The Windows 8 Thread - Surface Tablet Announced

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Bram Turismo
Having used both OSX and Win7, I doubt Microsoft can make such a giant leap forward :lol:
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As much as I love Macs, OS X has it's fair share of problems compared to Windows. And Lion is particularly rough around the edges. I would even consider Windows 7 to be ahead of Lion as far as reliability goes.

Lion's got a ton of odd, very annoying quirks and glitches regarding the behavior of Spaces, full-screen apps, Resume, et cetera. All cool features that I like and that I'm glad they added, but I think Apple really should've spent more time refining these features' behaviors before releasing Lion.

Windows 7 doesn't have all these convenient features, but the features it does have work near-flawlessly unlike Lion's, which make them much more useful.

And Windows 8 looks like it's headed in the right direction. It's got Windows 7 underneath for a reliable, regular computing experience. But it's also got a very sleek new UI on top that's designed for convenient everyday usage, particularly beneficial for tablets. From the Developer Preview, I can tell that Win 8 still needs some polish, mainly in regards to navigating the Metro UI works with a keyboard and mouse. But I think they can and will improve it before it's released.
 
I agree, when I used Windows 7 at a friend's house, I was a little disappointed. Not in Windows 7, because it is a fantastic operating system, but I was disappointed in my decision to buy a Mac. If I had have paid, say 1000 dollars for a good PC with WinXP, and upgraded to Win7, I think I'd have been better off than paying for a Mac. Don't get me wrong, the mac is great, and I've had no problems at all, but I feel like I'd have had a good experience with Windows 7 as well, and save 500 dollars.
 
I tried it, the metro apps don't work for me.
I HATE the bloody ribbon interface..

And if MS cant make me choose between old one i wont upgrade.
 
Another terrible piece of news is the Windows 8 on tablets (ARM devices) won't be able to run x86 programs (i.e. everything you install) in essence making it as about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

MS was banging on about how it was a unified OS which would run on everything and everyone assumed that meant it would be identical in functionality on both main platforms. MS even promised anything that would run on Windows 7 would run on 8.... well that was a lie.

It turns out Windows 8 on tablets is nothing like Windows 8 on PC's and its more akin to the old Windows Mobile (CE) which looks like PC windows but isn't. So if you have Word, Photoshop etc etc don't expect it to work on your Windows 8 tablet.
 
That just proves how I'm sticking with Windows 7 till a good version of Windows comes out.
 
Robin.
Another terrible piece of news is the Windows 8 on tablets (ARM devices) won't be able to run x86 programs (i.e. everything you install) in essence making it as about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

MS was banging on about how it was a unified OS which would run on everything and everyone assumed that meant it would be identical in functionality on both main platforms. MS even promised anything that would run on Windows 7 would run on 8.... well that was a lie.

It turns out Windows 8 on tablets is nothing like Windows 8 on PC's and its more akin to the old Windows Mobile (CE) which looks like PC windows but isn't. So if you have Word, Photoshop etc etc don't expect it to work on your Windows 8 tablet.
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Very true. But what about x86 tablets?
 
I have a laptop and pc.. pc have xp and laptop vista... but i prefer xp.. its lot easier.. because.. vista is little bit complicated.. and window 8.. i will buy only after it reviews..
 
Excuse me while I buy a Macbook, Microsoft has gone off the deep end
 
Plus you can get some games on Linux. It's better than years ago but the Linux market would need improvement in that regard.
 
I have a question that hopefully you guys can answer.

Apparently all new OEM computers that ship with Windows 8 will not have a traditional BIOS but instead something called a UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). This "new" BIOS will have a feature called "Secure Boot". All computers that want Windows 8 will need to have this Secure Boot feature enabled. If this is enabled then you cannot install another operating system like Linux or even previous versions of Windows. Microsoft has said that they will leave the decision to the OEMs on how much control the user has but in order to have Windows 8 it has to be on by default.

So my question is, Can we simply just turn Secure Boot off and dual boot windows 8 alongside Linux? What will happen to Grub and other similar utilities?

Also, at the article below they bring up a good point that many new users of Linux will just say, "You want me to disable a security feature so I can boot into this Linux thing?"

If you want to read more on this below are the links that I got this information from and there are some images of the secure boot menu.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/09/windows-8-secure-boot-prevent-linux-installation/
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/09/microsoft-attempt-address-windows-8-linux-worries/

Edit: Here is an image if you are too lazy to go read the article at the links above. This is from one of the Samsung Tablets.

0624.Figure_2D00_5_2D002D002D00_Samsung_2D00_PC_2D00_secured_2D00_boot_2D00_setting_5F00_thumb_5F00_02016A69.jpg
 
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It is a rumor, It will most likely wont happen as microsoft has faced this path before with their forced installed of IE.
 
So the implication is that booting into Windows is somehow more secure than booting into linux.

Oh the irony!

