Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Any Opinions on Windows 8?

It's time to buy a new laptop -- anyone care to share their opinion about Windows 8? Is it just a matter of a week or two learning curve? Or is resistance futile?

Most of the places I've looked are including Windows 8, but many CDW notebooks come with both 7 & 8....
 

5 comments:

shitfan said...

Forget it. Go for Linux. Easy to install yourself or you can buy new laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed - https://www.system76.com/

jsam said...

Windows 8 isn't that hard. If you add Stardock's Modernmix and Start8 you get a better compromise between Metro and the old desktop. It is quicker to install and run.

OTOH, were it not for my hobby, photography, and the many GB if not TB of storage, I'd hang it all in the cloud - probably using Google Drive. My document, spreadsheet, presentation and blog material comfortably fits in the cloud. Photos - and Photoshop and Lightroom - don't.

ScruffyDan said...

I agree with John Samuel. Windows 8 does take some getting used to, but it isn't that hard. The Stardock utilities go a long way in making windows 8 act more like windows 7 (which is probably a more familiar computing experience).

Linux is a fine operating system but it takes more work get it to work properly.

shitfan said...

Linux has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. Ubuntu 13.04 was released today - compatibility, stability and usability are now top notch. In some ways it now requires LESS work than Windows. Also it is free, much more secure (requires no anti virus or anti spyware) and there is a wealth of open source and free software available.

jsam said...

Ubuntu has improved a lot - very true. But I don't think the opsys is really what one is buying these days. It's the apps and storage. I have an Ubuntu machine - but I don't use it. More accurately, for me, Google Drive has all the apps I need - except for photography where Adobe is the gorilla.

(Oh, and I'd still protect Ubuntu from attacks.)