Hi gals and guys!

As the launch date approaches and upgrade prices seem to be very attractive is is worth it?

From what I read there was a poll of 50k W8 users (BEta testers or sth) and 53% prefered W7, 25 W8 and 20 XP. What do you think?

I wouldn't bother, I have been using the full release version at work for a few weeks now and apart from the new user interface which limits the OS very badly, its basically windows 7 in the background.

One of the joys of having a full MS Enterprise license means we can get to use all the new products weeks before they become available to the masses.

I looked into it a little, and I'll be sticking with Win7 for the foreseeable. Took 'em 8 years to get a decent O/S after XP, you think they came up with something better than 7 after just three years :think:

Still running the release candidate on a VM and detest it. Metro (or whatever they're calling it now a German supermarket complained) is not designed for a mouse but feels geared for a tablet instead and you can still get to a relatively normal desktop, just more limited. And the full screen "Metro" style apps are grotesque and not really Windows any more with no ability to minimise etc.

Couldn't believe it when I tested Server 2012 and saw they'd put Metro on that too (if you install the Desktop Experience bits and bats - many will as sometimes it's just quicker than Powershell for doing simple things).

From what I gather the gaming industry has slated Windows 8 also as there are serious compatibility issues and with things like RT you'll have to go through the marketplace to get games. Then there's the x86 vs ARM debate.

From what I've seen it's a mess and would avoid for anything other than tablet use - it's not even remotely appropriate for the home or work PC.

I got a full copy through uni - I like it. Metro isn't great, but the underlying OS has some nice features on it. Worth it as an upgrade from 7? No. I only installed it as I was swapping to an SSD so seemed like a good excuse.

I boot mine up and click straight on the Desktop tile, that's all I'll see of metro unless I search for something in start.

Unless you have a need to be cutting edge or you have a touchscreen device I'd say no.

Rule of thumb for Windows anyway is to wait until SP1 is released. MS habitually release systems too early and it's not until SP1 that they get it the way it should be.

That is what I was reading on W8 around the net.. rahter damning and dissapointing reviews. The only reason for me to upgrade to a newer OS is firstly I am still on Vista (I know, I know!) and secondly it's been on the machine for so long without re-install that it is ridiculously slow and ate up all the available HDD space (I have a small Raptor 10k RPM for the OS and mission critical soft i.e. BF3 ). Also, upgrading from Vista to W8 is rumoured to cost only £30? Is that right?

Would the same pricing policy apply if I wanted to upgrade from Vista to W8, as that is my preference at the moment.

So I either spend £600 for new mobo, gfx, cpu and memory or just buy a SSD and newer windows OS? I'd stay with current hardware but I think I burned out my CPU running it at 3.2 from 2.6 stock for years - temps were alwyas good and silver thermal paste is being change regularly.

What do you think?

I have heard Ms was making Win8 upgrades cheap to get the numbers up. For £30 it might be worth moving from Vista to8.

SSD would be good investment for a boot drive. win8 is tablet centric but can be made to work on a desktop. I suspect the truth is that it isn't as bad as some of the OTT reviews make out.

IMHO I'd go for the SSD and just try and see how the rest of it works. Been very impressed with my cheepo SSD so far but that's running 'nix on an old HP dual core AMD laptop. Boots in 5sec shuts down in 2.

Only every other release of Windoze is ever any good. Since both XP and 7 were better than Vista, 8 is going to be rubbish.

Edited 5 October, 201213 yr by KenONeill

Just what I'd say too Ken - I take that approach too.

Plus I don't like what they've done with the interface. Fine, give people the option of one optimised for a tablet or touchscreen, just don't make it default!

Likewise - much prefer Windows 7 - first thing I did on the PC I am testing W8 on was to install a third party desktop.

They could fix it, if it asked you if you are on a touch device when you install it (or better detected) - if not put a traditional desktop ui, if on a touch device ask you if you want to configure the metro ui.

Paul

Opinions so far swing towards Wndows 7, which means almost 3x more money needed to upgrade the OS, based on £84 upgrade to W7 compared to (unconfirmed) £30 to upgrade to W8...

Perhaps I should remortgae the house and go for Retina Dispaly 17" Mac?

Edited 5 October, 201213 yr by Jabozuma

What OS are you running now? So from that I take it you're looking to upgrade the OS on a current PC?

That will affect the pricing.

I have Windows 7 on an old machine, four years tech I think.

It can still play BF3 on 1366x784 (32"TV) decently, but not as good as I'd like to have it.

Also, OS boot time is waaay longer than making a cuppa :(

So new OS on SSD or just grit my teeth and spend £600 on new mobo, gfx, mem, and cpu + SSD...

or just upgrade the OS with new SSD to help boot times but so much with BF3 frame rates - I do get my ar$e kicked recently due to that...

SSD's for the boot/ OS partition are where it's at. Put in a 128GB SSD in my work lappy (Dell E6520 8GB), and kept the 500GB SATA disk in the DVD slot for running VM's on occasionally and the boot time is about 10 seconds. In fact is takes longer for it to POST than it does for the OS to fire up, it's that quick.

Worst thing about SSD's is that you get spoilt. You then use a machine without one and you go "WTF is this?" - they're painful. Our home lappy is like that. Gonna have to save up.

Oh, and they're not as long lived as normal disks even with the TRIM command being supported by most BIOS's / UEFI, although they are improving. We put a load in a SAN at work and they all failed very quickly. Shame. :(

Im going to upgrade as its going to be £25

Im looking forward to the fact that even win8 has hyperV capabilites built in... the new PC im going to get once Haswell comes out will have at least 32gb ram.

Ok, what I am getting from the responses here is that W8 is only an option due to (potentially) very affordable upgrade price otherwise steer clear with a long barge pole.

Otherwise W7 is the daddy!

I have a question on W8 though.

It was mentioned that it has some camp Metro interface for touchscreen devices as a default. Can you switch it without an intimate knowledge of Necrosoft to a normal desktop for mouse use and whether things like Battlefield3 and other FPS titles, not to mention 2003 Office will work no probs? Same goes for drivers?

Checked on ebuyer last night and SSD and W7 upgrade would cost me &140...

Metro cannot be disabled, W8 always boots into Metro. You then just need to click on the desktop icon with your mouse to get a normal desktop, well as normal as it can be with W8. The default W8 has no start menu, instead clicking in the left corner takes you back to Metro. To get over this you need to install a third party tool to get a start menu of sorts back.

Metro works perfectly well with a mouse, its not just touch screen.

Vcds is not working (at least in 64 bit version). Few gadgets are ok, mostly dictionary in ie10.