Windows 8

[Civic_Outcast]

No thanks, I've got Linux

Here's an Ubuntu news site

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/

[Grayfox]

Originally Posted by FWH

What?
Surely that's a rather basic need these days for home usage?

Windows 8 Home has Windows Media Player.

The OP was confused about the what programs come with Win8

Win8 Pro comes with Media Center which is needed to play DVD and Blurays

To get around this just install K-Lite Codec pack and you will have DVD and bluray playback

[Civic_Outcast]

Isn't it ironic that windows used to come with 99% of codecs pre-installed and Linux didn't. (Licensing issues, you had to install them yourselves)

Now it's t'other way round !!

[Grayfox]

It is why windows is so cheap now.

You do not need to have pre-installed codecs.

[total_k-os]

Originally Posted by FWH

Ah, right, got it now. Thanks!



No, still have them.
No idea if they are still usable though.

Still got mine - and yes they are usable! (Well I say mine, they were my parents, and the PC they were bought with is older than me!)
Same with the old Microsoft Works package for all the data processing stuff... 7 floppies if i remmeber right, and they still work fine also.

Installed Windows 3.11 for Workgroups couple months back just for the hell of seeing if it would still run.

It does

[shinybadrobot]

I installed windows 8 pro a few days ago on my big screen desktop, built my self. As far as I can tell windows media centre is an extra costing £6.99 (media player is included). Also I can't play DVD's or Blue Ray "out of the box". It told me I needed to install a player to do this. I already have powerDVD 11 so no prob there. It boots up and shuts down much faster. The "metro" start page, makes my PC look like a giant mobile phone.

The pretty aero look for win 7 was nice, I'll miss that, but get used to it. But the biggest pain is the lack of start button. What were microsoft thinking? Anyway there are loads of free "apps" that install a good working start button and menu and allow your pc to boot straight to desktop. I downloaded one from "start8" Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu it cost me £3, but it was the third one I tried it seemed a bit neater than the free ones on offer. Would a recommend it for a desk top? Yes with the caveat: can you do without the start button?

After a bit of bedding down, needed to reinstall a printer, it seems fine. There are loads of free "apps" to download, just like the android store. The most useless one is endorsed by Mitt Romney. Which says it "This app provides the details of Mitt Romney's financial plan". As far as I can tell nobody has installed that one yet....

[rewindurmind]

I'm still contemplating whether to bother getting it or not. I loved XP and debated whether to go to Vista, and I finally took the plunged - that was a mistake. Obviously going from Vista to Win 7 (which I think is great), was a no-brainer.

Which do you prefer? 7 or 8?

[tombomb]

Cant say i'm in a rush to move from 7 to 8. Just seems like they have made it for tablets. Poor show.

Don't fix what isn't broke.

[Grayfox]

The salesmen at work have gotten calls on how hard it is to use.

[Bizzie]

Thought i'd update you all on my Windows 8 experience!

Been 2 weeks now.

So far i have had around 7 fresh installations.

1st - my SSD died less than 24 hours after installing windows 8.

2nd -Installed it to my slave drive & used that temporarily & i bought a normal HDD to use as my main drive (my SSD has not been reliable enough for me to trust anymore!)

3rd - My temporarily installation tried to auto update, which caused some major problems (corrupted my windows install) & i had to install a fresh copy over the top of my corrupted windows.

4th - I installed again, temporarily (Still had a couple of days till my new HDD arrived!) & decided to try installing Windows Media Center (Free add-on atm if you buy windows 8, otherwise £7 i believe!) which caused the same issues as the auto-updates did before!

5th - I installed it again, didn't upgrade anything just so i could run my PC basically for a day or so!

6th - My new HDD arrived! so i fitted that, installed windows which was fine, seemed to work ok! Tried the auto update & windows media = Same result, wouldn't load windows & tried so many fixes too, all failing to help. To add to this frustration my DVD drive failed on me! (Good excuse to upgrade to a Blu-ray writer! )

7th - Borrowed my dad's DVD drive, installed windows 7, contacted windows through their online live support, told them i want a refund. The guy says we will sort refund out for you, if i cant fix it! 2 hours of (free, should cost $99!!) support over the phone & remote access to my PC & he installed windows 8, done his business & it now works fine! Updates and everything!


So, currently on to my 3rd day of complete problem free windows 8 experience!

[Kremmen]

Originally Posted by tombomb

Cant say i'm in a rush to move from 7 to 8. Just seems like they have made it for tablets. Poor show.

Don't fix what isn't broke.

