Windows 8

[Lantyssa]

Can I blame my Windows 7 desktop blowing the fuck up today on Windows 8 (as opposed to the stupid random power strike at my house)

Sounds fine with me.

[luckton]

From a gaming perspective, if there a reason to upgrade from 7 to 8?  Performance upgrades or anything?

[Engels]

Benchmarks I've seen suggest the only solid improvement is in boot times, due to the hibernation scheme to reboots it has. Other than that, people report Win 8 seeming faster, but that can always be a product of more crap flitting across your screen constantly, which I can personally attest to having used Windows 8 for two weeks before giving up on it and going back to Win 7 & Linux. There was just too much gui nonsense for my taste.

[Trippy]

From a gaming perspective, if there a reason to upgrade from 7 to 8?  Performance upgrades or anything?

For games 8 is not any faster than 7, sometimes is slower, and there are occasional compatibility issues. At some point, though, I expect Microsoft will pull a Vista and make some version of DirectX Windows 8-only. Of course non-Microsoft game developers will continue to make their games work with Windows 7 and below just like they did with Vista and DirectX 10.

[ghost]

Several of my Steam games that I haven't played won't work with 8.  I have 7 computers around, however, so it isn't that big of a deal. 

I went ahead and bit the bullet and did it on my home computer.  So far so good.  It reminds me a lot of Gnome's new iteration.  I expect that 8 will not be utilized in business to any level until they can streamline the metro shit out though.

[Fabricated]

Windows 8 RT (the arm version) is apparently hilariously bad/buggy, and the vaunted ARM-based surface has severe out-of-memory issues just trying to run office. Also typing too fast punches out the one core of the Tegra 3 (a quad-core processor) that it uses so typing lags out. Oy.

Windows 8 is a pooch screw of possibly beyond Vista proportions.

[KallDrexx]

Apparently benchmarks show Windows 8 as equal to or barely faster than windows 7.  Although, that doesn't tell the whole store because as my laptop is dual 7/8 boot 8 definitely *feels* faster than 7 (even outside of booting).

[Surlyboi]

 

[tgr]

Co-worker stumbled upon this video "review" of windows 8 (it's a bit parodical, don't expect a professional and unbiased review in any way, shape or form  ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1oPDtdhFo

[Numtini]

Co-worker stumbled upon this video "review" of windows 8 (it's a bit parodical, don't expect a provessional and unbiased review in any way, shape or form  ):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1oPDtdhFo

It's a fair review.

[apocrypha]

I was shopping for fridge-freezers at the weekend and one of the places we were in had some laptops with Windows 8 running on them so I had a play around.

I am technically minded, familiar with multiple OS's and had read lots of reviews describing the difficulties with TIFKAM* and yet I still couldn't get my head around how to use it properly. Releasing this on consumers in this state is a terrible, terrible idea.

*The Interface Formerly Known As Metro.

[Fabricated]

WinRT everyone

[Numtini]

That's why I switched from AppleWriter to AppleWorks when I had my //c. I could easily out type Writer and had to wait for the catch up.

[schild]

Microsoft doesn't even have a day pass to the Trolling Theme Park that is Apple these days.

[Sky]

Microsoft doesn't even have a day pass to the Trolling Theme Park that is Apple these days.

I rather enjoyed the image Amazon's been leading with:

[Hawkbit]

Microsoft filmed at our offices last week.  Sadly, my ugly mug wasn't shown.  Win8 and our app feedback has been mostly positive so far, but we don't cater to techies, but the very center of middle America.

http://winstoreprod.blob.core.windows.net/media/msft_allrecipes_720p_v2.mp4

I'm not sold on Win 8 for me personally, but our app is really cool.

[MahrinSkel]

I'm going to do what I've always done: Not upgrade until something I really want to use absolutely requires it.  I didn't get all my systems onto Win7 until a couple of months ago.  Meanwhile I'm doing more and more on my (Android) tablet and my little Ubuntu box. 

--Dave

[Viin]

I bought the upgrade 'cause it's cheap, but it won't let me do the upgrade.. some random nondescript failure. Some have pointed to the fact that Windows Update or BITS is missing in services - and I am missing BITS. Can't seem to figure out how to repair it though ..

Ah well, no rush.

[Surlyboi]

Microsoft doesn't even have a day pass to the Trolling Theme Park that is Apple these days.

These days? People have been trolling us since before the interwebs.

[Bunk]

My biggest positive for Windows 8, is that when it our customers switch to it and the try running our previous version of our software's interface (that was written in 2003 in MSJava) it will fail. It will fail badly and I will be able to blame Windows 8 entirely. "Nope, sorry, there is no fix. Time to use the up to date version of the software we gave you three years ago you stubborn bitch."

[ghost]

I'm going to do what I've always done: Not upgrade until something I really want to use absolutely requires it.  I didn't get all my systems onto Win7 until a couple of months ago.  Meanwhile I'm doing more and more on my (Android) tablet and my little Ubuntu box. 

--Dave

I'm hoping that Steam is serious about their stance of pushing to make their games linux compatible. 

[schild]

Microsoft doesn't even have a day pass to the Trolling Theme Park that is Apple these days.

These days? People have been trolling us since before the interwebs.

I'm talking about companies trolling users. Apple is the total king of trollery in tech. Microsoft is way too neckbeardy for any of that.

