Windows 8 opinions

[AlienMenace]

If you are worried about no start button you can download "Classic Shell" for free and set it up. After you setup it will boot up in the "Desktop" mode. Not the "UI" mode. I have Windows 8 Pro x64. I love it. I ran the Release Preview from August to first part of December. Like the other guys says if you have the "UEFI" BIOS, it makes it faster to boot, plus a SSD drive boots faster than the regular Hard drives. Mine boots up in about 8 sec.
I beta test Windows 7, but never bought it, didn't have the money. While I was trying out 8, I was thinking of getting 7. But 8 won out. I love it. Not slow on my machine. My nephew as 8 pro on his computer and he is running a AMD 955 Phenom II. And He boots in about 10 sec. And "Classic Shell" for his start button.
But to each his own.
Just think back in the day when MS went from 3.1 windows to 95, and people griped about that. There are always going to be gripers.

 

[AntimatterAsh]

If you are worried about no start button you can download "Classic Shell" for free and set it up. After you setup it will boot up in the "Desktop" mode. Not the "UI" mode. I have Windows 8 Pro x64. I love it. I ran the Release Preview from August to first part of December. Like the other guys says if you have the "UEFI" BIOS, it makes it faster to boot, plus a SSD drive boots faster than the regular Hard drives. Mine boots up in about 8 sec.
I beta test Windows 7, but never bought it, didn't have the money. While I was trying out 8, I was thinking of getting 7. But 8 won out. I love it. Not slow on my machine. My nephew as 8 pro on his computer and he is running a AMD 955 Phenom II. And He boots in about 10 sec. And "Classic Shell" for his start button.
But to each his own.
Just think back in the day when MS went from 3.1 windows to 95, and people griped about that. There are always going to be gripers.

I still think you should be able to use Regedit.exe to implament a copy of 7 Explorer into 8 if you rename it and dump it in %systemroot%.

I don't have a copy of 8 to try it on though. I destroyed my beta copies the other day as they had expired.

 

[Life]

Ok last answer on this...

You are the only one of about twenty people that I've heard had problems with Win8 and its performance (not the UI). So go ahead, tell me that your computer is perfectly fine but I guess you had either a driver issue or a faulty hardware problem. And it seems that you posted on another thread that your computer was being "fixed"?

Anyway like I said, I won't answer on that question anymore.

Lol, yeah, I broke the cpu cooler on it yesterday, and so I need to get a new one. And the comp I used windows 8 on, was not mine.

 

[speedyink]

Hate to be that guy, but Linux has been doing that for years.

Yeah, but then you'd have to use Linux
Seriously though, it had it's chance, I had more than one bad experience, end of story.

on HDDs none the less. Even faster with SSD (my average is about 3 to 5 seconds from power to password. Password to desktop is instant.)

My desktop only has HDD's, so that figure is with HDD, not SSD. At least for now

Lol, yeah, I broke the cpu cooler on it yesterday, and so I need to get a new one. And the comp I used windows 8 on, was not mine.

Your experience is isolated to you. Rather than spam this thread with garbage maybe your time would be better spent figuring out why in your particular case it sucked so hard. If that doesn't appeal to your other option is to hit that little "X" in the top right corner and do something else.

 

[wolfeking]

it had it's chance, I had more than one bad experience, end of story.

and we have all had hundreds of absolutely horrible experiences with windows, yet you still use it don't you? You got a anti linux thought in your head and it stuck. Just look at it like this, NO one has ever had to spend 3 days digging their way out of adware, malware, or a virus just to have to reinstall with linux, and never had to spend days searching for a driver that actually works.

That said, I still am not going to buy windows 8. Or 9. Windows is only used for games. I will keep windows 7 until it does not play games anymore, and then still keep it. No sense in paying thousands out to get access to games, only to have to put $99.99 on top of that every 2 years for a new OS. No matter the design, or the refinements.

