Windows 7 vs Windows 8

[Shaman]

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Hahaha! Good old Microsoft. They first alienate their customers with Windows 8, then they alienate all the OEMs that gave them success by competing with them directly and also blaming them for Windows 8 not catching on. Their "record sales" included OEM stockpiling, customer privelege accounts, etc. and not real sales. Welcome to reality, Microsoft... your product has to not SUCK and you don't stab your friends in the back and expect them to like it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/24/windows_8_blame_game/

 

[Bobwheel]

It is only good if you have a touch screen.

Otherwise its pretty to look at but harder to get to anything but standard windows apps.

There are a few performance and security upgrades under the hood but they are very minor and most of them got back ported into win 7

 

[vpetkar]

I think 99% of the people on here talking about Windows 8, don't know **** about Windows 8. Pretty much every single shortcut still exists. Every single feature still exists. They've dramatically improved the system applications like Explorer, Task Manager even simple file operations (copy, move, etc.). Don't like metro apps? Just click Ctrl+D and you're back to traditional view. Much faster and smoother as well.

Sent from my Optimus G using Tapatalk 2

 

[vpetkar]

As for the Linux argument, I personally support it fully but its only for people that are willing to go the extra mile and change their computing habits. Most people don't like change and freak out when they dont have Microsoft Office and Internet explorer. If that doesn't sound like you, try Linux.

Newbie friendly: Ubuntu, Xubuntu (if you have a slower machine), Mint, Fedora

Sent from my Optimus G using Tapatalk 2

 

[FiReSTaRT]

As for the Linux argument, I personally support it fully but its only for people that are willing to go the extra mile and change their computing habits.

Actually, there are a couple of desktop environments that will be a lot more familiar to "legacy" Windows users than Windows 8. What shift in computing habits? No more extreme (actually less) than using a Mac. Even gaming (big hurdle up to date) will become easier to swallow as Steam continues with its Linux launch. LibreOffice and OpenOffice are perfectly suitable substitutes for most people and every other browser is supported out there including Firefox, Chrome and Opera. You could even run Safari if you went that extra mile

 

[BuckWild]

I think 99% of the people on here talking about Windows 8, don't know **** about Windows 8. Pretty much every single shortcut still exists. Every single feature still exists. They've dramatically improved the system applications like Explorer, Task Manager even simple file operations (copy, move, etc.). Don't like metro apps? Just click Ctrl+D and you're back to traditional view. Much faster and smoother as well.

Sent from my Optimus G using Tapatalk 2

Does that mean Shaman is the 1% or is he part of the 99%?

 

[Shaman]

I think 99% of the people on here talking about Windows 8, don't know **** about Windows 8.

Then I'm a 1%er. As an IT professional of 20 years (you could argue 25) and a long time *nix systems administrator, I think maybe you over-estimate your knowledge rather than under-estimate ours, to be frank.

Pretty much every single shortcut still exists. Every single feature still exists.

Right and wrong. Many of the features have been changed so that they're more difficult to use or more "splashy." There are so many shortcomings in some of the new programs that it makes one WTF every time they're seen. The same was true of Windows 7 as well, in many ways the XP file explorer dialogs were BETTER than in Windows 7 (or Vista). For example, SELECT ALL seems to randomly pop up as an option, but rarely when you want it. Aggravating.

The insanity here is that Microsoft thought it was OK to ship an OS with not one, not two, but THREE different human interfaces. Win32/64, Vista/Aero and Metro. They all act subtly differently (or not so subtly, with Metro). The regular computer user is completely baffled by this. It's not just a matter of getting used to it - it's a terrible design.

Show Windows 8 to an IT staffer who looks after a hundred end users. Watch him or her go EFF NO, I'LL QUIT FIRST! I know of a guy right now who had a nervous breakdown just dealing with Windows 2012 because Microsoft immediately pulled Server 2008 when they saw the $$$$ that Windows Store might offer them... he had to get new licensing and is stuck with 2012. He's been off work now for three weeks. Not even joking, this is a serious matter both for him and his workplace, as he was the lynchpin. I've been putting some of my staff in place to deal with an issue (still unresolved) where the new Hyper-V is slow as a snail with ethernet traffic on the VMs but working normally on the host. HP sent replacement hardware, no appreciable difference. Ugh.

