One of my railroader buddies has the release candidate (RC) of Win10 running since yesterday. I'm looking forward to being able to be off this Win8.1 thing. I have tried to like it to no avail.
He installed it on an old 5 year laptop as a clean install. So far he says all is running quite well.
Anyone else looking forward to this?
E.
I don't know that I am looking forward to it, BUT it is a free upgrade! I skipped all of 8, still on WIN7, that has been pretty good.
SHG
I have Windows 8.0 on a laptop. I do not like it. It has lost the familiar feel of windows.
I think people put a little too much emphasis on how bad the Start screen (aka "Metro") is. Think of it as a full-screen Start menu. That's basically what it is.
That said, I didn't like it at first either. But I persevered and gave it a chance. I eventually grew to like it. I joined the Windows Technical Preview program and started playing with Windows 10, many builds ago. At first, the Start screen was almost non-existent. Now that I had grown accustomed to Metro, this was a big bummer for me. However, in newer builds, the Start menu now has much of the functionality of the 8.1 Metro screen, with the ability to leave it as W10 default (similar to W7) or make it act more like 8.1 Metro. I also like that W10 has a tablet mode for those of us with ultra-cool computers like the Surface Pro 3. 🙂
I think if you like W7 and you hate W8, there's a decent chance you'll like W10. Some things will still be different than W7, but that is a strange phenomenon called "advances in technology" or "keeping up with the times". The new Start menu is very nice and the list of programs/apps in the Start menu is very much like W7 but with some nice improvements like listing everything in alphabetical order (instead of folders first then programs alphabetically).
Change can be good but you have to give it a chance before you slam it. I used to do the same thing until I realized I needed to loosen up a bit and roll with it. It seems that I am going the opposite direction as others as I get older.
Aside from UI changes, are there any features of W10 that make it a useful upgrade? I'm reluctant to change horses just for a different look, especially since W7 64-bit is working so well for me.
Jim Frame, post: 324039, member: 10 wrote: Aside from UI changes, are there any features of W10 that make it a useful upgrade? I'm reluctant to change horses just for a different look, especially since W7 64-bit is working so well for me.
For PC users, probably not. Most of the changes are in functionality in mobile devices, etc. BUT the W10 update is free, MS has already announced a retirement date for W7, and, while it is 4 1/2 years from now, it is a lot sooner than the retirement data of W10. I doubt that W10 will still be free in January 2020.
There are really only 2 things that concern me:
1. Some mission-critical piece of software will have some unforeseen condition that causes W10 to break it.
2. With some previous Windows versions, upgrade installations made inefficient use of the system resources, chewing up disk and registry space in an effort to maintain compatibility with installed hardware and software. A clean install always seemed to work better. I wonder if they've figured out how to avoid this.
W10 will be a free upgrade for W7 and W8 users (legal or not) for 1 year from release date.
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I looked for the icon Microsoft talks about in the lower right corner of the screens on my two laptops and my work computer so far.... not there. I have yet to check my desktop computer at home....
Did I read correctly that one can do the win10 upgrade through the windows update feature?
Someone a while back (forget if it was a friend or if I read it on this site) observed that Microsoft seems to have been in the habit of putting out a really truly good operating system followed by a really truly trashy operating system, followed by a great one, etc, etc.
I do hope and want win10 to live up to expectations. Especially at the price point it is being offered at......
Which brings to mind another question: why Is Microsoft offering a Free operating system upgrade? I have not heard speculation on that yet....
John, post: 324062, member: 791 wrote: .....Which brings to mind another question: why Is Microsoft offering a Free operating system upgrade? I have not heard speculation on that yet....
Oh, there has been lots of speculation. No clear answers. But it seems that the future is no more "releases" of new versions of Windows. Just an endless series of incremental updates. That because it is more efficient for MS to service just one version of their system, rather than maintaining an XP team, a Vista team, a W7 team, a W8 team, and a W10 team all producing updates and service packs. They want to avoid a repetition of last years XP angst.
Thank you Mark. As you can tell, I am a bit behind the curve on the newer stuff....
BigE, post: 323823, member: 435 wrote: One of my railroader buddies has the release candidate (RC) of Win10 running since yesterday. I'm looking forward to being able to be off this Win8.1 thing. I have tried to like it to no avail.
He installed it on an old 5 year laptop as a clean install. So far he says all is running quite well.Anyone else looking forward to this?
E.
Forget Win 10, iOS 9 is coming this fall!:hi5:
Follow the money. With Windows 95 people were waiting in line to buy it (some who didn't even own a PC yet?). Windows 10 will be free for those who bought many years back (Win7 FCS). Microsoft attempted economic suicide with W8 and now they are trying to bandage the wounds before Windows loses it's OS top spot.
John, post: 324062, member: 791 wrote: I looked for the icon Microsoft talks about in the lower right corner of the screens on my two laptops and my work computer so far.... not there. I have yet to check my desktop computer at home....
Did I read correctly that one can do the win10 upgrade through the windows update feature?
Someone a while back (forget if it was a friend or if I read it on this site) observed that Microsoft seems to have been in the habit of putting out a really truly good operating system followed by a really truly trashy operating system, followed by a great one, etc, etc.
I do hope and want win10 to live up to expectations. Especially at the price point it is being offered at......
Which brings to mind another question: why Is Microsoft offering a Free operating system upgrade? I have not heard speculation on that yet....
It's free because after the W8 disaster they expect NO one would buy it.
BigE, post: 323823, member: 435 wrote: One of my railroader buddies has the release candidate (RC) of Win10 running since yesterday. I'm looking forward to being able to be off this Win8.1 thing. I have tried to like it to no avail.
He installed it on an old 5 year laptop as a clean install. So far he says all is running quite well.Anyone else looking forward to this?
E.
Yeah, E, I am provided its a little more "compact" than Win 8 was! 😉
FL/GA
Now that's funny!
My concern is the same as Jim Pointed out in #7 above, what do I have that won't work? Believe it or not, some of us still use DOS utilities (many of the NGS utilities are OLDER THAN OLD) but still useful, older printers still work, etc., but if the drivers or backwards compatibility goes away, then the "free" upgrade turns out to be not so free. Sure, some things you can just replace, BUT some of these older utilities not so easy, I guess there is always a virtual machine or Dosbox, etc., but that is just more fiddling around.
Really for most environments that are non technical I suspect ALL these upgrades are good, but the surveying-engineering software market is pretty small in the big scheme compared to video players, photo and video editing and other software that the masses use their PC for most of the time, that often leaves a user scrambling because there may not be demand enough for a developer to release newer updates to some obscure surveying software.
If I was just a basic user for web browsing, basic office tasks, e-mail, etc., I would be all over just going to LINUX MINT and be done with Microsoft, I mean it is free, it works and comes bundled with everything you need for basic PC stuff outside of our technical world.
SHG
I'm looking forward to better resolution independence and support for 4k monitors. For those of you on Windows 8 or 8.1 who hate it, try installing a little program called Stardock Start8. Life will be happy again!
Jim Frame, post: 324039, member: 10 wrote: Aside from UI changes, are there any features of W10 that make it a useful upgrade? I'm reluctant to change horses just for a different look, especially since W7 64-bit is working so well for me.
Yeah, Win 7 Pro is great, a lot better than XP. If I get about the same thing on a desktop PC with Win 10 I'll go for it.
Windows 7 is the best version so far. I have been using Windows 8.1 and I hate dearly. Windows 10 is an upgrade of Windows 8. Same thing different version..