 

[speedyink]

and we have all had hundreds of absolutely horrible experiences with windows, yet you still use it don't you? You got a anti linux thought in your head and it stuck. Just look at it like this, NO one has ever had to spend 3 days digging their way out of adware, malware, or a virus just to have to reinstall with linux, and never had to spend days searching for a driver that actually works.

That said, I still am not going to buy windows 8. Or 9. Windows is only used for games. I will keep windows 7 until it does not play games anymore, and then still keep it. No sense in paying thousands out to get access to games, only to have to put $99.99 on top of that every 2 years for a new OS. No matter the design, or the refinements.

See...you say it like everyone has had major issues with Windows...maybe I'm just lucky.. The last time I had to reformat my computer for viruses/malware was when I had windows 98. Even on my computers now they are on the same install of Windows 7 that I installed when it was first released...no need to reformat for any reason.

Your drivers argument confuses me...Windows finds most of them for you nowadays. If it doesn't it's 99% of the time very easy to find..When I was using Linux finding drivers for laptop video chips and wireless adapters was practically impossible. So yeah...in my experience Linux is the one that sucks ass to get drivers for.

I guess it's all in ones experience

 

[StrangleHold]

Havent had to reinstall because of a virus or malware in years. Only do it when I feel the need or bored or to test out another OS. Never any problem finding drivers.

 

[wolfeking]

, and never had to spend days searching for a driver that actually works.

See...you say it like everyone has had major issues with Windows...maybe I'm just lucky.. The last time I had to reformat my computer for viruses/malware was when I had windows 98. Even on my computers now they are on the same install of Windows 7 that I installed when it was first released...no need to reformat for any reason.

Your drivers argument confuses me...Windows finds most of them for you nowadays. If it doesn't it's 99% of the time very easy to find..When I was using Linux finding drivers for laptop video chips and wireless adapters was practically impossible. So yeah...in my experience Linux is the one that sucks ass to get drivers for.

I guess it's all in ones experience

1. Is you get a virus or malware that is not covered in the standard sweep from malwarebytes (which is easy to do even when you don't download anything other than games on steam), you can either spend days going through random fixes for it that don't work, or you can reinstall. Windows it is a hell of a lot easier and quicker to reinstall than to fix it. Linux is the other way round, its usually easier to fix it than replace it.

Havent had to reinstall because of a virus or malware in years. Only do it when I feel the need or bored or to test out another OS. Never any problem finding drivers.

Finding drivers is not the issue. Finding drivers that actually work is the issue.


As for issues in windows, I am just going to leave it at this. There are entire websites devoted to BSOD debugging. Getting a BSOD is easy, just install a program that ask for more memory than your RAM and Swap (whatever windows calls it) can provide. Or Install a driver that don't agree with your GPU. Or have a CPU that won't run stock speeds on stock volts in windows. Or happen to run a bench while any other CPU heavy program is running. The ways to screw up windows are a billion and the ways to fix it are few.

Just game on it. Everything else can be done easier, more securely, and generally faster in other OSes (not only linux, BSD and OSX are in the grouping there too).

 

[StrangleHold]

You have had more problems with computers and windows then I have had in the 17 years I have used both. No point even arguing about it. Becomes completely pointless.

 

[speedyink]

1. Is you get a virus or malware that is not covered in the standard sweep from malwarebytes (which is easy to do even when you don't download anything other than games on steam), you can either spend days going through random fixes for it that don't work, or you can reinstall. Windows it is a hell of a lot easier and quicker to reinstall than to fix it. Linux is the other way round, its usually easier to fix it than replace it.

I honestly don't know how anyone screws up their computer to the point that you're explaining. Like I said, last time I had to deal with a virus/malware on one of my computers it was the family computer running Windows 98.

Finding drivers is not the issue. Finding drivers that actually work is the issue.

...Really? Finding working drivers has always been a breeze.. The one time I had issues was with an outdated tv tuner card on a newer windows.
On Linux I had trouble with basic drivers like wireless and video. There flatout wasn't drivers available for my Radeon x1400 in my laptop, same deal with the wireless card on that laptop and another Asus one I tried. In my searches to find the video driver I was told to buy another laptop with an Nvidia gpu because they were more supported


But I'm with Stranglehold..arguing over this isn't gonna no nowhere.

