Win7 vs Win8?

I am buying a Sager in the coming month, likely the NP6350 and will be running Windows. I am a photographer and I run Lightroom and Photoshop.

I was wondering people's thoughts on waiting until after Oct 26th to get a system with Win8 verses grabbing one now with Win7. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance!

 

You can update to Win 8 from 7 if you buy now. It only costs something like 15€. Though I'm pretty sure Win8 is the new Vista (at least for PCs).

 

Personally I hate Windows 8 but people think it is good and it appears to be a lot faster. I just cannot get use to not having a start menu and the whole focused on touchscreen home page. Best to try out the developer edition first and see if you like it.

 

My buddy is running Win8 with the apps I will likely use and the missing 'Start' button is pretty weird. If I bought Win7 I would likely get Win8 for $15 U$D.

I was just wondering what people's thoughs were on the new O/S - -especially people running Sager/Clevos' - any issues?

 

If you purchase a laptop with Windows 7 now, there is an offer available currently and until October 31, 2012 to opt into the Windows 8 upgrade at a discounted price.

This offer is through Microsoft and participating resellers/builders.

From the impression of some of the techs around here (and this is in no way the opinion of PowerNotebooks.com) but as individuals, Windows 8 is nothing more than a shinier version of Windows 7 configured more for touch screen systems. I'm sure Windows will add more features later if they have not already done so. There were some plans of tying in the XBL accounts and a few other additions.

 

You won't lose out either way if you get a laptop with windows 7 on it now... however you might well gain quite a bit, in that if you as I think most people including me have decided that windows 8 is a complete pile of sh*te unless you're using a tablet then you still have windows 7 to fall back to (legally that is)...

 

Windows 7 runs too good to justify the switch. There's no compelling reason to go with Windows 8 unless they drop the goofy user interface. There are third party solutions but Microsoft needs to admit that it's not really a desktop OS but a tablet or smartphone OS. Why they didn't offer different versions tailored to different devices is one of life's greatest mysteries.

 

You actually get better gaming performance out of your rig too with Windows 8. I have seen some tests where they got a nice little FPS boost in some games with Win8

 

And in most games you get crappier performance due to infant drivers. The differences aren't that significant. Its just Win7 with Metro.

 

I think Windows 7 is gonna take a lot to beat personally I know it like the back of my hand and it does what I ask it too so I don't see why I should start completely from scratch with a new OS especially for something that looks like a tablet when it loads up. No start menu "OCD ALERT"

 

Honestly if I was already running Win 7, and I am, I would feel no need to switch right now. However if I had a new system and it came with Win 8, I would have no problem with it. There are half a dozen Start menu replacements, some better than the Win 7 start menu now, that work great on Win 8 and eve have it default into the classic shell as opposed to the new tile one.

Since I have to work as a technology consultant, I have to be up to date on all the versions. I have loaded Win 8 on a few virtual machines and an older laptop. So far it is actually a pretty nice OS, just not enough for me to justifying switching from Win 7.

I generally don't go full fledged into a new MS OS until the first service pack.

 

You are wrong here btw, as you say it's Win7 with Metro. The drivers are the same as the Win7 drivers and they work. I have an internal SATA 3 SSSD with Win7 and an external USB 3 drive with Win8 ToGo set up on it. I tried it with my laptop (Clevo P150EM) using Guild Wars 2 and the current in7 nVidia driver for the 680M. FRAPs clocked the average at slightly higher in Win8 on the same computer.

Win8 is snappy, even when running from from a USB drive. I even tested it on my work laptop with Win8 using the onboard Intel GMA 3000. Win8 ran well, Guild Wars ran bad.

Even with all that, I loaded Win7 on my laptop and don't plan to switch as Win8 is annoying with the Metro interface only being half implemented. It seems a lot can't be accessed via Metro and I have too run Control Panel from the Win-R run menu.

 

I'll add some documentation to back up my assertion that Win8 is faster than Win8. These are with both synthetic benchmarks as well as gaming, boot times, and more.

