Windows 7 vs Windows 8

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I am the dreaded end user.

I use a laptop for WORK. I carry it around industrial plants. I write technical reports. I write up cost estimates and quotations. I store electronic copies of technical standards and data sheets for all sorts of the industrial equipment that I deal with. I take pictures and videos and analyze how the machinery is moving so that we can keep production going while keeping people safe.

The laptop gets beaten up. Vibration ... dropped now and again ... poked and prodded with greasy fingers or while wearing gloves.

Touch screen? No thanks.

Gimmicky user interface ... Doesn't do me any good. It just has to WORK.

I don't speak geek (or Linux - or Apple). I speak Fanuc, Allen-Bradley, ABB, Siemens, and the objective is to make chunks of steel get welded together so that you can drive the resulting automobile on the roads. Again, the laptop just has to WORK. I don't want to (or have time to) deal with the geeky stuff.

Everything that I've been hearing has indicated to stay with Windows 7.
 
Brian P said:
I am the dreaded end user.

I use a laptop for WORK. I carry it around industrial plants. I write technical reports. I write up cost estimates and quotations. I store electronic copies of technical standards and data sheets for all sorts of the industrial equipment that I deal with. I take pictures and videos and analyze how the machinery is moving so that we can keep production going while keeping people safe.

The laptop gets beaten up. Vibration ... dropped now and again ... poked and prodded with greasy fingers or while wearing gloves.

Touch screen? No thanks.

Gimmicky user interface ... Doesn't do me any good. It just has to WORK.

I don't speak geek (or Linux - or Apple). I speak Fanuc, Allen-Bradley, ABB, Siemens, and the objective is to make chunks of steel get welded together so that you can drive the resulting automobile on the roads. Again, the laptop just has to WORK. I don't want to (or have time to) deal with the geeky stuff.

Everything that I've been hearing has indicated to stay with Windows 7.
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Yes, Stay with 7.

W8 was made with Tablets, Smart Phones and Touch-Screen ultra books in mind. If it isn't run on either of those, it's a very inconvenient O/S (even on those systems, it's not terrible, but not fantastic either). IMO, I would only consider using it on a smart phone... I even use my android tablet w/ bluetooth keyboard for work and document writing when I don't want to carry my laptop around.
 
Brian P said:
I am the dreaded end user.

I use a laptop for WORK. I carry it around industrial plants. I write technical reports. I write up cost estimates and quotations. I store electronic copies of technical standards and data sheets for all sorts of the industrial equipment that I deal with. I take pictures and videos and analyze how the machinery is moving so that we can keep production going while keeping people safe.

The laptop gets beaten up. Vibration ... dropped now and again ... poked and prodded with greasy fingers or while wearing gloves.

Touch screen? No thanks.

Gimmicky user interface ... Doesn't do me any good. It just has to WORK.

I don't speak geek (or Linux - or Apple). I speak Fanuc, Allen-Bradley, ABB, Siemens, and the objective is to make chunks of steel get welded together so that you can drive the resulting automobile on the roads. Again, the laptop just has to WORK. I don't want to (or have time to) deal with the geeky stuff.

Everything that I've been hearing has indicated to stay with Windows 7.
Click to expand...

If you're not using one already, have a look at the Panasonic Toughbooks. They seem to be able to handle your environment (and yes, you can still get them with Win7 :) )
 
nfq said:
If you're not using one already, have a look at the Panasonic Toughbooks. They seem to be able to handle your environment (and yes, you can still get them with Win7 :) )
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In general it's cheaper to buy budget laptops and just deal with the losses. Worked in mineral exploration where they did a CBA for equipping our field crews that dragged those in the bush. The toughbooks just didn't make financial sense.
 
I use a laptop for WORK.
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This is an entirely different application. Like comparing a ball peen hammer to a claw hammer. Both hammers. Industrial computers can work fine with an i3 Duo core and 2gb of ram and Xp as OS. When it comes to encoding video, Flac or Wim files it works much faster with an Intel i7 3930 processor with 6 cores and hyperthreading. Time to process is 1/3 compared to i7 940 with 4 cores & hyperthreading. I've customized Wim files where it takes 6 hrs. to process on the i7 940. The cores do jack for gaming. Less than 20% load on an i7 3930. For playing you need a high end graphics card, not a processor. Computers are built for the end user's application. The MFG computers don't suit my main applications and hence I build my own with the components that enhance my application use. SSD's have also contributed to speed and less power consumption in laptops, but that doesn't mean you have to have one. The old spinners are the bottleneck for processing large files like a Wim file. The amount of data and SSD can read and write fast enough to load the CPU, where as with the spinner, the CPU is waiting for info.

So what colour should I paint the room?
 
^ went right over my head. I sit in front of a computer and type at it (and cuss at it when it bogs down). Don't know, don't care what's inside as long as it works.

No one that I've seen uses Toughbooks or anything of the sort for PLC programming and debugging. A regular laptop gets beaten up but generally keeps working long enough that by the time something breaks that isn't worth fixing, it's out of date anyway. The one I'm using now is 3 years old and is just about finished.
 