 

[wolfeking]

We are not argueing, we are discussing. No one ever learns, or achieves if they never discuss the issues.

And the x1400 has drivers, and assuming you had it at least 6 months after release, then there were drivers for it. Same as windows, you go to ati.amd.com and download the current driver package (that does not work in hardly anything). then Chmod it and install. Takes all of about 3 minutes with my 6970s. You would need either 11.6 or 12.6 (I'm not sure which supports x1400) to get it working, assuming you needed a driver. The standard Linux driver does everything I need, from CAD to Distributed Computing, to the various older game (mainly Global Operations, and MOH:AA) on my FX2500m.
Wireless, I will hand you that one. I have had issues with a wireless card from my M90. But it had issues in Windows too, so I am not sure if it was bad drivers, or a bad card. Was easy to fix. Set a Intel Dual Channel N card into it and it operates out of the box. Sound is picky sometimes, but that is because it has 2 sound chips working on it (Expresscard from Sound Blaster xfi and the integrated sound). Sometimes the distro will pick up one or the other, but a quick check of which one generally gets both working fine.


Windows on the other hand:
Graphics Drivers:
12.6 drivers: artifacting, if that is a word to cover it, more of glaring lack of anything but blurred lines, in DX9 games. DX10 and 11 work, but not well.

12.10 drivers: Fixed DX9, Busted BF3 performance. Also busted DirectCompute performance (reduced by about 15%).

12.11 : Fixed direct compute and BF3, broke DX9 again. That is some games, mainly CNC and MOH games tend to have screen flashes anytime you get more than 50% GPU usage (in a firefight, or when you got several hundred units moving on screen).

11.6 : Currently going to try it when I reinstall later, but I am expecting it to break direct compute again. This driver never gave me a fit on the 4870 though, so fingers crossed.

Sound drivers (ALC 889):
Current one: Fixed static sound from the back, but will not output sound to the fromt headphone jack.

Last one: Static on the back jack, but at least the headphones work.

I will say for sure, the Intel LAN drivers and Chipset drivers have never gave me an issue.



As far as reinstalling, It is the same piece of crap little adware/crapware that has been on here before. Malwarebytes does not pick it up. Would go through johnb and get him to help clear it out, but that takes hours. Takes 35 minutes to reinstall. With everything on teh HDD already, it takes very little time to get the games back up either.

 

[Life]

Your experience is isolated to you. Rather than spam this thread with garbage maybe your time would be better spent figuring out why in your particular case it sucked so hard. If that doesn't appeal to your other option is to hit that little "X" in the top right corner and do something else.

A tip for you, Don't get into discussions that don't involve you.

 

[speedyink]

And the x1400 has drivers, and assuming you had it at least 6 months after release, then there were drivers for it. Same as windows, you go to ati.amd.com and download the current driver package (that does not work in hardly anything). then Chmod it and install. Takes all of about 3 minutes with my 6970s. You would need either 11.6 or 12.6 (I'm not sure which supports x1400) to get it working, assuming you needed a driver. The standard Linux driver does everything I need, from CAD to Distributed Computing, to the various older game (mainly Global Operations, and MOH:AA) on my FX2500m.

Where the hell were you 3 years ago when I was trying to get it working
I was told since it was a less popular mobile ati graphics card that it wasn't supported, only the desktop cards were supported, or integrated mobile chips, or the more popular mobile cards.

Windows on the other hand:
Graphics Drivers:
12.6 drivers: artifacting, if that is a word to cover it, more of glaring lack of anything but blurred lines, in DX9 games. DX10 and 11 work, but not well.

12.10 drivers: Fixed DX9, Busted BF3 performance. Also busted DirectCompute performance (reduced by about 15%).

12.11 : Fixed direct compute and BF3, broke DX9 again. That is some games, mainly CNC and MOH games tend to have screen flashes anytime you get more than 50% GPU usage (in a firefight, or when you got several hundred units moving on screen).

