Windows 8

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun May 26, 2013 12:29 pm

My little netbook just died. I found a laptop that will do all I need on sale, but it comes with Windows 8. Anybody use it? Like it? Heard anything?

If it turns out to be a hemorrhoid, I might go with that free operating system. What's it called? Is it easy to install?

tude dog · Post by **tude dog** » Sun May 26, 2013 1:09 pm

Our last computer died a few months ago and we now have Windows 8.

It is a P.I.T.A.

Bought a book on it, never had to do that before. It just rubs me the wrong way even though I am use to it now. A smarter or more savvy computer person may have a different view of it.

Nevertheless

HATE IT

YMMV

Post by **LarsMac** » Sun May 26, 2013 1:28 pm

I got my wife a new laptop. IT came with Win8

She is constantly running into things that work differently than in XP, and she hates that.

I have to learn how to make it work for her.

Though the company switched from XP to win 7 this last year, and the learning curve for win 7 is pain enough. I prefer it to win 8 by a longshot

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun May 26, 2013 3:30 pm

Yeh, my other laptop has Vista. The only one I've come across, so I have to treat it differently than the rest.

What's wrong with W8? Just different or something else?

Post by **LarsMac** » Sun May 26, 2013 3:44 pm

What's wrong with W8? Just different or something else?

Yes, indeed.

Post by **LarsMac** » Sun May 26, 2013 3:47 pm

Good stuff:

If you know what you want to do, you can just type in the name of it from the ugly main window.

If you don't like the ugly main window, you can by-bass it by moving the mouse to the bottom left corner and open you "Desktop"

That's abut it, so far

tude dog · Post by **tude dog** » Sun May 26, 2013 4:09 pm

Accountable;1428144 wrote: What's wrong with W8? Just different or something else?

At first, just being radically different and having to figure it all out was a big turn off. Seems they made some things like e-mail overly complicated. I also still don't fully understand what it is about all those APPs.

I think this will give you a fair introduction of how Windows 8 works.

Windows 8

All About Windows 8

1: Exploring Windows 8

Using Windows 8

3: Getting Started with Windows 8

I only viewed viewed those two and they seem fairly presented, better than I can explain.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun May 26, 2013 6:25 pm

Ubuntu

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun May 26, 2013 6:30 pm

Ahso!;1428162 wrote: Ubuntu
That's the one. Is it user friendly to install & run?

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun May 26, 2013 6:37 pm

Accountable;1428163 wrote: That's the one. Is it user friendly to install & run?Yes. But it will feel strange at first. You have to be convinced you want to switch.

You can download and burn a cd or use a usb drive instead. Run it without installing it to see if you like it.

The world's most popular free OS | Ubuntu

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun May 26, 2013 7:09 pm

Thanks. I'll download it & try it when my new machine comes in.

Ahso! · Post by **Ahso!** » Sun May 26, 2013 7:13 pm

We'll be with you every step of the way.

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon May 27, 2013 3:26 pm

You all got me worried for a minute then. I now have windows 8, admittedly on start up of the laptop I wondered 'what the hell is all this', got stuck in some email thing that I couldn't seem to get out of :wah: then when I restarted the machine I was back at the original 'what the hell is this' screen.

Luckily I quickly noticed 'desktop' clicked that and phew, everything is as it should be :wah:

Still exploring though, so we shall see what happens :-3

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon May 27, 2013 3:33 pm

tude dog;1428152 wrote: At first, just being radically different and having to figure it all out was a big turn off. Seems they made some things like e-mail overly complicated. I also still don't fully understand what it is about all those APPs.

I think this will give you a fair introduction of how Windows 8 works.

Windows 8

All About Windows 8

1: Exploring Windows 8

Using Windows 8

3: Getting Started with Windows 8

I only viewed viewed those two and they seem fairly presented, better than I can explain.

Thanks for the link, just read it all and not too bothered. Seems easy enough to navigate, I'm young enough to cope with the changes

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Mon May 27, 2013 3:48 pm

betty boop;1428236 wrote: thanks for the link, just read it all and not too bothered. Seems easy enough to navigate, i'm young enough to cope with the changes :d

OI you!

Post by **Betty Boop** » Mon May 27, 2013 3:50 pm

Accountable;1428239 wrote: OI you!

oops

:yh_rotfl

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon May 27, 2013 4:41 pm

Accountable;1428163 wrote: That's the one. Is it user friendly to install & run?

The last two or three versions of Ubuntu have come with a shell that is doing the same thing as Windoze - trying to insulate the user for the system. Fine if you like that sort of thing but a PITA if you want to use the machine rather than be a user of the apps provided.

To get round this, go into the software centre and install Gname-Panel, then reboot and select the Ubuntu symbol in the login screen and choose Gnome Classic before entering your password. Life should be a lot more understandable in that world.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Mon May 27, 2013 5:00 pm

Bryn Mawr;1428254 wrote: The last two or three versions of Ubuntu have come with a shell that is doing the same thing as Windoze - trying to insulate the user for the system. Fine if you like that sort of thing but a PITA if you want to use the machine rather than be a user of the apps provided.

To get round this, go into the software centre and install Gname-Panel, then reboot and select the Ubuntu symbol in the login screen and choose Gnome Classic before entering your password. Life should be a lot more understandable in that world.I'm going to be doing a lot of multitasking on two screens - streaming video on one (sometimes half of one) and surfing/doing research, running databases or presentation software, or writing on the rest.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Tue May 28, 2013 12:08 pm

Accountable;1428261 wrote: I'm going to be doing a lot of multitasking on two screens - streaming video on one (sometimes half of one) and surfing/doing research, running databases or presentation software, or writing on the rest.

