An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windows 8

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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

So, even though I said I wouldn't rush to upgrade to Windows 8 . . .

Lately, I'd been noticing that my Windows 7 install was becoming a bit slow/broken. Some things didn't work quite right, and it was running a bit slow at times. It had been 3 years since I installed 7, back when it came out.

I wanted to reinstall Windows to clean out the dead wood, and then decided: what the hell. I installed a trial of Windows 8, based on the final RTM version. Even though I knew I would probably hate it, I wanted to try it for myself rather than pre-judge it. Not to mention, I'm inevitably going to need to be familiar with it for my job, and for people who might ask me for help with it.

So I'm running Windows 8 right now. And, so far, I still think it's pretty terrible.

I can only come up with 3 positive things to say about it, at the moment.
  • Once at the desktop, everything loads and responds extremely fast. It's just lightning quick. Faster than 7.
  • The Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc) has been greatly improved.
  • Windows Defender, which was pretty useless before, is now based on Microsoft Security Essentials. Meaning that Windows 8 now comes with a decent built-in Anti-Virus. (I'm sure companies like Norton and McAfee must be pissed.)
Boot time is about the same as Windows 7, despite Microsoft touting it boots much faster.

I hate the mish-mash of the traditional desktop interface and Metro (or whatever the hell you want to call it). Metro is ugly, and next to useless on a desktop computer. Microsoft also removed Aero (glass borders on windows), giving everything a dull and flat look.


I tested Tron 2.0 and our mod projects, to see if they work okay on 8. For the most part, everything seems fine. However, I'm getting some slightly unusual behavior from the game. With multiple mods installed, I can only successfully activate one of them from the Custom button on the game launcher. It's bizarre. Also, every time I quit the game, it consistently produces a crash. But the game starts and runs okay.

I'll have to do some more investigation and tinkering, but Tron 2.0 seems to run more or less fine on Windows 8. I think my issues are a fluke, and specific to my particular setup.


Final verdict, barring any change of heart in the near future: I strongly suggest everyone avoids Windows 8. The minor improvements are not worth it. Stick with Windows 7.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

I figured out what the problem was with Tron 2.0. I'll explain what happened in another message post. Meanwhile, the game is now working perfectly in Win 8 as far as I can tell. In fact, it even loads faster in 8 than it did in 7.

A couple of other things I noticed about 8, that are "nice, I suppose":
  • Flash is included right away, so you don't have to download and install it later. (Though some people don't like Flash and want to see its use replaced by HTML5.) I don't recall Flash being included in Win 7 from the start.
  • When installing a program that required .NET runtimes I didn't have installed, Win 8 offered to automatically download them to ensure the program would work. Instead of running the program later, in order to find out that the required .NET components were missing.
These additions still aren't really enough, to keep me from thinking Win 8 is kind of crap.

The only thing that has made Win 8 more bearable for me, is installing Start8 from Stardock. It brings back a close imitation of the Win 7 Start menu, and banishes most of the Metro garbage from the Desktop. Now I hardly ever see anything from Metro any more.

I still can't recommend Windows 8, though. There's too much headache in de-crapifying it. Which is a shame, because under all the added crap, there's actually a decent upgrade to be found. There's no question 8 performs somewhat better on my PC than 7 did. This Win 8 install runs faster than a fresh 7 install.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

Considering that Microsoft is now rushing to release an update to Windows 8 next year, I'll take that as a sign that Win 8 has flopped.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/28/3693 ... e-low-cost" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently there are going to be "major changes" to the UI, and developers who have been making new Metro apps have been asked to hold off creating any more until Windows "Blue" is released.

I've been using Win 8 for over a month now. There are just too many irritating things about it, for me to recommend it to anyone. Stay away. Maybe this Windows "Blue" release will fix what's wrong with Win 8, and change a lot of people's minds. Including my own. We'll see, I guess.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

While we wait for Windows Blue (which, according to rumour, will be even worse than Windows 8 from a usability standpoint), I've had to make a decision recently. About whether or not I would stay on Windows 8, or switch back to Windows 7.

