Review: Windows 8, the hybrid OS has arrived

[Wild Hunter]

Before you read another word of this review, I need you to do something very important. Take all of your preconceived notions about what Windows is today and what you are familiar with, and put them aside. It’s time to reinvent the desktop OS and Microsoft is leading the charge.

http://www.neowin.net/news/review-windows-8-the-hybrid-os-has-arrived

[Mrkvonic]

Let us be politically correct. Not.
Where did they get that boot time chart, me wonders.
Mrk

[PaulBB]

It’s time to reinvent the desktop OS and Microsoft is leading the charge.

Reinvent the desktop? How and Why? Removing the start menu? Remember the buzz at the launch of VISTA about the desktop gadgets? ''Enrich your screen! Get beautifully crafted gadgets for your desktop'' and 2 years later MS abandoned the gadgets.


I wonder if really matters if I wait 10 secs instead of 14 to boot. Anyway, I'm using Windows from Windows 98 and to be honest I think that the ''hybrid'' Windows 8 is the most DISGUSTING OS ever.

MS and all the MS fan boys must understand that I don't need a HYBRID OS ON MY DESKTOP! Just leave the desktop alone!

I consider myself a open minded person. I have 3 laptops running Windows 7 and XP, a iMac desktop, 2 Windows desktops, an iPad and a Samsung tablet. It took me 30 minutes to mess up with Apple OS and to understand how it works. Last night I tried Windows 8 on a VM and still I feel like I've been raped; they messed up everything and the biggest problem is the missing start menu.

In a near future I'm pretty sure that all the desktops will be replaced by tablets or God know by what, but until that day I don't need a TABLET OS on a desktop for God'sake.

[NormanF]

The tablet/smartphone market is a very small market - most people are not going to use their fingers to move around the desktop.

The interface is too radical for most PC users. In Ubuntu's Unity at least you have a familiar dock launcher and a search pane.

The only other developer that's abandoned the desktop metaphor is GNOME and its not doing too well.

Microsoft should have gone in one consistent direction. It didn't and bolting two incompatible graphical user interfaces together neither looks nor feels right.

Its like the old saying: if it ain't broke, don't fix it! Windows 8 offers nothing people need today or tomorrow.

[NGRhodes]

NormanF -
The tablet/smartphone market is huge not "a very small market".
Twice as big as PC/Laptop market based on current sales and depending on whose figures you use there are appox as many smartphones in the world as there have been Windows XP/vista/7 licences sold.

Cheers, Nick

[HAN]

I won't be doing 8 for a while. Don't have a tablet, won't be buying an 8 phone and I don't want a touch screen/social media tablet type view on my PC. Also, IMO, unless MS allows booting to the desktop, this will be a very tough sell to businesses. (IOW, MS should have still made the PC version more flexible on it's look/feel/use.)

MS is betting a lot on this. Be interesting to see how it goes...

[encus]

If I ever used Windows 8, I would like to have the Start Menu back!

[Wild Hunter]

Originally Posted by Mrkvonic

Let us be politically correct. Not.
Where did they get that boot time chart, me wonders.
Mrk

They tested:

"...With any platform update as significant as Windows 8, one would expect performance improvements across a wide variety of metrics. We tested Windows 8 across install time, daily operations (boot, shutdown, and resume), and the amount of time it took to launch applications. We tested the OS on a machine with the following specs: 2.83 GHz quad-core Intel Q9550, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA GTX 560 Ti, 7200 RPM hard drive) and the OSes used were Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Windows 8 Pro x64 - both clean installs on a freshly formatted hard drive...."

---Taken from: http://www.neowin.net/news/review-wi...os-has-arrived---

[nosirrah]

Interface type determined by display type (touch VS standard) would have been the way to go IMO.

[Mrkvonic]

Originally Posted by Wild Hunter

They tested:

I have a similar box, 15 sec Win7 boot. UEFI checks are longer than that.
In fact, no Win7 box I have takes more than 15 sec to boot.
Nor old XP for that matter.

Smells like misconfiguration or advertising ...

Mrk

[Brian K]

Mrk,

What is the zero time point for your 15 seconds? Someone told us his Win7 took 5 seconds to boot but he didn't mention he'd pressed the power button 30 seconds before he started his timing.

[Mrkvonic]

My start point for any OS is the bootloader stage. On both desktops, the UEFI is long and has three stages, but it is true for any OS - Win, Lin. On the laptop with Win7, the BIOS stage is short, but still, the countup begins from the bootloader. Again, regardless of the OS.

I do have a work box with Win7 and all manner of corporate bull... things installed on the machine, and the boot is decidedly slower there, but on my home machines, which are near-vanilla in every sense, the boot time is uber-short. Has always been. For all OS installed.

This was true for my xp in 2005-2012, and true for win7 2011-onwards.

Mrk

[Brian K]

Mrk,

Thanks, that makes sense. I like to think of the boot time as starting from when you press the power button because that's how long you have to wait before you can use the OS but a lot of that time interval may have nothing to do with the OS being loaded.

I was interested in your statement about UEFI. I'm building a new computer in the next few weeks and it will multi-boot various OS. I was hoping to avoid the Win8 Secure Boot issue by installing Win8 on a MBR Disk. Is this reasonable? My knowledge of UEFI is negligible. Any pearls of wisdom about UEFI would be appreciated.

[Robin A.]

Originally Posted by Brian K

Any pearls of wisdom about UEFI would be appreciated.

About imaging: it is not possible to use 32-bit WinPE media in a 64-bit UEFI system.

