came out, cost me a fortune.
XP lasted me nearly 10 years, so I hope the W7 pro will last the same number of years.
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How old are your computers may I ask? Are you not expecting to replace them before Win 7 gets that old?
 
truth is Metro doent interfere in the day to day desk top usage, which remains the exact same ( though I like all the background stuff that you dont see) and some cosmetics.
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Exactly, it really does not impact on desktop use like people make out. Other improvements to the OS are very nice indeed. True, the Metro concept is aimed at touch/tablets, however it also works VERY well with a mouse for people who wish to use those apps on a desktop/laptop. If not, you can reduce your need to use Metro to nearly ZERO. I think that once you discover that nice RIGHT hand click in bottom left 'god menu' it takes away much of the initial pain of not having a start button/menu.

As for waiting for Windows 9, you can be sure that it will also feature Metro. It's the way that Microsoft and the industry as a whole are heading. Also, Metro really is not that bad for just checking your e-mail/the weather/news quickly. The desktop environment is still there in all it's glory...and has seen some nice improvements. I think MS have done a fantastic job in creating a unified environment.

There will certainly be growing pains with this OS and many will not like it at all at first. Think DOS -> Windows 3.x -> Windows 95. However, i'm certain that people's views will change once they get used to it and most importantly give it a good honest chance.
 
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Halfmad said:
+1 although with a caveat - I love Metro on my wife's phone, I just don't like it on desktop yet. If they allowed click/drag on icons etc rather than the scroll bar it'd be passable though.
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There is a right or wrong answer though. Its a ui, its better to use or not.
 
I had tested out Windows 8 and I click search on the right side and can see all applications there instead of start menu. Can reduce Metro to smaller sizes or take it off (unpin from desktop)

It not that bad to be honest but the usage processor is remain low at 0-2% slightly faster than Windows 7 but I haven't test out on USB Transfer speed yet as Windows 7 is very slow on USB Transfer of penflash copy 3.5Gb from windows to penflash took annoying 40 minutes with poor speed of around 12-18kb/s

WEI score 8.1 on both memory and processor, 7.9 on graphic/gaming and 8.3 on SSD (raid0) out of 9.9. And all drivers already there, no need CD's or online check that surprise me including tv hardware driver already there.
 
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theheyes said:
How old are your computers may I ask? Are you not expecting to replace them before Win 7 gets that old?
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One i7 2700K, two i5 2500k & they were all upgraded end of last year, new boards, the 6970,6950's will be replaced this year with AMD series 7 or 8 cards.
Got a i5 760 & 5850 due to be replaced in a few months, may use it to upgrade my htpc, & retire the E8200 I've been using.
Usually upgraded my pc's every couple of years, but I'm happy with the base pc's, it will be just graphics being upgraded most years, unless something really special appears, which justify upgrading the whole pc.
I avoided Vista & stuck with XP until W7 appeared, no reason to move from W7 does everything I need of it, see no reason to change to W8.
 
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Fair enough. I pretty much agree that if Win 7 is good enough for what you need then there is no point upgrading. I'm the same with OSX - I stopped buying the new versions because they just kept adding things I wasn't really interested in.
 
I think I'm goingto have to try the RC and see what it's like. I hadn't intended to move to W8 after reading so many poor comments on it. But if I don't try it then I won't know and the RC gives a free way of doing that.

However I really don't like the direction that most mainstream desktop OS are going nowadays. I always loved W2K and XP and saw Vista and W7 as a bit of a backwards step for usability (I still moved o them both though).

Years ago I tried moving to Linux full time but ended up back with Windows because I was gaming a lot. But I was thinking recently that I really don't need Windows anymore because I simply don't have time to game now. Unfortunately on Linux the Gnome desktop is also heading in the same direction as W8 and becoming more "phone like". My previously preferred Linux distro, Ubuntu, is now awful because of it. Isn't OSX moving towards that style now too?

The only saving grace at the moment seems to be the Mate and Cinnamon desktops on Linux so I'm going to give W8 and Linux Mint with Mate/Cinnamon a try and see which I like.

Strangely, because I no longer have a dependance on gaming, the underlying OS is now far less important to me than the desktop manager.
 
It's a shame about the Start button but now that I think about it, since Windows 7, whenever I need something I usually just press the Windows key on my keyboard and type what I'm looking for and press enter (same with Mac OS X, using Spotlight).
 
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