Windoze 8

I have been reading some disturbing things about MS's new OS. It looks like it will be horrible for desktop users, unless you have a touchscreen. Left out is the question of why you'd possibly want a touch screen on a desktop, of course. And there's the whole thing about learning a new way of using the computer all over again.

So I think I should bite the bullet and rush out to buy a Windoze 7 PC while they're still around. The advantage of this is that they'll likely fall in price as Win8 machines come out.

The other option is to bite the 16-inch shell and switch to Linux. I know people sing the praises of Linux, but there's the same problem as with Windoze 8: learning to use the PC all over again. Not to mention that Linux's most salient feature,the fact that you can customize it, presupposes a skill with programming lacking in 99.9999999999% of all computer users.

Unless there's a Linux version that mimics or works exactly like Win7, or even Vista.

Is there?

Good thing I have a Sams, Costco, Office Depot, Office Max and Best Buy within 3 miles of my home...

You don't need to have a touch screen to use Windows 8.

95% of the time, I wasn't using any of the new interface on the new Win 8 machine I set up. Most of standard desktop is still there, and works as it does in Win 7.

Quote: TheCesspit

You don't need to have a touch screen to use Windows 8.

I know. But all reviews say much of what's new in it requires a touch screen. I refuse to add more controlling gizmos for my desktop PC. The mouse and keyboard are enough.

Quote:

95% of the time, I wasn't using any of the new interface on the new Win 8 machine I set up. Most of standard desktop is still there, and works as it does in Win 7.

Yes, but... how hard is it to find? What about side bars and other junk? I really don't like much of what I've been reading about it, but as usual I'd better try it hands on.

I said pretty much the same things about Office 2007, and I was proved right. a few months ago we got Office 2010 at the office, and I HATE it passionately. Everything takes either longer, or requires more steps, or both, or is so well-hidden I can't find it. I can live with that, because I don't use it that much at home. But I coudln't live with an OS that was like that.

Did I tell you about the keyboard that insisted on opening iTunes whenever I hit the ALT key? I only use the ALT key, oh, hundreds of times a day. It took me nearly 3 days of intensive web surfing and a dozen calls to computer wizards before I decided to junk the keyboard and retrieve the old one.

I've been using Linux-based for 5 years. There is much that has changed since then, that makes Linux more recognizable to windoze users. Some versions even come configures with a secure copy in memory, so if bad things happen, push a button and answer 2 or 3 easy questios to RE-LOAD the original undamaged version. Such versions render a Virus Scanner near-obsolete... just nuke it and redo. But if one still does old-fashioned things like storing e-mails in the computer, one might find even this tech-advance a nuisance. Certainly, changes in habit and outlook are needed for most people. Leaving the mail at the Post Office and reading it there is but just one... no need for an e-mail client and its inherent virus problems. Browsers, Flash, and Javascript are other real concerns..Bad and lazy programming/scripting can be far more dangerous. I trust Linux more than other OS's because A.) The internet infrastructure uses a super-set of Linux, B.) The denizens of scriptors are very careful in tying up loose ends, and closing holes... its a peer-oriented language.

There IS life outside of Windows OS that can be streamlined, and uncluttered, without hidden file systems that contain duplicate registries needing specialized liscensed software to unclog. Of course Housekeeping the computer is an art not recognized by most users... theres Java jars and files brimming with picture-pieces and scriptlets taking up to 1/2 Gb. Not too many people clean them out. A streamlined OS puts all things similar in one or possibly two places, especially browser-related. A user can do it yourself. One just needs to put 15 minutes a month towards it.

I've come to understand the term sheeple... most people have stopped thinking for themselves, and let someone else do it. Great, as long as you know and trust "someone else".. I mean, one doesn't want a 401K disaster in 2008 for computers this time around, do they. We're better off without that problem.

Quote: 98Clubs

Certainly, changes in habit and outlook are needed for most people.

I call that a dealbreaker.

Quote:

Bad and lazy programming/scripting can be far more dangerous.

How does non-programming/non-scripting rank?

Quote:

I trust Linux more than other OS's because A.) The internet infrastructure uses a super-set of Linux, B.) The denizens of scriptors are very careful in tying up loose ends, and closing holes... its a peer-oriented language.

yeah, that stopped making sense to me at "A.)"

Quote:

I've come to understand the term sheeple... most people have stopped thinking for themselves, and let someone else do it.

That's a little bit (ie massively <w>) unfair.

I've heard Linux users comapred to people who prefer to drive a car with a manual transmission, and who like to tinker with the engine. Fair enough. I can even understand it. I like to "tinker" with food, if you want to call cooking that; even to the point of wanting to do things like sauces and dressings from scratch.