Brian P said:
^ went right over my head. I sit in front of a computer and type at it (and cuss at it when it bogs down). Don't know, don't care what's inside as long as it works.

No one that I've seen uses Toughbooks or anything of the sort for PLC programming and debugging. A regular laptop gets beaten up but generally keeps working long enough that by the time something breaks that isn't worth fixing, it's out of date anyway. The one I'm using now is 3 years old and is just about finished.
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what he's saying the components performance depends on the application, like motorcycle engines, where you have inlines, thumpers, and v engines, each one has benefits and draw backs and you see them used for different applications.
 
Brian P said:
No one that I've seen uses Toughbooks or anything of the sort for PLC programming and debugging. A regular laptop gets beaten up but generally keeps working long enough that by the time something breaks that isn't worth fixing, it's out of date anyway. The one I'm using now is 3 years old and is just about finished.
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I have never seen anyone use a Toughbook that didn't have to for some proprietary software. Everyone I know that beats on their laptop has a Thinkpad which seems to work well for the job.
 
Everyone that I know that has Windows 8 (except 1 person) hates it and wants to go back to Windows 7 but they're usually too lazy to backup their files and downgrade.

Windows 8 does have some neat little features but those can be downloaded by third party distributors anyways.

Personally I really dislike Windows 8 because I'm not used to it's functionality and it seems too.... "Mac-like" to me aka everything is dumbed down.
 
PLau said:
Everyone that I know that has Windows 8 (except 1 person) hates it and wants to go back to Windows 7 but they're usually too lazy to backup their files and downgrade.

Windows 8 does have some neat little features but those can be downloaded by third party distributors anyways.

Personally I really dislike Windows 8 because I'm not used to it's functionality and it seems too.... "Mac-like" to me aka everything is dumbed down.
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Trust me its not Mac like.
 
Win7 or Win8? Definitely Win8.

There's nothing that I can't do on Win8 and I did on Win7. Win8 doesn't have the stupid "GLASS" and 3D effects that does nothing for productivity. I find Win8 much snappier then Win7. Whenever I have to use Win7 it feels like I'm using a old OS, like it felt when going from XP to 7.

As for the Metro screen... I use it like a start menu.

This is on a i7 desktop on two 27" monitors.

To the loudest complainers: you do realize you sound like an old man on his rocking chair complaining how it was better in the old days.
 
hates it and wants to go back to Windows 7
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Very simple to downgrade 8 to 7. Nothing to back up.

Win8 is like when the body recieves a vaccine shot, at first it rejects it and after a while learns to accept it as a good thing.

It's human nature to reject change b/c it is outside your comfort zone that you've developed over time. The older you get the less you like changes.

How To Downgrade Windows 8 Pro To Windows 7


 
The Win8 refresh feature looks great on paper. For Server 2012 at least, it hasn't worked worth a damn except to build VMs.
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Works fine for me. Perhaps if you post your issue with it, I could help you to get it to work for you.
 
Erh, no. Win8 is crap. It's got a stupid, confused and brutally dumbed-down interface. The file manager is useless.

Don't like glass? Turn it off.

Win8 is not a progression in any sense, in my opinion and that of a lot of people in the industry. And pal, I've been in the industry nearly 30 years.

About the only thing we'd all like to rip out of Win8 and put into Win7 is the new SMB protocol + the newer DFS.
 
I've been in the industry nearly 30 years.
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If you're looking for perfection, look in the mirror. If you find it there, expect it elsewhere.
 
A good chunk of business-class laptops now ship with a Win8 Downgrade License. What that means is that they are actually WIN8 machines, but have been 'downgraded' to WIN7 at the factory. Perhaps look at that as an option as if at any point you decide to move to WIN8, you can, very easy (with the files and the license already on your machine)...

The other option is waiting a bit until WIN 8.1 - it will re-introduce the start button, lack of which is one of the biggest complaints w/ WIN8 today.
 
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Our business has 2 post-W8 laptops. One has been downgraded through a purchase of a W7 license and quite a few hours with manufacturer support while the other has been bought with W7 after countless hours of searching for something with the right specs and anything but W8. Fortunately I don't need to use Windows for work or play but I've gone through something similar when Mark Shuttleworth snorted up some space-coke and barfed out the Unity desktop environment for Ubuntu Linux. Been using Linux Mint ever since for the same reasons people are switching from W8 to W7.. Can't put a tablet-oriented interface on a desktop and expect for people to get real work done with it.
 
gqelements said:
The other option is waiting a bit until WIN 8.1 - it will re-introduce the start button, lack of which is one of the biggest complaints w/ WIN8 today.
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It doesn't do what you think it does.
 
Can't wait for Windows 9.
What will there be...oooh the suspense.
Maybe they will add a feelings button.
 
I use Windows 8 on my home computer. It does everything 90% of users did with w7, is lighter on resources, and in my opinion an improvement. I dislike the metro ui but i learned to deal with it... now i prefer it to windows 7. That being said, if you're concerned with work flow nothing beats a customized linux installation and its what i use for school.

I'm typing this on a mac btw... it just werks! (tm). it's a computer for ppl that would rather not learn to use one.
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