Windows 8

[MaSonZ]

Playing around with my moms laptop, which has windows 8. Dont mind it, but I still dont "like" it. Would i use it daily to use it? no. but I did notice something that got me wondering.... Went to set up an account on me for the laptop so I dont need to be on her account, when i set it up it said the laptop had to be refreshed.... brand new, barely used. why would windows 8 need a refresh to add a new user account?

[Bino]

Define "refresh" ?

[MaSonZ]

Define "refresh" ?

more or less...a factory reset but no user accounts will be affected

[Mano]

Don't do refresh. It will remove all apps it thinks are conflicting with Win8. Then you have the task of reinstalling them again one by one. I formatted my HD and reinstalled Win 7. Win 8 is/was not ready for release yet. It has bugs and crashes frequently.

My two cents.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Don't do refresh. It will remove all apps it thinks are conflicting with Win8. Then you have the task of reinstalling them again one by one. I formatted my HD and reinstalled Win 7. Win 8 is/was not ready for release yet. It has bugs and crashes frequently.

My two cents.

More likely you ran Windows8 on hardware that's not compatible. Did you do the compatibility test before installing? Win8 is dead stable.

[Skuzzy]

More likely you ran Windows8 on hardware that's not compatible. Did you do the compatibility test before installing? Win8 is dead stable.

Depends on what you call stable.  I have run into several things that are either broken or Microsoft decided to remove the functionality from what was in Windows 7.  

Example, Windows 8 does not remember what Control Panel setting you chose to view in, like all previous versions of Windows did.  Bug, or removed functionality?  Either way, it is idiotic that such things would happen.

I have had a lot of problems installing drivers, for recent hardware.  Having to do it the old fashion way by manually unpacking cab files and having Windows 8 search the drive so the drivers could be installed.  These are compatibility problems with the binaries packaged by the manufacturer.  They work fine with Windows XP or Windows 7.

If your hardware is less than a year old, then you may not run into these driver issues.  Basically, look for explicit Windows 8 driver support from the manufacturer, because even though Windows 7 drivers are used for most things in Windows 8, the installers will not run unless they are specifically made for Windows 8 for many pieces of hardware.

Intel gave up trying to produce installers for Windows 8.  They just package a self-extracting zip file with instructions on how to install the motherboard drivers manually.  If it is not built into Windows 8 (none of the LGA775 motherboard chipset drivers are), you will need to do it manually.  While Windows 7 would run stable without the motherboard drivers, failure to install those drivers in Windows 8 will result in a very unstable system.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Depends on what you call stable.  I have run into several things that are either broken or Microsoft decided to remove the functionality from what was in Windows 7.  

Example, Windows 8 does not remember what Control Panel setting you chose to view in, like all previous versions of Windows did.  Bug, or removed functionality?  Either way, it is idiotic that such things would happen.

I have had a lot of problems installing drivers, for recent hardware.  Having to do it the old fashion way by manually unpacking cab files and having Windows 8 search the drive so the drivers could be installed.  These are compatibility problems with the binaries packaged by the manufacturer.  They work fine with Windows XP or Windows 7.

If your hardware is less than a year old, then you may not run into these driver issues.  Basically, look for explicit Windows 8 driver support from the manufacturer, because even though Windows 7 drivers are used for most things in Windows 8, the installers will not run unless they are specifically made for Windows 8 for many pieces of hardware.

Intel gave up trying to produce installers for Windows 8.  They just package a self-extracting zip file with instructions on how to install the motherboard drivers manually.  If it is not built into Windows 8 (none of the LGA775 motherboard chipset drivers are), you will need to do it manually.  While Windows 7 would run stable without the motherboard drivers, failure to install those drivers in Windows 8 will result in a very unstable system.

I've always been against installing new operating systems on legacy hardware. Old hardware works best with old OS versions and vice versa.

[Skuzzy]

I've always been against installing new operating systems on legacy hardware. Old hardware works best with old OS versions and vice versa.

What do you consider old?  1 year, 2 years?  LGA 775 CPU's were still being shipped in 2012 and you have to know what you are doing to get Windows 8 to run on them, in a stable manner.  Windows 7 works fine with those systems.  You rarely have to worry about the Intel chipset drivers with Windows 7.  Even old P35 chipsets work fine.  Now, I am not saying Windows 7 is perfect.  It is not.  It still has issues.

Allowing Microsoft to take control of the obsolescence of the operating system and the hardware is one of many reasons I refuse to support Windows 8, or anything later from Microsoft.

Even the latest versions of Linux run great on Pentium 3 systems.  As of this minute Linux supports more hardware, out of the box, than Windows does.  That is the first step to taking market share away from Microsoft.  It cannot happen soon enough for me.

