Best buy Deal of the Day

[Apache Warrior]

4/27/2013
Win 8 Pro Upgrade for $79.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Misc/Dea...ref=167&loc=01
Apache

[K PhaNTOM]

Microsoft couldn't pay me $79.99 to upgrade. Windows 8 is as terrible as the ending of "Spartacus."

[Rand{CLR}]

Microsoft couldn't pay me $79.99 to upgrade. Windows 8 is as terrible as the ending of "Spartacus."

Which Spartacus? Because the Starz series ended pretty well.

-Rand

[goldenfooler]

did you upgrade apache? If so what do you think of it?

[Apache Warrior]

I haven't upgraded yet. I will pick it up from the store when I go to lunch. I will install it sometime this weekend if I get a chance. Most PC users hate the Win 8 Start Screen, but you can change it to show the traditional start menu PC Users are used to.
Apache

[goldenfooler]

you can also input a normal start button.
I will be curious to see if you think it is worth the upgrade.

[K PhaNTOM]

Which Spartacus? Because the Starz series ended pretty well.

-Rand

You thought that ending was well? They pretty much lost everything. I get the whole emotional ending part but I was hoping that the antagonist would perish as well.

[K PhaNTOM]

Most PC users hate the Win 8 Start Screen, but you can change it to show the traditional start menu PC Users are used to.
Apache

You cannot without modding it. You can have a windows interface without the start button that resembles Windows 7 but you are still missing that corner where the Start button houses all your Apps... and that's another thing, you now have apps. Not programs, you have apps. Those annoying things that do half the stuff that a program does to save on CPU power and RAM. It took me 5 minutes to find "My Computer."

[trip202]

I don't like Windows 8 at all, they need to hurry up and make a Windows 9 to get past this failure.

[Marv]

got mine for $15 when i bought my computer off newegg...windows 8 is everything windows 7 is just with extra features really...why hate on it?

[Apache Warrior]

When Win 95 came out people hated it and stayed with Win 3.1. Then 98 came out and people hated it. Believe it or not most people did not like XP when it was first released. When Microsoft released Win ME people hated it. Actually, everyone hated it and with good reason.
Apache

[Qicmee]

Also general hate for Vista (the clunker before Win7). It got patched eventually.

[Dead...Again]

Most people are hating on Windows 8 before really giving it a chance. I have used it a little bit, and it has some really nice features. They have drastically improved boot times by saving and restoring the kernel files. If you want to open an application, just start typing the apps name (kinda like the feature in Win7, but you don't have to hit the windows key first). Also, in general it feels a little snappier than Win7. Their biggest failure in my opinion was going so whole-hog on Metro.

[NateTheBrewer]

Most people are hating on Windows 8 before really giving it a chance. I have used it a little bit, and it has some really nice features. They have drastically improved boot times by saving and restoring the kernel files. If you want to open an application, just start typing the apps name (kinda like the feature in Win7, but you don't have to hit the windows key first). Also, in general it feels a little snappier than Win7. Their biggest failure in my opinion was going so whole-hog on Metro.

I have yet to install it at home, but have had to administer it at work. Unfortunately, I will have to eventually install it at home so I don't fall behind the curve... With Win7 I was in the beta and tested the RC's so I was well versed in it by the time it came out... with Metro, not so much.

The problems I have had with it thus far have been the philosophy of removing things to streamline the operating system. Gradually over each version, they have hid more and more things from the average user, to make the operating system easier to use, and this is great... The thing is, up until now, the original features that were hidden were still present in the operating system, and could be used if you knew where to find them.

With Win8, they have actually removed tons of snap-ins, management consoles, control panels, and configuration sections that could have been hidden. I AM NOT saying they just made them hard to find like the comments above - they have actually removed them, and in some cases the only way to bring back said functionality (although not completely) is to download 3rd party apps designed to do what these features used to.

Case in point, we had an issue with a laptop not connecting to WiFi hotspot with a non-broadcasting SSID. I wanted to go in and double-check the wireless network profiles. Previously, this was on a properties screen with an easy interface. In Win8, you need to use the command line to view the saved profiles, and you can't even edit them anyways once viewing them. The only way to edit an existing profile was to delete it and start over. You can download a third party app to do this for you, but I should not have to do such a thing because they decided to remove what is probably a 1 MB control panel to streamline their OS.

I can actually do without the start menu, as there are pretty easy ways around this (like the aforementioned search - which I have been using more and more in Win7), but removing things from the OS they have built into it over the years to MAKE IT BETTER is idiotic. This would be the equivalent of car makers removing something like maplights or cupholders from cars because they thought the public no longer needed them, and they liked the cleaner interior lines sans these things.

[Quamin]

I'm running Windows 8 after having it installed parallel to my Windows 7 installation. It was good enough of an experience in performance/future-features to upgrade my Windows 7 drive as well! Granted, I am using the ClassicShell (http://www.classicshell.net/) which puts the awesome start menu back where it should be and it doesn't default to their "Metro" interface. That's not to say I won't use the interface in the future with some motion-control like using the Leap (www.leapmotion.com) when my preorder comes in, but I find little use for the tablet-ness on my desktop. There are other programs like Pokki (https://www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu), and StartMenu8 (http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php) which are also free you can try. I agree though that I would not advise it for the environment I administer, at least not with that GUI... We're sticking with Windows 7 for now.

I get that some things are missing, or possibly harder to work with, but the fact that it makes mobile computing more accessible for windows users is a small step in the right - although far off - direction.