Windows 8 Review Anybody??

Has anyone made the move to a machine running Windows 8?? What are your impressions?

Not that I can avoid it, but I am going to be buying a laptop in the very near future and wondered how much pain I am in for with the new OS. I will need to transfer my Outlook email stuff from the older Vista machine to the new machine. All the other files I use are Excel & Word doc's so they should not be a problem copying them over. Any issues networking with an XP machine or a Vista machine through a wireless router that you know of with 8? I still have a Windows ME desktop that I turn on once in a while and I am amazed that I can network that to the other machines each running different OS's.

I do use Quickbooks for our invoicing and expense tracking but I can run on that the old machine until I feel the need to go through the pain & anguish of migrating to the newest version.

The other pain for me is that I run a good bit of demo software that interfaces to equipment I sell and it is always a crapshoot if the programs will interface to the new OS. There is a lot of legacy in those programs since they work with 25 year old equipment that I still need to troubleshoot on occassion (think DOS programs that merely have a Windows front end) and the old hardware only has RS-232 comm's. I usually go through 2 or 3 USB - RS-232 converters before I get a combination that works with everything.

titleist1 wrote:Not that I can avoid it,

Sure you can, get a machine with 7.

Let them work the issues out with 8 and buy 9. You're on the wrong OS timeline. LOL

I just got a new laptop for Christmas. Mine is W-7 but it had a coupon for W-8 upgrade for $14.95. Reviews have been mixed to be honest and since my machine is not a touch screen, I'll not bother the upgrade. I do have a touch pad that mimics touch screen but it works just fine on W-7 and I had just gotten the hang of that on my desktop .

One can see that the writing on the wall is going to be touch screen devices like i-pads and tablets. That is the direction the tech is going and thats why the 8 was developed.

Richard S. wrote:

titleist1 wrote:Not that I can avoid it,

Sure you can, get a machine with 7.

Let them work the issues out with 8 and buy 9. You're on the wrong OS timeline. LOL

So I just gotta stay on the odd numbered OS's?!

It sure seems like it. Windows ME and Vista were horrible.

titleist1 wrote:

Richard S. wrote:

titleist1 wrote:Not that I can avoid it,

Sure you can, get a machine with 7.

Let them work the issues out with 8 and buy 9. You're on the wrong OS timeline. LOL

So I just gotta stay on the odd numbered OS's?!

That's for sure. They seem to miss on the even's pretty badly. I wonder if that is an actual marketing stratagy?

It appears Windows 8 just has a frontend GUI on it to make it work like the touchpad interface of a smart phone.
I don't have a smart phone, so I have no need for Windows 8.

Just buy a new pc that comes with Windows 7.

titleist1 wrote:
So I just gotta stay on the odd numbered OS's?!

Well lets look a the track record.....

95/98 ....
Win ME ....
XP ......
Vista...
Win7 ...

Win 8???

Everyone of those OS's that were terrible were the inbetweeners and I think 8 is going to follow along that path. Just guessing, I haven't used it myself but the reviews are very mixed.

I still think XP was one of the most flawless OS they made, the problem is that you WILL BE forced eventually to upgrade whether you want to or not for compatibility issues and the forced retail sales market. I suggest if your buying a new computer that you buy as updated as possible (yes that includes the OS), however if your simply talking about upgrading an existing machine i would not do it.

Nice work with the similes Richard.

dcrane wrote:I still think XP was one of the most flawless OS they made, the problem is that you WILL BE forced eventually to upgrade whether you want to or not for compatibility issues and the forced retail sales market. I suggest if your buying a new computer that you buy as updated as possible (yes that includes the OS), however if your simply talking about upgrading an existing machine i would not do it.

That's true, eventually you will have to upgrade when they stop supporting the existing OS. But that said, one usually upgrades the hardware before that happens so it becomes moot. You could always go to linux or some "new" OS like Haiku which is the BeOS of the future.

SteveZee wrote:That's true, eventually you will have to upgrade when they stop supporting the existing OS. But that said, one usually upgrades the hardware before that happens so it becomes moot.

I try and catch the wave just after the crest so I'm not paying out the ass although I went a little overboard with this last one. My 95 machine had 56K, my XP machine had SATA in 2003. My newest machine has USB3, SATA3 and SSD that is SATA3.... I'll probably won't be buying a new machine until the Windows 9 is in it's last months.

Richard S. wrote:

SteveZee wrote:That's true, eventually you will have to upgrade when they stop supporting the existing OS. But that said, one usually upgrades the hardware before that happens so it becomes moot.

I try and catch the wave just after the crest so I'm not paying out the ass although I went a little overboard with this last one. My 95 machine had 56K, my XP machine had SATA in 2003. My newest machine has USB3, SATA3 and SSD that is SATA3.... I'll probably won't be buying a new machine until the Windows 9 is in it's last months.

I'd say that's a pretty good plan!

I recently had my laptop (Dell Inspiron) running Vista sh!t the bed, so it was time to either reinstall Vista or upgrade to Win8. I had zero problems with Vista for the 3 years I've had it up until then. I had all my data and files backed up, so since I was going to have to do a clean install anyway, I took the $40 upgrade to Win8.

Overall, I like 8. It's MUCH faster booting up than either Vista or Win7 that I run on my work laptop. 8 doesn't really do much different from 7, and I find the user interface mildly annoying since I don't have a touchscreen. Frankly, I'd still be running XP if I could.

Chris