Omnimaga
General Discussion => Technology and Development => Other => Topic started by: AngelFish on September 14, 2011, 01:15:20 am
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Apparently Microsoft decided to get the jump on the inevitable leaks for their upcoming OS, Windows 8. Windows 8 has been a source of significant controversy in the past few months as a result of its use as both a Tablet and PC operating system. If you've been concerned, now's your chance to try it out!
Be warned that this is a pre-beta version of Windows 8 and will likely have some remaining bugs.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516)
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Wow... That's humongous. Last time I tried downloading a 1 GB file, it got corrupted along the way. I can't imagine downloading a nearly 4 GB file. X.X
As far as the interface itself, there is a point at which simplification adds to the complexity of something. I have a fear that if they simplify their OS too much, it will just make it harder to navigate.
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The thing about simplifying it is that the new interface isn't mandatory to use. It's a keypress to get back to a classic desktop, where everything is available as you'd expect. I'm not liking the removal of the "classic" start bar, though.
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So it isn't mandatory. That's relieving. I was afraid I'd have to deal with kiosks anytime I use a public PC anymore :P.
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I was watching some videos on Windows 8 the other day. I'm not a Windows user, but it looks much better than Windows 7. Faster boot time, compatibility on more devices, they will no longer use NTFS file system, etc.
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Not sure where you heard that it's not using NTFS, but it's running NTFS for me.
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BSOD is black:
http://windows8center.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/windows-8-bsod-will-be-replaced-by-black-screen-2.jpg
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BSOD is black:
http://windows8center.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/windows-8-bsod-will-be-replaced-by-black-screen-2.jpg
Aww. I like the blue one better. :P
(Not that I want to see on my computer, but still. )
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I finally got a chance to try out Windows 8 and I must say that it's a lot better than I thought it would be.
Good things:
- The new IE is blazing fast. It'll be a serious competitor in the browser market again if they can keep it that way.
- You can use your desktop. The full desktop from Windows 7 appears to exist relatively unaltered in Windows 8. The only difference I've found is a smaller selection of backgrounds* and the windows themselves are more angular/ugly.
- The built-in apps are interesting. While I can't say I'll use most of them, I know quite a few people who would definitely find them useful. The selection is reminiscent of Linux Mint
- The learning curve isn't too steep. Users of previous versions of windows shouldn't have to spend a lot of time learning the new OS
- It's great on a tablet. While I can't say I've actually tested it on a Tablet, the configuration of the GUI leads me to believe that a Tablet running Win8 would be delightful to use.
- Task manager has gotten a well-deserved upgrade.
The Downside
- Textual input seems to be bit buggy. The cursor will occasionally jump five characters ahead of where it should be, leading to a huge whitespace gap while typing.
- Some of the default drivers don't appear to be as good as those in previous versions of Windows. My touchpad has always been odd, but it's very sensitive in the new OS. Accidentally brushing it will send it flying across the screen. I've had the same problem with Linux drivers.
- JavaScript doesn't appear to be fully compatible in the new IE. I've seen several applications, including Omnom, break as in the new browser.
- Some of the interfaces aren't exactly intuitive for PC users. For example, in tile mode, IE requires the right mouse button to be clicked before it will show the menu bars and there's no apparent way to shut the browser down short of closing every tab individually.
- Integration between the Mosaic and Desktop portions of the OS is virtually non-existent. A process opened in the Mosaic will often not show up in the Desktop and vice versa. It's slightly annoying as it means that one must switch between the modes to use applications in both*
- The Mosaic panel is awkward to navigate through using a mouse/touchpad. You're required to move the mouse through the entire length of the screen to hit a narrow scroll bar at the bottom of the screen. It'd be much easier if one could "grab" the background with the mouse and use that instead.
*It's still in pre-beta, so that's hardly surprising.
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What about the Terminal, was it updated? Also, is there an easier way of installing programs, like "Windows Software Manager"? Stuff like that could help me start dual-booting, but without it, I don't see the use of Windows.
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BSOD is black:
http://windows8center.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/windows-8-bsod-will-be-replaced-by-black-screen-2.jpg
actually no, it's now still kind of blue
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/14/windows-8-has-a-friendlier-blue-screen-of-death/
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Blue speedlings of death? ???
Also Qwerty.55 installed Windows 8 on his computer and it wiped out the entire content of his hard drive including partitions from the IRC logs, with no warning. O.O
Although I was sure when installing a new OS it required a new partition or formatting, just make sure to backup if you install this, since it doesn't give any warning.
Also I saw screenshots of 8 and it looks too different for me. Until I am used to mobile/ipod like interfaces, I'm not gonna use it. I prefer the standard Windows-like desktop I've been using from 95 to Seven for now.
Also any idea of the minimum and recommended settings?
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Blue speedlings of death? ???
