..there was so much B.S. on it.
Posted on 09/10/2013 7:24:03 AM PDT by Don@VB
I have seen several laptop models I like but they have Windows 8 installed. I need to stay with a Windows OS, but having read poor reviews, it appears Win 8 may become the next Vista. Is it that bad? I like Win 7 but it limits my selection. As always, any suggestions/input appreciated.
I bought a refurbished MacBook online six months ago and haven’t looked back. It cost about $600 and I added a new battery for about $75. I download software upgrades online. It just out performs any of the many PCs I’ve owned, works with my inkjet printer and apps are cheap or free. I’ll never own a windows device again.
To each his own.
MicroCenter is giving PCs away and they all seem to come with 8 now. I bought one such a couple o months ago and am pleasantly surprised, more or less. Win 8 isn’t that hard to work around and the machine is much faster than computers I was buying two years ago, the main complaint is the chess game being missing. This is an HP refurb, 6 gb memory, 1T hard drive, and an I3 chip for just under $300.
As a general rule, Microsoft’s operating systems always push the edge of the newest machines’ memory and processing power, but manufacturers always put the latest version of Windows on their machines. The result is that the operating system takes far too many resources for many of the machines it initially runs on.
Windows 7 was largely Windows Vista made more scalable, and sold on machines which had become more powerful.
So my advice: If you’re buying a top-of-the-line computer with the absolutely newest motherboard/CPU and stacked to the gills with memory, buy Windows 8. If your computer did not cost more than an electric car, stick with Windows 7.
If I buy one installed with Win 8, is it a big deal to have someone install Win 7 in its place?
I just went through the same thing, only with a new desktop. Not only does W8 get bad reviews, but the primary issue is that W8 is a touch screen system - great (I suppose) for tablets, perhaps workable for laptops, but lousy for desktops.
Windows 8 is absurd on a non touch machine. It is just crummy on a touch screen system.
With IE 10 you have an F12 function that allows you to regress back to previous IE version emulations. Which is good because millions of web sites have active-X still running on them and IE 10 does not support it.
It is like Microsoft decided that they had been using a steering wheel to drive their OS for years and thought it was sensible to take the wheel out and install foot pedal steering without taking in to consideration the people steering things.
I would much rather be using an Apple machine or a Linux box instead of Windows 8.
No, but that’d be like buying a car with Perrerri tires, and taking them off to drive around on Nexen tires. If you’re buying a 2003 Accord, find one without Perrerri tires.
>> I would much rather be using an Apple machine or a Linux box instead of Windows 8. <<
Recommending a Linux box to a Windows user without a CS degree is ridiculous.
Change brings fear. But don't fear. If you can use any version of windows, you can learn to use Windows8. Windows 8 has some real advantages in speed, security, functionality.
Ditto that! Get Windows 7 while you still can. Windows 8 is a nightmare that was developed for tablets.
Definitely go with Windows 7. I recently rebuilt my desktop and went with Windows 7, a worthy successor to the venerable Windows XP. My brother-in-law bought a new laptop with Windows 8 and I had a tough time even installing a free anti-virus program. With Windows 8 pretty much everything you were familiar with has changed. The touch screen features are not at all intuitive like on the Apple I-pad.
I didn’t like Windows 8. Windows 7 works perfectly fine (all Microsoft hate, government spying caveats apply)
Windows 8 really isn’t that far removed from Windows 7.
Here are a couple of things you can do to make the user experience a bit more palatable. Metro is the first issue - the active tiles at start-up. Download and install a copy of Classic Shell. It’s a free download (if you like what it has done for you give the developer a donation) and will allow you to set up the desktop with a Win7, Win XP or Win 2K look/feel.
The next thing that everybody seems to complain about is the Charm at at the right side of the screen. You can turn that off using Classic Shell also. In some instances you will also have to adjust Mouse parameters to turn off the active corners.
Play with Classic Shell a bit and you can make the GUI look just like Windows 7.
Hate to say it, but get an Apple.
That because win8 has its own built in antivirus/antimalware built in. Its what microsoft does. they increase funtionality in the operating system. You can add a 3rd party firewall to later versions of windows, too. But why ? (And it will be a bitch to setup)
Windows 8 works great, and 8.1 is coming out shortly (next month).
Glad you’re enjoying Win8. The chess game is easily fixable. Go to www.chessclub.com and download their client “Dasher”. It comes with a high quality chess engine (Stockfish) and a good interface. You don’t have to join ICC to use the chess engine. If you like chess you might want to join though.
I bought new laptop last week. It has Windows 8 on it. It’s okay. Didn’t take to long to get used to it. Does have the “convenience” panes that slide in and out when you mouse to a corner of the screen. I hate that. Enough people are complaining that I’m sure MS will release a patch that will enable those to be disabled at some point. Other than that.... I like it pretty well.
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