Windows 8 vs. Windows 7: Benchmarked | Page 3 | ZDNet
Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 Performance > Faster, Slower, Better? - TechSpot Reviews

A few moments with Google will yield many more similar reviews. Faster, but it's still your call as to whether the new UI is too annoying. I may give it a try once final release is available, but who knows.

 

Simple comparison.

Honda CRX 1.6 Vtec - Windows 7

Toyota Prius 2012 - Windows 8

New does not necessarily mean better. Ignoring the fact the CRX would destroy the Prius so my comparison maybe was not actually correct in relation to your post, or in anyway a reasonable comparison for that matter....

But I am staying with Windows 7 anyway, no start button.

 

Lol, I was thinking that when I read the first two lines. Overall Win8 is an optimized version of Windows 7 with that stupid "improved" interface. I'll switch as soon as someone comes up with a reliable start button replacement mod.

 

i played with windows 8 for 15 minutes in a computer store, not a clue how to use it, will be staying with windows 7

 

My buddy showed me a bunch of new techniques like 'swiping' applications in Win8. I am not sure I am ready to go there just yet although I am likely delaying the inevitable.

 

Its a change thing I reckon, hate change. Its not like Vista in which we were all considering that Mac's were not actually that bad I am sure Win 8 is gonna be awesome, just not until they allow you to change a few things....

Like, most of it.

 

I do particularly like how differently win 8 handles ram and other services as well. much more refined, I ran the 2012 database edition, win 8 rp, win 8 cp, 2012 server is currently what Im going to use.

 

Win 8 is strictly a tablet OS. Putrid Metro UI being forced down our throats for systems with mouse/keyboard. Sorry, I'll skip it for the slight possible boost in speed (which really is only about 5% at best).

 

Ever noticed how every other Windows consumer platform sucks?

Win95 great (for the time)
98 ehh
98se rocked
ME crap
XP great
Vista poo (got better, but still lame)
7 amazing
8 hit with an ugly stick

 

Microsoft's attempt at competing with the I-Phone of course, what happened to the good old days of Dungeon Keeper and Icewind Dale...

 

admittedly,win8 takes some getting used to with the new menu style,interfaces,options,etc. but once u add a start button mod (im using start8 for example,very recommendable!), add a registry hack in order to skip the metro start screen at boot-up to jump right onto the regular desktop and lastly implement the desktop gadget functionality again,its actually quite the blast. extremely snappy,incredible bootup times and ive never seen such a great automatic driver recognition/installation before! ive been on it for a week now and so far i think ill stick with it

cheers

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

It's just the fact that you HAVE to buy a third party app for a stinking START menu... really?

 

The start menu has never really been an elegant way to access and launch apps. People simple got used to it. Once you configure the home screen it actually becomes much easier to hit the windows key from any screen to get back to home screen and launch an app with a single click. Windows-Q also allows you to type the name of an app to launch.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

been using win 8 at work for 2 or so months now (dev preview). simply put I won't be upgrading my personal machines to win 8, it just doesn't put much to the table for me to make an upgrade. besides some eye candy and minor benchMark increases.

however given it's a few weeks away and if you really want to try it out I say wait a bit, but I'd suggest to try it out first or watch some videos. it does have a fair bit of learning curve the first few days of using it.


Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

 

Right now I just hit the windows key and type e name. 8 makes it hard to multi task as every thing in metro is fullscreen. I find myself having to copy short cuts on to my desktop or taksbar, just like win 7.

A fullscreen replacement start menu with widgets and icons.... That sounds much like the Windows desktop, we have already has for years. But apart from that, having multiple control panels is annoying since the standard win7 stuff is in the old menu and the new settings is missing a lot.

 

Steam shortcut is all I need

Seriously though

Windows 7 with the option to upgrade for cheap to Win8 is the best option IMO

If you wait for Win8 and it ends up being crap, you'll be stuck with it or pay full price to "upgrade" to win7.

 

^^^ word,best of both worlds

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

Except that if it's Win8 Pro OEM, you can apparently downgrade for free...

Windows 8 Pro OEM will allow for downgrades to Win 7 and Vista - TechSpot News