Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Surprised about Chrome - I don't like it at all, but for example - my daughter loves it because it looks cool

IE is annoying because it nags you all the time in that message bar at the bottom of the screen and I miss the search box. But I think fundamentally it's a very good browser.

My personal choice is FireFox - it's just an all-round fine browser with some good expansion options. However, I sometimes have to use IE when things don't work properly in FF.

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I don't like Chrome because I have a tough time trusting Google.

I did use Firefox for a while, and I have it as a backup browser, but I moved over to Seamonkey quite some time ago. Seamonkey has integrated browser/email (a bit like the original Netscape suite), and so uses the same code for both. It made it a little less resource-hungry on my old netbook, and now I use it as a matter of course. It offers many of the same add-ons and functionality as Firefox.

One that I've been intrigued by is QtWeb - a portable browser that's just a single 7MB file. It's not entirely without its issues, but it shows what can be done with such a small file.

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

In March 2003, Internet Explorer dominated the world browser use stats with 88% usage. Today their market share is only 14.7%. Here are the current rankings:

14.7% IE
31.1% Firefox
46.9% Chrome
4.2% Safari
2.1% Opera

Netscape, the one that started it all in 1994 was discontinued in Dec. 2007

There could be a bigger drop than that, soon. All those XP users (39% market share) can no longer upgrade Internet Explorer. They're denied IE9 and IE10 and, as of next year, will be denied any security updates to IE8. We're already seeing reports such as Google's apps not supporting IE8 (leaving XP users out in the cold).

Anyone who doesn't want to upgrade from XP just yet will be best advised to abandon IE for something more secure and up-to-date. That could cause IE's usage to drop even lower.

[yoshi]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

In March 2003, Internet Explorer dominated the world browser use stats with 88% usage. Today their market share is only 14.7%. Here are the current rankings:

14.7% IE
31.1% Firefox
46.9% Chrome
4.2% Safari
2.1% Opera

Netscape, the one that started it all in 1994 was discontinued in Dec. 2007

I never expected that Chrome has such a big market share, decisively No. 1. It's even larger than the combined share of IE and Firefox.

I heard somewhere that Chrome is a bit slow in correcting vulnerabilities of the brower compared to other mainstream browers, tho.

I miss Netscape. Micorsoft ousted so many good applications such as Lotus 123 ...I wonder anti-virus softwares such as Symantec might be the next.
yoshi

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I never expected that Chrome has such a big market share, decisively No. 1. It's even larger than the combined share of IE and Firefox.

I don't think it's really a surprise. Lots of people using Google Docs are pushed into Chrome because it's allegedly "designed to deliver the best experience for Google Docs". Then there's Chrome OS, and the Chromebook - all centred around Google Chrome. Not to mention Google's Android which comes bundled with Chrome mobile browser.

Neither FireFox nor Internet Explorer has that kind of platform with which to push people towards their browser. Whenever you set up a Windows computer, you're given that annoying "Browser Choice" question. Does the same apply on the Chromebook, or when using Chrome OS?

If Google only had the browser, I'm sure it would be a minority browser. It's just that they have so many other outlets with which to coerce people into following the Google mindset. All that surprises me is how many people seem content to let Google have more and more of their data.

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I thought I might update this thread a little bit.

I mentioned before that my first experience of Windows 8 was with a friend's new Toshiba 15.6" non-touchscreen laptop, and that the experience was not a pleasant one.

By hiding the tile mode, we were able to get a usable system that wasn't quite so bad.

Today, my friend is doing all of her social media, facebook, emails, browsing, TV catchup, even video calling ... on her Blackberry Playbook.

This is someone who absolutely detested touchscreens and still doesn't like them for the most part, but her initial experience with Windows 8 was so bad that when she saw her son's Playbook one day and got on with it quite well, she wanted to get one herself. Today she has one. She's had it for a month now and she's doing things that she could never manage to do on her laptop (the video calling, for example).

She still uses her laptop when she has to (internet banking, online shopping, and the occasional letter writing) but she rues the occasions when it's necessary. I think it's true to say that she regrets buying it given that she now does the majority of that which she needs to do on a tablet device that cost a quarter of the price.

I'm getting on okay with my Windows 8 laptop, although it spends more time on my desk with external monitor and keyboard/mouse due to work requirements. And I haven't looked at that awful "tile mode" for months.

