What works best with Windows 8?

[Phil Pascoe]

I've got windows 8 with google chrome and i.e. loaded. One site I use for at least an hour a day doesn't work well with i.e. and advise google, but windows 8 and google apparently are not a good combination so I end up (especially on sundays) with google not working. Do any of the others work any better?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I.e. wiped out yet again after posting that.

 

[Sheptonphil]

I've just had to completely rewrite a 145 page website because the old version wouldn't work correctly, if at all most days, with IE10 that is embedded in win8.

Firefox is the best alternative, some will say the better browser anyway.

23 years of using windows in one incarnation or another, and this one is the worst by a long way, even beating Vista into second place.

Phil

 

[CHJ]

......23 years of using windows in one incarnation or another, and this one is the worst by a long way, even beating Vista into second place.

Phil

I have seen it mentioned both abominations were from the same developement team as was ME.

Win 98, XP & Win7 being from the the alternate.

Roll on Win9 if that's the case.

 

[Sheptonphil]

......23 years of using windows in one incarnation or another, and this one is the worst by a long way, even beating Vista into second place.

Phil

I have seen it mentioned both abominations were from the same developement team as was ME.

Win 98, XP & Win7 being from the the alternate.

Roll on Win9 if that's the case.

Whilst we are waiting for tha, If you are really computer savvy, it may be as well to just upgrade at the moment to Windows 7.

Phil

 

[RogerP]

I've always found that the best solution to Windows problems is to wipe it and install Linux Ubuntu or Mint. Seriously.

 

[Alex H]

I've always found that the best solution to Windows problems is to wipe it and install Linux Ubuntu or Mint. Seriously.

Easier said than done though :? I've tried updating my desktop by installing Ubuntu or Mandriva and it won't have it - something to do with the video card. I think I need a spare day to try it again - anyone got one?

 

[misterfish]

I've been using W8 for a while now and have no problems with either IE10 or Firefox. The 'Metro' tiled interface takes a bit of getting used to, and being a bit set in my ways and preferring the 'desktop' interface I have installed the 'Classic Shell' program that gives me more control over the system. It all works quicker than older versions of Windows. I'll be interested to see how it all works when I have a chance to try a touch screen computer.

Misterfish

 

[CHJ]

"Power8" is another start menu alternate to classic, it presents more or less the same across XP, 7 & 8 so if your running all three you have a common look and feel.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Advice for w8 users.

Take pc to tip....throw into skip

Drive to Apple, purchase Mac.

Job done

 

[fluffflinger]

Random Orbital Bob

I like your logic but you missed out the step of selling your children to pay for the Mac and the fact that many programs that are essential to some people are not available for Mac. As a kitchen designer My CAD and Pricing software are only available for PC.

My better half is a freelance graphic designer and her imac with a few bells and whistles was the well the wrong side of £2k. My i7quadcore laptop with 17in display and five year warranty was £600, the closest equivalent Macbook £1,500 with a smaller screen and lesser warranty.

I don't disagree that they are wonderful in many ways just massively over hyped and over priced IMHO. I had to go and pick up a mouse as she didn't get on with the track pad £59, I rest my case.

As for windows 8 I'm worried as the company I work for are about to make me upgrade, haven't had windows 7 for that long and I find it very stable and am very unwilling to change, can't be doing with another Vista ME crisis in my life. Especially as my livelihood relies on my design work.

On the browser front I like Firefox and have little inclination to change.

 

[Steve Maskery]

My experiance is that Mac is not all it is cracked up to be.
I bought one just over 3 years ago after my PC crahsed and I lost a lot of work. My own fault for not having a proper up-to-date backup, I know, but there we are.
The first thing I found out was that all the wonderful software that comes with it is not exactly state of the art. The video editing software is pretty basic, is designed for .MOV files and doesn't handle widescreen .AVI files at all well. Makes me look very slim though, I grant you that. So I found myself still editing on my (re-loaded) PC, which has been a paragon of virtue ever since, BTW.
About a year ago, I started to get grey bands on my Mac. It's a video card problem. I couldn't get a quote for the fix, the best I could get was a fixed price £50 examination, only then would they tell me the cost of fixing it. My understanding is that it would likely be the wrong side of £700. This for a machine 30 months old. Then one day I had a completely messed up screen. Light but unusable.
So I had a repair done locally, £130. OK not too bad, but the banding is still there and now I have no sound input, neither from the I-sight camera nor the external mic input.
Yes they are pretty, but mine has ended up being a very expensive web browser and nothing more.
I'll not be buying another.
S

 

[RogerS]

I think Macs are superb! Even with mine failing its CD drive....

 

[doorframe]

Here we go again....

 

[Sheptonphil]

Here we go again....

Aside from the Mac v Linux (my personal favorite, but really geeky to run well) v Windows debate, there is still only one path for the majority (I run a computer retail/repair business).

Windows will still be the major player as far as the mass market. They (the mass market of loyal Windows users) do not deserve the learning curve that W8 imposes.

