Windows 8 Release

[D3PART3D]

Cataclysm got a lol post from me because his comment came across as a little passive-aggressive, considering the posts made before his. My imagination, perhaps

For me the full-screen apps allow me to work without distractions

The problem is that it isn't an intended feature of the interface but a side effect. Your fingers are fatter and less accurate than a mouse pointer so information density on-screen has to be reduced. Further compounding the problem is that many tablets running Windows 8 will have smaller displays than what we're used to on the desktop. Developers are going to react to that and neuter their software.

Outside of Metro, I do think there are some good improvements. Welcome to the forum.

[Cataclysm_ZA]

A welcome addition to the forums - even if his leanings are a bit too pro-Microsoft, even for me

Thank you. Coming from a mod with a lot of time on here, that means quite a bit.

The problem is that it isn't an intended feature of the interface but a side effect. Your fingers are fatter and less accurate than a mouse pointer so information density on-screen has to be reduced. Further compounding the problem is that many tablets running Windows 8 will have smaller displays than what we're used to on the desktop. Developers are going to react to that and neuter their software.

I know about the density issue and I believe that so long as developers follow the Modern UI design guidelines, things should be just fine. I know that most manufacturers are leaning towards higher resolution displays that are physically smaller, so that may make the problem less apparent. I've tested out the interface on a 22", 19" and 18.5" screen and on all three everything is well laid-out. I hope laptops move away from that terrible 1366 x 768 resolution as well following this launch, with 1600 x 900 being almost perfect for a mobile device. One or two apps has its own scaling issues but we're still in the teething stages anyway.

I actually hope that the tabbed Ribbon interface gets implemented in a lot more applications. In its current form its more finger-friendly but could do with some icons being a larger size. This is not an issue on Windows RT though, because it doesn't have a desktop mode to play with - which may or may not work in its favour. WART isn't out yet so I'll reserve judgement for when i can play with it.

Outside of Metro, I do think there are some good improvements. Welcome to the forum.

And thank you too, I hope I'll have a great time here. Better than the closed-up Prophecy forums, for sure.

[THE_STIG]

I too have to give you credit for keeping your cool and standing by your opinions, you should do well here.

In the same manner that Intel made a deal with the OEMs to continue selling the Netburst-based processors even though they were comparatively terrible to the excellent Athlon 64 X2 chips, so I believe a lot of WIndows XP's success is down to Microsoft forcing OEMs to sell it without alternatives. It also doesn't help that DirectX was a major component of the OS (and was proprietary) and had a firm grip on the market because it was more clearly documented and therefore easier to program for than OpenGL. If Microsoft and Intel hadn't been such playground bullies back then, the market would be very different today and I would be running Linux on my desktop permanently.

At least you saw that the Pentium 4 was no where near as good as Intel's marketing would have you believe, I have come across many who to this day continue to heap praise upon it......

MS and Intel have always been bullies, but after trying many different Linux distros I just dont find it that nice to work with so I dont think MS being a bully is the problem there

[Anakha56]

My only real gripe with Win8 is the constant side scrolling one has to do in some of the Metro UI areas. On a touch screen with an accelerometer this makes sense because with a quick flick left you can quickly get to where you want to go but on a computer screen with a mouse its not so quick & easy. An example for this is the Market, you have to do constant side scrolling to get to items that interest you and by the time I got there I was ready to throw it out the Window. The same applies for the replaced start menu once you start installing all your games and software to get to them is a lot of side scrolling, yes you can make them favorites and they show up right in front but you still have to do the whole schlep of getting to the app.

My final gripe with it is the lack of customization or the minimalist look, my current desktop has a cycle change of the wallpaper every 30 minutes and has 4 icons on the desktop so its clean and (time to get flake from rusty & hamin ) pleasing to the eye to look at, Win 8 just has tiles after tiles after tiles of apps and it looks fugly to my eyes and I missed my wallpapers badly. Yes I can still access the old desktop but that is not the point since the first screen that greets you is a busy tile based screen and in the morning I dont want to see something busy and cluttered.

I wont upgrade when it first comes out because I dont need to, my current setup suits me perfectly. When the change becomes inevitable then and only then I will change, like if there was a new DX version that Win7 wont be getting.

*edit*

Just saw the pricing for the upgrade and its not to bad. If it weren't for other external factors in my life I would probably get it...

[StarBound]

They want to link my xbox live account to windows 8. So I have a UK account... what now? And what happens if I log into windows then start up my xbox?

[Cataclysm_ZA]

They want to link my xbox live account to windows 8. So I have a UK account... what now? And what happens if I log into windows then start up my xbox?

They're busy shuffling things around and I expect that you can remain logged in to the Xbox account just like you currently can with Windows Phone. The locality will be a slight issue though, I'm not sure how they're going to address users with overseas accounts. I've been assured by local Microsoft reps that the online markets will be similar to what the rest of the world gets, but they were a bit vague on region migrations.

[Anakha56]

For those interested...

http://news.groupon.co.za/c/r?EMID=09A0 ... 26a%3D1985

Windows 8 :

Pay R599 for Windows 8 Pro, including delivery, valued at R2 000 (save 70%)

[hamin_aus]

Pay R599 for Windows 8 Pro

Thats actually not bad - I just paid $140 (R1120) for an OEM copy of Win7 Pro and Win 8 Pro is priced exactly the same here...

[Anakha56]

Seems like they have run out of stock. I bought two At that price I couldnt say no so I bought 1 for me and 1 for the wifes aging laptop.

