[vinifera]

there are some simple answers here to complex conversation

belgianguy said:

Even if some might be capable to re-learn all that, who says that they will want to?

MS don't care for what someone wants, they are just like Red Alert 2 called them (lol), "MassiveSoft", they make massive production for masses who are forced to use their crap

belgianguy said:

I just don't get it, my mind is unwilling to accept that this is the reality we're facing.
...
Yeah, then reality kicks in. I can't comprehend why they are doing this

because they can
because they lead in desktop market, as in their OS runs on almost any hardware and like 90% games are made just for their platform
thus they set the rules

belgianguy said:

Why force Metro on those who do not want it?

so they can force "new" standard
(they actually call this innovating lol)

belgianguy said:

Windows 8 feels like doing my work and getting a kick in the balls from time to time.
When I complain about not wanting to get kicked in the balls, I get told that I'll get used to it

yep, thats the forced regime

belgianguy said:

Sorry if the following image is a bit poor in taste, but it succinctly illustrates my Metro experience thus far:

I'll actually use the last part with toilet on my web article (thanks)

[MagicAndre1981]

I've used the Consumer preview yesterday and it is a nightmare. Productivity is only 30% of Windows Vista/7, the font rendering and permanet switching between Metro and Desktop generates a splitting headache. I thought my head explodes

I'm so happy to use Windows 7 now, this is soooooooo much eye friendlier.

The only thing you can do with Windows 8:

 windows_8_logo.png (40.16K)
Number of downloads: 48

[Tripredacus]

Oh crazy... new wallpaper on that one!

I haven't heard much about using either of the Win8 on multimonitor. How does that turn out?

Also about WDP "expiring" you can easily get around that by changing the date in the BIOS and make sure it doesn't ever connect to the internet.
Of course, I realise that a computer that doesn't connect to the internet feels like an alien concept.

[MagicAndre1981]

WDP got an update which gives it the same expire date like the Consumer preview (16th Jan 2013). Windows 8 allows you to have the taskbar on all monitors.

[Tripredacus]

MagicAndre1981, on 01 March 2012 - 09:53 AM, said:

Windows 8 allows you to have the taskbar on all monitors.

OOOO OK maybe I'll get off my rear and download this and try it out. It may not be pretty, I'm getting low on working monitors.

[CoffeeFiend]

MagicAndre1981, on 01 March 2012 - 07:05 AM, said:

windows_8_logo.png

This is great!

Edit: not sure why but you can't quote attached pictures and have them work I guess.

[Tripredacus]

Uggg multi-monitor leaves a lot to be desired. Metro doesn't use both and the taskbar it more like a clone. It had (yes had) default IE9 and "Explorer" icons on both screens. When I unpinned the "Explorer" from the second screen's taskbar, it disappeared from the first as well.

Metro is really flakey when you have it on one screen and you try to do things, like the hover on the right side to get the fly-out menu, since you have to stop your arrow.

But (I didn't notice this in older Windows versions, it might be there) I see that you can arrange displays vertically! That's neat.

I must say the WORST THING about this is that the pinball game it comes with DOES NOT HAVE MULTIBALL. I mean seriously, why bother. Its like a baseball game where you can't hit home runs.

[Tripredacus]

I found a sad face in Windows 8! It looks like this

:(

To get it, let the computer go into hibernate. Then unplug the hard drive. Then turn on the PC. After about a minute it will go to a blue screen with a sad face. Unfortunately, it reboots after less than a second so I couldn't get a picture of it.

[MagicAndre1981]

yes, this is the new BSOD picture.

Btw, Startmenu can be reactivated if you use ViStart:



http://www.askvg.com...u-in-windows-8/


Btw,this grey-scale anti-aliasing in Windows 8 sucks. This + Metro causes my unfathomable headache

This post has been edited by MagicAndre1981: 02 March 2012 - 12:36 PM

[CoffeeFiend]

MagicAndre1981, on 02 March 2012 - 12:33 PM, said:

Startmenu can be reactivated if you use ViStart

The end result is similar but I wouldn't say "reactivated" per se. It might make Win8 bearable i.e. a Win7 lookalike with almost zero new features. I'd still rather run win7 (no need to buy it for starters)

Overall, the comments I see on the web so far (multiple sources) are overwhelmingly negative, mainly about Metro. Win9 can't come out soon enough.

[JorgeA]

CoffeeFiend, on 02 March 2012 - 04:27 PM, said:

MagicAndre1981, on 02 March 2012 - 12:33 PM, said:

Startmenu can be reactivated if you use ViStart

The end result is similar but I wouldn't say "reactivated" per se. It might make Win8 bearable i.e. a Win7 lookalike with almost zero new features. I'd still rather run win7 (no need to buy it for starters)

Overall, the comments I see on the web so far (multiple sources) are overwhelmingly negative, mainly about Metro. Win9 can't come out soon enough.