Win7 is stable, intuitive, cost effective, open enough platform for software developers to write good , profitable, effective software.

Totally allianated by the latest incarnation that is designed solely for touch screen, inferior in its intuitive location of any application or programme to run, Win 8 should be consighned to the bin ASAP. Roll on Win 9. Every alternate version of Windows is dire, as is internet explorer.

Please dont tell me I am living in the past, progress is vital, but this is neither intuitive or progress in the real computing world.

Phil

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Phil, I use a computer for this forum, e bay and reading the papers. That's 99% of my usage. My wife and children (who are far more used to Win 7) would agree with you that it is truly pineapple.

 

[CHJ]

.....Windows will still be the major player as far as the mass market. They (the mass market of loyal Windows users) do not deserve the learning curve that W8 imposes.

Win7 is stable, intuitive, cost effective, open enough platform for software developers to write good , profitable, effective software.

Totally allianated by the latest incarnation that is designed solely for touch screen, inferior in its intuitive location of any application or programme to run, Win 8 should be consighned to the bin ASAP. Roll on Win 9. Every alternate version of Windows is dire, as is internet explorer.

Please dont tell me I am living in the past, progress is vital, but this is neither intuitive or progress in the real computing world.

Phil

+1 what he said.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Random Orbital Bob

I like your logic but you missed out the step of selling your children to pay for the Mac and the fact that many programs that are essential to some people are not available for Mac. As a kitchen designer My CAD and Pricing software are only available for PC.

My better half is a freelance graphic designer and her imac with a few bells and whistles was the well the wrong side of £2k. My i7quadcore laptop with 17in display and five year warranty was £600, the closest equivalent Macbook £1,500 with a smaller screen and lesser warranty.

I don't disagree that they are wonderful in many ways just massively over hyped and over priced IMHO. I had to go and pick up a mouse as she didn't get on with the track pad £59, I rest my case.

As for windows 8 I'm worried as the company I work for are about to make me upgrade, haven't had windows 7 for that long and I find it very stable and am very unwilling to change, can't be doing with another Vista ME crisis in my life.

Especially as my livelihood relies on my design work.

On the browser front I like Firefox and have little inclination to change.

Good points Richard. Believe it or not I'm a PC user too have been for all time in fact. My current laptop is absolutely state of the art and positively hums on W7. I also have worked in the software industry for 22 years and trust me I am familiar with the Microsoft vs Apple debate

The only Apple products I own are an ipad and phone, probably like many people in fact. I was so incensed when I bought my son a W8 laptop for Xmas that its finally closed the door on windows for me....it was literally that bad. I simply can't recover from the staggering incompetence that giant corporation are able to continually perpetrate with as another poster said, every alternate release. What really clinched it was of course the other loathsome MS trait which is that the pathetic thing is trying to copy the intuitive nature of Apples success....in which it so spectacularly fails that I just cannot describe my frustration

So when my laptop burns out ill be going Mac for the first time ever

To the poster that said you can't run half the sw on a mac.....your mac can dual boot ie it can run windows....so it can run anything a pc can. It is more expensive, largely because it works! It's a bit like the buy quality tools argument

But anyway this post wasn't intended to be a "why I prefer macs over pcs" bash. People have dug in views, one is not going to change their minds with logic because the debate isn't rational. As aren't I, every time I do anything on my sons pile of excrement of an operating system

Rant over...... Ah that feels better (hammer)

Bob

 

[RogerS]

Here we go again....

Aside from the Mac v Linux (my personal favorite, but really geeky to run well) v Windows debate, there is still only one path for the majority (I run a computer retail/repair business).

Windows will still be the major player as far as the mass market. They (the mass market of loyal Windows users) do not deserve the learning curve that W8 imposes.

Win7 is stable, intuitive, cost effective, open enough platform for software developers to write good , profitable, effective software.

Totally allianated by the latest incarnation that is designed solely for touch screen, inferior in its intuitive location of any application or programme to run, Win 8 should be consighned to the bin ASAP. Roll on Win 9. Every alternate version of Windows is dire, as is internet explorer.

Please dont tell me I am living in the past, progress is vital, but this is neither intuitive or progress in the real computing world.

Phil

That's a very interesting and perceptive view, Phil. Google have also gone down the 'smartphone is King...Long Live the SmartPhone' route by messing up their search result screen so that it is aimed at narrow screen viewers. The many of us who prefer to use a proper computer now get stuffed with having to constantly make extra key clicks to do what we want to do.

 

[CHJ]

..... I was so incensed when I bought my son a W8 laptop for Xmas that its finally closed the door on windows for me....it was literally that bad. ....Bob

Try Running Power 8 on your sons laptop.
It's an alternate start menu app which behaves much like the classic windows.
Does not affect the basic software, just loads on top and can be closed at will to return to normal interface.

You can run it on win7 as well for a look see, it just replaces the start button, can be turned off at any time with a right click on the icon.