Windows 8

[Arwin]

Surprisingly there does not seem to be a real thread about Windows 8 yet, even being out today. Then again I'm also not seeing one for 7 ...

Anyway, Windows 8 is out today, and as I bought my new PC not long ago without an SSD with the intention to hold off until Win 8 comes out and then buy an SSD and install Win 8 on it, I've just now bought the SSD (Intel 120GB) and will install everything soonish.

I have a cheap upgrade option but I don't know how easy I can use that for a fresh install, so I may hold off and buy a full version of Win 8 so I can keep them in dual-boot for now.

Anyone doing anything similar? Any tips? Leave the don't bother with Windows 8 comments out please, as contrary to some popular beliefs, I think Windows 8 is an important step, and as an IT person I see both the potential of these important changes, and need to experiment and test with it.

 

[Malo]

Here is the windows 8 thread, in the hardware and software forum.

I was testing W8 in a VM at work for awhile for internal compatiblity and I also ran Consumer Preview on my bosses W500 and whilst I did buy W8 Pro upgrade for his W500 as it is much better (obviously) than W7 on a tablet, I can't see any reason why I would want to switch to W8 on our workstations.

So instead of "don't bother with W8" I'd like to know why you consider it an important step, other than the obvious tablet and touchscreen interface changes.

 

[Arwin]

The current reasons:

- The App Store. I am very interested in seeing if it becomes a major way of distributing our custom software (a relatively small part of our work) even for companies like the one I work for (we have various quite specialised tools, and the App Store may well improve our distribution chain by quite a bit)
- Xbox Live Integration. Not that important on PC currently, but there's a far better chance that will change than when they did the GfW thing, especially in combination with the App Store.
- The start of the new universal UI becoming a major thing. Especially if we want to start supporting RT platforms, a lot of UI (and partner software we work with) is going to be forced to make some transitions where they may have been able to keep up with keeping the same UI for 10-20 years previously.
- Windows likely copying an update path more like Apple's current iOS releases, at similar prices (making it more interesting for people to upgrade). Current update prices are as low as 30 euro, and that may result in an uptake far higher than people initially expect.
- Windows 8 RT opening up the Windows platform to more devices

Some of these things will be very gradual, but others maybe not so much, and the combination of bringing out software for Windows 8 platforms that run on both business machines and RT / Phones alike may make quite a big difference if MS is successful at cracking that market. And I do think they have a fair chance for the business side of things, where Android and Apple aren't quite as accomodating for businesses like ours as some seem to believe.

In short, I expect the battle for the Mobile platforms to enter a completely new phase, whether it goes in Microsoft's favor or not (and I still expect it may well) and I'm quite curious.

 

[joker454]

I've been using Windows 8 for many months now, including using the RTM for sometime now. We have it at home on all 9 of our machines, including my gaming pc hooked to the 65" tv and my 3 display office pc which I use to run my business. I'd say two things about Windows 8:

1) Clearly, your first priority should be to buy the Casino Blackjack and Choose Your Adventure games

2) Windows 8 is awesome, it runs faster, leaner, and smoother than Windows 7. It's worth the upgrade just for simple things like storage spaces, the new file manager, task manager, etc, let alone Xbox Music and the App Store. I've had no problems playing games on Windows 8 and using it on 3 displays on my office machine to run my business. I can honestly say I have no clue why people fear it, but then again when reading peoples comments it typically becomes clear that they never actually used it.

Personally I'm not a fan of os upgrades, I prefer to install clean but that's just me, I've never trusted upgrades. Win8 is a simple full install though. I don't see the need to dual boot really, once I went 8 I never saw the point to go back to 7, 8 is just better. My office machine has an Intel 520 120gb ssd and it runs great off it. Just like I used to scratch my head hearing of people that stuck with XP for ages, I'll be scratching my head puzzled why people stick with Windows 7 when 8 is basically a better 7, it just runs better.

So far I have all of one issue with Windows 8: Only one display is designated the "metro" screen. So for example I snap the messenger app on one display and would like to snap Xbox Music on another display but you can't do that. Baring that I love it, and I'd never go back to Windows 7.

 

[Arwin]

Upgrades these days can work rather well. Ever since XP upgrades from there have generally been flawless for me, saving a lot of work. But that said, I still prefer fresh installs. Usually though new hardware gets me to do that often enough anyway. (that happens more often than new Windows versions, even if only slightly)

I think I have the exact same SSD. This is for me another reason to do a fresh install - I want a fresh install on the SSD, and configure it to run all 'volatile' data on the (2TB) D drive (Win 7 C would become Win 8 D and vice versa).

My only worry now is that an Upgrade won't let me do this, and will actually make me lose my Win 7 licence.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Upgrades these days can work rather well. Ever since XP upgrades from there have generally been flawless for me, saving a lot of work. But that said, I still prefer fresh installs. Usually though new hardware gets me to do that often enough anyway. (that happens more often than new Windows versions, even if only slightly)

I think I have the exact same SSD. This is for me another reason to do a fresh install - I want a fresh install on the SSD, and configure it to run all 'volatile' data on the (2TB) D drive (Win 7 C would become Win 8 D and vice versa).

My only worry now is that an Upgrade won't let me do this, and will actually make me lose my Win 7 licence.

I wouldn't worry so much about volatile data on SSDs. My Crucial C300 is going on 2.5 years now with heavy read/writes and plenty of activity in the temp folder.

I've been tempted to upgrade the SSD twice already as newer drives come out and repurpose it as a gaming drive where writes are significantly lower.

But I'm kind of wanting to see just when the SSD may or may not start to fail. I have a feeling I'll give up and upgrade to a newer/faster drive long before the Flash cells start to fail.

Regards,
SB