Have to agree. I'll wait to see what Win 9 is all about. Win7 is still being supported up to 2020 so that'll do me for the time being.

If it ain't broke .......................

[RicoF]

Did try the RC long ago, and was not that impressed. However I had a go at the Pro version and I installed it alongside my Mac OS on bootcamp. I have to admit that initially it does put you off.

However by time I started to like it... It is very obvious it is made for touch devices, but when you get used to it you start to like it. It is heaven for normal users but hell for those who like tweaking, etc. try having a go at 'Run as administrator'

Well I am a Mac user but for work stuff and Gaming I have to stick to windows as well. And the game I play is not compatible with win 8... So that means that although I started to like it have to live without

[Civic_Outcast]

Oh dear, Advertising in "Paid-for" O/s

Disgusting

Microsoft's Big Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Built-In Advertising - HotHardware

At least in Ubuntu you can simply

sudo apt-get remove unity-shopping-lens

You can't do that in Windows. You could probably faff about in Hosts to block it but if the ads are coming through Microsofts servers........

Doh !

[Syx]

Originally Posted by Civic_Outcast

Oh dear, Advertising in "Paid-for" O/s

Disgusting

Microsoft's Big Hidden Windows 8 Feature: Built-In Advertising - HotHardware

At least in Ubuntu you can simply

sudo apt-get remove unity-shopping-lens

You can't do that in Windows. You could probably faff about in Hosts to block it but if the ads are coming through Microsofts servers........

Doh !

This was obviously going to happen - looking at the interface and how it supports the easy insertion of ads I had no illusions. Look at the Xbox360 interface for example. I can't see how anyone would be surprised... although I am nevertheless disappointed.

The problem with Linux is most people who are casual users won't understand the command above (and it wouldn't work on my distro anyway ). Linux has a place but if you think it can replace Windows you're fooling yourself - it's not there yet.

[Civic_Outcast]

True.. But it IS getting there. Especially as the likes of Valve are now coding for OpenGL and Linux. I've been Linux only since 2004

Exposure to it is the main stumbling block.

When people buy a new PC it comes with.... Windows or increasingly Osx (on Mac hardware only)

When peeps get their new machine home and switch it on they should be greeted with a black screen and a flashing cursor. That's it.

Now RTFM

Oooh look. There's some DVD's in the box.
Various Live distros including a LIVE distro of the latest windows o/s.

Now live boot and see which O/s you prefer and which is of the most use to you.

It that turns out to be Windows then "So be it". Enter your credit card details to purchase/activate your new Windows Install.

Naturally No-one (except Enterprise users for support (Red Hat etc)) will need to buy Linux O/s as it's free.

Hmmmm. I wonder why Ms wont like that idea ?

Anyway.. Back to privacy concerns.

Copy & pasting that command into a terminal

Press CTRL + ALT + T (to get a terminal)
Copy & Paste Command

 sudo apt-get remove unity-shopping-lens

close terminal vs GUI
The way you would do it in Windows as well (if you could)

Click on Dash
type system settings
click on system settings
Choose privacy tab
unselect "Include online search results"

Close window

Link as it's a BIG pic

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/3...cysettings.jpg

Thumbnail





Btw.. I realise You know what to do but other's might not have been exposed !!


[/Preaching]

[Relic]

my main issue with linux was up to date graphic drivers
AMD was hopelessly slow as it was...linux stuff was unbearable and castrated performance wise.
[by the time the issues were fixed the games were 12 months out of date]
Otherwise I would jump ship.

[Civic_Outcast]

Originally Posted by Relic

my main issue with linux was up to date graphic drivers
AMD was hopelessly slow as it was...linux stuff was unbearable and castrated performance wise.
[by the time the issues were fixed the games were 12 months out of date]
Otherwise I would jump ship.

You'll like this then

The latest NVidia GeForce driver, released yesterday, gives Linux users ‘double the performance’ and ‘dramatically reduces game loading times’, according to the company’s press release.

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/11/n...mance-on-linux

I've updated and it flies.

[Relic]

Great if you have nvidia card

[Civic_Outcast]

Indeed.

I used to run ati cards until one of mine caught fire. Yup it really did.

The graphics went kind of fuzzy and I noticed a wisp of smoke (The blue smoke genie escaping) rising from my case... I went down and looked in the side vent to see flames licking out of it..


Aaaaaaargh




I've been nVidia ever since

Now on a GTX460

[Relic]

I used to be invida and got sick of the prices and attitude.
Got suckered by the xfire dream.
The ati got greedy and xfire was always forgotten about and last to get driver updates

What can you do lol