Will you upgrade to Windows 8?

I'll most likely purchase it since I'll probably be able to get it through my university for like $10.

If it wasn't for that I would wait until I get a new laptop.

 

It's worth thinking about how many people will be caught out with the sales pitch,

Buy this laptop and get a windows 8 upgrade when it's released!

I will have to dig around bit I'm sure I read back along that a lot of people returned for their upgrade to 7 from vista and a lot of people were left a bit pissed off as it was a downgrade. Although it was a newer improved OS it was to home edition irregardless of having professional vista.

Maybe I remember it wrong?

Anyway, I think the new xbox is themed along the whole idea and concept of 8.

It's growing on me.

 

Most likely. By then I'd (Hopefully) have something that has a touchscreen and can run it, most likely a tablet. While Metro is perfectly usable with a mouse and keyboard, it's clearly designed for touch-screen, which is a slight pain in the ...

It looks nice, though. The new task manager gives impressive detail too!

 

The metro style is sleek and what-not but if it is as cumbersome to navigate through on my laptop as it is on the 360 then I will have to pass.

 

Out with the old in with the new, in order to keep up with the pace and technology, I'll prolly switch over to Windows 8 sometime.

 

Being able to install it completely over the network is a very attractive feature.

I expect the OEMs will actually embedd, into their BIOS', a simple, "Install MS-Windows 8" option, which will connect to a network (wired or wireless) and install Windows 8 according to the license key embedded.

 

Fast in what way? Would you care to explain a little more, thanks.

For me W8 boots slower and takes 5 times longer to run app's from the startup menu. W8 seems to take some shortcuts and operates something along the lines of JIT. For me I want my startup applications now instead of staring at the IMO ugly metro window. Hope the beta version will bring some improvements in this area.

 

yay, instead of clicking through windows and waiting for a stupid setup for 30 minutes to finish when you buy a new computer, you can now wait 8 hours for your windows download....

if that happens companies should pay you to accept their product.

 

Agreed !

I guess MS has approved the Apple OSX delivery system. I'll have no part of either, thank you very much. Give me physical media.

 

The downloadable version is optional. There will still be the boxed dvd media people know and love/loathe.

 

EDIT: I should learn to read posts.

 

Physical Media FTW.

 

Nope. I'm happy with my current OS (XP), and so far I haven't seen any killer features (though some of the improvements detailed in Building Windows 8 are nice touches). I might change my mind if some new feature or Win8-only programs end up being really awesome, but I haven't seen any yet. So I'll use the money I could spend on Windows 8 to pay off loans and travel instead.

In regards to the 4 points,

1. Metro might be nice on a tablet, but I don't own a tablet. The GPU accelerated aspect would be fine for my desktop, but I actively avoid GPU-accelerated stuff (where it's not essential and where my T7500 is perfectly powerful enough) on my laptop, because I have a GeForce 8M.

2. Nice, but I don't currently have malware problems anyway.

3. Also nice, but I can already just install Defender + MSE and be set.

4. Compared to Vista or 7, probably, but compared to XP I'm pretty doubtful. And even so, the 3.5 GB I have on my laptop would placate even Vista, and if I needed more, RAM is fairly cheap these days.

Basically, Windows 8 would have to be good enough not only to outweigh the inconvenience of Vista and later security features, as well as some programs not working on Windows 6.x like they do on XP, but it would also have to be good enough to justify the extra cost, which makes it pretty unlikely. I'll probably try the beta in a VM, and might even fiddle around with the DevPreview a bit more, but I just don't see it as likely that I'll upgrade to Win8 until at least mid-2014, a few months after XP support ends.

 

well I'd like to see you find an awesome retail store of inside your XP! Hah, app store in your face. You can get awesome programs that you could probably obtain for free otherwise, but with great advertisements! And, just so you feel extra safe, MS will extend their reach deeper into your hardware and software purchases.

http://www.windows8news.com/2011/12/08/microsoft-remotely-delete-windows-8-apps/

 

Lets see: New/slightly used Nvidia gtx 580m or Microsoft Windows w/ weird inefficient UI? I think I'll get the card upgrade, considering they're about the same price.

