Free (almost!) Windows 8 Upgrade Program

Just announced today by Microsoft, if you purchase any computer with Windows 7 OEM installed, you will be eligible to get a "free" upgrade to Windows 8 this fall when it is officially released. They will charge a nominal $15 fee though, eligible purchase dates are between June 2 and January 31, and the program applies world-wide:
https://windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-US/Home/ProgramInfo

 

This is great deal only if you are a touch-screen or tablet-pc user. Otherway, windows 8 is not worth it, even 15$.

 

Absolutely. Seems this W7 will stay here for years. And a next notebook buy will mean: W7 or nothing.

 

why do you guys hate it so much, it seems like a pretty cool OS. If you don't like the tiles, you can still select to use a more traditional interface.

 

I read it boots up faster and all those goodies... hmm I want to know how much the full upgrade cost for those who bought their licenses before June 2.

 

I have a convertible touchscreen x86 tablet that I'd love to run Win 8 on, only problem is it's a year old at this point. Hopefully they'll run some other type of promotion once they realize people aren't actually buying their OS.

It does boot faster - with an SSD in the aforementioned tablet (Iconia Tab W500 w/AMD C-50), I'm at the login screen within 5-10 seconds. Windows 7 took 30 seconds or greater, I'm sure most of that was CPU-bound. Windows 8 also uses a lot less RAM, which is very useful when I'm hard-limited to 2gb (non-replacable soldered RAM modules).

 

It boots much faster and it's far more secure and it uses fewer system resources. That's all uncontested. System maintenance, including periodic reinstalls of Windows without disturbing user files, are much easier (making your system run much better two years after purchase). People are really willing to overlook all that just because they don't like the replacement of the start menu with the start screen?

 

Also, if anyone works or goes to a University, most schools offer huge discounts on Windows licenses. I know at my university Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit was $10, Office was $10, and the full Adobe Suite was $100. Great deals. You would be surprised how many people didn't know about it.

 

1.) boots much faster; Those with SSD's do not really care. Most others get a fairly quick boot with Windows 7.
2.) More secure; keep your system updated with a good AV and you are fine with Windows 7
3.) fewer resources. Other than old or severly low end equipment most systems handle windows 7 fine.
4.) system maintenance; If you use a second drive as a data drive the root drive could fail and your data is safe. This is always relative to the setup even with windows 8.
5.) Windows 8 ram usage; this points back to old or low end equipment.

Yes people in general, 98% of casual/business users need to use a GUI and want to be familiar/comfortable with it. Others want to see a GUI that steps forward, not backwards several leaps.

As I had mentioned in another post, since the desktop isn't tied to the boot why not other GUI's? Why couldn't Apple, linux development groups, Object Desktop or others just do a ground up GUI. Speach recognition companies could do a UI tailored just for themselves. Maybe in time Win8 will not be such a bad thing......................

 

Yes, but that's because Windows 8 doesn't really shutdown, and so when you turn on your computer, it doesn't really boot in the traditional sense. Windows 8 om shutdown performs something akin to a hybridized form of hibernation, where it writes a significant part of the core system state, including Windows kernel, services and a host of system drivers to the hard drive. As a consequence, when your turn it back on, it will just read the system state from the hard drive, circumventing a good part of the usual hardware recognition and re-initialization chores, while only a small portion of the system state is restarted from scratch.

For many Win7 systems, you could achieve the same kind or even faster startup times, by choosing to hibernate the system, or even just put it in sleep mode.

In a word: Yes.

Of course, there's more screw-ups in Windows 8 than just that Start Screen, but those are just icing on the cake, if you will. But, speaking of those numerous minor annoyances, how about those unbelievably lame Start Screen backgrounds? Why in the world would they not allow users to choose any background image they like?

 

Sleep mode is what I always use, it's instantly on. The problem with sleep mode is that if you're using encryption software such as TrueCrypt, unencrypted data is stored and vulnerable in RAM. It also slowly drains your battery but that shouldn't be a problem unless you plan on not using your PC for weeks

 

Because the user interface sucks dead bunnies through a straw?

No, you can't.

 

Of course you can
Restore the Start Menu and disable Metro UI in Windows 8 | ZDNet

 

You haven't been keeping up with the news: Microsoft is hard at work to try and close any loopholes that would allow people to circumvent Metro. I'd be really curious if the software you are referring to still works on the RP. Besides, have you ever tried the software you are advertising here? That's a lousy third-party hack if I ever saw one. Sure, yes, just like in the old Win3.X days, at some point we will be able, and will be forced to, buy third-party shells, because just like during the Win3.X days nobody can live with the cr@p of a UI that Windows comes with. We've come full circle, now that's progress for you!

 

That's the #1 problem I have with Windows 8 - functionally, it's pretty good for the one device I'd actually want to install it on (provided MS either removes the Flash whitelist in Metro IE, or someone hacks their way past it to get Flash on all sites), but the fact that MS appears to be actively fighting users and future customers on what they want to do with their OS makes me hesitant to throw money at them. I don't like supporting companies like this.

 

I don't know about that solution, but there's another one by Stardock, who's well-known for their Windows customizations, and has a good relationship with Microsoft. I'd be rather surprised if it didn't work with Windows 8.

 

Ultimately that's not the point at all. There is no doubt that it is always possible, in principle, to write a new Windows shell and run that instead of the crap Win8 comes with. That's like saying Win3.x wasn't so bad because look at all the great third-party shells were available back then. The point is that Microsoft seems to purposely force people into an inadequate shell, for reasons that remain mysterious.

 

I don't understandy why Microsoft chooses to cram that fugly UI down our throats. Sure it's great for a touch screen device, but far from great for a mouse interface. Why oh why can't they just make a "tablet" edition and a "PC" edition and turn off that horrific Metro UI.

I think it is really in poor taste as well that you need a third part app just to disable a part of the UI you don't want. MS should listen to their customers, and long term ones too, and offer options instead of cramming something new and different down our throats that not everyone is crazy about.

I will give Win8 a shot at RC just because it seems to be more polished and optimized in the background, but the UI, let me use Win7 please.

First time I saw that UI I literally laughed out loud thinking it was a joke. Looks like something designed for my 3 & 4 yr old kids, not a professional desktop app. Bright primary colors. Ok.

 

I've removed a string of posts. Why must every W8-related thread derail into a flame-fest? If you have nothing useful to say about W8 except that it's horrible in every practical way, just refrain from posting. And if you like W8, there's no reason you need to force everyone else to like it as well.

Thread locked.