[Brian K]

Thanks. Good to know.

[harsha_mic]

I installed Windows 8 around 2 weeks ago. First its little difficult to operate as the interface in the start screen is quite a different one to prior windows. But once got to know about it, i really like it.

Been a user of ipad. So, i like metro UI very much, which makes my daily tasks much more user friendly & faster (like checking e-mails,messages,music,movies (netflix) etc).
Overall i feel the OS is lot snappier could be that i don't have III party security s/w installed. One more good thing is that, i don't have to shut down OS now, can put it to sleep and OS does not feel any sluggishness after resume...on my 2 year laptop.

lets see how it goes..

[berryracer]

Originally Posted by PaulBB

Reinvent the desktop? How and Why? Removing the start menu? Remember the buzz at the launch of VISTA about the desktop gadgets? ''Enrich your screen! Get beautifully crafted gadgets for your desktop'' and 2 years later MS abandoned the gadgets.


I wonder if really matters if I wait 10 secs instead of 14 to boot. Anyway, I'm using Windows from Windows 98 and to be honest I think that the ''hybrid'' Windows 8 is the most DISGUSTING OS ever.

MS and all the MS fan boys must understand that I don't need a HYBRID OS ON MY DESKTOP! Just leave the desktop alone!

I consider myself a open minded person. I have 3 laptops running Windows 7 and XP, a iMac desktop, 2 Windows desktops, an iPad and a Samsung tablet. It took me 30 minutes to mess up with Apple OS and to understand how it works. Last night I tried Windows 8 on a VM and still I feel like I've been raped; they messed up everything and the biggest problem is the missing start menu.

In a near future I'm pretty sure that all the desktops will be replaced by tablets or God know by what, but until that day I don't need a TABLET OS on a desktop for God'sake.

Ditto bro! you took the words out of my mouth! I tried Windows 8 for 10 mins before formatting my laptop again and reinstalling Win 7.

Major failure and annoying as heck IMO

[Brian K]

We all have our preferences. I like Win8 and Metro and plan to use it as the main OS on my new computer. It feels snappier than Win7. Now that is a subjective comment!

[Mrkvonic]

Originally Posted by Brian K

Mrk,

Thanks, that makes sense. I like to think of the boot time as starting from when you press the power button because that's how long you have to wait before you can use the OS but a lot of that time interval may have nothing to do with the OS being loaded.

I was interested in your statement about UEFI. I'm building a new computer in the next few weeks and it will multi-boot various OS. I was hoping to avoid the Win8 Secure Boot issue by installing Win8 on a MBR Disk. Is this reasonable? My knowledge of UEFI is negligible. Any pearls of wisdom about UEFI would be appreciated.

For me, UEFI is transparent. Not much different from using BIOS.
The same principles remain, except UEFI has a more modern interface.
You can disable the secure boot in UEFI, and no worries then.
Mrk

[Fuzzfas]

Originally Posted by Mrkvonic

For me, UEFI is transparent. Not much different from using BIOS.
The same principles remains, except UEFI has a more modern interface.
You can disable the secure boot in UEFI, and no worries then.
Mrk

As for Win8, my system is purebreed desktop PC, so no need for a "hybrid OS".

[Brian K]

Mrk,

Thanks for the reassurance.

[The Seeker]

Originally Posted by berryracer

I tried Windows 8 for 10 mins before formatting my laptop again and reinstalling Win 7.

You gave it almost no chance then. I'd suggest using it for a week before you decide to write it off.

[Brian K]

I now understand how to avoid installing a UEFI system.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ndows-7-a.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...ndows-8-a.html

[funkydude]

Originally Posted by berryracer

I tried Windows 8 for 10 mins before formatting my laptop again and reinstalling Win 7.

Yeah, most people that rage about it are the same "tried it for 10 minutes" people.

Originally Posted by The Seeker

You gave it almost no chance then. I'd suggest using it for a week before you decide to write it off.

Exactly!

Originally Posted by Brian K

I now understand how to avoid installing a UEFI system.

Why would you NOT want a UEFI system?

[Longboard]

I have no immediate plans to try out W8.
Not even clear to me which version I would want and what programmes/apps will run on which version yet.
No idea about security, printers etc etc.
Absolutely no plan to integrate into my little cottage business yet
Never really sure about any 1st release, sadly, especially from MS.
I can wait and watch for a while

But I have read 3 interesting articles/reviews today:
Love at first touch of a laptop
http://www.afr.com/f/free/technology...PykQYueDPgPhvJ
&
Microsoft goes for broke with Windows 8
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a540d890-1...44feabdc0.html
&
MSI Slider S20 Windows 8 Ultrabook hands-on
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/05/m...blet-hands-on/

That 'Surface' tool looks really intriguing and well designed - with the right OS !!
Wonder who designed it ?

Going to be lots of toing and froing for a while.
Exciting times for HW, no doubt about that.
LOL: just spent $000's for office upgrade to new management software and HW and W7, including Laptops. Already OOD !!
I know I'll be fine for a looong time.

There is no doubt that MS is under pressssssure like never before.
BYOD is causing lots of interesting issues at enterprise level.

Just feeling the breeze here so far.

Another 'rollup' article I found useful:
Cheat sheet: Windows 8 vs. Windows RT :
At first glance, the two new Microsoft operating systems look to be the same, but they're actually quite different
http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft...dows-rt-205399
Heaps of individual links to reference articles.
MAybe not such a problem here but might be good for friends.