Win 8... yuck, or, I Miss Vista Already

[W3WN]

I'm depressed.

I just had to give up my Vista machine. I actually liked the damn thing, too.

4 1/2 years ago, we replaced all 120+ desktops (that was a weekend of hell I never want to go through again) in the building, replaced the Compaq D300 minitowers (XP) with Dell Optiplex 760 towers (Vista). Overall, once moving all the hardware was done, and reconfiguring about half of our users for dual screens, it wasn't that big of an adjustment. And since we got Vista boxes with plenty of RAM, it's been, overall, pretty smooth.

That was then.

We're overdue for another hardware refresh, now pushed back to the 1Q 2014 due to budget issues. So, the IT group has been evaluating Del Optiplex 7010 machines. Damn, they're tiny. (And actually come with a real COM port too, unlike so many machines with plenty of USB ports but no old fashioned serial COM ports). Unfortunately, the only way to get them is with Windoze 8.

What a major pain in the tuchus. Oh, I can get used to it, but I know our user base. They will NOT be happy campers when this gets rolled out.

I've been putting off this last pain... but we ran out of machines to assign to new staff. So one by one, the IT group's 760's have been re-purposed, and our test machines became our working machines. Today was my turn.

... no, we can't drop to Win7. We don't have the licenses, Dell can't or won't sell us the downgrade licenses (and then there are the driver issues as well). I would have loved to upgrade the 760's to Win 7, if we could have gotten the licenses (yeah, I know, we should of when we had the chance... which I recommended, but was turned down), but too late.

Win 8 wouldn't be bad on a touch screen. But who has a touch screen monitor on their desktop (today)?

[NY4Q]

I read that the next Win8 update will make it more like Win7.

Donno how true it is.

[N8GAV]

I was told Ron that 8.1 is the fix to use a mouse. Problem is it's not out yet.

[KC2UGV]

Another solution is remote desktops. Repurpose the machines as diskless clients, connecting to a Win2K8 RDP server.

[W3WN]

Windows Blue, aka Windows 8.1, will bring back a little of the lost features. But not all of them.

Meantime, on Monday, I'll be configuring the machine to run a virtual Vista box. I started the Hyper-V install, but didn't have a chance to complete it before I left for the day.

We are starting to move more and more "schtuff" to virtual environments. My Reports server, one of our Comm servers, the dedicated "machine" for our Night Utilities overnight batch processing... all have been VM's for years. Our Citrix servers are heading that way as well.

I will have no problem firing up the Win8 box, jumping right to a VM, and getting my work done that way. Heck, I do that when working remotely from home anyway...

[W4GPL]

Ron says he doesn't like Windows 8, Steve Ballmer announces his retirement. Coincidence? :chin:

:)

[KJ3N]

Ron says he doesn't like Windows 8, Steve Ballmer announces his retirement. Coincidence? :chin:

:)

No, not a coincidence. Win 8 is a complete cluster fuck and the board has finally had enough of the fuck-ups.

Win 8 was Ballmer's last attempt at saving his job. He's "retiring" before the board hands him his ass.

[WØTKX]

http://youtu.be/Lh9T3ZEYJqs



http://youtu.be/Lh9T3ZEYJqs

[WØTKX]

http://youtu.be/IY2j_GPIqRA



http://youtu.be/IY2j_GPIqRA

[WØTKX]

http://youtu.be/SgnXJIEIFUI



http://youtu.be/SgnXJIEIFUI

[KC9SQR]

10508

^^^^
Windows 8......

Take a shit and smear it around, bam... You've got windows 8 ;)


And while on the topic of shit, and windows 8.... I'd rather take a shit in my hands and clap than have to deal with 8...

[WØTKX]

Well, it might take a while to get it right.

First, there was Windows 1.0. Good lord, CP/M was better than that. Sucky as hell.

Then, there was Windows 2.X. It worked, but GEM on the Atari kicked it's ass. Hell GEM on top of DOS was better.

Windows 3.x. Well, once they quit screwing around with NetBios and embraced Novell and TCP/IP (3.11) it worked. Kinda.

Windows 95. Oh please, just get me a Mac, or X-Windows on a *Nix machine. And then, here comes The Sun. '95 was yeeech.

Windows 95 Me. Well, it kind of fixed what was wrong, Kind of. And it was an improvement over regular 95. Let's just call it a bug fix.

Windows 98. Finally got it right. Almost. It was piggy at first, but the updates made it work. Real Market penetration. Apps!

Windows NT came out, and it was limited, but was an OK server, and ran fairly quickly. The Blue Screen of Death became an Industry Standard.

Windows 2000. Now this actually worked pretty well, if you watched the hardware... was my personal favorite for a while. No Licence Key! ;)

Windows XP. Once again, screwy at first, but the got it more right than wrong. Market penetration, apps, and more memory used. Sigh, finally.

Windows Vista. Why? Not even a bug fix, trying to be too sexy for the OS. Grumble grumble. I hated it, refused to buy it, didn't like supporting it.

Windows 7. Here we go, after a few updates this became fairly stable like the latter versions of XP. I still like it, and use it, especially Win 7 Pro.

Windows Server 8. Reliable, like Win 7. OK server OS. Better than Win 8 desktop, just turn off server services to save memory, except it's expensive.