Then make sure that the software you want is available in Ubuntu and that any video hardware you want to use is supported. I've found Libre Office to be an effective replacement for Microsoft Office (including Access and PowerPoint) and there are several video streaming and editing solutions available.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Thu May 30, 2013 7:16 pm

Pooter arrived. Nice & light. Netflicked Transformers for a few minutes to test the audio & video. Audio sucks, as advertised, but that's not really important to me. The video is fantastic. My beloved asked if it was 3D.

Win8 is a little unwieldy, but I think it will be okay once I get the hang of all the new controls. I don't have a smartphone or tablet, so this "app" thing is new to me.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Fri Jun 21, 2013 5:33 pm

Awright dammit! I'm fed up with Windows 8. They have tons of useless junk that uses up all the extra RAM that I paid for. The machine is even slower than my old one. So I want to check out Ubuntu, right? WRONG! Windows 8 has some kind of crappy security code that stops Ubuntu from loading. Nobody online has a solution, short of formatting the disk and starting over. But I don't want to do that until I actually try it out first.

So I go to my beloved's laptop. I download Ubuntu to install on a USB drive ... HERS DOESN'T BOOT FROM THE USB! :-5 Of course!

It will boot from the DVD, but naturally, I have none.

As soon as my toe heals I'm going to kick it again!

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:46 pm

Accountable;1430298 wrote: Awright dammit! I'm fed up with Windows 8. They have tons of useless junk that uses up all the extra RAM that I paid for. The machine is even slower than my old one. So I want to check out Ubuntu, right? WRONG! Windows 8 has some kind of crappy security code that stops Ubuntu from loading. Nobody online has a solution, short of formatting the disk and starting over. But I don't want to do that until I actually try it out first.

So I go to my beloved's laptop. I download Ubuntu to install on a USB drive ... HERS DOESN'T BOOT FROM THE USB! :-5 Of course!

It will boot from the DVD, but naturally, I have none.

As soon as my toe heals I'm going to kick it again!

I'm confooozed

If you're booting from a stick it should be in Ubuntu before it even looks at the disk with the Windows8 code on it.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:53 pm

Bryn Mawr;1430416 wrote: I'm confooozed

If you're booting from a stick it should be in Ubuntu before it even looks at the disk with the Windows8 code on it.I'm confused, too. Nothing online was any help. Apparently everybody has the same problem.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun Jun 23, 2013 2:17 pm

Accountable;1430418 wrote: I'm confused, too. Nothing online was any help. Apparently everybody has the same problem.

From Ubuntu won't boot from a USB on my Windows 8 laptop - Ask Ubuntu

You're not doing anything wrong, exactly - sometimes Ubuntu has trouble with the new UEFI technology, which your laptop has.

You can see instructions for installing and using Ubuntu on a UEFI PC here at the Community Ubuntu Documentation site (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI). Basically, you want to burn your Live USB (preferably with Ubuntu Secure Remix, but regular Ubuntu should work as well), and before you try to boot from it, look in your BIOS for something that says "FastBoot/QuickBoot" or "Intel Smart Response Technology/SRT" and disable it. "Secure Boot", if you have it, might also have to be disabled. You should be able to install Ubuntu as normal from there, but if you reboot and get no Grub menus or you boot straight to Windows (or other boot problems), then you want to boot from your Live USB again and run Boot-Repair.

If you still have problems, then post back here.

johnmont · Post by **johnmont** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 12:43 pm

LarsMac;1428148 wrote: What's wrong with W8? Just different or something else?

Yes, indeed.Every time

Microsoft comes out with a new version there is much

)

:-3 but after a few mounths:o

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 1:45 pm

johnmont;1430734 wrote: Every time

Microsoft comes out with a new version there is much

)

:-3 but after a few mounths:o

Vista? I didn't see much

however long it had been out.

BTW, welcome to the Garden :-6

flopstock · Post by **flopstock** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 3:33 pm

Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround | ZDNet

Týr · Post by **Týr** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:23 pm

flopstock;1430822 wrote: Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround | ZDNet

That's such a shoddy lie, it really is. The reason isn't that "the operating system's start-up time is too quick for the old method", it's that the bootstrap process has been changed to directly locate Windows components without having to process all the steps required by a first-time boot. Bringing up the USB boot requires the short-cut to be disabled and the full BIOS boot process to be brought back into existence.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:43 pm

Týr;1430878 wrote: That's such a shoddy lie, it really is. The reason isn't that "the operating system's start-up time is too quick for the old method", it's that the bootstrap process has been changed to directly locate Windows components without having to process all the steps required by a first-time boot. Bringing up the USB boot requires the short-cut to be disabled and the full BIOS boot process to be brought back into existence.

I wondered how they managed it. Given that the BIOS is in ROM the OS should not be able to intervene in the process.

Týr · Post by **Týr** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:53 pm

Bryn Mawr;1430879 wrote: I wondered how they managed it. Given that the BIOS is in ROM the OS should not be able to intervene in the process.

I have it in mind that Windows8-ready hardware had BIOS changes specified by Microsoft to enable fast-boot. Certainly the toggling of fast-boot is in BIOS.

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 4:04 pm

Týr;1430882 wrote: I have it in mind that Windows8-ready hardware had BIOS changes specified by Microsoft to enable fast-boot. Certainly the toggling of fast-boot is in BIOS.

UEFI?

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Týr · Post by **Týr** » Mon Jul 01, 2013 4:07 pm

Bryn Mawr;1430885 wrote: UEFI?

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Presumably so - don't look at me, I'm just a user these days and I own nothing that could be called current.

Livespecie · Post by **Livespecie** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 3:42 am

My friend got adapted to it in a couple of days so I think it won’t be that hard.

Accountable · Post by **Accountable** » Mon Aug 12, 2013 10:15 am

It's a pain in the butt because it requires much extra effort for very little extra benefit.