Windows 8

timwhit said:
The Windows CLI is pretty bad, I use Cygwin for most CLI type things on Windows.
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Sadly, I've not invested much time in learning Powershell, which is supposed to be a vastly better alternative. I can slip in to bash if I need to do something that I don't immediately know how to do with DOS-style scripting, and I have workalikes for *nix commands for times when I forget what I'm looking at. But cmd.exe has had tab completion and other basic niceties for a while now, so I can live with it if I need to do so.
 
Windows 8 has Hyper-V, just like Server 2008 and Server 2012. The problem is, XP Mode was a de-facto free Windows XP license and that's what is missing.
Virtual PC also used some aspects of Remote Desktop to make it appear that installed apps were running natively on the desktop where Windows was installed. Needless to say, that would've been quite helpful; VMware and VirtualBox don't really have that option.
 
Mercutio said:
Windows 8 has Hyper-V, just like Server 2008 and Server 2012. The problem is, XP Mode was a de-facto free Windows XP license and that's what is missing.
Virtual PC also used some aspects of Remote Desktop to make it appear that installed apps were running natively on the desktop where Windows was installed. Needless to say, that would've been quite helpful; VMware and VirtualBox don't really have that option.
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Actually, VMware does offer that feature in their paid workstation product. It's called Unity. I know it's not free like the built-in XP mode, but check it out. It's similar to as you describe which is running an application in a VM but it looks like it's running native in your windows OS (or even Linux).
 
Handruin said:
Actually, VMware does offer that feature in their paid workstation product. It's called Unity. I know it's not free like the built-in XP mode, but check it out. It's similar to as you describe which is running an application in a VM but it looks like it's running native in your windows OS (or even Linux).
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I thought virtual box had a mode like that too.
 
The key was with certain editions of win 7 they included the legit XP pro license to use in the VM.

Stardock is smart to offer that, they are in a position to make some serious money. No way that thing is staying free.
 
At this point I am mostly just thankful that they didn't change the driver model this time. I remember when they released Vista and I spent the first three days it was out telling early adopters that their scanner/printer/keyboard/sound card wasn't supported and there wasn't anything I could do about that.
 
I just picked up my copy of the Win8 Pro Upgrade for $41 out the door at Microcenter. Not sure when I will ever use it but seemed like a good price.
 
Mercutio said:
At this point I am mostly just thankful that they didn't change the driver model this time. I remember when they released Vista and I spent the first three days it was out telling early adopters that their scanner/printer/keyboard/sound card wasn't supported and there wasn't anything I could do about that.
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But won't there be an increase in service calls from the new OS?
 
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Almost everyone I know is either completely happy with Windows 7 or extremely wary of anything new from Microsoft that isn't Windows XP. Windows 8 has a tough row to hoe as far as adoption is concerned.
 
To be clear, there ARE improvements. It boots and resumes much faster and I like the way it handles things like image previews. Metro is lame, but I never look at it or think about it, so it doesn't matter. It might be more useful in a while, after there's been more of a transition to Metro apps. Maybe. It's not awful in the way that Vista was awful. Just different.
 
So Clocker won't be the only one here to have bought the upgrade... It's installing now and will become my GPU FAH machine.
 
Have you used it yet? It's really not bloated. The hardware requirements are pretty much identical to Vista except they farm more work to the GPU. I hate to sound like an apologist for a new Microsoft OS here but there's nothing about Windows 8 to get deeply worked up about. Honest.
 
Mercutio said:
Have you used it yet? It's really not bloated. The hardware requirements are pretty much identical to Vista except they farm more work to the GPU. I hate to sound like an apologist for a new Microsoft OS here but there's nothing about Windows 8 to get deeply worked up about. Honest.
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Fair enough, I'll believe you on that. The only hardware I've tested it on was a fanless Atom rig with an SSD and 2GB of RAM and it was impressive if I wasn't trying to play full HD video.

