Windows 8 release preview experiences

Started by Virgil0211, September 08, 2012, 09:26:41 PM

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So I decided to go ahead and update my Windows 7 installation to the latest Windows 8 release preview. Installation went surprisingly fast with minimal difficulties (under 40 minutes, saitek cyborg v7 keyboard stopped working (it's always been temperamental, even on Vista & 7 according to the reviews)). Boot up is extremely fast, actually rivaling Ubuntu's (though I haven't done the stopwatch test yet). As far as I can tell, everything is running faster than it was before. The interface is much improved, with a simple key shortcut (windows key + x) to quickly bring up the usual troubleshooting tools like resource monitor and task manager (which have been upgraded to much better interfaces).

I personally don't understand some of the complaints that have been made in places like Kotaku about the metro interface. Once you click on the 'desktop' key in Metro (or just press the windows key to switch between aero & metro desktop), you never have to even look at the metro desktop if you don't want to. And why wouldn't you want to? I personally love it. The OS just, in general, seems more user-friendly than before.

That said, if you've already got Windows 7 and aren't planning to directly purchase it in the next few days for other reasons (as I'm planning to, building desktop for girlfriend), I wouldn't say that it necessitates an upgrade at this point. Not unless you're getting it for a computer with a significant RAM deficiency and the price point is worth it to you. The new features and such are VERY nice, don't get me wrong. They just don't quite justify the MSRP I've heard quoted. Close, but not quite.

Anybody else try out the Windows 8 Release Preview?

can it easily run older programs from XP and before? that was an issue in window 7 and vista, which has bitten me in the ass lately with some geology programs.
"All you guys complaining about the possibility of guy on guy relationships...you're also denying us girl on girl.  Works both ways if you know what I mean"

-Jesse Cox

Quote from: Ibrahim90 on September 09, 2012, 01:17:28 AM
can it easily run older programs from XP and before? that was an issue in window 7 and vista, which has bitten me in the ass lately with some geology programs.

I haven't run into that problem myself, so I can't tell you. Which programs in particular are you having trouble with?

Quote from: Ibrahim90 on September 09, 2012, 01:17:28 AM
can it easily run older programs from XP and before? that was an issue in window 7 and vista, which has bitten me in the ass lately with some geology programs.

I've had no problems running programs for Windows XP under Vista (64 bit, at that).  Vista and 7 won't run anything that wants the 16-bit Windows environment (including things that want DOS emulation, which ran under the Win16 environment), but nobody who knew what they were doing wrote anything for that after Windows 95 came out.  (Of course, scientists usually don't know what they're doing when it comes to computer programming.  If they took the time and effort to learn to program properly, they wouldn't have time or energy left to do their science properly.)

Quote from: evensgrey on September 09, 2012, 06:43:35 PM
(Of course, scientists usually don't know what they're doing when it comes to computer programming.  If they took the time and effort to learn to program properly, they wouldn't have time or energy left to do their science properly.)

that's largely the problem...There are other things (lack of upgrades or funds for such), which all make things extra annoying.
"All you guys complaining about the possibility of guy on guy relationships...you're also denying us girl on girl.  Works both ways if you know what I mean"

-Jesse Cox

Quote from: Ibrahim90 on September 09, 2012, 07:15:51 PM
that's largely the problem...There are other things (lack of upgrades or funds for such), which all make things extra annoying.

And, of course, the great bugaboo of scientific computing:  Everything was written in some old dialect for FORTRAN, and almost nothing is written in the same dialect as anything else.  (That's a problem of sheer inertia.  FORTRAN was the first high-level language that could be compiled, so it got used for a lot of scientific stuff because there was a period when it was literally all there was.  This led to it continuing to be used, simply because it was a language scientists had to learn to understand and modify existing programs.  It's worse than the use of COBOL in the back ends of a lot of business and accounting apps, because COBOL was actually designed as a business computing language, while the original FORTRAN compiler was really proof-of-concept, since nobody was entirely sure you could compile a high-level language.  The original compiler was a modified macro-assembler, and it shows in some of the syntactical weirdness that FORTRAN has in it.  I've never written FORTRAN, but I can read it well enough to understand the algorithms implemented in it and re-implement them in something a bit less archaic, like C.)

I remember learning FORTRAN as a teenager and concluding it would be nothing but trouble.

Quote from: evensgrey on September 10, 2012, 09:40:22 AM
And, of course, the great bugaboo of scientific computing:  Everything was written in some old dialect for FORTRAN, and almost nothing is written in the same dialect as anything else.  (That's a problem of sheer inertia.  FORTRAN was the first high-level language that could be compiled, so it got used for a lot of scientific stuff because there was a period when it was literally all there was.  This led to it continuing to be used, simply because it was a language scientists had to learn to understand and modify existing programs.  It's worse than the use of COBOL in the back ends of a lot of business and accounting apps, because COBOL was actually designed as a business computing language, while the original FORTRAN compiler was really proof-of-concept, since nobody was entirely sure you could compile a high-level language.  The original compiler was a modified macro-assembler, and it shows in some of the syntactical weirdness that FORTRAN has in it.  I've never written FORTRAN, but I can read it well enough to understand the algorithms implemented in it and re-implement them in something a bit less archaic, like C.)

well, at least I now know the details on why they don't work beyond XP.

My only consolation is that a new generation of programs is (very slowly) emerging that can do what the older programs did, only better.
"All you guys complaining about the possibility of guy on guy relationships...you're also denying us girl on girl.  Works both ways if you know what I mean"

-Jesse Cox