But I prefer an automatic transmission and I leave all tinkering with the engine to the mechanic. Others prefer bottled dressings and they leave the cooking to someone else. There's no right or wrong in either decision.

Nareed, what applications do you use on your home desktop the most? Everything is becoming so web-driven these days, the choice of OSes is becoming more and more "eh, whatever" (at least it seems that way to me).

I've been using Linux as my primary OS for 8 or 9 years now. I am definitely a "power-user," but the Linux distributions have come a long way since then. The most recent versions of Ubuntu (and my favorite sub-distro, Xubuntu) are very easy to use, and you don't need to be a programmer to make things work.

If you use office applications at home, LibreOffice is a drop-in replacement for MS Office. I don't create documents much, but I use a lot of spreadsheets, and I've found it to be sufficient compared to Excel for that purpose.

The recent versions of Ubuntu come with a user interface (dubbed Unity) that suffers from a lot of the same problems as Win8 - namely it appears to have been optimized for touch-devices. That's why I prefer Xubuntu. It uses the Xfce environment for the user interface, which I find much more intuitive. To me it doesn't seem that much different from Windoze...you've got your menus, icons, toolbars, etc. You right click to configure stuff...there's a decent settings editor for stuff like screen savers, desktop backgrounds, keyboard tweaks, etc. But like I said, I'm a power user, so my opinion is probably tainted :)

You can try Xubuntu by downloading and burning a CD image, and then booting up your computer using the CD. It won't touch your hard drive, it will just run in RAM and let you see how it all works (it will be kind of slow). I would suggest trying this out, or doing the same thing with stock Ubuntu, and then doing the same thing with Win8.

Or just follow your own advice and run out and buy a Win7 machine now, and put it off for a few years ;)

Quote: AcesAndEights

Nareed, what applications do you use on your home desktop the most?

Most of the time I run BOINC, Firefox and casual games downloaded from the web (but not web-based). The rest I'll run Office, Acrobat and some very simple image-handling software. Rarely some windows-based games on CD or DVD like The Sims.

Quote:

You can try Xubuntu by downloading and burning a CD image, and then booting up your computer using the CD.

I tried that years ago with some other flavor of Linux. I forget the name. the selling point was that it could boot from the CD. Long story short, I never figured out how to run anything with it, like a web browser (which probably wasn't even included, but who knows).

Quote:

Or just follow your own advice and run out and buy a Win7 machine now, and put it off for a few years ;)

That seems rather good advice ;)

Quote: Nareed

I know. But all reviews say much of what's new in it requires a touch screen. I refuse to add more controlling gizmos for my desktop PC. The mouse and keyboard are enough.

Shrug. All I know is I didn't need to use a touch screen for any of the new gizmos. My mouse worked fine on them. There was no new junk I -had- to use. I did use some of it, for interests sake.

As with all new technology, try before you buy. I kinda liked it, but happy enough with Win7 at home right now, so won't be upgrading.

Quote: Nareed

Most of the time I run BOINC, Firefox and casual games downloaded from the web (but not web-based). The rest I'll run Office, Acrobat and some very simple image-handling software. Rarely some windows-based games on CD or DVD like The Sims.

I had never heard of BOINC specifically, but had seen many of its ilk. That's no problem; the Linux distribution of that probably works better than the Windows.

Firefox is fine (I prefer Chrome, but both work quite well on Linux). Casual games you're SOL, along with any CD or DVD-based Windows games.

Office has analogs like I had described before, Acrobat as well. For image-handling software, it depends how complicated you want to get. There is the GIMP, which is very powerful but hard to use (IMO). I've never really used it for anything other than cropping, resizing, and converting. There are probably other more appropriate applications for this subset of image-handling functionality.

Quote:

Quote:

You can try Xubuntu by downloading and burning a CD image, and then booting up your computer using the CD.

I tried that years ago with some other flavor of Linux. I forget the name. the selling point was that it could boot from the CD. Long story short, I never figured out how to run anything with it, like a web browser (which probably wasn't even included, but who knows).

Like I said, things have improved enormously in the past 5-6 years. The "run off the CD" thing isn't a long-term solution, by the way, just a "test drive" functionality. But yeah, if you couldn't even find a web browser, that's pretty awful. The Ubuntu or Xubuntu live CDs definitely ship with Firefox right there in the applications menu.

Quote: Nareed

Unless there's a Linux version that mimics or works exactly like Win7, or even Vista.

If you switch to Linux, I recommend Fedora.