News - Windows 8 promotional pricing will end on 1st February

[watercooled]

Risky way to get a few people sitting on the fence to panic-buy it?

Aside from that, sales are, according to MS, similar to 7, despite costing far less. MS may be pointing the shotgun at their remaining foot...

I thought the idea was to provide what the market wants, not force something a lot of people don't want on to the market, then try to convince them otherwise? As above, I hope its successor is better, I'm not likely to use Win8 because of it's horrific UI, which is a shame because the underlying OS improvements would justify the current price IMO.

[Brewster0101]

Aside from that, sales are, according to MS, similar to 7, despite costing far less. MS may be pointing the shotgun at their remaining foot...

Although the number Microsoft threw out did include units sold to Vendors - which means the like of Dell could have 100's of thousands of unsold/unused copies.

Anyhoo, price going won't help sell what is an unpopular OS

[Noxvayl]

So long as gaming on Linux becomes more popular I will be upgrading to Ubuntu. For now Windows 7 is working well for me and should be good for at least 2-3 more years, plenty of time for a decent catalogue of games to be ported to Linux.

[mikeo]

As many people have already said... Think I'll stick with Windows 7 and see what the next OS incarnation looks like next year. Nothing wrong with Windows 8 but just can't see the point in upgrading for anyone that's satisfied with Windows 7 (like myself).

[shaithis]

Now that I've gotten used to it on my main PC I might just nab an upgrade for the media center.....hmmm

[razer121]

Hm i've tried using it and fail each time, i can understand it but its all just jumping through to many hoops to open "wordpad" know what i mean? i want something that is simple yet if i want to dig deep i can do as and when i please with a click...not 5 clicks!

In short no i wont buy this OS unless they remove this horrible UI in place which they wont....so no.

[Zeven]

I'll be sticking with Windows 7 for the time being as that is more than good enough for me. I intend for it to be my last Windows operating system, however. I aim to go Linux full time in the next few years and will begin dual booting more frequently with Valve backing Linux now.

[shaithis]

I think it's going to take a very long time (if ever) before you can switch to Linux as a main gaming OS. Just because Valve port Source, doesn't mean we will see everyone releasing a linux version of their game engine(s).

As for Windows 8 taking more clicks.....it actually doesn't. If anything, it takes more mouse movement (mainly when you want to "Run As")....but apart from that works pretty much the same as Windows 7, just the screen looks different....you just have to get used to how it looks more then how it operates. It's odd but a few days of head -banging and you get over the visual differences. In fact, i installed classic shell last week and already removed it and it was slowing down versus the default Windows 8 UI!

[Noxvayl]

I think it's going to take a very long time (if ever) before you can switch to Linux as a main gaming OS. Just because Valve port Source, doesn't mean we will see everyone releasing a linux version of their game engine(s).

I already exclude a large amount of games from my wishlist just because I dislike the publisher and others because they use SecuRom or other unnecessary DRM so excluding games because they fail to support Linux would be a far better reason to not bother with a game than the reasons I currently use. It may take a very long time for mainstream gamers to use Linux, or be able to, but for me it won't take more than a few years before I would gladly give up on games that don't offer Linux versions.

I remember a time when the thought of DRM free games being released would be unthinkable yet games like The Witcher 2, Alan Wake and Omerta(coming soon) are available DRM free from gog.com. I expect Linux support to be similar, it probably won't take over mainstream gaming but there will be enough games to play to keep people like myself happy.

[floppybootstomp]

You mean Microsoft want me to pay them to use Win 8?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Ran the Beta for a month, installed and ran my Steam folder with it, installed and used Libre Office with it, I tried to like it, I wanted to like it...

But I didn't.

It's rubbish. Pure, unadulerated tosh. Might be just about acceptable for your mobile but on a desktop? Per-leeeze...

Coming without choice to a new PC near you very soon

[zarnywoop]

The pricing is going back to its normal price. Its exactly the same price for win8 as it was for win7. People are still living in the past using winXP.


Windows 8 is windows 7, with extra improvements such as file copy etc, but instead of having a start menu which appears after a click, which once you trawl through all the program folders you haven't arranged takes up half the screen

- the win8 start screen takes up a full screen for the seconds it takes to launch a desktop app, and then goes straight back to desktop. Its no different, it flips in and flips out, no animation, no effects. Its no different. Period. and in the moment you click to the start screen you might happen to see that your mail app has new mail, the news app has some new news headline or whatever but you don't have to set that up, you could have it as purely an app or application (desktop) launcher.


PS for those who don't know... just hit the startscreen or press the windows key and start typing, eg "word", by the time you get to "wo" it will have filtered all your programs down. Want to run the magnifying glass app... just type magnifier, by the time you type "mag" it will have filtered it down.

Its simple and easy to use and ultimately ..no different.

[floppybootstomp]

They said that about ME...

[Splash]

They said that about ME...

They said that about Win95 too. And people complained about that too.

[Splash]

media center.....hmmm

Well reminded that man - forgot to get the MC upgrade when I bought licenses for the other couple of machines at home. Best do that now!

As for the opinions posted everywhere on the internet? If people dislike it then that's fine: I understand that any change is going to get a number of backs up. Having used it for a while I love it, and can't wait to get my work machine upgraded to Win8.

The changes in Server 2012 are amazing too, but most end users won't see that.

[floppybootstomp]

Then there was Vista, that was good wasn't it?

And folks wonder why some people are still using a ten year old OS

Change from Win 98 to ME - it's better.

Change from XP to Vista - it's better.

Change from Win 7 to Win 8 - it's better.

Er...

All that has been said in Win 8's favour - I know, I used it every day for a month.

I'm no MS fanboy but will confess to being very fond of Win 7.

[MrJim]

It's possible to get the Windows 8 upgrade for £14.99 If you don't mind being a bit...err...'economical with the truth', you can just enter your details and download the .iso

http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/en-GB

They don't seem to verify your details...apparently