This is the only thing I like better about macs: upgrades are $30. (that's for a whole new os WITHOUT DRM).

 

I've just moved on from XP, so I'll probably wait until 2020 for my next OS update

 

If you read the article you yourself linked, you would see that this is hardly new. Both Apple and Google stores have similar functionality. They *rarely* use it, and if they do they have very good reason to. I'm not sure if Google used it to wipe out those knockoff trojan apps that they find in the Market on occasion.

My only concern with the remote kill switch would be that MS doesn't intend to do thorough code checks like Apple does. I have an Android phone and I'm afraid to use the Market. I don't want to repeat that with Windows.

 

I'm not sure. I'll probably wait for reviews of Windows 8 and then decide. I'm not sure what to think of the Metro UI. It looks cool and unique but I'm not a huge fan yet.

 

After watching more videos of Windows 8 I can say I'm really a fan of it. I'm big into social media and other things like that, so I can really appreciate the integration and ability to have many different apps on your desktop.

 

They do intend to do code checks like they do on windows phone 7. The difference between the microsoft and apple models is that microsoft will be pretty transparent before and during the app approval process.

Remote kill switch has been used in android several times, and at least once google has pushed malware removal tools to people affected.

I wouldn't worry about using android market, just pay attention to the permissions dialog box: if it sounds like it needs too much info, it probably isn't a good app.

 

I am pretty sure I would update eventually, but I have a thing where I never update as soon as a new OS comes out. I usually like to wait a while because I am certain I am going to hear about some glitch or feature that I do not like.

 

I'll have to see the Win7 vs Win8 performance before I decide but I am interested in getting hands on with the new interface.

 

I did read it. So three wrongs make a right? I thought we only needed two.. Just because others do it doesn't mean it's a good feature. There's no purpose or need to it, and I'll bet it's one of the earlier "features" circumvented or disabled by the community.

 

An app store is a huge improvement. Linux has one, OSX has one. It allows for a considerably more secure environment that lets developers make their software more accessible.

 

I have no qualms with the app store. But people have been obtaining software securely for free and for pay long before their existence. It's particularly useful on mobile platforms because accessibility and installation is an issue there. I don't need a storefront in my desktop or laptop OS though. Make it a removable/uninstallable feature. That's not too much to ask, and a fair compromise for users.

 

So how do you get a disc?

If I have a disc I can reinstall the software when I reinstall the OS - will they grant you the same with an "app store"? (They should, but will they?)

Why is someone interested in keeping an eye on what I install? Makes me think Stasi...

Also, why should I depend on the OS manufacturer to supply software? If I write my own little programs, I want to be able to supply them my way to the people that get them. I don't want to have to go through any manufacturer/supplier.

One cannot make everything idiotproof...
There are changes that are useful and good - and there are changes that are stupid.

On this note, just now, I am wondering whether that is why people still use XP... because they can make it run on their terms... even illegally...

 

If you live in some 20th century legacy land then maybe you need discs. I stopped installing things "from disc" years ago.

Consider the Windows App Store products. This isn't Office. This isn't ya know, Photoshop. The App Store is going to be for rinky-dink stuff, games, the "Angry Birds" cute Metro UI apps. These aren't apps that you absolutely are going to be pining for a local copy of.

To expand on that even further, think about phone apps.. the good apps, how frequently are they updated? Pretty regularly. If you "get a disc" of an app, it could be several versions behind in a matter of weeks. To put this into current terms, how often do you install Windows drivers "from a disc?" Really? Does anyone here actually buy an nVidia graphics card and use the drivers in the box? I doubt many people here do. If Win7 doesn't get the driver automatically, we head to nvidia.com.

In the First World, broadband and access to the internet have become common enough that I don't need to keep physical copies of every little app. How many people actually have stuff like 7zip on media? The app store not only puts apps in a central place, but they are always the latest version the app maker is widely supporting.

