General Consultant Discussion

Interesting

I installed it on a old Dell I had sitting around at home. Although it installed just fine when it boots up (I see the Windows startup screen) once it goes to Windows I lose video and monitor goes to sleep...So it might run on old equipment fine...just might find a lot of older devices on those systems that don't play nice with it.

It seems that more recently the driver compatibility issues that used to be used to claim Windows superiority over Linux have been reversed. About a year ago I repurposed an older computer to hook up to the family TV. When I installed Windows 7, the screen came up taller and wider than the actual display, with the task bar and start button off the bottom of the screen. After an hour of fiddling with both driver settings and monitor settings, I wiped Windows and installed Ubuntu and the display worked properly.

Problem with older pc's and tv's is they often don't have the horsepower to play 1080p video (and even 720p in some cases) smoothly. In addition, they often don't have HDMI outputs which makes syncing up 5.1 or 7.1 sound to your AV receiver difficult. In addition, they eat alot of power and users often don't put them to sleep. I like mid-line laptops for this purpose and they take up less room and energy.

I had to Google how to get into safe mode in the new Win8...http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/ Maybe I can solve my video problem on that old Dell (has an older model Nvidia card).

@MarkChinsky - computer was old (but not that old - the video card has HDMI) but the TV was new.

In all fairness, I think we should withhold negative judgement on bugs/compatibility issues with Windows 8 until after its officially released to the public. The version you are working on is sort of a preview release and there is still time for Microsoft to insert drivers either into the CD or via automatic download right after the install. This gives hardware vendors 2-3 more months to get their act together and at that point, bring on all the love or hate.

@PhilMcIntosh Most video playing/decoding is done by the CPU unless you have a fairly new GPU that can sometimes offload that decode job. So if it isn't a healthy processor, you may get stuttering on hi def video.

Mark. I agree with the statement on compatibility/drivers. However, I still am not a fan of all of the new interface in Win8...I have been trying to like it over the last 6 months of banging around it in and just can push myself to like it. And running Steam in it has not been fun either.

Mark, my point was that even Windows 7 drivers were having issues with basic stuff like fitting the display to the physical screen size. Ubuntu on the same hardware just works and plays videos just fine.

And I fully expect to hate Windows 8 based on its purpose of giving the PC desktop a tablet interface. Anyone interested in a rotary dial app for their cell phone?

I just thought of something. I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere, but now I understand why Microsoft created Windows 8. They know that the PC/Laptop market is stagnant. They've watched while a company they used to kick around, Apple, has grown significantly larger and more profitable then they, mostly because of the cell phone and tablet market that they reinvented. Microsoft has basically blown those two markets and even their rival Google, has beaten them with an OS that's very clone like of IOS, with some better and some worse features. The only reason Android made the inroads it did was Apple's stupid decision to go exclusive with AT&T for so long. Almost all computer users (80 to 85%) use Windows daily worldwide. I bet they make the Windows 8 upgrades permanently alot less expensive than Windows 7 to get people to move as quickly as possible. It might even make sense to practically give it away. By getting people used to the 'metro interface' (which I know the name is changing) on their desktop, will, in Microsoft's hopes, get them to identify with a Windows Phone 8 and Windows Surface/Windows 8 tablet. I have to say its a pretty good idea. Most people say Metro, even back to its roots on the Zune, is quite fresh and useful. Android is like a bit over complicated IOS and IOS is getting dated and reminds me of Windows 3.1 (and alot of our clueless Windows 7 clients) with icons plastered all over the desktop. In addition, if a developer can write an app once and have it run on a phone, tablet, PC, laptop and Xbox, that's pretty powerful compared to the multiple platforms today. That's why HTML/Javascript is so popular, but it just doesn't have the performance and fluidity of native apps. I have to say, I think its bold, and history will say whether it was genius or a failure, but I can't think of any other direction or move for Microsoft to make given the hole they have dug for themselves. Thoughts?

@MarkChinsky - hate to say it but I thought that was obvious with this move. Mobile and non-traditional computer (TVs, car computers, kiosks in stores and malls, etc.) devices are the future and Microsoft has (finally) figured that out.

Uh oh... http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/windows-8-review-yes-its-bad-200113?page=0,0