Also Qwerty.55 installed Windows 8 on his computer and it wiped out the entire content of his hard drive including partitions from the IRC logs, with no warning. O.O
Although I was sure when installing a new OS it required a new partition or formatting, just make sure to backup if you install this, since it doesn't give any warning.
Also I saw screenshots of 8 and it looks too different for me. Until I am used to mobile/ipod like interfaces, I'm not gonna use it. I prefer the standard Windows-like desktop I've been using from 95 to Seven for now.
Also any idea of the minimum and recommended settings?
Apparently there was some sort of warning with a Yes/No option, but it wasn't very clear that it was wiping the hard drive.
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There was an option that might have said something about saving files, but it was very ambiguous about what was intended and there was no warning of data loss. It's my fault for installing the OS in the first place though :P
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I see. And yeah I remember trying to install stuff or do something before and it wasn't very clear, like the first time I saw "Garbage Collect?" on my calc. I thought it would erase my entire archive or something.
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It's supposed to have the same requirements as win7 did.
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I think windows 8 should be pretty cool in its last free release. Until then, I'm not downloading it.
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Looks kind of nice. I am happy that IE will be faster, because on computers that you are not allowed to install stuff on (school...), not having firefox/chrome drives me mad.
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Any ability of a duel boot between windows 7 then adding windows 8?
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Any ability of a duel boot between windows 7 then adding windows 8?
If you partition your hard disk, then I would imagine you can install Windows 8 along side 7. I'll be doing this.
This is the first version of Windows I've ever been looking forward to. I loved Vista, and now 7, but only after upgrading. The new metro theme looks beautiful, and I love how it's so HTML5 oriented. HTML applications should also now use IE 10, meaning it should be easy to build very pretty non-metro HTML5 desktop applications; i.e. something like Steam.
It also seems to be a huge overhaul of the whole OS, even down to the new file system, which is hopefully the result of all their WinFS work.
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Looks kind of nice. I am happy that IE will be faster, because on computers that you are not allowed to install stuff on (school...), not having firefox/chrome drives me mad.
IE10 is a lot faster, if a bit buggy ATM. However, what I really like about Windows 8 is that you really aren't forced to do anything you don't want to. For example, I have the latest stable build of Firefox on my computer as well as a bunch of other Windows 7 applications that work perfectly. You also aren't really forced to interact with the Mosaic or use only web apps too much if you don't want to. It takes some getting used to, but once you get past the oddities, it's quite a nice OS.
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I've installed Windows 8 on a second partition on my PC. I love the Metro IE layout; I'd love to have a copy of FireFox or Chrome with the same UI. Even on a desktop I think it works great, and is one of the few fullscreen browsers I like.
Otherwise I'm not massively impressed. I think if I had it on a tablet then I'd love it, but on a desktop it feels really dumbed down. For example the new Start menu is practically useless. Although Metro works surprisingly well with a mouse and keyboard, it's much more work. Like you have to drag the login screen up to sign in. I'm also finding it _very_ unstable; lots of the Metro apps randomly freeze once I have opened more then 2 or 3, and it has blue screened literally about 15 times.
I have a dual screen setup with my main monitor flipped to be vertical. As a result boot loaders and the BIOS are normally shown rotated by 90 degrees on the smaller monitor. But in the new boot loader that comes with Windows 8 it syncs with Windows to get your monitor layout, and so displays it correctly on my bigger, secondary monitor. It's a really nice touch.
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It's okay, but I like the new IE, although Chrome is still better. It does seem more for tablets though.
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I think I'll just stick to my windows 8 xp themes for now...
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Quick question: is it impossible to close out of programs? I mean, you're just going back to the Start menu instead of actually closing the program, it's still running in the background, eating RAM...
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You can hit alt+f4 on them and it'll close them. There's a bug right now where it just spits you out to a green screen, but you can hit your win key to get back to the start menu.
And, yea, you can dualboot 7 and 8. I have that set up right now.
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This seems interesting. I think I'll take a look at the next release.
From what I know, this is meant for tablets, an idea I am not particularly fond of.
Also, JL235, you are the first person I've ever heard of that actually liked Vista. O.O
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Quick question: is it impossible to close out of programs? I mean, you're just going back to the Start menu instead of actually closing the program, it's still running in the background, eating RAM...
Metro apps are closed on the fly, the moment you run out of resources. A bit like on iOS. As a result you don't need to worry if it's using up ram.
There isn't any advantage in having empty ram, as otherwise it would be in use. Windows 7 will even fill up your empty ram with applications you might want to use, based on previous usage. As a result you should find an application starts up faster, after you've been using it for a few days.
Although it does feel a little strange, having one set of applications you do need to shut, and another that you don't.
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As far as the start bar goes, I'm finding that it's growing on me. It's a bit clunky to use at first, but it does work well. There are some registry tweaks that you can do to enable the "classic" start menu that I have a feeling they'll be putting into an options panel at some point, though.