Windows 8: First Impressions

[Guest Wolfin]

Doesn't support for Vista end this year?

 

Mainstream I think ends next year -- extended goes on until April' date=' 2017 (it needs to die quicker!).

 

My workplace already transitioned to Windows 7. I like it a lot, and our IT department is a big fan, too.

 

Yeah, Win 7 is currently my favorite MS OS. I think given it has support through 2020, business will get it and sit on it like they did with XP.

 

/Robin

[silent eclipse warrier† 0]

Doesn't support for Vista end this year?

 

Mainstream I think ends next year -- extended goes on until April' date=' 2017 (it needs to die quicker!).

 

My workplace already transitioned to Windows 7. I like it a lot, and our IT department is a big fan, too.

 

Yeah, Win 7 is currently my favorite MS OS. I think given it has support through 2020, business will get it and sit on it like they did with XP.

 

/Robin

 

Windows 7 is my favorite as well, i find it easier to use, and more convienient. I used to have vista on a laptop, but i didnt like it I thought it had a lot of issues. So when i got my new desktop a few years ago I went to windows 7. Now I think i'll stick with that, not to eager to go to windows 8

[Galantine Knight Misticore† 0]

Yeah, Ive already seen it in action and it seems like its geared towards App Users, and I got a little uncomfortable cause I don't have a tablet device or a phone that copies the similar function. However I was then shown that you could still have the windows 7 look and cancel the App features, which I really liked cause I don't think my mind could stand seeing all the advertisements as much as I see just surfing the web. Its all eye candy and I don't need it, plain and simple is how I like it.

[Carson Coyote† 0]

Okay, so I'll finally tell you about my Windows 8 “adventure”. Just a warning, this will be LONG!

 

After the iso was finished downloading, I decided that the easiest way to try Win8 would be to create a virtual machine in VBox. So I started Ubuntu (since that's where I have VirtualBox installed), and went to create a VM to use Windows 8.

 

Everything was working out fine until I started up the virtual machine. Windows 8 was complaining that my computer did not have a 64bit processor, so it could not install. I thought this was really stupid, since I've been able to make VM's running other 64bit OS's. So anyway, I decided to try VBox in Windows 7.

 

I rebooted into Win7, and began downloading VirtualBox. Unfortunately, my brother was playing Uncharted 2 online, and was complaining about the game lagging, so I had to wait to finish the download another time. Besides, it was already 1:00am, so I decided to wait until the next day.

 

I installed VirtualBox the next day, and got a Windows 8 machine up and running. Unfortunately, the virtual hardware was unable to run Windows 8 fully, so it was basically unusable.

 

Since I still had space on my portable hard drive, I decided to try and create a new partition to install Win8 onto. I created the partition, but then realized that I had not yet put the Windows 8 iso onto any type of bootable media. So I thought I'd try to put it on a USB flash drive.

 

Using UNetbootin, I began to create a bootable Win8 flash drive. Windows decided to completely freeze up (and I mean completely freeze) about halfway through the process, leaving me no choice but to press the power button to restart my computer. But now, Windows 7 would not startup. Long story short, I eventually found the problem and got back into Windows 7, and decided to call it a day.

 

The next day, I tried UNetbootin on Ubuntu, which seemed to work, but it would not boot the Win8 installer. :/

 

I tried burning a DVD, but my computer kept telling me to insert another disc. This was happening in both Windows and Linux. I later realized that there was a layer of super-fine dust on my optical drive's laser, and after cleaning it off, I successfully created a Windows 8 installation DVD. I was happy.

 

I restarted my computer, and booted up the DVD. It was going great- I could even choose to install to the new partition I created! Wait... why won't it let me click the "Next" button? "Blah blah blah, you cannot install to a drive using a USB connection." Great.

 

I was not going to just give up now, so I came up with an idea. Since my portable drive is actually the hard drive from my old laptop inside an enclosure, I could just take the drive out of the housing. Then I could remove the drive from my laptop (since the warranty just expired anyway), and swap it with the drive from my old computer. Pure genius!!

 

I swapped the drives, got into the Win8 installer, and chose to install to the new partition I had created. It worked! After a short wait, Windows 8 was finally ready to use. I had already seen it on the VM I had done earlier, but seeing it actually take full advantage of my computer's hardware was pretty cool.

 

The first thing I noticed was how fast it was. It seemed to work great with my computer, so I'm guessing Microsoft and Toshiba worked pretty closely with each other to maximize compatibility. Everything was recognized and worked right away- even my WLAN card, which usually is a pain to get working. So far, I was impressed.

 

I began messing with some of the Metro apps for awhile, and I made sure I checked out the new Task Manager. After the novelty wore off, I was not as impressed as I was earlier.

 

First of all, the whole start menu/slidey wall of giant icons got annoying real fast. Sure, it is probably cool on a touchscreen device, but for the average user it is just unnecessary. Same goes for the Metro apps. A lot of the games required you to "tap", "slide", or "pinch". My computer's touchpad is multi-touch capable, so different gestures work fine in Win7, but Win8 would not recognize them. I also hate that you cannot close out the Metro apps, or at least I could not figure out how to. It gets really annoying when you want to switch between windows, but you have to weed through all of the applications that you aren't even using anymore. I mean come on, what were you thinking, Microsoft?

 

Also, the new task manager is good, but not great. It is either too simple, or too cluttered. I actually like the current task manager more. So, I guess it's just a matter of personal preference.

 

I enjoyed the Word Hunt game. That was fun. But WHERE IS SOLITAIRE?!?

 

After messing around for a few hours, I'd had enough. I came to the conclusion that Windows 8, in it's current state, would be great for a family PC. It's fun and unique apps and interface would appeal to children. And moms. They tend to like weird things. Windows 8 would be fine for checking email, or web browsing, which is why I think it would be good for families who don't use their computer for anything more than that.

 

While Windows 8 would be fine for a family PC, it would be incredibly impractical in any serious setting. I cannot picture businesses or schools using Windows 8, unless Microsoft also releases some sort of enterprise edition, or allows more customization during the installation process. As it is now, Windows 8 would be a nightmare to work with on a daily basis.

 

So, I finally got to try Windows 8, and found that it was not quite as bad as I expected. I still like Windows 7 a lot better, though.

 

But my adventure wasn't over just yet!

 

This is why I haven't been online much for the past few days:

After putting both hard drives back where they belonged, I discovered that Windows 8 had eaten GRUB on my external drive. D: No biggie, since this had happened in the past and I knew what to do. So I spent some time fixing that, but it ended up being a bigger pain than I had anticipated.

 

After fixing GRUB, I realized that GRUB had now eaten my Windows 7 MBR! This was even more of a pain to fix, but I eventually got it all worked out.

 

TL;DR: Windows 8 hates me, but I finally got it to work. After trying it, I thought it was "meh". Bootloaders hate me, as well. I spent the last couple of days fixing stupid problems and now I'm dead.

[Carson Coyote† 0]

It also seems to not use dual core processors very well...

 

It's clocking one core at 2.66 GHz and the other at 1 GHz..

 

I just noticed that Windows 7 does this with mine: