Bought me some old Winders...

[AE1PT]

Prepping up here to build a new office machine--getting about 4 years on the AMD Phenom Quad that's in there now and want something a bit faster to handle some of the multitasking (and processor intensive) crap that I usually have running.

So, I spent about an hour at Worst Buy playing with a Winders 8 box. No, I am not interested in hearing how some flavor of Linux or Mac is this, that, or the other thing. I run too much software that doesn't come in another generic flavor and doesn't like emulators. Screw dual boot. Anyway, at the end of the hour I decided I don't have much liking for the newest version. Not made very friendly for multitasking environments--even in the 'classic' viewing mode.

My answer was to order an OEM Win7 Pro disk from Newegg--and that now lives in a cardboard box that will fill up over the next couple months with all the goodies to slam together a new tower. Anyone else finding that they prefer 7 to 8?

[NQ6U]

I haven't used 8 yet but it seems to me like everyone I talk to who has prefers Win 7.

That said, I mostly use OS X. I like the real Unix underpinnings.

[n6hcm]

well, win8 is still *real* new. i'm less interested in exploring a new os for a computing environment that i want to use daily than i used to be. win8 is available to me but, at the end of the day, i couldn't get excited enough about it to install it in more than one place. ask me again in a year when some other poor sap has shaken out all the flotsam and jetsam ...

(also agree with the pope: there are as many computers here with osx as there are with windows. i prefer the macosx systems.)

[ad4mg]

Prepping up here to build a new office machine--getting about 4 years on the AMD Phenom Quad that's in there now and want something a bit faster to handle some of the multitasking (and processor intensive) crap that I usually have running.

So, I spent about an hour at Worst Buy playing with a Winders 8 box. No, I am not interested in hearing how some flavor of Linux or Mac is this, that, or the other thing. I run too much software that doesn't come in another generic flavor and doesn't like emulators. Screw dual boot. Anyway, at the end of the hour I decided I don't have much liking for the newest version. Not made very friendly for multitasking environments--even in the 'classic' viewing mode.

My answer was to order an OEM Win7 Pro disk from Newegg--and that now lives in a cardboard box that will fill up over the next couple months with all the goodies to slam together a new tower. Anyone else finding that they prefer 7 to 8?

I did much the same after visiting a few stores with floor models of laptops running 8. I found the interface to be hideous. When I assembled the new machine here, I opted for Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Ubuntu 12.04LTS 64 bit. Since I use Win 7 Pro on my work computer and now this one, I find it's pretty decent.

Be aware that if you opt to install the Windows XP mode (just a virtualzation app with a copy of XP loaded), and you have one of the multi-core 'bulldozer' AMD processors, you'll have to run a patch to get it to successfully install.

[PA5COR]

Running dual boot Xp Pro and Windows 7.
Most people i speak hate W8 vehemently.
Looks like the saga continues, come out with a good O.S. then a trainwreck, Good O.S. trainwreck...

[KC2UGV]

Pat, I'm a linux guy, through and through, and would pick Linux over any other OS.

That being said: I would be more than happy to use a machine with Win 7 on there. It's the first Windows OS I've liked in a long time, and actually enjoyed using.

Win 8? Not so much.

[K7SGJ]

I just bought a couple of laptops with 8 on them. One for the wife and one for my BIL. It sucks elephant dicks for a nickle a herd. It might be okay for touch screen applications, but, IMO, a PITA for much else. Although it can be run in desktop mode, it just seems squirrely. I might consider putting 7 on them, but I don't know if there may be a driver problem, and really don't have the time to fuck with that right now, anyway. I think I'd rather use DOS 3.1.

[KB3LAZ]

I hated win 98, ME/2000, XP, and 7 when I had to switch from one to the other. For me, once I get used to an OS, I dont hate it anymore. Then again, I only use PCs to game or to browse the net. My demands are not monumental. Ymmv.

[WØTKX]

While I don't hate the new desktop, I decided against it. For now. Microsoft should (and probably will) address this issue fairly soon. There are probably third party apps as well. The memory management and multitasking under the hood is a good change.

Windows 8 Server was a big improvement, and they didn't 'eff with the interface.

I like Windows 7 more than XP. Quite a bit.

[KG4CGC]

I thought they were too much in a hurry to trot out 8 and tell everyone it was so wonderful. Been using XP for years now and like 98, I'll have to give it up soon. I was hoping 7 would be the new XP, 'cept mo beddahrur.
My main issue is that I MUST continue to run whatever editing software I'm currently using.

[W2NAP]

I only use Linux.

[AE1PT]

I thought they were too much in a hurry to trot out 8 and tell everyone it was so wonderful. Been using XP for years now and like 98, I'll have to give it up soon. I was hoping 7 would be the new XP, 'cept mo beddahrur.
My main issue is that I MUST continue to run whatever editing software I'm currently using.

I agree completely--although 3 years between 7 & 8 may be considered by some an epoch...

Never really spent much time with 98. Made the jump to NT3.51 when I and several of my medical friends got tired of crashes. My first laptop came with 98 on it, and I played with it for a while. But by that time I was building department computer labs at the University of Kentucky and everything was going 2000. I did not put XP on any of my personal machines until 2003--two years after the launch. And the upgrade to 7 did not happen until last year. It was a nice 9 year run--and the shack computer and field day laptop still run XP.

Likely I would still be running XP had it not been for the memory cap to be found there. I have so much at any given point up on the monitors that it ate the available ~3Gb of physical memory that my 32 bit version could actually address--and was working the HD to death swapping about a gig of virtual back and forth... For a very short time I considered moving to XP 64 which a copy was available as well as a license--but the abject lack of working drivers for key peripherals made that idea a dead end.

Upgraded memory, CPU, and loaded 7 Pro64 on a clean HD last summer. It took about a week to get used to changes--find things that were now more difficult to access (usually CP and networking stuff)--and configure all of my programs once again. I am sold--which is why after taking a look at 8 I bought 7 for the new office machine. Maybe in another 6.5 years... :cool2:

[N8YX]

Pat, I'm a linux guy, through and through, and would pick Linux over any other OS.

That being said: I would be more than happy to use a machine with Win 7 on there. It's the first Windows OS I've liked in a long time, and actually enjoyed using.

Win 8? Not so much.
I'll have to agree with this, though XP hasn't been all that bad for me.

Windows 8?

The interface looks great on a tablet device but will likely be teh suck on a 'real' PC.

[WØTKX]

I got my MCSE in the NT days, no big deal.

However, I learned and hammered hard at the command prompt to deal with networking and running services instead of the GUI, because it was more direct, and at the same time... Easier. I really like the command line stuff available in Win7/Win8. No, it ain't Linux, but you CAN do a hell of a lot there, and quickly.

[XE1/N5AL]

I have an OS X Mac that is running a Linux emulator which, in turn, is running a Windows emulaton of OS X. :shock:

[WØTKX]

Wow. Does that get you an "Elite Hams" designation for 3840, and the keys to the chat room?

;) :stickpoke: :lol:

[W3WN]

I'll have to agree with this, though XP hasn't been all that bad for me.

Windows 8?

The interface looks great on a tablet device but will likely be teh suck on a 'real' PC.What he said.

Let me put it this way: Later this year, my company will be doing a complete hardware refresh, and our current Dell Optiplex 760's will become surplus. I plan on buying a few to replace machines around the house.

The Dell's came with Windows XP and Windows Vista disks. I have Dell OEM DVD's for Windows 7, and I could get them for Win 8. But I won't... all will get Win 7.