Anyone here running Windows 8? I know it's not officially out yet, but early releases have been available for testing for quite a while.

I have Vista on my laptop, and I detest it. I was planning to upgrade it to Win7 a while ago, but decided not to as I only use it rarely. Now I believe that Microsoft are/will be offering upgrades to Win8 at very reasonable rates, so maybe it's time to reconsider.

However, I have some concerns:

* It is designed for touch screens & tablets - what is it like to use on a conventional machine (mouse/touchpad/keyboard input)?
* How well does software designed for Vista/Win7 run on it?
* How pleasant is it to use?

Note that I normally use Linux, and only use Windoze when there's no alternative, so minor awkwardness in the OS won't be an issue. Just so long as it isn't as bleedin' obstructive as Vista!

I wouldn't go for a brand new OS when it comes out.... Better to wait a little while for all the buggs to get sorted first!

Win7 is a really capable OS!

I have had it from the first release, yes it is built around touch screens, and is very clunky with a keyboard and mouse, 7 is better in every way for your bog standard PC.
You may find 7 will come down in price too, you can still get it from Software for Students at a reasonable price, if you have kids or grand kids still at school or college

They are doing an offer from end of October for $39.99 for upgrades until January so don't wait too long.

I've just upgraded vista to 7 - boy o boy what an improvement.

I have some XP machines in the office which cannot directly upgrade to 7 without going to vista first, however 8 will upgrade XP so will be trying it out early November.

I was a die hard XP person - then I tried Windows 7 and discovered it's actually better, turn off all the unnecessary eye candy cr*p and and it just works. Vista is junk I grant you.

I've tried all varieties of Linux tbh and sadly found that overall Windows 7 is just so much easier to use than any of them.

I used Win7 in one of my previous jobs - I must admit (as a die-hard Windoze hater) that it was very good...

Win 8 is a development of Win7 to make it work on touch driven devices. My understanding is that the underlying architecture is the same. Not sure there's much point upgarding a non touch device to win 8.

Stu

quote:

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Originally posted by D Beddows
I was a die hard XP person - then I tried Windows 7 and discovered it's actually better, turn off all the unnecessary eye candy cr*p and and it just works. Vista is junk I grant you.

I've tried all varieties of Linux tbh and sadly found that overall Windows 7 is just so much easier to use than any of them.

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Well it wasn't going to be perfect was it

I have been running the RTM of windows 8 since it was released to MSDN and its awesome, Don't use the touch screen metro stuff (although im getting a tablet because it looks awesome and can do real multi tasking)

I have found win 8 to be functionally as good as windwos 7 but quicker, nicer features such as native ISO mounting and my battery lasts better so winner

I've run win 7 since the last RC version (currently running x64 win7 pro) and it works better than any other OS i've tried, its even quite good with ancient software (anything XP would run and more)
so I won't be changing to 8 anytime soon....


the only thing I'd add is that with any OS a fresh install always works better than an upgrade

Windows versions with even numbers .... nuff said.