Too bad if you want/need to run memtest86, eh?
 
Grayfox
It is a rumor, It will most likely wont happen as microsoft has faced this path before with their forced installed of IE.
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But apparently Microsoft has said that you need to have secure boot on to boot up windows. Even if you had the option to turn it off that just means you can't have Linux and Windows 8 at the same time.

That is whats bothering me.
 
This thread is about windows 8 as beta 8 came out on the 29th of last month, you can post reviews, and things you would change about 8, also what is your favorite app so far in the store? I am using 8 right now and I think I will never go back to windows 7, what do you think?
 
I tried it a while back when they had the Developers Preview out. I wasn't impressed really. It screwed up my Linux partition on my laptop by messing with the boot flags.


If the end result of Windows 8 is that they start to provide it as cheap as Apple provides OSX now.. I might consider it.
 
bergauk
I tried it a while back when they had the Developers Preview out. I wasn't impressed really. It screwed up my Linux partition on my laptop by messing with the boot flags.


If the end result of Windows 8 is that they start to provide it as cheap as Apple provides OSX now.. I might consider it.
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It has improved all too well, it is 1,000,000,000 times smoother, faster too, it runs better than 7!
 
I really really hate the new start "menu". Microsoft Windows is going the way of Apple. And I don't like it. Sticking with good old Windows XP and 7, unless this is sorted.
 
ECGadget
I really really hate the new start "menu". Microsoft Windows is going the way of Apple. And I don't like it. Sticking with good old Windows XP and 7, unless this is sorted.
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You can make the windows 7 taskbar look like the XP one.

1: Right click taskbar and select properties
2: Check "Use small icons" and select "Combine when full" from the drop down box.
3: Apply changes
4: Right click taskbar and select toolbars>add new toolbar and select quick launch folder which is found in "C:\users\xxxxx\appdata\roaming\microsoft\internet explorer\"
5: Right click taskbar and select uncheck taskbar
6: now move the quick launchbar to the left by moving the lock bar on the far right all the way to the left and the one of the left all the way to the right, this should set the quick launch bar to the left near the start button/orb.
7: Right click the quick launch bar area and uncheck "show title" and "show text"
8: Now move the lock bar on the right more to the left so you nearly make the icons in the quick launch bar vanish.
9: Relock the taskbar.
10: And that should be it.
----------------------------
These are steps are optional
----------------------------
11: Right click the taskbar and select properties.
12: Click customize where the "Notification area"
13: Check "always show all icons and notifications on taskbar"
14: Click OK


xxx= Your Profile User Name.
 
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ECGadget
I really really hate the new start "menu". Microsoft Windows is going the way of Apple. And I don't like it. Sticking with good old Windows XP and 7, unless this is sorted.
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I think its a good way of competeing with apple
 
peter_vod69
Linux has been around for years and has never been a realistic alternative. Certainly not for home use anyway.
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Actually I used Ubuntu with my parents for about a year or two when windows XP had so many viruses on the old family computer. I could play some of my old windows games with Wine(even Warcraft III was playable) and used OpenOffice for my high school work. Now on my parents new computer(which I built) they actually wanted Ubuntu as a backup OS. The most my parents do is research a car on the internet, facebook, and do some email.
 
I actually really like the new metro UI, for me its the best best looking interface design MS has done and the phone inspired Start screen is a big pull for me. However there isn't much else that draws me to the OS and if they could release the Start Screen as an add on to Windows 7 I would just buy that.

I'm concerned at how they are going to price this, is it going to be OSX style prices or Windows crazy prices? There isn't enough change from Windows 7 to warrant a big dollar spend again. Also worried about secure boot (what happens with normal BIOS PC's) and how it will run on older hardware.
 
From what I understand with Windows pricing, they're limiting the Windows 8 sections into four and pricing them accordingly (ie: quite expensive). So you'll have a basic, a slightly more useful one, really quite useful and the exceedingly useful one if you're an IT professional type deal thing.
 
Just installed it in VMware.

Issues so far:
Asks for PC name but can't use - so it can't be things like Grayfox-PC, Grayfox-Notebook, Grayfox-Linux, Grayfox-PS3 which is what I do so I know which device is which on the router DHCP list, so I was forced it use Grayfox this ment later I could not use that as my user profile name.

Ribbon interface.
No Start, only Metro crap.
Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft your failing again.

Things I like:
Automatic windows colors to suit background.
 
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Submerged
From what I understand with Windows pricing, they're limiting the Windows 8 sections into four and pricing them accordingly (ie: quite expensive). So you'll have a basic, a slightly more useful one, really quite useful and the exceedingly useful one if you're an IT professional type deal thing.
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Yes they always separate them into different versions at different price points but are they going to be priced like OSX upgrades or full $$$ Windows releases. This is because Windows has changed its release schedule to mimic what Apple does but I bet they won't mimic the price :sly:
 

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