To buy windows 7 now or to wait for 8

[dangel]

Personally, I'm growing to like Win8 rather a lot - and i'm using it full time in a work environment. It's very quick, rock solid and as much as people bang on about the start screen it's actually pretty much the same functionally as the one in 7. Truth is it's an app launcher and as such you bring it up, launch and then it's gone. I have been relatively impressed (and surprised) about the Metro apps - they're quite nice looking and their integration with the 'cloud' is rather neat. I like being able to sign in with my live account (and my settings magically transfer from one PC to another), the fact I can trust a particular PC and assign a PIN code to it rather than type my password.

99% of my time using the OS is on the 'old' desktop - which works better than 7 (multi monitor support is much improved, start bar on both screens, new explorer with nice ribbon, new task manager, new file transfer dialogs) and is otherwise much the same. The overall feel is that really - an improved version of 7 (I keep finding new things that I like). I've even got to like the new Metro style of the traditional desktop (although the final version of this hasn't been seen) as it does feel a bit 'sharper' and cleaner that 7. Arguably much the same was true from Vista to 7 - lots of little improvements, more speed and some UI changes (new start bar was a massive departure for MS back then).

I think it'll be worth having (for me) which I know goes against the grain but I'm using it, and have been for quite a while now. 7 is a great OS though and I wouldn't hold back if I was stuck on a pre-7 OS because they suck. And I'd agree that an OS release ought not to hold back a hardware build.

If both were available today (complete), similar price i'd go 8. The days of waiting for SP1 for an MS OS are long gone. Heck, even their 'not called a beta but is' releases are solid now. Amazing really.

[crossy]

Personally, I'm growing to like Win8 rather a lot - and i'm using it full time in a work environment. It's very quick, rock solid and as much as people bang on about the start screen it's actually pretty much the same functionally as the one in 7.

Hmm, I've not tried the Consumer Preview yet - give it a go once the (more important to me) Ubuntu upgrades are out of the way.

One comment I've seen is that perhaps some of the negative feedback on Win8 has been caused by folks using it on "scrap" (and therefore low-powered) hardware. The resulting comparison with a "production" (and therefore well spec'd) system running Windows7 is always going to put the newer OS at a marked disadvantage.

In my case this might very well be true, since my Win8 host was a very old single-core Acer laptop (came with Vista) and I'm having to compare to - at worst - a dual core laptop.

Like I said, once the Ubuntu installs are out of the way, and assuming the CP image is still available, then I'll give it another try.

[dangel]

Hmm, I've not tried the Consumer Preview yet - give it a go once the (more important to me) Ubuntu upgrades are out of the way.

One comment I've seen is that perhaps some of the negative feedback on Win8 has been caused by folks using it on "scrap" (and therefore low-powered) hardware. The resulting comparison with a "production" (and therefore well spec'd) system running Windows7 is always going to put the newer OS at a marked disadvantage.

In my case this might very well be true, since my Win8 host was a very old single-core Acer laptop (came with Vista) and I'm having to compare to - at worst - a dual core laptop.

Like I said, once the Ubuntu installs are out of the way, and assuming the CP image is still available, then I'll give it another try.

Another problem is that really it isn't finished at the UI end yet - the desktop theme will only now appear in the final release version. I'm using it at work on a fairly old PC - 4 years old with a Q6600, 4GB and an 8800GTX with two monitors (2412m and a 1600x1200 HP). At home it's on my ULV as below (and that boots up from cold in 4-5 seconds with a 2nd gen intel ssd).

One thing that's rumoured is that desktop app icons on the start screen will be much larger in the release - this would help a lot as at the moment they are more dominated by their text which obviously takes longer for the human brain to parse. Organising things in groups (CTRL+Mwheel back) helps a lot but I do feel that some of this could be done automatically (remember there are no 'folders' as such so groups are the nearest replacement).

[Frank E]

What don't you like about 8?

It's blocky, designed for people to casually, even aimlessly browse and flick photos,media and suchlike around.

[raspute]

you can disable the new interface and get a limited desktop back. but who uses the desktop anymore anyway? i just want performance enhancements, and win 8 will bring them.

[vinnyT]

Can you? Where can I find info on this? Sounds like a good plan as Windows 7 may fall in price nearer 8's release.

As far as I am aware I am not breaking any forum rules by posting this, as it is documented many legit blogs such as this http://www.elmajdal.net/win7/extendi..._120_days.aspx. If I am breaking any rules, please delete this and let me know so I don't do it again.

