Personal computing discussed

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killadark
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:33 pm

wow i had no idea people were so obsessed with the start menu ya its a bad thing its gone but i never found my self using the start menu for anything but searching and shutting down after windows vista
win 8.1 is great after select start at desktop if u want to access my comp use the shortcut key way more convenient...

seriously whats the big deal in a change man its like moving away from win xp all over again lol
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Captain Ned
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 2:41 pm

killadark wrote:
seriously whats the big deal in a change man its like moving away from win xp all over again lol

Some of thought the UI changes from W98/W2K to XP were too much (says one who tries to run a UI as close to W2K as possible).
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 4:51 pm

The idea that you would even consider having to send a student off to college with an OS that was replaced two years ago is ridiculous. By the time that he graduates, there will have been at least another generation of operating system releases for old, inflexible curmudgeons to have complained about. His young brain is still adaptable enough not to have become a hidebound fuddy-duddy stuck on bygone ways of doing things.
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killadark
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:34 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
The idea that you would even consider having to send a student off to college with an OS that was replaced two years ago is ridiculous. By the time that he graduates, there will have been at least another generation of operating system releases for old, inflexible curmudgeons to have complained about. His young brain is still adaptable enough not to have become a hidebound fuddy-duddy stuck on bygone ways of doing things.

Where is the like button i want in NOW!
that's exactly what i was thinking but dint post since it would be too harsh? :P
anyways u have earned a like
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AbRASiON

Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 7:53 pm

Windows 7, screw the frustration of 8, it's the next ME / Vista
In 3 years time it'll be replaced with something decent.
 
sweatshopking
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:20 pm

YOUR SON IS OLD ENOUGH TO CHANGE AND PICK HIMSELF. IF HE WANTS THE STARTMENU HE CAN INSTALL IT ON HIS OWN. HE'S DAMN NEAR 30.
 
LASR
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 8:27 pm

I know this isn't really relevant to the discussion. But Windows 8.1 frequently disconnects my external drives. This drives me absolutely nuts. For this reason alone, I recommend sticking to Win7.
 
chµck
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 9:57 pm

LASR wrote:
I know this isn't really relevant to the discussion. But Windows 8.1 frequently disconnects my external drives. This drives me absolutely nuts. For this reason alone, I recommend sticking to Win7.

Probably your motherboard or shoddy drivers.
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Airmantharp
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sat Jul 12, 2014 11:49 pm

JustAnEngineer wrote:
The idea that you would even consider having to send a student off to college with an OS that was replaced two years ago is ridiculous. By the time that he graduates, there will have been at least another generation of operating system releases for old, inflexible curmudgeons to have complained about. His young brain is still adaptable enough not to have become a hidebound fuddy-duddy stuck on bygone ways of doing things.


Mostly this.

Also, I'm surprised that this discussion is ongoing- Windows 8.1 + Start8, and call it done. If that doesn't work, computing may not be for you.
 
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:14 am

Airmantharp wrote:
JustAnEngineer wrote:
The idea that you would even consider having to send a student off to college with an OS that was replaced two years ago is ridiculous. By the time that he graduates, there will have been at least another generation of operating system releases for old, inflexible curmudgeons to have complained about. His young brain is still adaptable enough not to have become a hidebound fuddy-duddy stuck on bygone ways of doing things.


Mostly this.

Also, I'm surprised that this discussion is ongoing- Windows 8.1 + Start8, and call it done. If that doesn't work, computing may not be for you.

One side of the argument actually is "kids are young enough to adapt, so stock Win8.1 may be just fine".
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ludi
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sun Jul 13, 2014 1:53 am

Flying Fox wrote:
Actually, if Win8+1 or Win8+2 turns out to be popular, they will try to push those instead. So I would not count on 7 enjoying the same leniency as XP.

They can try to push whatever they want but they can't afford to lose the business market, especially now that mobile devices are taking over in the consumer sector and fewer consumers are purchasing the magic Windows/Office combination. Remember how many times they tried to kill XP, but couldn't? After all was said and done, the absolute, EOL, drop-dead, We're-Really-Not-Kidding-This-Time date for ending XP security updates was...April of this year. Keep in mind the RTM of Vista, which was intended to replace it, was Fall 2006 and the RTM of Windows 7, which actually has replaced it, was Fall of 2009.

Windows 8 is a moderately better OS "under the hood" and Microsoft may be able to get business-market adoption if they can suck in their pride and roll back the Metro nonsense far enough on some future "Enterprise" release, but if I had to bet the farm, I would lay odds on another service pack (in practical reality, if not in name) for Windows 7 that covers at least the Pro/Enterprise versions.
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Captain Ned
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:02 am

Lest people get the wrong idea, I'm all for the under-the-hood improvements in the core OS. I just want MS to give us the option of using prior UIs with newer OSs.
What we have today is way too much pluribus and not enough unum.
 
w76
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:52 am

Buub wrote:
Savyg wrote:
Buub wrote:
I wouldn't wish Win8 on anyone. Every time I try to fix something on my daughter's laptop it drives me insane just trying to find basic things and do basic tasks.

Stick with Win7.

Have you tried search? It's done the same way as in Vista and 7, click on the start button and start typing.

Or right clicking in the lower left, where most of the power tools can be easily accessed now?

Methinks your lack of experience with it is the only problem.

Uh yeah, that's the first place I repeatedly end up. And even that's more onerous than it should be, because it's separate from the desktop. But search doesn't always find stuff because you have to know what you're searching for is called. Try looking for Windows Update using either of those words.


I'll admit to having trouble, the first time I used Win8, figuring out how to shut the darn thing off. And I hate Metro as much as the next guy, probably more.

But lets not take it too far. One should know Update can be found in the same place it's been found for over a decade, in the Control Panel, along with... virtually everything else worth mentioning.

In fact, the very first thing I ever pinned to a taskbar once that became an option was the Control Panel, and I've kept it pinned ever since. Huge time saver, but that goes back long before Win8.
 
MarkG509
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:15 am

Microsoft has announced end of life (for mainstream support) for all flavors of Windows 7 as 1/13/2015. If your son starts off on Win 7, he'll need to change to Win 8+ (or something else, perhaps Linux) anyway.
 
LostCat
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Re: Son off to college with laptop: Win 7 or Win 8.1?

Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:42 am

MarkG509 wrote:
Microsoft has announced end of life (for mainstream support) for all flavors of Windows 7 as 1/13/2015. If your son starts off on Win 7, he'll need to change to Win 8+ (or something else, perhaps Linux) anyway.

For new features yes, but extended support is still support.

Let's not pretend the end of mainstream support is the end of the world here.
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