Windows 8. Oh you morons, you screwed with the desktop metaphor, and made it harder to use for the user base. :doh:

See the pattern? So, I figure 8.1 might be worth it, but after a few more updates.

[W4GPL]

It was Windows 95, 98, 98 Se, and then Me..

And NT 4.0 came out just after Windows 95.

[W3WN]

Remember, Windows 386? And it's 32 bit counterpart... OS/2. MS OS/2, to be precise.

Remember when Windows 3 had disks subtitled "Presentation Manager", which was the name of the executive app (desktop shell) of OS/2?

When IBM & M$ split up the OS/2 app, IBM kept the name. MS OS2 became... Windows New Technology, quickly redubbed Windows NT.

NT 3.1 came out during the Win 3.0 era; NT 3.5 & 3.51 paralleled Win 3.1 & 3.11. NT 4 paralleled Win 95 & Win 98.

Then things got confusing. NT 5 got renamed Windows 2000, and the successor to Win 98SE (2nd Edition) became Window Millenium Edition, aka Win ME. What a dog. And that was the end of the Windows GUI Shell over MS-DOS line.

Win 2K begat Win XP (actually 5.1, see the version when you run the Command shell), which begat Vista (6.0), which begat Win 7 (6.5). And now... ugh.

I remember the DOS version of GEM. May still have a few disks around for it somewhere, not that there's anything left to run them on.

[KB3LAZ]

The only windows I remember before XP were the ones in my wall.

[WØTKX]

Yea, yea, my chronology wasn't perfectly "thunked".

I have no further opinions about that... :roll:

[KB3LAZ]

Yea, yea, my chronology wasn't perfectly "thunked".

I have no further opinions about that... :roll:

We get to taking about anything older and it will simply be a pencil and paper.

[W3WN]

The only windows I remember before XP were the ones in my wall.Kids.

Which reminds me... GTFOML. Whippersnapper.

[W3WN]

We get to taking about anything older and it will simply be a pencil and paper.Pencil? Paper?

Charcoal and papyrus is good enough for the likes of you.

[wa6mhz]

I finally succumbed to Windows 8 after I found I couldn't buy a WIN 7 Laptop ANYWHERE (except by mail order online). No stores anywhere carried it.

So i went ahead and bought a WIN 8 Lenovo I-5 laptop, and sure enough, WIN 8 SUCKED!!! It was COMPLETELY UNUSABLE!!!

So, at Leo Laporte's advice, the first thing I did was download CLASSIC SHELL and install it.
http://www.classicshell.net/

That turns WIN 8 into WIN 7 or WIN XP, with all the pleasures they had and NONE of the P.O.S. WIN 8 hassles.

After a month or 2 of using the laptop, I am pleased to report this Classic SHELL fixes the problem. WIN 8 is now USABLE and works great.

God Bless CLASSIC SHELL!!!

[WØTKX]

Ron is well aware of these workarounds, I'm sure. They are usually free for personal use, but not free in "the enterprise".

Having a built in workaround should have been part of Microsoft's strategy all along...

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mad7riaNwc1rdeykbo1_500.gif

[n2ize]

I am primarily a Linux and Unix user. I only use Windows occaisionally. As far as Windows goes I liked the XP system. It was far less problematic than previous Windows versions I used. I also liked Windows 7 Pro. It seems to work well from what I have seen so far. Then again the amount of time I spend on Windows is about 0.25% of my computing time. The remaining 99.75% is spent using some Linux or Unix system.

So far my only exposure to Windows 8 was on a laptop I configured as a dual boot Linux/Windows system for my brother. I noticed the Windows 8 desktop manager is geared for touch screen apps. This is also true of the GNOME window manager on Linux. However on the Linux system I can switch it into desktop mode and use a traditional mouse/keyboard/ desktop friendly window manager. I thought Windows 8 came with some way to switch to a more traditional "desktop mode" ? Oui ??? Non ??

[WØTKX]

Non! Not really... it's goofy, and rather hidden.

[KB3LAZ]

Pencil? Paper?

Charcoal and papyrus is good enough for the likes of you.

I'm good with that. It reminds me of a elementary school project. I remember making flat bread around the same time too. I think it was called Matza.

[WØTKX]

Original laptop, with storage...

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/9/5/6/2/8/webimg/575554612_tp.jpg

[W3WN]

Ron is well aware of these workarounds, I'm sure. They are usually free for personal use, but not free in "the enterprise".

Having a built in workaround should have been part of Microsoft's strategy all along... Yes. If this was a home machine, it would be a different story. But, for various technical and legal reasons, this is not an option for me at work. (And that rules out Linux, for now, as well)

...and for those who disagree: Don't argue with me. Talk to my boss.

[NY4Q]

Hmmm....

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047332/is-windows-8-a-trojan-horse-for-the-nsa-the-german-government-thinks-so.html

[K7SGJ]

Hmmm....

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2047332/is-windows-8-a-trojan-horse-for-the-nsa-the-german-government-thinks-so.html

It's a conspiracy I tell ya. MS in bed with NSA? Oh hell no. Our government is there to protect the citizens, not spy on them. The audacity. The absurdity. :lies: