I wonder if they’ll have the nerve to keep XP Mode in it this time. (Surely that’s one feature missing from Windows 8 that’s holding some people back?)
I am a huge OS X fan, that being said I also use Linux and Windows 8.1 as I do a lot of cross platform development.
StarDock makes 2 programs, Start8 and ModernMix, that make windows 8.1 much more usable, and allow you to use many of the features that were stripped and are being reintroduced back in windows 10.
- You get the start menu back.
- You can use all “modern” apps in windows if you so choose.
- You aren’t forced to use those gawd awful block screens and menu screens to launch apps.
Windows 8.1 is actually very fast and usable once you learn how to tweak the crap out of it.
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Wait, what? Windows is still a thing?
That seems fair. The first time I saw multiple desktops on KDE - back around 2000 - my first thought was that it was a complete rip of the multiple desktops years earlier in Windows 3.x.
This was included in the free “Windows Power Tools” downloads, and in the Windows Resource Kit for 3.0 and 3.1.
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Multiple desktops on *nix predate Windows 3.0 by a year. Xerox Parc were the original creators of virtual desktops though.
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Given that, traditionally, every other version of Windows sucks (think XP, Vista, 7, 8…) it looks like they’re…trying to skip straight to the next shitty one? Not sure who thought that was a good idea.
Or X Windows
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I’m guessing Windows 9 was released back in the 19A0s.
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i hate this. at some point peeps just have to say 'nuffs E nuff
It’s a long time ago but I think Apple almost missed out on 9 too. The way I remember it they planned to jump from OS 8 to OS X but decided to release a 9 in the end.
Bring back Windows 5, that’s what I say…
Hello,
I am actually looking forward to the release of Windows 10. As with most recent versions of Windows (8.0, 8.1) the most interesting developments are usually under the hood in areas like security and networking. But, sadly, everyone likes to focus on the eye candy.
I’ve been using Windows 8 at home (work still uses a prior version) and been impressed by its speed and stability. As for the lack of the Start Menu, if you can’t get over not having it, numerous third-party options exist, both commercial and open source.
It’s not so much ‘eye candy’ as ‘deliberately horrible UI’ though. It constantly does stupid, annoying things like disappear the desktop back to those stupid tiles, and, once more, messes with alt-f4, among other absurdities. To be frank, it’s about bloody time they caught up with speed, security and the like, but what most people notice, and, sadly, care about, more than security and stability, is how to work the damn thing. I’ve been using Windows since it was a thing, and I find Win8 confusing and frustrating on a daily basis (like ‘more than normal Windows’ confusing and frustrating).
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I have been suffering with Windows 8 one one computer here at home. Everything has been wrong about it.
Wrongly detects the memory card reader.
Finder is broken in a number of different ways.
Default programs where installed in Norwegian and English. Couldn’t start programs by their Norwegian names and had to guess what the English name was in order to use the finder.
Lenovo Trackpad is broken in windows. Default configuration for the middle key is stuck, and the Lenovo configuration utilities that work with XP, Vista and Win 7 do not work in Win 8.
Slow network transfers.
Operating system taking 30GB out of 128GB SSD HD.
Jumping to Metro for any reason and Metro and Desktop programs fighting for focus.
Hate it and this really seems to be win 7 so its hopefully better.
I installed Windows 8 on my dev machine at work. After 3 months, I had to get rid of it. Dev Studio just does NOT like working in the Windows 8 security environment… It’s more secure for your average user, hooray, I just wanted the ability to run as admin all the time again (there is a way to hack it in, but it’s insecure and frankly pretty annoying). Microsoft, how about you trust me to sensibly use my OS, yeah? Or make your Dev Studio so that it doesn’t require all kinds of stupid permissions.
Otherwise, I don’t actually mind the OS. I like the Metro UI instead of the start menu for the bigger tiles to start up regularly used programs when I felt like using the mouse to start programs. Though my primary use of the start menu is “hit start button on the KB, type in the name of the app I want to run”, which I could do just as easily on Win 8, so it’s kind of a wash either way.
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grub ~ it comes with most distros
I got a Lenovo laptop too and holy crap was it larded down with crapware when I got it. I spent a good couple of hours uninstalling stuff (annoying because some stuff had to be uninstalled via add/remove programs, and other stuff from the start screen) and tweaking some of the more brain damaged defaults (trackpads are not touchscreens, they shouldn’t scroll like one! The trackpad also had way too many gestures programmed and it was always getting confused at the slightest touch). Once you get it stripped of all of the crud it is a very nice laptop. I basically never use the start screen and can’t stand apps that insist on going full screen unless they’re full on games, but that’s pretty easy to avoid. Windows App store is dead to me.
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Two of those are probably true (judging by Windows 8), the last is probably horribly false…
I always get annoyed by having my car branded on the steering wheel, and occasionally yell at the logo “YES YOU ARE A TOYOTA! Good job!” That seems to be the way of things though, every OS (even the Linux flavors) have to make sure that you know that you are indeed using the product you bought/installed, and that someone didn’t sneak into your office, under cover of darkness, and install something else.
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Though upgrading to any Ubuntu with Unity might make you think that had happened…
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