[hamin_aus]

I bought 1 for ...the wifes aging laptop.

1. The wife. Not the most computer savvy person at the best of times, just the person to help you trial a new OS. She wont be upset that you messed with her stuff and put an OS that you know little about on her PC at all.

2. Ageing laptop. I'm sure she will be positively delighted by the performance of this new OS on her old hardware. Much like XP users enjoyed Vista on their P4's.


You deserver every bit of misery that will result in this decision.

[Anakha56]

Nah she is good with computers and seemed to enjoy Win8 when she used it for a brief time on my PC . As for the laptop it is handling Vista quite well so it will be interesting to see if it handles Win8 which is supposed to be better on performance than Vista . As for the misery it will be a good distraction...

[rustypup]

+-R120 for an upgrade license...

[StarBound]

Even incredible corruption is selling Win 8 pro for R700... 2 things to worry about.
1 - Everything is MS store purchase such as internet explorer, media player and all the things you use to get for free
2 - Best case scenario is to get people to buy this OS because few people have faith in it.

[Anakha56]

+-R120 for an upgrade license...

I like discs... Its a fetish of mine...

[Cataclysm_ZA]

1 - Everything is MS store purchase such as internet explorer, media player and all the things you use to get for free

Used to get for free? I'm not sure I follow you here. A lot of things are free on the Windows Store and all the elements you've expected to show up in the past are still built into the OS. In fact, more than 80% of the apps available there right now are free. The only element of Windows that is now paid-for is Windows Media Center. And if you don't want to pay for it, VLC, Media Player Home Cinema and tons of other video players are available as alternatives.

Also, on the desktop, not everything is purchased from the store. That's only true of ARM tablets and low-cost computers, which makes sense because Microsoft would prefer people to not go out, pay for an app online elsewhere, download something that doesn't work and later tell everyone and their dogs that its a piece of crap. Its the wiser choice to make sure that users aren't burned when using WART by running incompatible software and blaming Microsoft for it.

[hamin_aus]

Everything is MS store purchase such as internet explorer

MS would need to have balls the size of the moon to charge people money for IE...

[rustypup]

A lot of things are free on the Windows Store and all the elements you've expected to show up in the past are still built into the OS. In fact, more than 80% of the apps available there right now are free.

yaay.. i can now go and download something which used to be part of the OS!? that's fantastic!

not..

step one in creating your walled garden - strip everything out of the OS and shove it into an app store "for our convenience".. then lock down *everything*. then link it to that windows live crud, for our "convenience"...

complicated pictogram this "convenience" and complicated pictogram the corporate drones and concomitant mouth-breathing acolytes who support it..

the OS is fine sans the metro idiocy but that's no reason to applaud this behaviour...

[Cataclysm_ZA]

yaay.. i can now go and download something which used to be part of the OS!? that's fantastic!

not.

Why does anyone think that there are crucial elements of the OS that need to be downloaded from the store now? Its really limited to just the games and Windows Media Center, that's it.

[hamin_aus]

yaay.. i can now go and download something which used to be part of the OS!? that's fantastic!

not.

Why does anyone think that there are crucial elements of the OS that need to be downloaded from the store now? Its really limited to just the games and Windows Media Center, that's it.

First they came for the games,
and I didn't speak out because I played better 3rd party games.

Then they came for the media center,
and I didn't speak out because I used a better 3rd party media center.

Then they came for the internet explorer,
and I didn't speak out because I used a better 3rd party browser.

Then they came for apps and functionality that mattered to me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

[Anakha56]

So that GroupOn offer was a huge stuff up...

All South African version are upgrade versions. If I had known this I would not have bought the damn thing from them. Now trying to cancel the damn order... Note to self dont buy from GroupOn, cancelling your order is a pain in the rear end...

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/ ... usion.html

Windows 8 upgrade version confusion

All retail versions of Windows 8 are “upgrades” for Windows 7, Vista, or XP

Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 will not have retail copies that can be installed without owning a license for an older version of Microsoft’s operating system.

This is according to the business lead for Windows at Microsoft South Africa, Colin Erasmus.

Erasmus explained that all the retail versions of Windows 8 on sale all over the world, be it Best Buy, Amazon, Newegg, or closer to home at Incredible Connection and Groupon, are upgrades.

...

[SykomantiS]

Media Center Pack for Win 8 Pro Free for Limited Time

[hamin_aus]

Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support

At least they have vicariously admitted that media player/centre is a POS...

[SykomantiS]

So that GroupOn offer was a huge stuff up...

All South African version are upgrade versions. If I had known this I would not have bought the damn thing from them. Now trying to cancel the damn order... Note to self dont buy from GroupOn, cancelling your order is a pain in the rear end...

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/ ... usion.html

Windows 8 upgrade version confusion

All retail versions of Windows 8 are “upgrades” for Windows 7, Vista, or XP

Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 will not have retail copies that can be installed without owning a license for an older version of Microsoft’s operating system.

This is according to the business lead for Windows at Microsoft South Africa, Colin Erasmus.

Erasmus explained that all the retail versions of Windows 8 on sale all over the world, be it Best Buy, Amazon, Newegg, or closer to home at Incredible Connection and Groupon, are upgrades.

...

GroupOn? Meh - Click.

[StarBound]

So I guess my suspicious nature saved me. If something is priced too well, something is wrong.

[Stuart]

Windows Media Player will continue to be available in all editions, but without DVD playback support

At least they have vicariously admitted that media player/centre is a POS...

I must agree here. How long will it take MS to provide native DVD playback for their OS? Am I missing some sort of legal technicality here?