[Surlyboi]

Microsoft doesn't even have a day pass to the Trolling Theme Park that is Apple these days.

These days? People have been trolling us since before the interwebs.

I'm talking about companies trolling users. Apple is the total king of trollery in tech. Microsoft is way too neckbeardy for any of that.

Neckbeardy? Really? The neckbeards haven't been in control in Redmond since the late 90s, and even then the marketdroids were trolling users and employees alike.

[Hammond]

Computer games are really the only thing that keeps me on windows these days.  If Valve is able to stimulate the linux gaming market I am perfectly happy to switch to linux in a minute. I will probably end up keeping one computer on windows just to keep my skills current.

[tgr]

Computer games are really the only thing that keeps me on windows these days.  If Valve is able to stimulate the linux gaming market I am perfectly happy to switch to linux in a minute. I will probably end up keeping one computer on windows just to keep my skills current.

Same. I'm sure I can get replacements for literally everything else, it's only games which are still keeping me on windows at this point, and judging by everything I've seen of Win8 so far, there's absolutely nothing in there to tempt me away from Win7. Maybe if I had been on XP or Vista still, but now that I'm on Win7? Nope.

[Yegolev]

True story: my car feels faster after I change the oil and filters.

[Baldrake]

Microsoft filmed at our offices last week.  Sadly, my ugly mug wasn't shown.  Win8 and our app feedback has been mostly positive so far, but we don't cater to techies, but the very center of middle America.

http://winstoreprod.blob.core.windows.net/media/msft_allrecipes_720p_v2.mp4

I'm not sold on Win 8 for me personally, but our app is really cool.

Your app actually does look awesome, and makes the surface shine. Well done!

I'm just imagining using it while cooking though... 

[Engels]

Must say that actually looks like a nice app I may even eventually get when it comes out for Windows 7 

[Hawkbit]

Trust me, I'm right there with you.  I just can't see jumping to Win8 yet, but then again, I've stripped Win7 down to look and act like XP.  I'm a freak like that.

Thanks for the kudos on the app; our people worked really hard on it.  We had a ton of interns come in over the summer that did a lot of the time tracking for the videos to match them up with the step flow.  As the video plays, the recipe steps move forward.  And if you want to go back, just one-touch the step and the video will start from that spot.  It's really genius stuff, and cooking with it is awesome.

The way we're seeing video changing how people interact with our site is awesome.  A year ago, video was available on a handful of recipes; now, we're pushing towards videos AS recipes with text to supplement.  It's changing mindbogglingly fast.

[Hammond]

So one of my co-workers got bought one of the surface tablets and dropped it at my desk to play with.  Overall its a decent experience, the metro interface works really well on the touch screen.  How the implemented office is a bit odd with switching to the old school desktop.  Like the .gif posted above I can type faster than Word can keep up with.  Probably the quirkiest thing is how they put applications to sleep rather than close them.  Traditionally when you were done you would x out.  You really do not have that option anymore in the metro interface. 

Physically the surface feels nice and I like it enough I may buy one.  I just wish it was priced closer to the Kindle fire than the Ipad though :). 

[sickrubik]

In to say kudos on that app as well. I'm in love with allrecipes already, and that just looks like a nice little app.

As for using it while cooking... I use my iPad all the time with cooking. We have a bunch of traditional cookbooks, and I have memorized quite a bit of recipes, but I tend to use my iPad quite a lot.

[apocrypha]

Seeing some pretty damning reviews of the Surface RT.

The sobering reality is that Surface is a disappointment on almost every level. Game performance is wildly off-pace compared to the competition, the Windows desktop has barely any actual functionality aside from accessing Office, and, in terms of Word at least, the product should never have shipped in this state. It's described as a pre-release version that will be updated for free once it is ready, but for such an important element of the package to feature such a grim user experience at launch is unforgivable.

 

[Quinton]

Is there coverage of performance on the x86 Surface device?  It's supposed to have relatively a modern Intel CPU, no?  Bus bandwidth alone on the Tegra 3 is going to be rough for windows, performance-wise, and while the GPU is decent for the display size, the A9 is roughly competitive with Atom, which is not exactly overflowing with compute power.

For only $100 price differential, given the confusion (RT not compatible with x86 software, windows store only, etc), and the performance issues, I'm thinking they might have been better off just sticking with x86 for launch.

If there's one thing the entire industry could stand learn from Apple, it's to recognize when something is just not ready and punt it until the next product cycle.  They don't get this right every time, but certainly do more times than not.

[KallDrexx]

x86 surface is still hush hush. 

[Baldrake]

Windows uber-fanboy Paul Thurrott has published his review of the Surface RT, and it's pretty harsh. Buried in the review is his take that Intel Clover Trail may be the real future of Windows tablets:

Intel’s PC maker partners are about to ship a new generation of “Clover Trail” Atom-based Windows 8 devices that will offer the best of both worlds: the hardware and software compatibility of Windows 8 combined with the battery life and thin and light form factors provided by ARM devices.

I’m holding out hope for that latter option, and I’ll be reviewing Clover Trail devices as soon as possible. It’s a shame Microsoft isn’t making a Clover Trail-based Surface. Its first model, Surface with Windows RT, is simply too frustrating and too limited.