Are you upgrading to Windows 8? - Page 2

You fogot M$'s best O/S; 2000!

98SE
ME
2k (nLite)
XP Pro (nLite)
Win7 (even after using RT Lite)
Win 8 (from what I know)

Next O/S looks like Linux.
Edited by videobruce - 8/8/12 at 8:00am

This is pure genius on Microsoft's part. An admin can now get in a game of Angry Birds & check his Facebook app instead of figuring out why the server
is down. It's all about apps, apps, apps, apps, whoopee!!

Can a person vote 4 times, since Win 8 is at least 4 times worse than Vista or Windows M(more) E(errors) edition?

The big one for me is the issue with backing up newer PC's.

Without wanting to offend and being a little bit of a devils advocate, this is the same within most fields.

I have some software and hardware that integrates into the OBD port in the car, but it doesn't support the newer cars with OBD-II. I bought a new PC recently, but it didn't have a capable slot for my tried and trusted Soundblaster X-Fi card. The manufacturer would have given a list of supported scenarios when you bought the product.

It's your responsibility when you buy hardware or software to make sure it's compatible with everything else in your environment. Now if it's a bug or a software issue and it should be then that's a different story. Shame on the manufacturer/developers for that.

OK, I'll bite. If we're talking about the UEFI/GPT issue (which we are), then the technology has been around since the 1990s. It became prevalent within Intel kit in the mid-2000s, and Microsoft's 64-bit OSes started supporting it by early 2008.

So I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect Microsoft to support the technology in WHS 2011. Perhaps we were over-optimistic in expecting them to support it in a SP or Rollup update, but then I suppose the lesson is to always expect Microsoft to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...

No. I only use Linux (Arch) now so there is no need for me to upgrade Windows 8. I don't think Windows makes for a very good HTPC environment especially for smaller machines that are only acting as a frontend.

I don't even use Windows on my laptops. Arch Linux, Slim and XFCE run circles around it.

I'll be updating my desktops and laptops right away, but I'll have to wait for Mediaportal to support Windows 8 to upgrade my HTPCs. Can't wait for that to happen though, as I am expecting apps for things like NBA, MLB, PL, CL etc to come to the Windows Store, something that should complete my HTPC-setup.

Sorry, but either you have to have at both XP and Vista, or you have to have at both.

Also, Win2k is a definate

Will you have a HTPC under windows 8? My understanding is you have to buy WMC, and then WMC is no longer being improved. So, I see WMC going away, soon, in favor of "apps" of the kind you mention. (Microsoft can make money off of apps but makes no money off of WMC.) But just having a place to buy apps isn't useful to me. I still need to watch TV, Movies, Home Videos, etc.

Absolutely.

As was Windows NT 4.0 .

I don't generally disagree, but its pretty ridiculous for an OS to be released and not support a decent portion of hardware that already existed. It's not like this came at the end of the product development and they said "Ohh crap, we don't have time to do that before launch." They were aware of it, and from what I read while it wouldn't be a real small fix, it wasn't going to require an entire rewrite of the backup software to fix it. They simply chose not to because they decided they were killing the platform anyway.

WMC is a free addon if you do their $40 upgrade thing. WMC may or may not go away. The specific WMC certification for components went away, but that doesn't mean that the functionality won't end up in the next windows (maybe minus tuner support though). MSFT wants to rule your living room.

I wont be upgrading my htpc to Win 8 until I see some serious third party apps in Metro that can take the place of Media Center + MediaBrowser.

My other pcs will be upgraded however. A $40 upgrade to Win 8 Pro is well worth it imo considering the improvements to the desktop that I plan on making use of. The Metro stuff will not get heavy use on my pcs, but I could see myself using some apps if any came out that were compelling. Otherwise, I can just live in the desktop side. If MS could fix just a few issues on the desktop side, it would be a perfect evolution of Win 7. As it is, it gives me good stuff and some not so good stuff.

My htpc works fine now, so I will definitely hold onto Win 7 for a while. Win 8 offers nothing in this area to even consider switching.

I'm really not sure what Win 8 will bring success wise. If you just went by some power users posting around forums like this, you would have to say its going to be a disaster. But I think the reality is one big gray area.

I think this release will expose the huge gap between the power user and the average user, exposing the big differences in what one group likes and what the other likes. I think for power users, the issue here is that the consumer seems to be getting more focus then they should. Windows is traditionally a power user (or business user) first, consumer second software. This time MS feels they had to do something that was targeting the average user in a big way. That became Metro and here we are. I doubt we will see much business adoption, but lets be real here, even if Win 8 was held up as great by everyone, most businesses don't upgrade to the latest and greatest for some time. MS knows this as well and they probably are perfectly happy to keep getting companies upgraded to Win 7.

So MS' big gamble is that the design is a hit with consumers on tablets and that app devs seriously support it. Apps will help even desktop usage if they are compelling enough. I just hope they really try to address the issues on the desktop side while working to make the Metro side more robust. It could turn out that Win 8 gets average consumers excited, while its not until Win 9 that power users see their issues resolved. Of course, MS may treat this OS differently then past ones and release significant OS upgrades every year more like a mobile OS release.

