Windows 8...

[tissot]

Quote:

 

The Hulk in me has calmed down. I got Classic Shell and it's been very helpful. It allows me to bypass the Start screen altogether, which I'll probably use. The fact that so many users need to use a this-party program to use the OS for the most basic of tasks should tell Microsoft someting.

 
Though maybe it's about time to change and people will always fight against change. That screen has not always been in Windows and Windows 7 was kind of the first movement to the quick bar style. Start screen is hopelessly inefficient with slides and scrolling. It's like another system inside one. 
Now with search being baked into the OS as it should have been long time ago, i have not needed start screen even once. 

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

 
Though maybe it's about time to change and people will always fight against change. That screen has not always been in Windows and Windows 7 was kind of the first movement to the quick bar style. Start screen is hopelessly inefficient with slides and scrolling. It's like another system inside one. 
Now with search being baked into the OS as it should have been long time ago, i have not needed start screen even once. 

I agree, with windows 7 I would find my programs via windows key>search>type>enter. It's rather more involved now, since I move the cursor to the corner, then click on the search icon then search then type my required program.
 
I've decided to give windows 8 at least a month now my initial annoyance has worn off, but I already find myself refraining from installing anything other than office as well as steadfastly remaining on the desktop. The start screen is nothing other than an annoyance and we should be able to disable it.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

I agree, with windows 7 I would find my programs via windows key>search>type>enter. It's rather more involved now, since I move the cursor to the corner, then click on the search icon then search then type my required program.

I've decided to give windows 8 at least a month now my initial annoyance has worn off, but I already find myself refraining from installing anything other than office as well as steadfastly remaining on the desktop. The start screen is nothing other than an annoyance and we should be able to disable it.

You can always press the Windows button on your keyboard and type the name of your program in.

 

[J.Pocalypse]

Dumped Windows 8. My 1201N and it never really got along. Back to trusty Windows 7. Could just be the hardware in my machine but Win 8 just seemed so laggy/buggy.

 

[jtaylor991]

I'm on Ubuntu 12.10 now and like it so far, hopefully I'll get the hang of it and really start to reap in the benefits of Linux
I put it on my laptop and it has horrible compatibility but at least it works I guess.
 
Edit: Can anyone help with my DAC?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/643980/ubuntu-linux-and-usb-dacs

 

[Coq de Combat]

Quote:

I'm on Ubuntu 12.10 now and like it so far, hopefully I'll get the hang of it and really start to reap in the benefits of Linux
I put it on my laptop and it has horrible compatibility but at least it works I guess.
 
Edit: Can anyone help with my DAC?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/643980/ubuntu-linux-and-usb-dacs

Depending on how you look at it, there may be no benefits from using Linux. As for your DAC, if you get sound from it you shouldn't worry. It usually means it works, and since the conversion to analog signal is done outside of your computer, there shouldn't be any degradation of sound quality.
 
Personally, I have given Windows 8 some time now. No matter how I look at it, I just can't seem to get along with Metro (or whatever it's called since they had to change the name). I've given a fair chance, and to be honest, there are some aspects I like more about Windows 8 than I did with Windows 7. However, I can't get over the fact that there is a whole part of my OS that isn't being used as it should because I can't roll with Metro, and have installed classic start menu instead. So, I'm left with, what I think is, an inferior looking desktop belonging to an OS that I can't utilize to the fullest. What's even worse is that I am a .Net/Windows forms-developer - meaning that I should embrace the new style. Maybe I should just start relearning Java and go that route instead? Maybe stick to Windows 7 and keep developing for it (well, my job is actually to develop for the Windows 7, as where I work we won't be migrating)? Maybe I should just jump on the Linux ship again?
 
If I were to choose the latter, and relearn Java (or Mono, since I work with C#), what's the best distribution again? I used to have Ubuntu, but I can't stand Unity either however slick the rest of Ubuntu is. How friendly is it to downgrade to Gnome 2 on Ubuntu 12+? I used to like crunchbang and archbang... but I think I want to go with Gnome 2. Mint with Kate?

 

[proton007]

^^ Mint with Mate.
 
