Would You Upgrade From Windows 7 Ultimate To Windows 8 Pro for $39.99?

I just upgraded an old lappy from Win7 U. to Linux Mint "Nadia" (and it is running great). So for this machine the answer is definitly NO.
But I still have two Win8 Pro copies waiting to be used, but when.....?

 

if you use a 5-6 years old video card in Win 8 then you will suffer more than using the same in Win 7.

my video card went from 3.9 in Win 7 to 3.4 in Win 8 using the Windows Experience Index.
i could definitely notice a drop in performance in games as well.
even using the newest drivers.

so it's something to keep in mind.

if you have a machine 2-3 years old everything should be about the same.

 

Don't do it.

M$ is going to relearn all the security patches already discovered in W95, Win me, XP, Vista and W7.

 

Yes - I did it.

 

Excellent! Also, some Windows 8 features won't work with older BIOS.

 

I didn't read the other post, so it may be said already. Just look into the details of Windows 8, is there anything big worth upgrading ? I didn't find anything at all.

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2178638&postcount=109

 

Reading this i'm again convinced not to buy this "new" windows. It all sounds very nice but i don't see any must-have feature worth the money. Imho there are some improvements that would make a new service pack but not a new OS version number. Win7 is mature, stable and reliable in it's current state and that's most important for me.

 

Your Windows Experience Index will always be lower in Windows 8 vs Windows 7. Microsoft made a change to accommodate for faster hardware.

While I don't use my computers for gaming, video performance is better under Windows 8 on a 3+ year old laptop using onboard Intel graphics. I am yet to install Windows 8 on my 6 year old laptop, but I do expect a similar increase in graphics performance.

I have read that video performance should increase as drivers are better optimized for Windows 8.

 

I don't know if this part of your post is supposed to be a bad joke or if it is serious, but... "service packs" are supposed to be a collection of patches when the number of individual patches to a given program reaches a certain (arbitrary) limit... Windows 8 can't be classified as a service pack by any reasonable point of view: it brings several new features, new apps, etc, among several other improvements listed in the linked post, and it is a new product being commercialized as well.

 

Neither choices for me, however I'm going to get a new machine in a few months and I hope it comes with Win 8.

 

I just bought a new custom built laptop, and I deliberately paid extra for a Windows 7 licence.

Windows 7 was everything that Vista wasn't - I liked it from the get go, and got it as soon as I could (unlike how I delayed for every major OS update: Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista).

I've tried Windows 8 on another machine and after a few days realised I was never going to appreciate it.

 

No, I would consider Win 7 Ultimate to Win 8 Pro to be a downgrade, and costing $40 making it that tougher to swallow

 

Win8 over Win7 is a major security overhaul from the boot process on up. I would recommend Win8, and if you don't like the crazy UI, just fix it. StartIsBack is $3, Start8 is $5, Classic Shell is free.

I could get excessively verbose on the subject, but I'll just spit out some of the attractions that sold me on Win8 Pro upgrades for home and my little SOHO work fleet:

Secure Boot (needs hardware support, which I do have)
Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention (ditto)
ELAM, with the good-only policy enforced via Group Policy
AppContainer
Built-in self-updating PDF reader without excess features to abuse or exploit (and runs inside an AppContainer)
Self-updating Flash Player
Enhanced Protected Mode for IE10 (each tab's in its own AppContainer, a Win8-only capability)
High-entropy ASLR on 64-bit
Mandatory DEP

...and some serious kernel hardening (snips from this PDF: Valasek's presentation)





It was a smokin' deal for $43 (including $3 for StartIsBack ). Some people pay more than that for a year's antivirus protection. At this point, that deal is gone, so the next-best option is Win8 Pro with the System Builder/OEM license, which you're now allowed to transfer to new systems as a System Builder.

 

Too bad it's going over like the proverbial Lead Balloon....

 

Why it would not come with W8?

 

39$ is a fantastic deal. i would do it before the deal ends!

 

No I would not, what for?
Mrk

 

Hehe, so I hear Reportedly, Win8's general adoption rate is lagging Windows Vista's. However, it's always interesting to look at Valve's stats for an insight into the gaming-oriented market. Here's a snip from February 2013's stats. Note that 64-bit is listed separately from 32-bit. So about 10% of the Valve userbase and gaining at 1% per month. Dredging up my stats from late 2008 and early 2009, Vista was indeed gaining at 2%-3% per month at WinXP's expense, so I guess Win8 is truly going over like a lead balloon in that market too.