I'll be doing the same, with one additional wrinkle. I'm willing to take the bet that Windows 8 replacements of Media Center will appear, so I'll plonk down $40 to get the upgrade for my HTPC. However, I won't install it until those apps appear. The $40 upgrade is a limited-time offer (expires end January 2013).

Never really used NT 4.0 but I wouldn't be surprised if Dave Cutlers work was solid stuff


I don't use WMC so it doesn't matter at all to me. I find Mediaportal to be way better.

That's great, except I have an HD Homerun and an HD Homerun Prime (requires cable card). Since I'm using a cable card, I have to use WMC.

And I can't determine what "apps" are so good I'd want them. On my android, I have maybe two or three apps I put on the phone that I actually use. And they are for portable devices. I can't think of an app I'd want for a win 8 computer.

As much as I like to keep the most current software on my machines, I see absolutely 0 compelling reason to go with windows 8. To me it offers no real improvement, rather is a step in the direction MS is taking trying to be like everyone else with a locked down highly controlled environment. That is not the direction I want to go. Thus far the ONLY real plus I see with 8 for desktop use is price...it's a much better deal for those after a full legal copy for their new homebuilt thus worth going that way in that situation, but thats about it. That practice should eventually work out better for MS too I think. Consider a major used and liked release like 7 that is pirated rampantly...I wonder how many of those people would of happily paid < $50 for a legit copy to not have to bother with all the searching, downloading, cracking etc. So yeah, in that respect, 8 is good. Other then that, I'll be staying behind for once and sticking with 7.

If they keep the low price for a full upgrade which does not cause me to lose any functionality, I will buy a few copies.

That's true. I will likely do the same considering the price.

I do think some 3rd party dev will get us the media apps we want. There may not be enough demand on a scale that would interest MS, but there is enough to interest say the MediaBrowser team, or XBMC, or JRiver, etc, etc. We will have to wait and see who does it first.

I'm still running XP SP3 on 2 HTCPs with Win7 on my main system. I just broke down and bought a family pack upgrade for Win7 (only $97 for 3 with choice of 32/64) just in case I lose my BTV guide service and need WMC on the HTPCs that are used for recording OTA.. I would have considered 8 with the $40 upgrade promo but the probability of having to pay for WMC made the decision easy.

I'm going to order a few copies of W7 pro. I do not W8 anywhere near any machine I own/maintain!

I plan on upgrading at least four of my systems to Win8. More if I can get some great pricing like I did with Win7.

Each new OS has improved on the previous one so hopefully Win 8 follows the same pattern. Vista was a big improvement over WinXP and Win7 was a big improvement over Vista. So hopefully Win8 is a big improvement over Win7.

Sent from my HTC Rezound using Tapatalk 2

Erm, the probability of having to pay for WMC with the $40 upgrade promo is zero, nil, zilch. It's included in the upgrade.

Now, whether the version of WMC included in Windows 8 is worth it, even at a cost of $0, is, of course, another discussion.

Mmmm. Read any of the general feedback on 8 so far have we? Probably not, unless you really believe 8 is going to be a 'big improvement' over 7 because of what MS say. The consensus of this poll says it all, over 70% won't be touching 8 at all, especially on a HTPC. There are some potential improvements in 8, but these are offset by the downright ridiculous changes MS have made (I won't say the 'M' word!).

I have a feeling 8 is going to be a turkey. Roll on 9.

Sorry I already posted these in another thread but can't resist doing it again

I didn't even know there was a windows8 so how i am not up with the news. I have a pc with 7 and I love it alot more then the laptop I currently am typing on with vista.

Actually I prefer to wait for Windows 9

I've read thru that series as well and am very interested in trying it out. Client Backups aren't really a deal breaker for me as I keep my data on my WHS2011 server. WHS2011 serves the purpose but it's just not the same not having the built in drive extender function that v1 had. The Storage Folders and Storage Spaces concept seems intriguing. Agree with the others on the rest of the shortcomings of WHS2011, the remote access functionality is just not that user friendly or intuitive. And since W8 would just be used as a server, the Metro interface wouldn't be much of an issue.

Would love to know if anyone's tried setting up a W8 server yet.

Tony

There a series of guides on setting up a Windows 8 Home Server over at wegotserved. It covers most of the aspects of designing, building and administering the system. There's no reason in principal why 8 couldn't act as a media/storage server, but it's obviously not designed for that. I'm considering WS2012 Essentials to replace my current WHSv1 server (it's in beta at the moment), but the price is somewhat offputting. Apparently WS2012E also has the same 'issue' as WHS2011, whereby if you put your server to sleep when not in use (as I do), it will wake up every 30 minutes because of a software licensing service. I'm hoping there's going to be a fix for this, because when I put my boxes to sleep, I want them to stay there. I'm also aware various WHS 3rd party apps (e.g. LightsOut), are being ported to WS2012E as well.

Yeah, that's the series I was referring to in my post.