Nobody cares what you install. People have been happily slamming away billions of downloads from phone app stores for years now (yes, years) and they have gotten over that psychological bump. In fact, instead of seeing the store owner or app maker as the "seeing what you install," look at the fact that things like the iOS app store et. al have user reviews and the Android Market reports the approximate number of downloads.

And you certainly can continue to do so. The MS App Store is only for Win8 Metro UI apps. If you want to make a traditional desktop app, and offer it your way, you're free to do so. MS has set rules on a subset of their OS. Oh noes! (note: Everyone else already does this)

 

I'm more worried about the company not allowing me to reinstall an application or stealing it from me by withdrawing access. Discs are sold once, and done. OK, there is activation - but that's what customer support is for in a worst case.
I haven't bought a single piece of software digitally so far. Not even on my phone. Updates - well, they aren't updated very often.

Also, there is no issue with having an initial version on a disc and follow-up versions via download.

In terms of other programs: I do have a 7-zip installer on my home server, mirrored on two drives via drive extender - all software I download and have a use for I retain as a copy (with backup). Just in case it gets killed at a later point in time.

Downloading is also a troublesome issue since the - insert a ton of abuse here - at talk talk have (without a warning) reduced internet usage from unlimited to 40GB....
Typically capitalist. Charge more and more and reduce the service... or maybe to me more exact: Typically English...

So downloading is a so-so matter. I prefer not to depend on being able to download a lot. Besides, primitive Britain isn't "up to speed" on reasonably prices internet connections... (my grandfather's connection in Germany is 3-4 times as fast and costs the same or even less compared to ours - both people live in cities)


In terms of companies watching: Well, hasn't either apple of google deleted files on a mobile device they deemed malware? The fact that it works for a few millions doesn't mean it works for everybody. I guess some people never learn from history...
Add to that: Profiling is more and more easy, considering we supply the data digitally in the first place... trawling through 1 million or 10 million entries via statistical analysis software isn't difficult.

The fact that people are stupid doesn't make it right.

And metro ui - well, I think whoever thought that was a good idea should remove him or herself from the gene pool anyway...

Edit:
Just to point out - I can install applications on a BlackBerry from a file - without "AppWorld".

 

Perhaps. If there is enough incentive to get it, I will. Otherwise Windows 7 is just fine. I bought Windows 7 through my university for 10 bucks, which is an awesome deal. I'm sure I'll be able to get Windows 8 again for 10 dollars, but I'm not sure if it is worth the hassle of backing up all my data and doing a fresh install.

 

This has absolutely never happened without some extremely good reason. If Microsoft or anyone intentionally or unintentionally pulls an app that they should not pull, it shows up on slashdot, cnn, fox, msnbc, and every tech journal on the planet. MS probably doesn't want that. It didn't work out so well for Amazon.

If you don't want to buy apps on your phone, that's certainly your right. I bought exactly one, a $2 solitaire game, which was worth every penny. But I have many, many apps. Amazing what people will give away. And support. That $2 solitaire game got an update to fix a problem *I* reported. Whoa! My iPod Touch rarely goes more than a few days without some kind of app update. Google constantly updates Maps and G+ on the Android Market on my Droid.

That's your right also. I don't know why, but you can. The time it takes me to go to 7zip.org and get 7zip is about the same amount of time it would take me to get it off a hard disk. And again, the one at 7zip.org, I know is the latest one.

I think the rush to build up customers and get initial investment for infrastructure and whatever came crashing head-first into the fact that supporting a zillion users costs a lot of money. This may be amazing to non-technical users but for people "in the know" well.. we knew this was going to happen. You don't just start dropping Netflix-sized traffic without stressing things. In places where long-distance bandwidth is funneled into thin, expensive, latent trans-atlantic pipes.. well.. it's not rocket surgery.

As of earlier this year they hadn't. I thought they had.
Android Market Malware Has Users Begging Google To Remotely Disable Bad Apps | TechCrunch
But users want them to be able to. If an app is doing something it should not be doing, and the user has no idea, it would be nice to have someone who does know, and can say "no, that candy actually has formaldehyde don't eat that" and get it away from me. It takes a smart user to know that they.. don't know.