 
You can always re-learn an inferior interface, and soon you won't notice the difference, but I'd say its best to try out the options out there before getting settled with any OS, unless you need to use it for development purposes. 
With Win 8 it seems to be the case of change for the sake of it. If you bought a new touchscreen based PC then maybe there's no other choice (yet), but I wouldn't call it an improvement over Win 7 for most users. 
Ubuntu's Unity *is* a definite improvement over Gnome 3, but IMO there are better options out there still.

 

[Coq de Combat]

^^ Mint with Mate.


You can always re-learn an inferior interface, and soon you won't notice the difference, but I'd say its best to try out the options out there before getting settled with any OS, unless you need to use it for development purposes. 
With Win 8 it seems to be the case of change for the sake of it. If you bought a new touchscreen based PC then maybe there's no other choice (yet), but I wouldn't call it an improvement over Win 7 for most users. 
Ubuntu's Unity *is* a definite improvement over Gnome 3, but IMO there are better options out there still.

Well, for development purposes at work I'm stuck with Windows 7. In one way that's a good thing as that's what I'm familiar with and I like the looks better. However, personally I think it's better to evolve with the tech, or I'd find myself severely behind, and since this is the career path I've chosen, finding myself behind is not a good option.

Oh well. Perhaps I should just try better to re-learn metro. I will definitely get back to linux though. I've been away from it for far too long.

 

[proton007]

Quote:

However, personally I think it's better to evolve with the tech, or I'd find myself severely behind, and since this is the career path I've chosen, finding myself behind is not a good option.

 
If you call Win 8 an 'evolution' that is. My office workstation runs on XP, but I don't develop for windows, so I don't really need to use 7 or 8 as long as the compiler runs. Work wise its no improvement for me.
If you develop for Windows, then I'd say its kinda important to get to know Win 8.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Not sure if this has been posted before, it's the "Windows 8, The Animated Evaluation".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

 

[proton007]

Quote:

Not sure if this has been posted before, it's the "Windows 8, The Animated Evaluation".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

I think the points made are pretty valid. A GUI needs to be built to make the best use of the hardware, not the other way around.

 

[jtaylor991]

Quote:

 
If I were to choose the latter, and relearn Java (or Mono, since I work with C#), what's the best distribution again? I used to have Ubuntu, but I can't stand Unity either however slick the rest of Ubuntu is. How friendly is it to downgrade to Gnome 2 on Ubuntu 12+? I used to like crunchbang and archbang... but I think I want to go with Gnome 2. Mint with Kate?

Just go get Ubuntu 12.10 from their website and in Terminal run "sudo apt-get install gnome-shell" and then there'll be a menu at startup at the login screen somewhere, choose "Classic Gnome" and there ya go. Well for Classic Gnome, I'm not familiar with anything else besides the Classic Gnome and Unity.
 
The only think keeping me from just using Unity is trying to find all the Administrative Tools without knowing specifically what I'm searching for (rendering Search useless). I've been OK with it on my desktop here though.

 

[Yeti tunes]

Quote:

Not sure if this has been posted before, it's the "Windows 8, The Animated Evaluation".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

A poorly presented picture of how to "use" Windows 8. When someone says in the first 3 minutes that Windows 8 is less intuitive then DOS, it's time to pause the video and really just think about what that person said. While the commentator raging at random points is amusing, the bashing is unwarrented and usually unrelated.

 

[Tangster]

Quote:

A poorly presented picture of how to "use" Windows 8. When someone says in the first 3 minutes that Windows 8 is less intuitive then DOS, it's time to pause the video and really just think about what that person said. While the commentator raging at random points is amusing, the bashing is unwarrented and usually unrelated.

Windows 8 has it's flaws, yes. But it's fairly easy to get used to after spend some actual time with it. I'm considering getting windows 8 for my main rig(which is currently on windows 7 pro) since it's only £15 to upgrade and it's quite nice to use on my laptop. Most of my initial fustration was not knowing what the shortcuts were(since they changed a bunch of them around).

 

[Yeti tunes]

That's exactly my point. The toxic notion of the unwillingness to change suprises me around here.