[gyrene81]

apple did the same thing with osx skuzzy...and the move from their proprietary hardware platform to the intel base made them more popular than ever. i guess it's all in the way the company goes about it. just think what would have happened if microsoft had done the same thing, they still might but, considering the company history it's very doubtful.

personally, i'm really hoping linux takes over the market, soon. it can be frustrating dealing with the bugs and constant flow of updates that some distros have but, there is so much flexibility built in that you can overlook most of the drawbacks.

[Skuzzy]

I am not an advocate of an operating system supporting all the hardware that was ever made, but to drop support for hardware that is still relevant is pretty disturbing to me.

Apple has always had that model.  Apple users have been bred to understand they have to purchase new hardware to get a new operating system.  Windows users have enjoyed being able to update the operating system independently of the hardware, until now.

So Microsoft is taking another page out of Apple's playbook.  Not surprising.  Personally, I do not support Apple for that choice, and I will stop supporting Microsoft for the same reason (and many others).

[MrRiplEy[H]]

I am not an advocate of an operating system supporting all the hardware that was ever made, but to drop support for hardware that is still relevant is pretty disturbing to me.

Apple has always had that model.  Apple users have been bred to understand they have to purchase new hardware to get a new operating system.  Windows users have enjoyed being able to update the operating system independently of the hardware, until now.

So Microsoft is taking another page out of Apple's playbook.  Not surprising.  Personally, I do not support Apple for that choice, and I will stop supporting Microsoft for the same reason (and many others).

I don't get all the drama. For older hardware there are the older OS versions. It's pointless to install the latest OS to end-of-life hardware. Usually that leads to nothing but sub-par user experience.

[Skuzzy]

I don't get all the drama. For older hardware there are the older OS versions. It's pointless to install the latest OS to end-of-life hardware. Usually that leads to nothing but sub-par user experience.

What drama?

I get you are fine with arbitrarily being forced to upgrade hardware.

About that bad user experience.  Don't tell my 256MB/Pentium 3 file, WEB, print, scanner, media, router, and firewall server that it should be providing me a bad experience running the latest version of Linux.

I know you would replace the computer with several pieces of brand new hardware, but that does not take away from the fact that the old hardware can do the job really well.  Could I do it with the original version of Linux?  Not without a lot of kernel hacking.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

What drama?

I get you are fine with arbitrarily being forced to upgrade hardware.

About that bad user experience.  Don't tell my 256MB/Pentium 3 file, WEB, print, scanner, media, router, and firewall server that it should be providing me a bad experience running the latest version of Linux.

I know you would replace the computer with several pieces of brand new hardware, but that does not take away from the fact that the old hardware can do the job really well.  Could I do it with the original version of Linux?  Not without a lot of kernel hacking.

Lol I have a AMD K6 based openSuSe server running as we speak. I think it has an uptime of 1200 days or so. It's made from parts I found lying around, literally. I don't see how I would be forced to do any upgrades whatsoever. What forces you to install Win8 in the first place? This is what I was wondering - you write like you're somehow obliged to update. If I have some old hardware I'm going to either run it on the original OS it was intended for or switch it to linux.

The only thing that forces me to do upgrades is the constant increase in hardware requirements on games. We have several gaming PC:s in our family and the bottom line one which I just upgraded struggled to run BF3 at popular maps. I don't use the machine too often but decided to upgrade it anyway. I'm going to donate the old C2D cpu + mobo + ram + hdd combo to some family member / relative for a second life at non-gaming use. My previous upgrade found a new life as a web computer for my parents upstairs computer room. It runs Xubuntu as their new laptop does. Got tired to being asked every other week to clean the computer from viruses or malware

My mother protested very strongly when I told them I'm going to migrate them to linux - but after a couple of months they got used to it and continue to be linux users for several years already. When we visited our relatives in Croatia I could see my step father was clearly proud on running linux on his laptop. Actually I spent a part of my vacation installing linuxes to the islanders after they saw it in action!

[Mano]

Forbes:The Windows 8 Flop: What Does It Mean For Microsoft?


http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2013/05/09/the-windows-8-flop-what-does-it-mean-for-microsoft/?partner=yahootix


 


It means Windows 9 will be coming soon.


 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Forbes:The Windows 8 Flop: What Does It Mean For Microsoft?


http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2013/05/09/the-windows-8-flop-what-does-it-mean-for-microsoft/?partner=yahootix


 


It means Windows 9 will be coming soon.


 

Windows codename blue is scheduled to release at the normally planned pace which is currently 1 new version every year. The devs have reported that they've heard feedback on the UI and possibly will return the start menu along with the possibility to boot to desktop. But no official confirmation of anything yet.

This video is proof that Windows8 is the best...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRlP45jEBg0