 

S.SubZero, correct me if I'm wrong, but you could still distribute your Metro apps the traditional way, right? I'd thought that the application store would merely be another option. But I haven't been following it very closely.

In part that's because I'm lukewarm at best with app stores. I used an iPod touch for a few months, and there must have been some hole with Apple's app store and e-mail addressed, because right after I started using it my spam volume skyrocketed, and it was clearly related to the applications I'd downloaded. I've had much better luck trusting the Internet at large and making my own judgement calls about what's trustworthy. With Linux, I haven't had any issues like that, but I've found that "old version" availability is often worse than the Internet at large. Maybe I'm just not that good at setting up Linux distros, but it's a lot less of a pain if I want an old version of software on Windows for whatever reason.

However, I will give that Linux repos can make it more convenient to find alternative options to programs you've already heard of. I reckon this is more important for the minor players, as the Banshees and Amaroks of the world you've probably already heard of if you use Linux, just like the Winamps and Media Player Classics if you use Windows.

DetlevCM, I wouldn't say that I continue to use XP because I can't make Vista/7 work on my terms... I probably could get them to work as well as XP in pretty much all areas if I were dedicated to it. I just get less trouble from XP, and have found it to be worth the small, one-time tradeoffs to get XP running well on 2010-2011 hardware, and thus will continue to use my (legal) copy of XP for the foreseeable future unless Windows 8 knocks my socks off.

 

You guys do know that the app store, like on OS X and repositories on Linux is optional right?

Because the app store only will have Metro Style apps available to download directly, people still have optical drives in their computers, etc. the ability to install outside the store will still remain.

No one's going to take your proverbial guns away (to make a horrible political campaign analogy) this is just a way to do things that makes it easier for non techies (aka, no one on here on a regular basis) to actually use their computer to their greatest potential.

The Windows Store will only have the following:

Metro Style apps

Because Metro Style apps are downloaded directly through Windows Store, you'll be able to update them from there straight away.

The other apps you have will have to rely on their own update mechanisms if they have them, because in the end you downloaded them from outside the Windows Store

Metro style apps will have to be approved by Microsoft not only for quality of content but also for security. You can read about just what this entails here, in plain english: Certification requirements for Windows apps

Carefully reading this w/out jumping to FUD based conclusions is worth the time: Previewing the Windows Store - Windows Store for developers - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

Well, you are possibly right about the news. Finding apps - well, my folder is well organized, but those two points I want to focus on.

1) No, not quite. I'm living in the UK, it was unlimited with Tiscali for several years (4?) until they got taken over by Talk Talk.
It also doesn't have a lot to do with infrastructure, but more with greed - and quite possibly incompetence.
(Send an email via Tiscali (now part of talk talk) and it arrives hours later or on the next day - don't ask me what they did...)
The Infrastructure is also mainly an issue outside of built up areas - I live in a city.
Officially it is an 8MBit/s connection down - in practice I'm lucky when I get 500KB/s down. It will generally be around 400-430KB/s (which is an improvement over 300-400KB/s which was the state when I moved in here 3 years ago.... - I suspect that tad of extra speed comes from all the customers they have lost) I.e., it isn't a very quick connection.
1 video from the ZDF via the Medithek is around 700MB in many cases, similar for the iplayer, ARD Mediathek ist smaller.

Nothing in terms of usage actually changed on our side, but out of nowhere they changed to 40GB (which would possibly void the contract... or should void it...)
Why did they do it? Because they charge you another 5 pounds for 80GB....
Now with 1 person this isn't too bad, with 2 it is more of an issue. And the typical British family is larger - note: I'm not English.

Compare that to Germany where my grandfather lives - his connection (also on a phone line as ours) is 16MBit/s but has measured at 40MB/s to the UK in the past. (the one place Europe doesn't communicate with) and I have downloaded Microsoft Updates at hist place at 1,8-1,9MB/s.
The cost? The same or even slightly less - of course also unlimited use.


