Windows 8

Don't bother..... Installed full version 3 months ago and uninstalled a week later. A tablet interface is a tablet interface. A PC is not a tablet. What improvements there are deeper down (and there are some) are not worth the silly layer on top. And neither are more clicks to get do what took a click or two before.

Want to spring clean your PC? Install Windows 8, reformat and install any other OS you can think of.

@Mac: Just completed my download of Windows 8 yesterday ......
So, what do I do with it now?

Sadly, one can almost say the same thing for Ubuntu 12.04. Same basic problem, I think.

I've persisted with it, because it's the long term support version, and the old folk around here need that; but it's really a tablet interface I have no need of on a PC. This PC was the "TV set" for a few years for pity's sake! It has a 23 inch monitor. (Well worth it if you're thinking of getting one).

One does get accustomed to the interface after a while, I have to say. For one thing the Ubuntu changes lead one back toward the true path, where one types instructions, and away from the deceptions of the point and click world. To find less used programs you have to type their names in "Dash" now, instead of digging around in deep menu structures.

Worst thing is that the sound was borked, and Wine doesn't seem to be interested in GTA any more. Sound required a fix I've forgotten. (Just remember you need to do a restart - of the sound server, but the lazy way is to just restart everything - before the changes come into effect. If any of you has a pulse audio sound problem since changing I can dig up the solution again if you don't find it yourself.)

Ja. "New improved version" and someone's done an experiment that involves messing up the quite adequate way you had of interfacing with the screen, and someone else has destroyed your sound ... For no good reason at all, surely?

Reanie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @Mac: Just completed my download of Windows 8
> yesterday ......
> So, what do I do with it now?

Don't just take my word for it. Try it, if you feel the same, you get a spring clean out of it Else keep it until you get more feedback from others?

But maybe slow_eddy is correct. One just needs to get used to it, although this is not like the new Office ribbons. This is just... silly. I have picked up that Ubuntu is not what is used to be...

It's been overtaken by Mint Linux according to Distrowatch ... But really this is just Debian overtaking Debian (and GNU overtaking GNU if you bring something like SuSE into the picture).

In a sense it'll "always be what it was" - ie. the original painless Desktop Linux - more or less without touching a configuration file. There were desktop Linuces before, but it took all sorts of fiddling to get the horrible winmodem on one's laptop to make tweety noises, and even more fiddling to get sound working. Ubuntu managed to get to the point where you click to install, and really all distros that can do that now are sort of running a bit of Ubuntu even if they don't acknowledge it.

(Sorry. Gotta go sneak out the toilet window. There's an assassin from GNU who's just gone past the window looking very livid...)

Ah.. just in parting ... if you want the old Windows Desktop feel, I'm pretty sure there's a Linux distro out there that can give you exactly what you desire. (Or near enough for you to only have to self-configure a tiny bit of it).

Linuces.... I have learned at new word just this side of 50

It's possible that it's a word with fairly restricted usage (eg. only really used by the Osprey tribe of South-Central Africa). "Unices" is one that has been adopted reasonably widely, so "Linuces" would be inherited from that usage.

... And actually I don't know whether I've seen "Linuces" before, or whether it just "spilled out" as a consequence of exposure to "Unices"...

... That's almost interesting, isn't it? The one thing I'm almost certain I didn't do is "think it up", so it's perhaps an example of some emergent property of an essentially chaotic language system (is that the correct term?).

Well I could almost apologise to Ubuntu ...

They steer you quite strongly toward the more tablet-like interface, as mentioned above there, but there's a "clicky" way to opt out of this after all. As there should be. Linux is all about choice, isn't it? Well it's all about all sorts of other things too, but choice is one of the things it's all about.

They've hidden the choice away, that's all. If you really want, you can log in in "gnome" mode. There's a little button next to your username that you should try clicking. The rest will all be self evident.

Phew! They've bordered on forcing one to use a particular form of interaction by the subtlety of it all, but there's still choice. Freedom to choose a worse way of doing things is not something to be taken away from users lightly.

So, I did the brave step and installed Windows 8. Except for the colourful Start screen, which I'll have to learn to work with, the rest of the stuff seems alright.
I did have some difficulties with the new Lenovo laptop.
There's a "known" error "WerFault.exe - Application error occurs". which is caused by the Lenovo 'Onekey Theater' application. If you uninstall it, the base Windows functionality works - like right-click on Dir structure. This does not happen when you do a "clean" install, only when you want to keep your current settings (which I wanted to do).
That's beside the fact that the Lenovo Energy Management and USB 3.0 drivers are not compatible and need to be uninstalled before you can continue. There's a list of drivers that must be installed in the Lenovo product forum, will try them out tonight.
I don't know if other laptops/PCs have similar problems.

From what I've heard, that's quite unusual, right? Windows not just working out the box, I mean. I would've thought people like Lenovo would've been working on being Windows 8 ready for a year or more already by now, and would've at least swept any outstanding problems under the carpet for later.

Well once you're done there, with all that memory you'll be able to instal one of the virtual machine apps, and make yourself a Linux sandbox in there that runs as if it's just part of the rest of the system to outward appearances.

Why? Well "sandbox" can't be such a terrible idea, surely?

@Slow_Eddy: Now why would I want to go and spoil my nice Microsoft environment when I (currently) only need to be able to work in .Net (Visual Studio 2012)?
But, at some stage I'll have to do the "Java" thing as well, then I'll take out my spades and buckets to play in the sand with a cuppa in the hand.

... Linus ...

Yes, I suppose after installing Virtualbox and Silmarilion Hobbit Linux one might just get a "and now what?" kind of feeling.

Although really "what" is simply a matter of finding some way of breaking something, so it needn't be a difficult question. Just imagine: you're in the missile silo, the operators have gone out for their tea break and left you there all alone, bored and inquisitive (ie. lethal) ... and you think ... "I wonder what would happen ..."

Well in this scenario it's some other planet that starts sprouting the pretty little mushrooms, so it's at least someone else's problem.

... can't find it ... Far Side cartoon with moon critters looking at all the purty mushrooms appearing on Earth and saying "Oooo"

@ Reanie - just had a wireless card driver problem on a Dell XPS (relatively old machine but still the best ) . Could get no update, but it sort of worked. Could live with that, but not with the start screen.... ! Too much navigation required to jump between programs.

@Mac: Haven't had much time to play around on the new laptop - will hopefully be able to do so during the weekend. I'll see how I manage with the blocks .

flying quite ohkay for me. probably cause it came preinstalled on my Fujitsu lifebook. a breeze

Not surprisingly, the upcoming update will see the return of the Start button. Took them a while to figure that one out, but at least they are listening - this time.Money talks.

Picked up there are alternatives available http://www.extremetech.com/computing/141702-how-to-bring-the-start-menu-and-button-back-to-windows-8 but I'd rather wait for the real deal.

Hi Mac,
I've gotten past the "loss" of the Start button links by putting my most important links on the bottom taskbar. The only other time I really use the new Start screen, is when I want to play Minesweeper.
R

He he.....

I have about 25 important apps

i hate apps. i really do.

I was forced to downgrade to Windows 8 at work. It is blatantly clear that the people who designed the interface did not take into account people with OCD or any sense of organisation. I can't understand why Windows 8 and Unity have done away with the menu.

Not to worry though, I found an "app" which simulates the old start menu. www.pokki.com You can even set it so that it pops the menu up when you press the Windows key instead of switching to the tablet interface.