I saw that method for bringing back the Start Menu. It looked interesting, until I learned that it's not totally functional. But I guess it's better than nothing.

Regarding comments on Metro/Win8 around the Web, here's a couple from maybe a surprising source:

http://www.neowin.ne...&showentry=3819

Quote

Because Microsoft thinks that one OS and UI should rule them all they decided to bring the Metro UI designed for touch over to the desktop and laptop market. Essentially doing in reverse what they did to the tablet market back in 2001 /2002. In the early 2000’s they brought a mouse and keyboard UI to a tablet, and now they are bringing a touch UI to the mouse and keyboard.

http://www.neowin.ne...-about-2-hours/

Quote

From my point of view (as a .NET developer) I was also disappointed. Doing simple things (like printing) seemed impossible and the apps are far from beta quality in my opinion. Switching back and forth between the start screen and the desktop (again, in Visual Studio all day long) seemed unnatural. I instant message with my wife all day long (even though we're in the same house, I'm in my office upstairs, so it's just easier) and switching between Visual Studio, to the start screen to get a new IM was a mess. I couldn't stand it.

--JorgeA

[belgianguy]

Perhaps the Start Menu (or the ability to uninstall exorcise Metro from your computer) will be available in one of the 9 available versions of Windows 8.

Paying a little extra for something you've taken for granted for 17 years, that would sound like marketing. Drug dealer marketing, but marketing none the less. The article doesn't mention that there will be amends for the business user, but I would expect that to be the case.

So perhaps the Consumer nomenclature was intentional.

Still, I don't see how this is going to help to 'unify' the platforms, nor how the two versions of IE10 will be able to coexist on 64-bits machines (64 + 32?). Well the idea of web standards was nice as long as it lasted.


The only market segment I see for Windows 8 doing well in is the #2 spot in the tablet market, with Apple #1. To get that they have to defeat Android. Android on tablets doesn't seem to take off that well. Not to mention the dozens of patent suits between the tablet manufacturers. I'm wondering whether Microsoft will get sucked into these ongoing court battles.

This post has been edited by belgianguy: 05 March 2012 - 02:36 AM

[awergh]

belgianguy, on 05 March 2012 - 02:34 AM, said:

Still, I don't see how this is going to help to 'unify' the platforms, nor how the two versions of IE10 will be able to coexist on 64-bits machines (64 + 32?). Well the idea of web standards was nice as long as it lasted.

x64 Windows has always had 64 bit and 32 bit versions of IE its just most people didn't use the 64 bit version cause flash didn't work.

[Tripredacus]

belgianguy, on 05 March 2012 - 02:34 AM, said:

Perhaps the Start Menu (or the ability to uninstall exorcise Metro from your computer) will be available in one of the 9 available versions of Windows 8.

Those silly guys. The reason there are 4 ARM versions is because ARM has 4 CPUs on the market that aren't compatible with each other.

[Tripredacus]

Windows 8 CP seems to lack the basic IDE driver when using a UEFI enabled boot on the DVD drive. Well that is virtual-UEFI as whatever 2.2TB Infinity is... emulated UEFI. Either way, the motherboard manufacturer only provides AHCI or RAID drivers (not one for IDE mode), I tried Windows 7 x64 and "Longhorn" x64 drivers and nothing worked. However, using a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 DVD works fine in this configuration without prompting for drivers.

has anyone been able to install Win8 on a GPT disk using Setup?

[MagicAndre1981]

Error: A required CD/DVD device driver is missing - when you start Windows 7 or Windows Vista from the setup disk
http://support.micro...kb/952951/en-us

[JorgeA]

MagicAndre1981, on 05 March 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

Error: A required CD/DVD device driver is missing - when you start Windows 7 or Windows Vista from the setup disk
http://support.micro...kb/952951/en-us

MagicAndre,

Does this article provide any hints as to why the same optical drive would not be detected by Windows 8, when it is detected by Windows 7? I didn't find anything there to that effect.

One curious thing is that, if you have a bootable CD or DVD in the drive when you turn on the computer, and then tell it to boot normally to the hard disk, then Windows 8 does see the optical drive. I tried that yesterday.