What Europe also had for ages, was a "fair use policy". I.e. they would inform you if they thought you used too much data (never happened for me) and if you continue to do so, reduce your connection speed at national peak usage times. This system as far as I am aware has worked brilliantly - so why not use it any more? It allows you to use more when you need to in a month - and less if you don't.
The only reason to turn away from it is greed. And one thing you can be certain about - they will not invest in improving their infrastructure.

In terms of mobile phones:
In this case people are stupid... but hey, people also manage to collect malware... (however one does that...)
To some extent anti virus software would work similarly - you accept a service that removes potentially malicious files/programs.
Still, having actual access to a phone to remove such items is even more control - and again brings a lot of privacy issues with it.
More than anti virus software.
(Besides the obvious point that you can easily suppress what you don't like)

 

Are you kidding. Maybe not for yourself or other end users but this could provide an excellent opportunity for MS to see what sells and provide their own similar competitive software or buy out the software/company. Which ever is more cost effective.

 

Yeah for real. Data is power. Data about your users is even better. Data about what kind of programs your users like to download, install, and run most frequently.. hell that's a data mine, er, I mean gold mine of info to be sold to the likes of googly or used internally. Do you know how many noscript, adblock, opt-out addons I have to install now just to be able to browse without targeted, location aware advertising related to things I searched for, or emailed about? And now it's all in a cloud, to be mined even more easily! And then they take that poop, put a rose on it, and sell it to you in the form of "we bring you awesome info about stuff you are already interested in" when in fact all it is is the digital equivalent of an ad-man with his nose up my butt and in my business.

Although I'm just in agreement with Dufus' post, I don't think win8 will actually allow that.

 

Nice rant. Rep+1

 

W8? WTH is metro?

NOPE! I'm still using XPsp3. I've never seen the need for newer and better when what I already have fits me best.(if it ain't broke, don't fix it).
I'll do W8 when I get a computer that has it installed (which will probably be when WX comes out ;D )

If W8 has been enhanced with the same type of thought process as WPhone7, then no, never. WP7 is the reason I'm now an Android user....

@MAA83
+1, nice

I didn't even touch on the whole "cloud" thing. what a load of horse manure. really, you want me to trust you with all my data? hell no.
i'm paranoid enough as it is.

 

According to the Wiki, the Windows Store is going to be the only way to get Metro apps. Note that the apps can certainly be free.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Store_(Windows_8)

I never had any spam-related problems with my Apple ID, and it's an old email address.

Linux's centralized repository/store/software place/(etc by distro) has had opposite results for me. The versions of things I find in the repos are always versions behind, and I see Canonical and others definitely play favorites, happily throwing Firefox releases up immediately after they are released but Chromium gets to linger a version or two because they aren't sure if it's ready (nvm they don't stock Chrome proper at all). The Canonical repos (at least) also take the pleasure of forcing apps installed from the repos to *only* be upgraded by the repos (ie. the "Check for new updates" option gets yanked out of Firefox and Chromium). This is tacky to the extreme because it takes power from the user, when Linux is by design supposed to GIVE power.

This also varies by repo. Canonical's interface isn't bad, but as you wind down the distro road past Debian and Gentoo, the repo becomes more tragic, and at least one major distro does their repo with barely any categorization at all, making "browsing" for apps hopeless.

The Windows Store is going to be designed to be user-friendly, easy to use, probably overly simplified, and aimed at users looking for little apps to pass time or do simple stuff. I'm sure the Metro version of Windows Live apps will be in there among other things. It's not going to be intended for installing every app, or even the majority of apps. I don't think it's going to monopolize our Windows experience, and many people probably won't use it at all.

 

Yes I will definitely update to windows 8 when its released

 

I'm skeptical about application support for current apps that work on W7 and earlier. Every new MS OS has compatibility issues along with it. And W8 is a big change.

 

I think perhaps Windows 9 I will upgrade to. Window 7 Ultimate does me just fine.

 

And when exactly do you assume Windows 9 will be released?

 

January 2014