They've dramatically improved the system applications like Explorer, Task Manager even simple file operations (copy, move, etc.).

Dumbing them down and taking away options is improvement? They may be somewhat faster, but that's primarily the OS hiding some of the operations from you using its newer caching architecture. Turn off the OS caching on your drives and see if it's faster... it's only faster if you have lots of memory and you don't lose your power suddenly... then you won't be so happy about it.

Don't like metro apps? Just click Ctrl+D and you're back to traditional view. Much faster and smoother as well.

Hate Metro apps. But you can't get away from them as simply as you describe. In fact, you can't get TOTALLY away from them at all. People who say this are being disengenuous. Microsoft made very sure that Metro gets in your face as regularly as they can manage. I can see how Metro would work on a tablet or phone, albeit no better than anyone else's apps. But on a desktop it just gets in the way...

 

[BuckWild]

To each their own.
I think once people stand in front of a pc with Win8 and try to just do some basic stuff they will quickly dislike it.
The big tiles makes it look like a Fisher Price toy IMO.
Why do I have to go digging just to get to some basic stuff?
The start bar was/is a good idea because it makes basic intuitive sense.
The new Win8 does not have the start bar. You have to go hunt for it on the web and download it.

What's the deal in 2013 your OS does not play a basic DVD movie?
I can just imagine the looks on people faces when they get home. Oooh look (insert person) I just bought my new $1000+ laptop with quad core and a billion gigs of ram with a kagillion gigs of hard drive storage. My new super duper display.
Ok, lets pop in a movie and watch it.

People still use IE? I can understand if you have to log into some antiquated site that was built for IE.

 

[Mr.Azim]

I stuck with Win7.... tried Win8 on my older laptop and didn't like the design much. I found the apps so I could use my dvd drive but still. I didn't see anything wrong with 7 that made them think they had to revamp it with 8.

PS: Internet Explorer SUCKSSSSSS. Chrome and Firefox for life.

 

[imkruzen]

“Windows 8 doesn't even support DVD video.” It does you need Win8 Pro WMC. I’ve been running 8 for about 3 mths and I did find Hyper-V nice to test software in virtual machine. Another nice feature is Windows refresh. A custom refresh file captures the WIM file like you do with WinPE for deployment on multiple machines. Win 8 will retain all the apps installed when refreshing using the custom refresh image. You can make as many custom images as you wish at different intervals, using the command line “recimg /createimage C:\CustomRefreshImages\Image1” and changing the extension”1” to 2. Restore is there as per Win 7. Boots in 30 sec on hard disk. Recognizes dual boot machine when installed, so you don’t have to use BCD to set up dual boot. I run 7 and office 10 on one partition and 8 w/Office13 Ported the games from win 7 and gadgets are available from sources on the net. Viewing pictures is nice in Media Center not thumb nails. In Windows 8, antivirus products can start earlier in the boot-up process to scan the system’s drivers for malware. On new Windows 8 computers that use the UEFI firmware instead of the old-style BIOS, Secure Boot guarantees that only specially signed and approved software can run at boot. On current computers, malware could install a malicious boot loader. ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) has been extended to more parts of Windows, randomly moving data and code around in memory to make it harder to exploit. Mitigations that were once applied to Windows applications are now also applied to the Windows kernel. Internet Explorer 10 includes improvements that make 75% of the security vulnerabilities reported over the last two years more difficult to exploit. Apps for Windows 8’s new Modern interface (formerly known as Metro) are sandboxed and restricted in what they can do on your computer. When you install an app from the Windows Store, that app has limited access to your system. It can’t run in the background and monitor all your keystrokes, logging your credit card number and online banking passwords like applications on the traditional Windows desktop can. It doesn’t have access to every file on your system. Windows 8 is definitely more secure than Windows 7. An integrated antivirus and application reputation system, along with a tamed app ecosystem that replaces the wild-west nature of previous versions of Windows, will probably make the most difference for inexperienced users that may not have ran an antivirus or knew which applications were safe to install on previous versions of Windows. Got used to Office 13 now and I like it over Office 10. Only bad thing is Win 8 is hardware sensitive. You change a major component and it will have to be reactivated. On Win 7 I wrote the OEM licence SLIC 2.1 Bin into the BIOS and installed with the matching xrm-ms licence. Now OEMs have to install into the BIOS and activate via MS server. Change hardware and back to shop to reactivate. That’s the big downside. They went all out to stop the hacking. Or you can get VL version and use KMS server. You can find virtual servers made by hackers to reactive every 180 days without using MS KMS servers. Like Office VL using KMS server. I like. That’s my observation.

