Win 8 first look

[tvrgeek]

As Spice, GoldWave, Groove Mechanic, and SoundEasy do a pretty good job of bringing my current XP to its knees, I was looking for a new desktop. Just took a first look at Win 8. I guess Microsoft is trying to make me buy an Apple. That has got to be the worst desktop environment I have ever seen. Ever. Going to go for the Win 7 downgrade Microsoft is offering.

Microsoft has even stated they think desktops and laptops are dead. Somehow they think an iPad will replace my twin head desktop for spreadsheets, word processing, and engineering. No way in (that place) will a pad be able to render the kind of graphics gamers want over the internet from a utility cloud in the next 10 years. It is just that darn speed of light problem. It is amazing how they have been so wrong so many times and still make money. Linux anyone?

No more Firewire ports built in. Good thing I have an old 4-port one lane card so I can plug in my backup drive and M-Audio Profire.

[Pemo]

Absolutely agree with you. I´v had Win 8 installed for the last year (yes) and I just don´t like the interface, but I have to say that it is stable as Win 7. Ubuntu is also working in a new interface, let´s see. Kubuntu with Amarok is nice, and there is a plain linux distro also from Cannonical that is easy with hardware.
RGDS
Pemo

[tvrgeek]

It seems Win 8 does not support Firewire at all. Need to check out the optional Win 7 downgrade option. Morons. I need to support my Profire 610 and my external hard drives.

[Deafuser]

Microsoft can get stuffed. I'm using Windows 95 and am certainly not going back 87 versions to get to Windows 8! Jeez, I'm switching to Linux

[tvrgeek]

The second HP support rep now says WIn 8 does support FireWire if you put in a card. Several threads on other sites say they dropped the drivers. RC vs ship? Don't know what the facts are now. The MS compatibility checker says my Office 2000 is incompatible. Well, I run Office 2010. It did not see any of my perferials, but said a printer that does not exist was just fine. Useless like all MS support.

I saw a note a company is selling a "start button" add-on for $5.

One thing for sure, you sure can't get straight technical answers any more. I asked HP what model hard drive was in their PC and was told "the 2TB one". I asked the "expert" in a red sign office store how many slots it had, and he said " 4 USB". He did not know what an internal PCI slot was. This was the expert called over by the department sales clerk! My wife was a fine arts major and she knows more about computers than these moron kids, but can't get a job. (female, white, old)

Unfortunately, if your PC is connected to a network, you really should run a current OS due to security problems. The reason there are so many botnets out there is people who don't manage their systems responsibly. 95 was pretty decent, but can't support multi-core, slow, crashed, and can't support 64 bit apps. As the world switches to IP6, you will be forced to upgrade or stay off-line.

If I remember: 95 was a 16 bit shell, on an 8 bit OS, designed for a 4 bit processor, by a 2 bit company, that did not give 1 bit for the customer.

[bnorrish]

I like Windows 8. Start button = Full screen Tiles - too much aido about the Start menu. I am an PC enthusiast but my wife a casual user likes as well. Very stable, performs very well. A bit of a learning curve on the UI but nothing real difficult. Did you try to call M-Audio for support on your Profire 610? It would be there responsibility to provide drivers for Windows 8. With Windows 8 Hyper-v, you can run Ubuntu as a virtual desktop if you like. MAC OS in Hyper-v is possible in theory, but not legal from Apple licensing

[tvrgeek]

You can't call M-audio. Everything is a third party paid support. You can get ignored on their user forum for free. I like their products, but their support is worse than Microsoft. In contrast, you can get to a real person at e-mu only to be told they know they have a driver memory leak in the 1616 and it crashes if you have on-board video and they have no intention of fixing it. Basically, "up yours". That is why I went M-audio. At least it works. BTW, after M-audio's their buyout, they no longer support any of their USP products. I was over on Sweetwater's WEB and there are some very good looking units from companies that don't have an attitude yet.

A virtual desktop still requires a base OS (or hypervisor) that has the hardware drivers. There are some DSP apps I would like to run that are Linux, so I look forward to that.

As I said, I played with the new tile screen. Fine for a phone, terrible for a business desktop. It takes too many actions to do things. Basically, they put in a fix for problem they don't have. Hidden off-screen phantom buttons and translucent drop downs you can't see if you are over the age of 10. Nope, bad design. At least they are reasonably open, not like Apple, so third parties can provide a fix. I sure hope I can find something that works like PrintKey2000. That's probably the best utility I ever downloaded since DirectoryFreedom in the pre-windows era. Such a simple thing, works so well. Original Paint. Use it all the time as it is simple and stupid.

[5th element]

As far as I understood it, the main difference of W7 to W8 was the introduction of the metro interface
(that you don't need to use) and then the removal of the windows start button in desktop mode and the introduction of something else. This something else basically a tab that pops up and includes your most used programs etc and then anything you've pinned to it. As this is all I use my start button for in W7 anyway, I can't see it as a huge issue. Or have I missed something?

I'm not exactly thinking of a move to W8 as there's nothing wrong with W7 and none of the W8 features really appeal to me, but they don't turn me off either, it's just seems different.

[tvrgeek]

Firewire support is the real issue. Without it it will cost me another $350.

[tubelab.com]

I bought a copy of Win 8 to play with. After a long ugly experience with Vista, I will not install it on my prime machine. I'll put together a Core i3 box to play with.

You can't call M-audio.....I like their products, but their support is worse than Microsoft......In contrast, you can get to a real person at e-mu only to be told they know they have a driver memory leak in the 1616 and it crashes if you have on-board video and they have no intention of fixing it. Basically, "up yours".

I have two EMu PCI products. I paid a bunch of money for their flagship 1820M. It worked good in my Core II Duo XP box. That PC died (motherboard) so I built a Core II Quad with Vista. As stated the EMu Vista driver is broken, but I somehow got the XP driver running. The system still goes unstable at random, but I don't know if it is Vista or EMu. I have to reboot a few times to get clear audio, but it is usually OK once it starts up right. I got someone at EMu that told me that all PCI (not PCI express) products have been discontinued and no longer supported. OK, so I spent several hundred bucks and now my 1820 box is usless. No more EMu/Creative products for me.

I had an old M-audio Audiophile 2496 (10 year old date codes). I downloaded the Win 7 drivers and it works great. I now have 3 M-audio cards and they work with XP, and 7. The old 2496 will go in the 8 box as soon as my Newegg order gets here. I will be running Cakewalk Sonar X2 which will NOT run on the Vista/EMu system. Neither will Sonar X1. Older versions run OK.