Is the boot time really that much better?
 
ddrueding said:
Is the boot time really that much better?
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Since the system won't reboot more often than once a month, that's the least of my concerns. The RTM ran on that system since it's been available and for what I'll use it for, Windows 8 is fine. Classic Shell makes it usable. Windows 8 is also thinner on ressources that Vista and even Windows 7 (although by a slim margin).

And the only thing I wanted was a genuine OS to run the FAH GPU client. 40$ was within my budget.
 
Under 10 seconds from the last of the EFI messages to a login prompt on my Server 2012 machine. It has an SSD, but so would anything you'd be using. ;)

Resumes from hibernate are also really fast, but I haven't really tried to time one.
 
So my main home PC is now also on Windows 8, just like the first one I converted some two weeks ago. The important thing is that I can live with it. Using it on my main computer is the only way I'll trully get familiar with it.

My work PC at the office is still on Windows 7, of course.

So far, the tendancy of Windows 8 to use IPv6 instead of IPv4 caused me some issues with the only PC I've sold with it. The customer had an old Linksys WRT54G that apparently wasn't compatible with IPv6 and his connection dropped constantly because of it. Changing the router for a newer model (EnGenius ESR9850v2, in this case) fixed the trouble.
 
I have the means and the time but I still think I'm holding off for a while before going win 8. Need to spend some more time with it in vmware but honestly I'm not getting used to the workflow. Our app for example has two versions to install with the same shortcut names in the start menu, but they go in two different folders in the start menu so you know which is which. Not possible to tell them apart on win 8, I now have to go to the install directory to launch the right one.
 
I'm still hesitant to do the upgrade also. I've spent little time with Windows 8 and only a handful of hours on Server 2012. I do actually like what I've seen in Server 2012 so maybe there is hope.
 
Regarding Windows 8, how do you guys feel about this issue:

"One cannot release a tiled UI application by any other means, but only through Windows Store!"

quote from: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33268524

There seems to be a concern that MS is laying the foundations needed to create a "walled garden" in which you can only install apps through the Microsoft store (once they are approved and MS takes their 30% cut). This seems to be only tiled apps now, but what about the future?

How can MS get this walled garden up and running as I can't see any business using an O/S that doesn't allow "side loaded" apps?

Is this whole, "Windows 8 is a catastrophe," business started by Gabe Newell completely overblown or is there cause for (some) concern?

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/...8-catastrophe-driving-valve-to-embrace-linux/

I missed this last week but it looks like "Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows, has left the company." Interesting.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3638118/steven-sinofsky-leaving-microsoft
 
Skype for Windows 8 is downright aweful. I can't even find the place to change the audio settings. It's not using my microphone as the audio input and I don't see the place to change this. Aweful.

That and the fact that even though all my Windows installation is in French, it installed Skype in English. That is an insult.
 
snowhiker said:
Regarding Windows 8, how do you guys feel about this issue:

"One cannot release a tiled UI application by any other means, but only through Windows Store!"

quote from: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33268524

There seems to be a concern that MS is laying the foundations needed to create a "walled garden" in which you can only install apps through the Microsoft store (once they are approved and MS takes their 30% cut). This seems to be only tiled apps now, but what about the future?

How can MS get this walled garden up and running as I can't see any business using an O/S that doesn't allow "side loaded" apps?

Is this whole, "Windows 8 is a catastrophe," business started by Gabe Newell completely overblown or is there cause for (some) concern?

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/...8-catastrophe-driving-valve-to-embrace-linux/

I missed this last week but it looks like "Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft executive in charge of Windows, has left the company." Interesting.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/12/3638118/steven-sinofsky-leaving-microsoft
Click to expand...

People buy and use Apple products with their walled-garden and the lack of side-loading hasn't completely kept them from selling to businesses.
 
It's another step away from general purpose computing that some people are scared of.

I don't think the surface is going to do that well and win 8 is going to be the next vista as far as businesses are concerned.

The surface pro with it's x86 engine could do well once people understand what that is, if ever.

I did actually see a surface in the wild in an airport this weekend. That was a double take.
 
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