 

[Akshun]

Aww boo.. no one mentioned Unix... heheeh
FreeBSD with KDE FTW!! hahah!!

 

[RockerGuy]

“Windows 8 doesn't even support DVD video.” It does you need Win8 Pro WMC. I’ve been running 8 for about 3 mths and I did find Hyper-V nice to test software in virtual machine. Another nice feature is Windows refresh. A custom refresh file captures the WIM file like you do with WinPE for deployment on multiple machines. Win 8 will retain all the apps installed when refreshing using the custom refresh image. You can make as many custom images as you wish at different intervals, using the command line “recimg /createimage C:\CustomRefreshImages\Image1” and changing the extension”1” to 2. Restore is there as per Win 7. Boots in 30 sec on hard disk. Recognizes dual boot machine when installed, so you don’t have to use BCD to set up dual boot. I run 7 and office 10 on one partition and 8 w/Office13 Ported the games from win 7 and gadgets are available from sources on the net. Viewing pictures is nice in Media Center not thumb nails. In Windows 8, antivirus products can start earlier in the boot-up process to scan the system’s drivers for malware. On new Windows 8 computers that use the UEFI firmware instead of the old-style BIOS, Secure Boot guarantees that only specially signed and approved software can run at boot. On current computers, malware could install a malicious boot loader. ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) has been extended to more parts of Windows, randomly moving data and code around in memory to make it harder to exploit. Mitigations that were once applied to Windows applications are now also applied to the Windows kernel. Internet Explorer 10 includes improvements that make 75% of the security vulnerabilities reported over the last two years more difficult to exploit. Apps for Windows 8’s new Modern interface (formerly known as Metro) are sandboxed and restricted in what they can do on your computer. When you install an app from the Windows Store, that app has limited access to your system. It can’t run in the background and monitor all your keystrokes, logging your credit card number and online banking passwords like applications on the traditional Windows desktop can. It doesn’t have access to every file on your system. Windows 8 is definitely more secure than Windows 7. An integrated antivirus and application reputation system, along with a tamed app ecosystem that replaces the wild-west nature of previous versions of Windows, will probably make the most difference for inexperienced users that may not have ran an antivirus or knew which applications were safe to install on previous versions of Windows. Got used to Office 13 now and I like it over Office 10. Only bad thing is Win 8 is hardware sensitive. You change a major component and it will have to be reactivated. On Win 7 I wrote the OEM licence SLIC 2.1 Bin into the BIOS and installed with the matching xrm-ms licence. Now OEMs have to install into the BIOS and activate via MS server. Change hardware and back to shop to reactivate. That’s the big downside. They went all out to stop the hacking. Or you can get VL version and use KMS server. You can find virtual servers made by hackers to reactive every 180 days without using MS KMS servers. Like Office VL using KMS server. I like. That’s my observation.

LOL, nice post.
I must admit there are a lot of hidden features of 8 I haven't discovered. They remain mostly hidden

 

[Shaman]

The Win8 refresh feature looks great on paper. For Server 2012 at least, it hasn't worked worth a damn except to build VMs.

ASLR has been in Linux for ~7 years I think... heh.

Pretty well everything you describe in Metro is in .Net as far as I can tell, and it didn't require you to learn another interface.

I haven't had a computer virus since I was a teenage software pirate with an Amiga. Who downloads random stuff off the Internet and installs it these days? Who gets viruses in their e-mail anymore? Prevention is a lot better than brute force.

 

[MarcosSantiago]

Try doing actual work with it instead of just playing the occasional movie/game. Yes, I know that the w-word sucks for the hipster crowd, but some of us have to make money

Hey! Once in a while I do some work.

