Windows 8 continues to SUCK even with 8.1 upgrade. I see NO significant improvement other than a version number change.
Way to go Microsoft, you have succeeded in alienating even more of your base.
They added a FAKE start button to Windows 8.1 so that they could say that they put the start button back. But the fake start button is missing just one little thing... the start menu.
Microsoft is putting a stick in the eye of serious desktop users.
Yay Linux! I’ve turned on some of my family elders to Ubuntu. I built my M-I-L an Ubuntu desktop and she absolutely loves it. My grandfather is in the same boat, and he was completely entrenched with XP until he had some serious system issues.
Seriously, people, if you’re still using XP, you NEED to upgrade. You WILL be affected at some point soon. Win7 is an amazing OS and no prone to the BS of Win8. You can still buy Win7 OEM licenses for $99. But then, Ubuntu is free.
Gone are the days when Microsoft can bully OS competitors out of the market. Linux gaining ground, Chrome will continue with incremental improvements, and Steam is pushing a linux gaming platform.
Home computing will revert to the ‘thin client’ model.
As someone who has a Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Smartphone and Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet-PC, I love Windows 8 and 8.1.
I can do things with my tablet nobody can do with an iPad or Android tablet. I run all my PC software I want. I use One Note to write notes, share files and do far, far more than anyone else.
Windows 8 is a lighter OS that is more stable, boots up faster and gives you the best of all worlds.
The only reason to oppose Windows 8 is to resist learning something new.
Windows 8 is forced on every computer you see at the store. If people had a choice then Windows 8 would be gone from the market.
Windows 7 is serving me well on both my laptop and desktop.I think I’ll skip 8,just as I skipped Vista and ME.
Got a Win 8 desktop machine on sale, with a coupon for $199.
Free upgrade to 8.1 went just fine.
Right out of the box, you can click the Desktop tab and get to a familiar screen that looks just like Win 7. Except for the awful ugly opaque light blue theme, it works just fine.
The reason Win 8 is catching up is because, in reality, it’s the only Windows you can get on a new machine.
Windows 8.x has not, and never will be, adopted by the enterprise and small and medium businesses. The only reason it has sold at all is because it has been foisted on a hapless and ignorant public by big-box retailers beholden to Microsoft.
The primary offerings of business class PCs from Dell, HP, Panasonic and Lenovo still offer Windows 7 Pro as the default OS option. Windows 8.x consumer PC sales for Dell were so abysmal that Dell was forced to re-offer Windows 7 on most of their consumer models.
Windows 8.x has still not achieved the penetration at this same time period as Vista did at its equivalent release point, Vista being one of the worst operating systems (until Windows 8.x) ever released by Microsoft
Windows 8.x has been a significant factor in the plummeting of PC sales since its release, and because of the monumental disaster of Windows 8.x for all PC vendors, they are currently desperately searching for alternatives to Microsoft products (such as dual-boot Android/Windows 8.x devices), having lost faith in both Microsoft’s management and Microsoft’s products.
Windows 8 sucked the life out of my computer.
How many people immediately installed CLASSIC SHELL?
I’m still mad they did away with 3.1’s file manager.
I finally got a new computer for Christmas, still using my old desktop. Had XP on both and never wanted to make the switch. Finally had to, so the new laptop has 8.1. I am pleasantly surprised, easy to use and it makes sense.
Anyway, it takes some getting used to, but in general I liked Windows 8.x well enough. I could care less about the start button, since I've always put shortcuts to the apps I run on the desktop anyway. You can still do that from the desktop app (single click from default-boot metro interface), or you can add your apps as tiles to metro.
My one major complaint to counter a number of positives isn't with Windows 8.x itself so much as the proliferation of the STUPID full-screen apps & utilities that are part of Windows 8.x. They have no windows bar for minimize/maximize & resizing, and in general do not even RUN in a window at all (despite the OS name). Trying to remember how to get out of these stupid full-screen apps back to see other apps, the desktop or metro interface, etc., is REALLY annoying. I was swiping left to do that, although I still don't know if that's the right approach or not. I suppose once I learned the right way to get out of these apps and move to others I'd get used to it, but as a first impression this was the thing about Windows 8.x I really hated.
Granted, perhaps it's cool to have full-screen apps that are common across WP8 devices, tablets, and desktops, since it offers more options across a spectrum of different platforms, but on a desktop computer with a very large monitor these full-screen apps that don't run in windows are terrible. It's like going back to the days of DOS or something. Isn't the "Windows" OS supposed to have windows? Some apps still do, but not many of the new ones.
Good to see for once a consensus on FR that Winblows Ate & 8.1 suck, and that we all must hate it!