Windows 8? Sounds Confusing....

[Midpack]

I'm looking forward to buying the MS tablet in January that has the full-blown version of Windows 8. I use a Kindle Fire now and find myself using a computer less and less. A tablet that will run my spreadsheets is what I've been waiting for. Sitting at a desk to access the Internet seems so un-user friendly anymore.

I never thought it could come to this...but I may have already bought my last desktop or laptop computer. If I were still working I might feel differently but for what I need anymore a tablet seems the way to go. So, if Windows 8 on the new Surface will really run Excel and Word I'm all set.

The iPad Numbers app for $10 can handle all but the most sophisticated Excel spreadsheets. I moved several of my spreadsheets with linked graphs and some pretty elaborate functions beginning a year ago, and I haven't found one it couldn't handle yet. Very few people use more than 10% of Excel's full capability.

Nothing against the Surface/Ultrabooks and Win8, just sayin you can do it now...

I suspect I'm working on my last desktop too. Right now we have a desktop, a laptop, an iPad, 3 iPods and two semi-smartphones (slow browsing & few apps). I expect I'll have a router at home, a laptop & a (hotspot) smartphone when all is said and done. As much as I love my iPad, a laptop might be better than a desktop & tablet. Fun times (really)...

 

[nun]

My thought is... "When will Win 7 no longer be supported?"

I'm still on Win XP.

I went from Windows 98 to Mac OS X. I like to get my money's worth out of an operating system and a computer.

At work I just went form fc15 to fc16, but the terminal window bug is still there.

The Windows bit of Windows 8 looks as if it has some nice features and could have been a good iteration, but grafting the tile interface on to of it just makes it more complicated and hence annoying than it needs to be. The graphical design looks nice, but the structure of it is a disaster.

 

[BoilerEngr]

I went all in on Windows 8 at the beginning of November. Upgraded my desktop from Vista, bought a Windows 8 tablet and upgraded to a Windows Phone 8. It was frustrating for the first week or so, as I had to figure out how to do simple things like close windows that I was working in or open non-live tile programs like Office. I stuck with it, and after about 3 weeks, I am really happy with it.

All of my devices work together, because of the cloud-nature of Windows 8 and Skydrive. I can take work photos while out in the field on my phone and then pull them up on my computer without doing any sort of transfer (they are uploading to the cloud while I am driving home). I can also work on the same documents and check my same email accounts using my tablet as when I use my desktop, and they will be updated on both, so work is more easily portable. Previously, I had to save documents over from one machine to the other before being able to use them on another device.

Overall, I would say be prepared for a frustrating transition, but if you are somewhat up on mobile technology, like smart phones and tablets, and have some decent skill with computers, it will all come together after a week or so. The one recommendation I would make - backup EVERYTHING before you make the swap. The Windows 8 upgrade package says it will retain your programs and documents, and for the most part, it did. However, there were a few programs that I could never find, and had to re-install from backup on my external hard drive.

 

[Steve O]

My laptop was running Vista and it died, I loaded Windows 7 iso and it ran better than it ever did with Vista... It used to run very hot, not so with Win 7

I didn't want to buy Win 7 though, I went with Win 8 pro for $39.99 and it's just like Win 7 except for the goofy "Metro" crap...

Most of that can be turned off or ignored though and there are more than a few simple programs out there that will add the Win 7 start menu...

Just Goog "get windows 7 start menu in windows 8" and there are plenty of options to fix it

Im hoping MS will put out an update that will allow desktop users to run the win 7 old school interface and I believe eventually they will...

So far though I like it and I just fixed another dead PC that Vista killed with Win 8 for $40.00

I've found it much easier to run my home wireless network with Win 8...

 

[Richard4444]

I'm still using XP Pro with MS Office 2003. I have an Ipad and It would be nice to have them sync like in a tablet - computer - phone (still using a BlackBerry and still liking it). On my Ipad I have Docs To Go, Documents and DropBox. Anyone have something that is closer to gold old Office for Word, Excel and PowerPoint? Whenever I used a new computer OS, I usually (and it was time) bought a new computer pre-loaded with the OS. Just when I am soooo used to XP ... sigh

 

[Sirka]

Anyone have something that is closer to gold old Office for Word, Excel and PowerPoint?

Did you try (Apache) Open Office? It is free and simple to use.

 

[Midpack]

I stumbled on a Windows store (at Oakbrook for Chicago folks) today. So I walked in and played with a Windows phone and a laptop running full Windows 8. I hoped no one would come over to help me, to see if I could figure out the OS without any assistance. I consider myself middle of the road WRT technology, not a coding whiz bang but not a technophobe/resistant to change type either. Both the phone and the laptop were completely intuitive to me, I had no problem navigating my way around either, so they seem perfectly workable to me.

I may not buy either since Microsoft is so far behind Apple, Google, etc. and they may have already missed their opportunity to capture significant market share. OTOH, their massive Corp installed base may save them, so we'll see. But I didn't see anything wrong with the new Windows OS approaches so if they capture market share, I'd be fine owning into their mobile eco-system.

I've read lots of users are thrown because there's no start button. I don't get that, there's a home button right on the keyboard like always...