--JorgeA

This post has been edited by JorgeA: 05 March 2012 - 03:45 PM

[CoffeeFiend]

Tripredacus, on 05 March 2012 - 09:54 AM, said:

Those silly guys. The reason there are 4 ARM versions is because ARM has 4 CPUs on the market that aren't compatible with each other.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. I didn't see them talk about 4 ARM versions but then again I just quickly glanced. Just like everyone, they looked at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageIndex\Product. That does actually list 9 unique versions:

• Microsoft-Windows-EnterpriseEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-EnterpriseEvalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-HomeBasicEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-HomePremiumEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-PrereleaseARMEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-PrereleaseEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-ProfessionalEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-ProfessionalPlusEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-StarterEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0
  
• Microsoft-Windows-UltimateEdition~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.8250.0

where only number 5 refers to an ARM version. As far as ARM goes, there are several different architectures and tons of different chips from different manufacturers (it's really not that standardized outside of CMSIS) but that shouldn't change anything to the editions, very much like when we build a BSP for Win CE with Platform Builder (just use whatever works with your board).

Anyway. One ARM version on the list, a prerelease, an eval vers of enterprise... That leaves us with the usual Starter, Home Basic/Premium, Pro and Ultimate -- and also a new Pro Plus version.

Either ways I don't want any of it. I've happily ran MS-DOS (3.x to 6.x), Win3.1, Win3.11, Win95, Win95 OSR2, Win98, Win98SE, NT 3.1, NT 3.5, NT 3.51, NT 4 client and server, Win2k C&S, WinXP, Win2003, Win2003 R2, Vista (32&64 bit), Win 2008, Win 2008 R2, Win7 x64, a couple different versions of SBS in there, WinCE 5 & 6, etc. And I loved all of it. The only 2 I will have skipped will be WinME (mainly because I had moved on the NT line) and Win8. I think that's saying something. It'll be MS' biggest flop, ever. WOA even more so -- just see how well starting from scratch on other architectures worked before (e.g. Itanic) -- but here it also has none of the strengths of Windows nor any of the software for that matter (great!) Hopefully they'll learn from it. It just sucks having to wait another 4 years or so for Win9.

Edit: one funny comment from slashdot (out of numerous sites where pretty much everybody hates Win8):

Quote

As for win 8, anybody smell that? that stench of fail that is practically leaking from the thing like a silent but deadly fart? I've been running the dev preview on an Athlon X2 i have sitting in the corner of the shop, now this baby has 3gb of RAM, fast 200gb SATA, its not a bad machine at all, but everyone who has tried it, more than 200 so far, has HATED IT with a capital H!

[Tripredacus]

CoffeeFiend, on 05 March 2012 - 04:44 PM, said:

Tripredacus, on 05 March 2012 - 09:54 AM, said:

Those silly guys. The reason there are 4 ARM versions is because ARM has 4 CPUs on the market that aren't compatible with each other.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. I didn't see them talk about 4 ARM versions but then again I just quickly glanced. Just like everyone, they looked at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\PackageIndex\Product. That does actually list 9 unique versions:
Edit: one funny comment from slashdot (out of numerous sites where pretty much everybody hates Win8):

OK I looked at the article but didn't see where that list was coming from. Regarding the different WOA versions, it came from the initial press release that MS was going to support ARM CPUs, but that each platform is not 100% compatible with each other. This shouldn't even be a real concern in the consumer market as the appropriate versions would only be made available to the device manufacturers, so to the every-day citizen, there would only be one ARM version.

Quote

each device from each manufacturer is unique and the software that runs on that device is unique. There is of course a standard instruction set and CPU architecture, one that is always improving (for example, adding 64-bit support and multiple cores), but many of the connections between the CPU and other components are part of the innovation each licensee brings to the ARM platform. Commonality across devices can occur under the hood, but is not applicable or significant to consumers. End-users are technically restricted from installing a different OS (or OS version) on a device or extending the OS, so this is generally not possible, and rarely supported by the device maker.

From: http://blogs.msdn.co...chitecture.aspx

This page also lists 3 of the manufacturers, nVidia, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm. So its possible that there are only 3 ARM versions being worked on.

[CoffeeFiend]

Tripredacus, on 05 March 2012 - 05:45 PM, said:

that each platform is not 100% compatible with each other

Yep, but all these differences are abstracted away by drivers and such. Same basic instruction set, calling the same libraries.

Tripredacus, on 05 March 2012 - 05:45 PM, said:

many of the connections between the CPU and other components are part of the innovation each licensee brings to the ARM platform

That's one of ARM's biggest strengths. There's so many companies making chips to address every specific need, with wildly varying specs, different peripherals, at every price point. We buy ARM chips from Freescale and NXP here (and a whole lot more non-ARM stuff)

As far as I'm concerned, zero editions of Win8 for ARM would be enough.