Seriously, I don't game and I don't like to play movies in smaller screens... have a desktop with Win 7 and a laptop with Win 8 and both are mostly for work.

Windows 8 doesn't even support DVD video. This is how things work when you do business with the hungriest capitalist in the computer market.

And no, Win8 is not nearly as intuitive as Win7. That's been my point - there are two completely separate interfaces with their own look and operational semantics, and one of them has *feeping ADVERTISEMENTS* in the operating system you paid money for. And I don't just mean adverts for the "Windows Store" but ads... you know how I found this the first time? Opening up a Lenovo laptop out of the box and getting a HP laptop ad come up on the first boot of Windows 8.

Serious. Pile. Of. Crap.

Win 8 has a completely different interface?
Win 8 is not as intuitive as Win7?
Come'n man, snap out of it!


How long does it take to learn a new interface? Just a few days
When you upgraded to yout latest smartphone, when you bought your first tablet, how long did it take? Just a few days, two weeks tops...

P.S. - I love my Microsoft stock. PLease keep buying the software

 

[Shaman]

It ain't me. It's secretaries, child care workers, etc. etc. that don't use computers except for work. Like it or not, it's a huge barrier and a major support issue.

 

[SunnY S]

Took the plunge after retiring the MacBook, and got meself an ultrabook with Win8.

Picked it up quickly and pretty straightforward to use. Not sure what all the whining is about. I hear 8.1 is coming and brings a slew of improvements?

Oh, and btw, I dimissed the thought, and didn't think it was necessary until I'm actually using one, but..... Touchscreen on a laptop is a- a- a- amazing. Apple really missed the boat on this one. Using the map app, for example, it was great to scroll, pinch and zoom without using the trackpad. Also scrolling down long webpages is a breeze and convenient. Absolutely love it.

 

[AL3RT]

I slept well when I had DOS 6.22... Then Windows came along and I have become an insomniac.

 

[imkruzen]

Picked it up quickly and pretty straightforward to use. Not sure what all the whining is about. I hear 8.1 is coming and brings a slew of improvements?

Don't rush with 8.1. There are some software compatibility issues I've run into with the preview. 8.1 addressed a lot of consumer's concerns, like the start orb and going from the pinned Apps to the all Apps screen. Also 8.1 no longer has the "Experience Index" to rate your system. Some customization of the tiles on Metro screen were addressed. They added "Customize" 'to the screen by right clicking on the Metro screen. There is also boot to desktop option, skipping the Metro screen. On my SSD windows boots in 9 seconds, minus the BIOS post time.
Other than that I like it. There are a lot of hidden features that let you customize and optimize it. This site has a lot of info on "How To" Another good source to customize Win8. SSD's and bootable partitions are recognized in Win8, so no need to add them manually to the boot loader. After install Win8 recognized my 3 partitions and on the boot screen an option comes up to choose which system to start.
Haven't run into viruses, but back door Trojans, One was DriverPack Solutions and WinRar. DriverPack install a search engine tool bar and hijacked the start page in Waterfox. Had to go into the registry to remove it. WinRar had spyware install. Malware Bytes detected the attempt to connect to the malicious site. No damage just annoying.
I've been running Win8 for 9 months now. Thought I would go back to 7, so I made an image of the drive, but haven't looked back.

Enjoy

 

[Shaman]

KDE 4.11 is awesome. Loving it.

 

[ike]

I've been using computers for a while - my first OS was DOS 3 or DOS 4. I've been exposed to every iteration of Windows and currently I use Win 7, Win 8 Pro, and Mountain Lion for the Macs.

I liked XP and Win 7, and have to admit that Win 8 was a bit of a shock to the system when I first installed it. However, I bought a "Win 8 for dummies" and feel pretty comfortable with the OS now. It is obvious that MS designed Win 8 to work with a touch screen, which would seem pretty cool at first, but who wants to look at a screen covered with greasy finger smears? (I can do all the same object manipulations on my Macbook trackpad, so I don't miss the touchscreen one bit.)

If someone is just starting out with a computer, I would wholeheartedly tell them to buy a Mac just because everything seems to work so beautifully between Apple products. (and if you really want a windows machine, you can dual boot your Mac and have the best of both worlds.)

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