I don't think we can call Windows 8 a success around here. It's chased my friend away from Windows, and I consider it a necessary evil.

[yoshi]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I've got my laptop with Win8 6days ago and I have to confess I'm a bit frustrated atm. I have another Win8 on one of my desktops but I usually use a Win7 machine preferably so virtually only little experiences with it.

I used the laptop at a Cafe last night and spent most of the time in order to find out, for example, how I can shut down the laptop. Maybe I have to buy a Win8 book. NO manuals came with the laptop. I'm writing this with a
Win7 PC of course.

Maybe without multi-touch screen , it must be hard to find & feel the good points of Win 8.
yoshi

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Maybe without multi-touch screen , it must be hard to find & feel the good points of Win 8.

The life-saver for me has been using Classic Shell to default to a traditional desktop with start button, so that I can avoid the tile mode. I'm sure the tile mode comes into its own when using the touchscreen (which I don't do very often) but for all normal, sensible, logical computing tasks it's just in the way.

[Ian]

[JSR]

[Pops]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Interesting you mention 'More serious was a problem with long freezes after waking up and even at boot up which really concerned me'
I had that problem for a while with a dell. The boffins on the end of the phone hadn't got a clue so after a long and frustrating couple of weeks I changed my desktop for a PB with 8.1 ready installed. I haven't had one single problem since then.
Like JSR I have it programmed to go straight to desktop mode when booting up or/and waking up.
On booting up the monitor password request page comes up in 8 seconds and then I have a further 12 seconds after inserting password before its up and running.

[patmoore]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

I guess it's been a year since I got my Win 8 desktop. I still wish I'd ignored the saleman's pitch and gone with a Win 7. We've acquired one more desktop and two laptops since then all with Win 8. It all cases we've installed Win 7 emulator software and have been happy. Once in a while, something will open in a Win 8 format and after brief cursing we'll change the association.

Today I ran into a new problem. We've been traveling for a couple of weeks and staying at different hotels with my Win 7 laptop and my wife's Win 8 notebook. She has had frequent problems connecting with WiFi getting a "limited connectivity" message despite a a strong signal with the result that she can't get online at all. Googling the problem reveals that it's a widespread issue. In a very limited number of reported cases people have been able to rectify it by updating to 8.1 but we can't do that if can't connect.

If I had the option to trade all four of my Win 8 machines for Win 7 I wouldn't hesitate.

I did an informal survey of about twenty members of our ski club who have Windows 8. Without exception, every single person has loaded a third party program to revert it to a Win 7 type display.

[JSR]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Just taken delivery of my under-£50 Windows 8.1 tablet. Makes my old favourite, my 9" Windows XP netbook, look chunky and a positive giant in comparison. I thought I'd never find a replacement for my netbook. Now I have. Crazy times.

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

Interesting you mention 'More serious was a problem with long freezes after waking up and even at boot up which really concerned me'
I had that problem for a while with a dell. The boffins on the end of the phone hadn't got a clue so after a long and frustrating couple of weeks I changed my desktop for a PB with 8.1 ready installed. I haven't had one single problem since then.
Like JSR I have it programmed to go straight to desktop mode when booting up or/and waking up.
On booting up the monitor password request page comes up in 8 seconds and then I have a further 12 seconds after inserting password before its up and running.

To be fair the problem I had with the freezing wasn't Dell's fault in this case. I have now changed the SSD for a bigger and more up to date model and this solved the problem (OCZ Arc 100 240GB on special offer at Currys/PC World ). The old SSD drive was installed by me in the first place to substitute a conventional hard drive. It's possible the old SSD is faulty.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Windows 8 - anyone here tried it, or thinking about it?

'Full fat' Windows 8.1 is running on small devices now because Intel has entered the low voltage/power CPU market with its Atom processors. Windows RT runs on ARM-based processors which dominate this sector. But there is no sign that Intel will become dominant at the expense of ARM and the finger-friendly aspect of Windows 8 and its app ecosystem is engineered to be hardware independent. It's not quite there yet (some less well written apps or some more complex apps are still not compatible with all versions of Windows) but in the end I believe you will see branding of Windows covering laptop, desktop, tablet and mobile devices regardless of hardware and without much distinction apart from the legacy desktop capability. It's already like this with Android, which runs seamlessly on both Intel Atom and ARM-based hardware.

Ian