Windows 8?

[25GTT]

Latest news is official launch late October so am tossing up to upgrade or not from win 7. Word is that it has a special raid style tool that speeds up hdd speeds even if different size hdds?

But have also read many cons.

Friend has a beta version which he is pretty happy with but wanted to see what all your thoughts were.

Pros? Cons? Upgrade from win 7? Good for gaming?

[R31Nismoid]

You mean Intel Rapid Storage Tech? It's available now under Win7 depending on what mobo you have - it's not a O/S level thing as its hardware/controller based.

I'm not convinced it's a good move for a power user or one that likes to fiddle/tweak. Gaming will remain to be seen, doubt it'll make much difference yet.

[Cowboy1600]

I've been playing with the Beta and I like it. I'll probably update fairly soon after release. Microsoft got it right with Win 7 with not only a brilliant OS but a fairly bug free and smooth transition from Vista. I'm banking on them nailing it again with 8.

There's a good chance Win 8 will see me move back to Nokia phones running Win 8, too, although this isn't 100% at the moment. I will wait for some feedback on the whole ecosystem first.

[DivHunter]

I've been playing with the Beta and I like it. I'll probably update fairly soon after release. Microsoft got it right with Win 7 with not only a brilliant OS but a fairly bug free and smooth transition from Vista. I'm banking on them nailing it again with 8.

There's a good chance Win 8 will see me move back to Nokia phones running Win 8, too, although this isn't 100% at the moment. I will wait for some feedback on the whole ecosystem first.

Every 1st, or was it second? Which ever one 8 is that version of windows historically will be a horrific piece of shit. We shall see.

[WYTSKY]

I have been running Win 8 beta on a Dell tablet that originally came with win 7, but unfortunately it's horribly underpowered. it's got 4gb of ram and a 128gb ssd, but alas the atom processor makes it unbearable under 7 or 8.

I put 8 on because it's "designed" for tablets - admittedly it is faster on it compared to 7.

Pros: it did install the touchscreen from the windows 8 drivers and it has a good onscreen keyboard inbuilt. Copying a few files I like the little graph going up and down displaying transfer rates - however i always default back to robocopy/xcopy etc for massive transfers as it's still faster to just transfer the damn file as oppose to waste clock cylces calculating how long it will take to actually complete the bloody transfer.

Cons: Few drivers still needed win 7, not a big deal. andd.......

I hate with a passion the stupid "start' interface - I have had to make shortcuts all around the desktop and taskbar just to run stuff quickly. I dont want to have to go to another screen to open admin tools/ control panel. I have had to make icons on the dtop for all my normal applications (outlook, notepad, run, etc) because it's still faster clicking that. I really miss the windows button in the bottom left the access this stuff really quick.

Maybe it's just for the beta or just tablets - as I havent tried on a dedicated desktop - might be better on a purpose built surface tablet, but I think I will be reluctant to switch immediately. To me it just seems counter productive to put your programs on another screen when they were readily available in 7, and theres only so many icons u can have on the quicklaunch bar.

[*LOACH*]

I have been running Win 8 beta on a Dell tablet that originally came with win 7, but unfortunately it's horribly underpowered. it's got 4gb of ram and a 128gb ssd, but alas the atom processor makes it unbearable under 7 or 8.

I put 8 on because it's "designed" for tablets - admittedly it is faster on it compared to 7.

Pros: it did install the touchscreen from the windows 8 drivers and it has a good onscreen keyboard inbuilt. Copying a few files I like the little graph going up and down displaying transfer rates - however i always default back to robocopy/xcopy etc for massive transfers as it's still faster to just transfer the damn file as oppose to waste clock cylces calculating how long it will take to actually complete the bloody transfer.

Cons: Few drivers still needed win 7, not a big deal. andd.......

I hate with a passion the stupid "start' interface - I have had to make shortcuts all around the desktop and taskbar just to run stuff quickly. I dont want to have to go to another screen to open admin tools/ control panel. I have had to make icons on the dtop for all my normal applications (outlook, notepad, run, etc) because it's still faster clicking that. I really miss the windows button in the bottom left the access this stuff really quick.

Maybe it's just for the beta or just tablets - as I havent tried on a dedicated desktop - might be better on a purpose built surface tablet, but I think I will be reluctant to switch immediately. To me it just seems counter productive to put your programs on another screen when they were readily available in 7, and theres only so many icons u can have on the quicklaunch bar.

What version of Windows 7 are you running? I have Starter on a netbook (atom processor) only 2GB RAM and a normal HDD and it runs fine, might be worth doing some troubleshooting.

Edited September 18, 2012 by *LOACH*

[WYTSKY]

admittedly it was 7 enterprise,

But I tried XP pro too and it was still slower then my 2gb ram atom hp 2133 with a normal hdd running xp pro. the only thing that was snappy was a cutdown version of xp that didn't have touchscreen capabilities.

it is one of dell's first tablets, and part of the problem is the design doesn't have ventilation - I think they have turned down the processing power to keep heat down, might run some 3d mark tests.

[ctjet]

i was looking into buying a MS Surface pro, i hear RT is rubbish

anybody have some more first hand knowledge they want to share about it?