[simonpreston]

2. Windows 7 has been out for a long time now, so it's pretty stable - or at least as stable as Windows gets. Windows 8 on the other hand will be a new release so prepare for problems - unless you're planning to wait until Win8SP1 is out. With Windows7 I bought early (to get the best deal) and then stayed with WindowsXP until SP1 was out for '7 - never regretted that;

Did you? Win 7 was amazingly good on release and, unlike previous versions, didn't need a service pack to correct any problems. So you were carrying on with XP for no real reason.

[crossy]

Did you? Win 7 was amazingly good on release and, unlike previous versions, didn't need a service pack to correct any problems. So you were carrying on with XP for no real reason.

Hmm - call me cynical but if MS "didn't need a service pack" then why in the name of all that's holy did they bother to go to the trouble of issuing one? There were also a couple of performance related tweaks in there and - more importantly - at the time XP didn't have a high annoyance factor for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

However by the time SP1 came out, XP was starting to annoy noticeably, and (more importantly) I was able to afford the hardware to do the new OS justice.

But who's to say that Windows 8 will be similarly trouble free - from what's been said there's a lot of new tech in there which is obviously more with the potential to go wrong?

A case of "YMMV" probably.

[Newblet]

I can't believe that so many people don't like Windows 8, have you even tried it? I adopted the Developer Preview very early on and didn't really play with Metro much and thus just disabled it. I installed Windows 8 Release Preview on my laptop just before I sold it, now, I'd say my laptop was pretty slow (~4 years old, core 2 duo, 2 GB (upgraded to 3 GB) RAM) but wow, I thought Windows 8 Release Preview was awesome. It felt much more keyboard friendly and also felt extremely quick! I'll be sure to buy it as soon as it releases!

[aidanjt]

I can't believe that so many people don't like Windows 8, have you even tried it? I adopted the Developer Preview very early on and didn't really play with Metro much and thus just disabled it.

I have, I also played with Metro quite a bit as well. And it was horrible. And since you can't disable metro anymore, and the start menu is dead, then ergo, Windows 8 is horrible.

[dangel]

I have, I also played with Metro quite a bit as well. And it was horrible. And since you can't disable metro anymore, and the start menu is dead, then ergo, Windows 8 is horrible.

Bah humbug. You'll still be able to hack Windows like always and writing off the whole OS because of the start menu being replaced is perhaps a little OTT Still, if it's an absolute blocker for you then fair enough. I struggle to be that bothered about something I use so infrequently.

[crossy]

Bah humbug. You'll still be able to hack Windows like always and writing off the whole OS because of the start menu being replaced is perhaps a little OTT Still, if it's an absolute blocker for you then fair enough. I struggle to be that bothered about something I use so infrequently.

At the risk of indulging my curiosity - if you use the start menu "infrequently" then how do you start applications? Or do you power up your PC just to gaze lovingly at the new UI? (joking!)

I'm going to backup what aidanjt's saying - if the Metro-based UI is "unusable" then irrespective how many improvements have been made "under the hood" then Windows8 gets an "F" from me. That said, my experience so far have been based on the DP rather than CP, so I'll readily accept a charge that I'm being grievously unfair to it.

Then again, I was someone who was wont to spew voluminous vitriol at the abortion that was Ubuntu-Unity. However, I had cause to try the latest (12.04) release recently and while I still have a slight preference for old Gnome2, I find Unity2D quite usable (and in some respects an improvement over Gnome2) so I've adopted it for my main PC. Maybe the same improvements wrought in Unity will eventually convince me that Metro is also an improvement?

[dangel]

At the risk of indulging my curiosity - if you use the start menu "infrequently" then how do you start applications? Or do you power up your PC just to gaze lovingly at the new UI? (joking!)

Why, I pin apps to the start bar, just like Windows 7 16 are currently pinned to my primary (about 60% of the bars space is used) at work.

I'm going to backup what aidanjt's saying - if the Metro-based UI is "unusable" then irrespective how many improvements have been made "under the hood" then Windows8 gets an "F" from me. That said, my experience so far have been based on the DP rather than CP, so I'll readily accept a charge that I'm being grievously unfair to it.

The CP is better, but it's still not 'done'. I'm certainly not claiming Metro and the apps in it are the second coming (i've plenty of issues with them) but I don't find it difficult to use, nor do I really have to use it (the only time I do use the Start Screen is to use the instant search just like I did in Windows 7) given I can pin apps and also there's a whole raft of neat hotkeys for all sorts of things (I use Win + X all day long).

