Windows 7 or 8?

[renegadeimp]

Best thing to do caro, is try them all and stick with the one that suits YOU the most.

[adridude]

I'll draw a line under all of this with this commercial string:

 

 

I'm sure that will put people in their places

[adridude]

just to add, Apple surpassed Microsoft back in 2009 in terms of market share

[renegadeimp]

Thats on phone platforms. Not desktop or servers

[yorkrose26]

I wasn't going to get windows 8 because for me at the time on my desktop windows 7 seemed fine, however I got a special promotion discount, and decided to roadtest. Even though I have not got touch screen I have got use to it. Yes sometimes I still go to the bottom left for the 'start button'. but actually the way it is now is much more intuitive, as instead of going through a list of menu and drop downs to find the program you want (I had a lot), you can now just type what you want ('Word' for example and it opens up that particular program if it is the only one or just searches the computer for all with that in the title, this I feel is a very neat little function. The 'metro/live tiles are I think mainly designed for touch-screen (though can be used with a mouse as well), but there are loads of little useful things (such as file management search, and ease of connections to internet and wireless printers, that for me make windows 8 a good choice

[dx100uk]

you can do all that in 7

 

 

dx

[locutus]

You can use the search in Windows 7, however Windows 8 seems to give a plain English answer. It has cut out the jargon somewhat.... maybe it just "feels" better and more intuitive. Also, you can just type from the windows 8 start screen, without clicking anything (Metro is actually the wrong name, as a German company threatened to sue Microsoft over the name, as they had it copyrighted, so Microsoft dropped it)

 

I do find Windows 8 updates drivers and other such stuff without informing the user... I know Vista took it too far with asking permissions, but 8 seems to install updates without any notification at all, and if the driver fails it leaves the end user with no clue as to what has gone wrong... other versions you can say "It said it wanted to update the graphics driver, then it crashed, so I'll roll back that driver" but 8 makes that kind of diagnostics a lot harder. Also, Vista and 7 have the network troubleshooter, where you can see visually quite easy where the internet connection is failing, and click on a X and it show what the problem is... I hope they bring this back with the June update.

 

So far for me the judge is still out.

[renegadeimp]

As i said way back in the thread, im waiting for SP1 at least, to be released before i sit down with it properly. There are just too many bugs and oversights.

[locutus]

The early release of Windows 8.1 should be available from end of June

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22714048

[Nystagmite]

I have a laptop with Win 7 and a mobile and laptop with Win 8. Win 7 is much easier to use on the laptop. Not had any problem with using Win 8 on the mobile yet.

 

There's no shut down button on Win 8, which is a right pain.

[andydd]

If you use Win8 its certainly worth adding back the Start button, there are many 3rd party providers who provide such an add-on, apart from the Metro interface its otherwise almost identical to Win7.

 

Andy

[Conniff]

Microsoft are adding the Start button back but it will only lead to the Metro.

 

There is already the equivalent of the start button in the bottom left corner, just left click and you have:

 

 

I think the only difference is 'File Explorer' used to be called 'Computer'.

 

As for it being almost the same as Windows 7, I would agree. Boot up, hit Escape and log in, hit Escape again and you would never know you were not on 7 except this is much faster.

[locutus]

Windows 8.1 will bring back the option of booting to desktop mode, and adding a new Windows 8 flavoured, but styled a lot on windows 7 start menu.

 

Here is a pic I found whilst trawling the web.