I just read David Gewirtz’ article on ZDNET about how six ZDNET users feel about Windows 8. He asked several questions about their experiences with Windows 8 and I’d like to address similar questions here. So here we go:
- How long have you sued Windows 8? Since September 2011 after attending the Microsoft Build in Anaheim CA
- Use “Metro” vs. Desktop? Used both
- Using “Metro”/”Modern” User Interface Applications? Both; tried multiple applications in the “Metro” interface including: Register, BBC News.
- Miss or replaced the classic START menu? Not really. It is different, adaptable. Probably missed it most with a conventional PC, but not with a touch (tablet including RT).
- Tweaked Windows 8 / RT? For RT, tweaked for larger touch in Office 2013 and desktop; For Windows 8 just normal Windows 7 tweaks…not much.
- Using Touch Hardware? Yes; Samsung tablet from Build and, more recently, the Surface RT. No problems with either.
- Which OS to install on a new machine? and Prefer Win7 or Win8 or Windows RT? Depends on machine usage, device connectivity, etc. General workhorse desk machines with non-touch screens I think I prefer Windows 7; it is stable, and on the large screens enables several things on the desktop. For touch tablets, clearly Windows 8 / RT. Recently I used tablet only (Surface) and no keyboard and the touch and START screen were just perfect. Windows 8 also works well with desktop keyboard and mouse both on the Desktop screen and START screen. However adaptability to Windows 8 / RT was easy, even overcoming the bugs in applications from dev, to cus preview, to beta was OK. Some current RT apps exhibit some quirks (see future blog posts). However, for people who adapt to windows very slowly (and cautiously) and carefully, the change to Windows 8 is too drastic and they are better off staying/using Windows 7.
So there you have some of my views on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows RT.
ED