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The Windows 8 Era Begins

Maurice Naggar

By Maurice Naggar
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DarkSnakeKobra

DarkSnakeKobra

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The author failed to mention how many programs will need to be rebuilt for Windows 8. Without a start menu how are you going to access a program that was not designed with the new UI in mind? Sure a desktop icon is fine, but not all programs offer that(select few that don't) and you certainly don't want your entire desktop filled with application launchers. Personally I wouldn't as I wouldn't have any room left. The author doesn't know anything on this subject.

Edit: There's also the whole subject on the end of pc games.

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Maurice Naggar

Maurice Naggar

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Where to start......

WIN8 will run your programs (yes the ones you are using in Win7, Vista, or XP).

I am not aware of any issue with pc games.

As to the author, Paul T has been using Windows just forever and is one of the sharper folks in the computer press.

While the start button is not onscreen, if you have a keyboard, you have the Windows-key on it which effectively gets you to Start.

And there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts.

One of them.... Windows-key + X ..... shows a contextual menu for

Control Panel

Task Manager

RUN

Desktop

File Explorer

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DarkSnakeKobra

DarkSnakeKobra

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Where to start......

WIN8 will run your programs (yes the ones you are using in Win7, Vista, or XP).

I am not aware of any issue with pc games.

As to the author, Paul T has been using Windows just forever and is one of the sharper folks in the computer press.

While the start button is not onscreen, if you have a keyboard, you have the Windows-key on it which effectively gets you to Start.

And there are plenty of keyboard shortcuts.

One of them.... Windows-key + X ..... shows a contextual menu for

Control Panel

Task Manager

RUN

Desktop

File Explorer

I kinda ran my mouth there. I haven't really done much testing just viewing... The start menu really just concerned me as I don't really want to use shortcut keys or whatever for all my pc usage. Also the older generation might be confused. For example that would really throw my parents off as they freak out when a favorite or shortcut is missing and start asking me what the problem is...

There was a topic I read recently that shy posted I can't remember where or when, but it had something to do with porting Steam to Linux.

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Strenalis

Strenalis

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I believe this is the one you're referring to:

http://forums.malwarebytes.org/index.php?showtopic=113271

I definitely agree that Windows 8 isn't really offering much compatibility with most non-casual PC games. I suppose we'll have to see once people start getting their hands on it, though. Metro is perfectly fine for things like internet browsing, Microsoft Office, and casual gaming, but I just can't imagine a PC game like Skyrim or Assassin's Creed III functioning as a metro app.

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GT500

GT500

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from the sounds of it it sounds like windows 7 is going to be like windows xp still in use over a decade later

Yes... And assuming that Wine ever gets its act together, some of us might end up entirely on Linux, rather than on Windows... KDE, of course, as GNOME has already embraced the cheesy tablet-style interface for PC desktops...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Seagull

Guest Seagull

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I personally don't think Windows 8 will be bad, I just don't see a good enough reason so far to upgrade. All my systems are running happily on Windows 7 and they will still be supporting Windows 7 for sometime after Windows 8 release. Most of Windows 8 features I can live without.

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Maurice Naggar

Maurice Naggar

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That is quite fine, Seagull. No one will force you to upgrade.

On my systems, I will be upgrading at least 2 systems to Windows 8 Pro. To take advantage of : enhanced backup of user files, faster startups, less-often-restarts from Windows updates, Hyper-V virtualization, and yes eventually, the tiled WIN-RT

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ForgotenLegend

ForgotenLegend

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I believe this is the one you're referring to:

http://forums.malwar...howtopic=113271

I definitely agree that Windows 8 isn't really offering much compatibility with most non-casual PC games. I suppose we'll have to see once people start getting their hands on it, though. Metro is perfectly fine for things like internet browsing, Microsoft Office, and casual gaming, but I just can't imagine a PC game like Skyrim or Assassin's Creed III functioning as a metro app.

I do believe that metro does not have to apply to games..I'm sure its like Windows Phone where the game UI can look like what ever it wants...but i don't there still no official word from Microsoft on that

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rgabbard

rgabbard

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Ok, I'll chime in...

