So I had been doing my typical months of over-analyzing before a significant purchase, in this case a new laptop for my business. I have a lengthy criteria list that wasn't easy to satisfy, but I finally worked through the cement-boots thing and sprung for a pretty killer machine.
But it came with Windows 8.
And Holy Jeebus, for anyone that actually wants to do anything even remotely considered "work" on a Windows 8 system, you have to fight your way through that POS user interface at every step.
The best of the worst: just try finding the "Shut Down" function. It's buried in Settings, of course!
I've been designing computer systems and hardware since 1973, used every incarnation of Windows since the beginnings, and coming from Windows 7 Ultimate - definitely the bestest everest Microsoft OS - this is such a precipitous down-grade it's hard to believe it ever made it out of their shop. I have no clue what they were thinking with the whole Tiles thing being the default desktop, and turning the classic "Start Menu" into a multi-screen tour full of shortcuts. I've only had this system for two days and it's already driving me crazy with the random acts of lunacy.
As soon as I get a USB3 external drive hooked up to this thing to create some system images and a restore CD, I'll be shopping for a shell ASAP.
I also have an available Windows 7 Pro license I may move to this laptop as the primary OS and dual-boot with W8, if only to be able to test some of the CAE stuff I depend on when their respective developers claim W8 compatibility.
Windows 8 is inevitable, but at this point I may be hanging on to W7 until it gasps its last breath of MS support.
Cheers!
But it came with Windows 8.
And Holy Jeebus, for anyone that actually wants to do anything even remotely considered "work" on a Windows 8 system, you have to fight your way through that POS user interface at every step.
The best of the worst: just try finding the "Shut Down" function. It's buried in Settings, of course!
I've been designing computer systems and hardware since 1973, used every incarnation of Windows since the beginnings, and coming from Windows 7 Ultimate - definitely the bestest everest Microsoft OS - this is such a precipitous down-grade it's hard to believe it ever made it out of their shop. I have no clue what they were thinking with the whole Tiles thing being the default desktop, and turning the classic "Start Menu" into a multi-screen tour full of shortcuts. I've only had this system for two days and it's already driving me crazy with the random acts of lunacy.
As soon as I get a USB3 external drive hooked up to this thing to create some system images and a restore CD, I'll be shopping for a shell ASAP.
I also have an available Windows 7 Pro license I may move to this laptop as the primary OS and dual-boot with W8, if only to be able to test some of the CAE stuff I depend on when their respective developers claim W8 compatibility.
Windows 8 is inevitable, but at this point I may be hanging on to W7 until it gasps its last breath of MS support.
Cheers!