windows 8 - dislike or like

[Jon_boy1984]

Surface Pro really needs to hit the value for money sweet spot if they want to beat Apple

 

I just want to add (slightly off topic) the surface pro is not a competitor to the iPad, or rather the iPad is not a competitor to the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro come with a i5 Processor, and should be viewed a competitor to ultrabooks and macbook air, in a tablet form. They will not be cheap, my estimate is in the £800-£1000 range.

 

As for the original question I've been using Windows 8 for some time at home now on my laptop, I like it, but I can see it would be better with a touch interface, I find myself sometimes wanting to swipe the edge of my laptop screen instead of using the mouse. IMHO not really a desktop OS, and I think will be another ME/Vista, with the exception I do actually like this OS.

 

Like - Start Menu (Formally known as Metro)

Like - The Apps, mail, pictures, xbox music, video, maps (how the hell that pinpoints me to my exact location when the laptop doesn't have gps, is both cool and scary!)

Like - Speed

Like - Being able to customise the start menu to how I work, I just hope the layout is sync'd as well as other user settings, as I don't want to have recustomise it on my next device

 

Dislike - Desktop mode, I'd be happy if this was gone, and just had 1 environment.

Dislike - Split screen (33-66) mode in metro, I miss the 50-50 mode (which you still get in the desktop mode!)

 

I think most of my attitude comes from using Windows Phone 7.5 for the last year though, as I knew this OS would take some getting used too, so prep'd as best I could by getting the phone, which I have to say I've been very pleased with.

[gshaw]

I just want to add (slightly off topic) the surface pro is not a competitor to the iPad, or rather the iPad is not a competitor to the Surface Pro. The Surface Pro come with a i5 Processor, and should be viewed a competitor to ultrabooks and macbook air, in a tablet form. They will not be cheap, my estimate is in the £800-£1000 range.

 

Being that the RT is apparently only for consumers ( ) then where does that leave business who like the design of the Surface but not spending £800-1000 per device? So frustrating as I think the 3rd party vendors are going to have a hard time creating something better from a design POV (although would like to be proved wrong on that one).

 

Wanted MS to kill the iPad (certainly for business use) with the Surface but seems a bit of a square peg in a round hole in either RT or Pro form at the moment?

[Jon_boy1984]

Being that the RT is apparently only for consumers ( ) then where does that leave business who like the design of the Surface but not spending £800-1000 per device?

 

Microsoft are saying that the RT is "Designed for the mobile office" (Source Here), although you will need to pay for a commercial license for the Office version thats installed (see footnote on source page). You can also supposedly manage Windows RT devices with Microsoft intune, but that'll cost you too, although I believe less if you have SCCM, although don't quote me on that because I can't remember where I read it.

 

Wanted MS to kill the iPad (certainly for business use) with the Surface

 

Amen to that!

[sted]

like "not metro" its not bad could do with more options and as mentioned maybe allow scalling on bigger screens so icons dont end up huge (assume my 32" tv was touch i dont need a 5" icon for something or 60" smartboard for that matter icons are massive"

like: app store as a single user does the job not sure about 5 installs of an app max as if i have a phone a laptop and a surface thats 3 gone 4 if i ever reinstall the laptop 5 when i get a new phone

like: hyper v on desktop os (though it borked my vbox setup)

like: card games are better more numerous and you get achievements for them lol

 

unsure: switching between desktop and metro not sure how it could be done better but its a little abrupt / jaring

 

dislike : enterprise use no way to get consistency between pcs/users

dislike: akward installation of not metro apps enterprise wide

dislike: the assumption that its going to be used on a touch device as mouse to corner while it works isnt exactly intuitive

[gshaw]

Microsoft are saying that the RT is "Designed for the mobile office" (Source Here), although you will need to pay for a commercial license for the Office version thats installed (see footnote on source page). You can also supposedly manage Windows RT devices with Microsoft intune, but that'll cost you too, although I believe less if you have SCCM, although don't quote me on that because I can't remember where I read it.

 

Mobile office provided everything is in the cloud I guess (seeing as they clearly don't want RT on a domain). As a business if I have SCCM why would I want to use a separate product to manage Surface RTs? It seems a slightly confused message coming from MS on that front; either make it fully managed or as @jamesfed says make it purely consumer (although that seems to be wasting the potential of the product imo)

 

Windows 8 SP1 and either an update to unlock local RT functionality & management or a mid-range Surface running Win8 Pro and the overall package will look 10x better imo

 

From the input so far the messages are pretty consistent on where 8 is doing well and what needs sorting. Seems like they listened quite well during the Preview phase so MS please take note and sort this stuff in SP1

Edited November 14, 2012 by gshaw

[CHR1S]

like: hyper v on desktop os (though it borked my vbox setup)

 

Set a boot option to disable hypervisor

 

Creating a "no hypervisor" boot entry - Ben Armstrong - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

[Fleetwood]

I was at first skeptical about it, but I've never been one to make a conclusion on something without giving it the benefit of doubt and actually TRYING it, so I put my first impression aside and took a look.

 

I'm very glad I did. Absolutely love it, and what a bargain price to upgrade to it as well! I do agree that for some people who lack the benefit of a touch-screen monitor, it can be a little 'fiddly' to navigate on a normal desktop, but I've not really had any issues with it. The whole 'Apps' thing took a while to convince me that it 'fitted in' but I've grown to it there's definitely a lot of potential with it and I hope they work on that basis to enhance it further.

 

I definitely think Windows 8 can be a lot more practical in schools, especially now that tablets are becoming more common. Just how I view at least - the only downside is that despite what some people will say, the way you work with Windows 8 is a lot different to Windows 7/XP (granted, most of the general bits are the same as Windows 7 but the whole Modern UI thing tends to sway people, from what I've noticed when showing them what it looks like.) - Unfortunately we live in a society where the majority of people cry the word "TRAINING" at almost anything new, what happened to the days of self-learning at home? I still do that now!

 

Anyway, apart from that, TL-DR is that I LOVE IT WITH A PASSION I DO LIKE!

[sted]

Set a boot option to disable hypervisor

 

Creating a "no hypervisor" boot entry - Ben Armstrong - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

meh i just junked the vbox pcs and moved over to hyperv as long as i can test stuff i dont care if its vbox or hyperv for testing purposes makes no real odds to me