I'm the IT guy for my company, and I have been running Windows 8 on my laptop since the developer preview was released. I am now currently running the RTM, and must say that it was well worth the upgrade from Windows 7. Once it gets released to the public I will be upgrading my gaming rig at home and playing BF3. Sure, metro has its downfalls, but that's really only because nothing can take advantage of it yet. There's a whole host of opportunities with metro that were not available before. Give it some time and its strengths will begin to grow.

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DarkSnakeKobra

DarkSnakeKobra

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Yes... And assuming that Wine ever gets its act together, some of us might end up entirely on Linux, rather than on Windows... KDE, of course, as GNOME has already embraced the cheesy tablet-style interface for PC desktops...

I agree. I'm already planing to switch to Linux permanently once Windows 7 expires. Another thing to consider is ReactOS which uses and contributes to Wine and is supposed to be win32 compatible. Love KDE. It gives Linux that Windows 7 feel with some snap-in capabilites that gnome lacks and a glass like look.

ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows-NT® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.
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GT500

GT500

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... Another thing to consider is ReactOS which uses and contributes to Wine and is supposed to be win32 compatible.

I've tried it before. Couldn't get it to recognize my networking hardware, the desktop was rather primitive (as in lacking functionality), and I'm fairly certain that I couldn't get any Windows programs that I tested to actually run on it. I assume that there have been a lot of improvements since then, as this was at least a few years ago, however I haven't felt inclined to test it recently.

Love KDE. It gives Linux that Windows 7 feel with some snap-in capabilites that gnome lacks and a glass like look.

KDE is also far more customizable than GNOME. I still prefer some of the features from KDE 3.5, and I very much miss Beryl and the cool effects it added to my desktops back then (Compiz Fusion wasn't as good).

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Maurice Naggar

Maurice Naggar

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My leaning is quite similar to rgabbard. I see advantages in Windows 8.

I simply wonder if the naysayers have actually tried the Win8 Preview.

For those that are curious, have an open mind, I would recommend a read of an article

Windows 8 Review, Part 1: The Desktop

You've been told that Microsoft has somehow compromised the beloved desktop environment and ruined it with Metro, its new touch-first UI for tablets and other non-traditional devices. You’ve been told that Windows 8 is a lousy upgrade on existing desktop and laptop PCs, and that you should stick with Windows 7 and pray that the next Windows version steps back from some imaginary cliff. Folks, you’ve been lied to.

To understand why this is so, I’m going to start this multi-part review by focusing on a topic that Windows 8’s and Microsoft’s detractors would actually like you to ignore. That if you look just at the improvements Microsoft has made to the Windows desktop, Windows 8 is a bigger and more signification upgrade over Windows 7 than was Windows 7 over the unfairly maligned Windows Vista.

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DarkSnakeKobra

DarkSnakeKobra

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I've tried it before. Couldn't get it to recognize my networking hardware, the desktop was rather primitive (as in lacking functionality), and I'm fairly certain that I couldn't get any Windows programs that I tested to actually run on it. I assume that there have been a lot of improvements since then, as this was at least a few years ago, however I haven't felt inclined to test it recently.

Yeah the hardware support is still not that great. I tried it on an old Dell Dimension 2400 that's about 10 years old and it didn't even install. That was version 0.3.13 I think. The latest is 0.3.14 which still is incredibly buggy. Sounds like it's still years before it's even in the beta stage let alone final release.

KDE is also far more customizable than GNOME. I still prefer some of the features from KDE 3.5, and I very much miss Beryl and the cool effects it added to my desktops back then (Compiz Fusion wasn't as good).

Yes it is. I especially like the menu editor and system settings.

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GT500

GT500

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Yeah the hardware support is still not that great. I tried it on an old Dell Dimension 2400 that's about 10 years old and it didn't even install. That was version 0.3.13 I think. The latest is 0.3.14 which still is incredibly buggy. Sounds like it's still years before it's even in the beta stage let alone final release.

The sad thing is that it has been under active development for around 14 years, and it still hasn't progressed to the point of having a beta-quality release.

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DarkSnakeKobra

DarkSnakeKobra

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That's very sad. If anything it would only be good for running legacy applications. I don't think it will ever be a complete replacement for Windows. One thing that really gets me is why they bothered to add ext3 support for the OS to be installed on. Windows doesn't even support ext whatsoever and ReactOS won't even install on anything other then fat32. The way the project is going I don't think the OS will ever be anything except a broken system. People will be better off migrating to Linux

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