I still haven't changed my recommendation, if people ask me which to go with. Stay away from Windows 8.


But even with my trial version of Win 8 soon expiring, I've personally decided that I'll reinstall 8 and keep using it.

However . . . the only reason I've made this decision, is because some clever folks have come up with add-ons for Win 8 that - just about - make it pleasant to use.

With StartIsBack, Aero Glass for Win 8, and a Windows 7 theme for Win 8, my desktop now looks like this.

Image

Instead of the ugly shitfest that is the default Win 8 desktop. It's now very, very close to Win 7 in terms of appearance and usefulness.

I spend 99% of my time on the desktop, and almost never have to look at the Start Screen or Metro (Modern UI). StartIsBack skips the Start Screen and gets rid of the Charms bar on the desktop, in addition to bringing back the Start Menu. The only Metro apps I use, on occasion, are the News and Weather apps.

Without these add-ons, I would have gone back to Windows 7.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

So, in the end, I've gone back to Windows 7.

Why? Because I ran into a serious problem on Win 8. Eventually, the monitor would either go black or the screen would start to flash. Once this happened, there was no way of recovering from it. You can't even get into Safe Mode, the screen is still black/flashing even there. Your computer becomes absolutely useless, because you can't see what you're doing.

If you Google "windows 8 black flashing screen" you'll see plenty of topics about this problem. I wasn't alone. A lot of people point the finger at Nvidia's drivers, and the latest ones were supposed to avoid this. But it still happened to me, even with the latest drivers.

Then again, it could just as easily have been one of a thousand different things. I just don't know. I couldn't keep using a version of an OS that acted like a ticking time bomb, though. I need a stable and productive environment. Can't afford to keep wasting time, fighting with Windows 8.

And you know what? I'm much happier now. Windows 7 just works, and works well. Meanwhile, Windows 8 proved to be one gigantic headache for me. I'll probably reinstall it at some point again, later. Maybe after the kinks have been worked out, and perhaps when Microsoft come to their senses and reverse some of the stupid decisions they've made with 8.

I gave it every chance, but I just can't be bothered with it any more. This only reinforces my recommendation to others, which remains the same. Stay away from Windows 8.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

Time to revisit this topic. A couple of interesting developments. Still rumours, though.

First off, it's looking pretty likely that the Start Menu will be coming back in Windows 8.2. I talked about this in another post.

Second, apparently you'll be able to use Metro apps in windows on the desktop. Rather than being forced to use them fullscreen all the time.


Lastly . . . and this is the big one. If true, it would kind of make the previous change (Metro apps on the desktop) rather pointless.

There's a rumour that Microsoft may actually drop Metro from Windows. Key word being "may".
It’s unclear though whether Metro UI will also be removed from Windows 9, as Murtazin says there are a lot of internal debates on the matter within Microsoft.
We're talking about removing it from the full-blown desktop OS here, not just the phone version of Windows.

This, to me, is rather surprising. I never would have believed that MS would actually consider dropping Metro altogether. Despite the fact that it pretty much bombed. I felt they invested too much into it, to just drop it cold turkey. So to think that they're actually talking about doing it?

Frankly, I sure hope so. Kill Metro. Kill it with fire. Can't stand it. Useless on anything but touch. And even there, it's not that great. In fact, touch devices as a whole aren't all that great. I've used some tablets and smartphones, and really don't like them much. Fine for quickly checking e-mails and videos, but not a lot else. I need a real keyboard and a mouse, real precision to do any proper tasks or work.
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Re: An important reason why I won't rush to upgrade to Windo

Post by TronFAQ »

Well, it just became official. Windows 8 definitely bombed.

Otherwise, why would Microsoft be thinking about giving away Windows 8.1 for free.

I could sort-of see this coming, but wondered if Microsoft's arrogance and pride would prevent them from ever taking this route. Giving away Windows 8.1 for free would be admitting defeat, and is also a large source of revenue lost.

Would any of you guys start using Windows 8.1, if it became free?
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