I'm not a typical user, i'm a developer so perhaps my view is a different one but really nothing really gets in my way - my only grudge with the start screen is the loss of grouping i.e. there are no 'folders' by default. Groups can be created with semantic zoom manually but this seems like work to me. I quite like the live tiles idea (although since I rarely see them it's not actually much use) and tbh the metro apps (whilst shallow) are actually for the most part good looking and provide some interesting clues to future functionality. But, as I said, I don't need to use them. Metro has a way to go (no doubt at all) but everything starts somewhere and I see why MS are trying to tie three platforms together etc. Time will tell.

Please don't think I've any interest in selling you Win 8 (or anybody else) but I'm perplexed as to how I'm managing with something people claim is 'unusable'. I'm not that special, honest I still think it's a hard sell to Win7 users though - yes there are a myriad of great improvements in there but 7 is a fine OS and I can quite understand people sticking with it (this isn't like the XP vs 7 debate at all). Win 8 is a no cost item to me so my only qualification is: do I like it and is it better overall. My answer is yes thus far because the Metro stuff is 1% of my use case and I'm willing to keep final judgement on it till I see the RTM build.

I will say this though: as a developer I can tell you that any UI change is controversial, better or not people will hate it/you.

For balance here's what I don't like about the start screen:

- I would prefer a universal search, not a deal breaker though.
- the 'wall of tiny icons' for legacy apps is difficult. Reports are that bigger icons appear in later builds (this will help)
- grouping is manually edited currently
- I'd like to set a bitmap background of my choice (i had a hack for the previous build that did this and I added a panorama of a lake)

[Mapester]

I would personally go for Win7 for a desktop PC for now, I have tried the Preview in a virtual box and did not like it compared to win7. But if you do have a touchscreen monitor then it might be worth waiting for an OS designed for the touch style interface that Metro is. For me it feels unnatural to touch a desktop PCs screen and if my wife or kids even try to touch it by pointing to something on webpage, I ask them to not make physical contact, as removing the fingerprint marks on LCD/LED screens is alot more difficult that the old CRT displays we used to use in the past.

I think windows 8 might be the winME or vista of this generation for desktop devices and a minor success on phones / tablets , Then MS will recover with windows 9 that gives the desktop PC a desktop back, or it would be nice if they took the approach that most Linux distros do and give the user a choice of what desktop environment they want, whether it be as minimal as CLI only or a feature packed DE like KDE or gnome.

[crossy]

Please don't think I've any interest in selling you Win 8 (or anybody else) but I'm perplexed as to how I'm managing with something people claim is 'unusable'. I'm not that special, honest I still think it's a hard sell to Win7 users though - yes there are a myriad of great improvements in there but 7 is a fine OS and I can quite understand people sticking with it (this isn't like the XP vs 7 debate at all). Win 8 is a no cost item to me so my only qualification is: do I like it and is it better overall. My answer is yes thus far because the Metro stuff is 1% of my use case and I'm willing to keep final judgement on it till I see the RTM build.

For balance here's what I don't like about the start screen:

- I would prefer a universal search, not a deal breaker though.
- the 'wall of tiny icons' for legacy apps is difficult. Reports are that bigger icons appear in later builds (this will help)
- grouping is manually edited currently
- I'd like to set a bitmap background of my choice (i had a hack for the previous build that did this and I added a panorama of a lake)

Great post - very informative and well thought out - apologies that I saw fit to snip (in the interests of space!)

I suspect that the problem with the Metro-refuseniks (myself included) is down to the "expectations principle" (remembering back to the lectures on UI's) - namely that the closer to a users expectation of the way something should be done a UI does it, the better the user perceives that UI to be.

That was certainly my issue with Metro - that it was almost blind luck to figure out how do some things - e.g. shutting down. I also condemned it for abysmally poor use of available space - although a comment that it was a "Fisher Price" designed UI was maybe a little harsh.

Interestingly enough - your usage method for Windows8 has been copied by myself in Unity (pinned icons for oft-used programs, with frequent use of the app search feature for others).

[KeyboardDemon]

As a general rule of thumb I would say wait until the first service pack has been released and had a chance to be tested by users before jumping in on a new OS, I waited like this after Vista came out so was sensible enough to avoid Vista altogether and move from XP to Windows 7.

I've tried Metro on one of the machines I have at home, and after a few hours of playing with it I reinstalled Windows 7. It's not because I didn't like it, it's more because there was just too much to learn in order to use it. If you really want to give Windows 8 a fair chance then go online and look for Windows 8 tutorial videos, I think it will actually prove to be a very powerful and user friendly OS if you are willing to put some time into learning how to use it.