11.6 : Currently going to try it when I reinstall later, but I am expecting it to break direct compute again. This driver never gave me a fit on the 4870 though, so fingers crossed.

Sound drivers (ALC 889):
Current one: Fixed static sound from the back, but will not output sound to the fromt headphone jack.

Last one: Static on the back jack, but at least the headphones work.

Whoa there, that's some issues! All I can say is I've never really had issues with any of my games, not on my ati X700, Nvidia 8600GTS, 8800GTS 512, or my HD7670. They've all worked as they should. Same with sound drivers for realtek HD audio and Creative X-Fi

A tip for you, Don't get into discussions that don't involve you.

Maybe you should look up the word "forum"

 

[wolfeking]

Where the hell were you 3 years ago when I was trying to get it working
I was told since it was a less popular mobile ati graphics card that it wasn't supported, only the desktop cards were supported, or integrated mobile chips, or the more popular mobile cards.

Likely somewhere round abouts Roanoke, Craig County, or maybe Greenbrier County. Certainly not on here back then.

But AMD is good enough that 99% of the time their drivers will work across the whole line, from the lowest all the way up to the GX2 style, and through most of the laptop line too. At least for the Linux drivers. The windows drivers are no where near that interchangable though.
Also take into account that most AMD drivers will install on a laptop card and work even if it is not "supported" on that driver. Just a matter of luck with that though.


Nvidia is generally better with their drivers, at least since G80 was released. The 7000 series has very few drivers left, and that is the card I have. :'(.

 

[speedyink]

Likely somewhere round abouts Roanoke, Craig County, or maybe Greenbrier County. Certainly not on here back then.

But AMD is good enough that 99% of the time their drivers will work across the whole line, from the lowest all the way up to the GX2 style, and through most of the laptop line too. At least for the Linux drivers. The windows drivers are no where near that interchangable though.
Also take into account that most AMD drivers will install on a laptop card and work even if it is not "supported" on that driver. Just a matter of luck with that though.


Nvidia is generally better with their drivers, at least since G80 was released. The 7000 series has very few drivers left, and that is the card I have. :'(.

Well maybe I'll come to you next time I decide to give Linux another go. I've been way too busy lately to relearn an OS, but I would like to try it again. I've never had anything against Linux, it always seemed like a good alternative. My best friend was big into it (which inspired me to try..and fail, lol). I liked how it looked and ran on his computer, it's just whenever I tried at least one thing would go wrong, so it was always gimped just a little bit.

 

[wolfeking]

The thing about it though, is there is always 10 ways to get anything done in it. But you have to stick to the way you started. And some things are quite ... ... involved I guess would be the right word. If you give it time and have mad google skills, then it should be quite easy to pick up.


That aside, and to stay to the topic of the thread, I wounder how well windows 8 would do with one of those drawing pads hooked up to it. Seems to work fine enough with Paint and sketchup pro in 7, so maybe it could emulate a touchscreen?
Either way, I am not going to try it. Got 2k, XP, Vista, and 7 to hold up for now. They do fine enough for me. Not saying windows 8 ain't good. Just not $100 good to me.

 

[spirit]

Yeah Windows 7 is working fine for me at the moment (and has been for a while now), so I don't have a reason to upgrade. Besides, it takes time, and as there's no need to upgrade, it'd be a waste of my time.

I still use Vista in a VM and I really don't use XP at all these days. Even my oldest PC with an Athlon 64 3700+ and a gig of DDR RAM runs Windows 7 perfectly.

 

[wolfeking]

it'd be a waste of my time.

See also windows in general.

Might be a tad strange, but I have had a lot less issues in vista than I have in XP/7. 2k takes the cake though, never an issue that was not directly caused by something I screwed up on.

 

[spirit]

See also windows in general.

That's your opinion. It's working fine for me. And I too never had a problem with Vista.

 

[Punk]

I just saw the laptop booting in five seconds, applications work fine, Win8 is pretty good.