MS Windows 8 pricing news

[Daddydavek]

I saw this article on CNET. It has really piqued my interest!

 

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57465416-75/windows-8-pro-upgrade-set-for-$39.99-media-center-too/?tag=txt;title

[hh5]

mmm the way microsoft prices their software ,,, they might as well give me a free tablet to run it

 

how many people are going to trade in their laptops to buy the latest win8 laptop with the latest touch abilities?

[Andy78]

I still miss Windows 3.1

[Zombie]

I still miss Windows 3.1

 

Aye, life was so much simpler then ...

[Traveller_23]

I am toying with the idea of buying one of the new MS Surface tablets...

 

I will have to buy a new laptop soon too though (this one's been dropped one too many times) so I imagine I'll have a Windows 8 laptop anyway.

[Ashi]

How about full version? I am thinking about buying a new HDD so I might eligible for the System Builder version. I usually don't like upgrade, and this time, the $39.99 version is digital download version.... No hardcopy. If i want to reinstall Windows, I am screwed....

[Daddydavek]

How about full version? I am thinking about buying a new HDD so I might eligible for the System Builder version. I usually don't like upgrade, and this time, the $39.99 version is digital download version.... No hardcopy. If i want to reinstall Windows, I am screwed....

 

I seem to remember the article talks about burning a DVD reinstall option.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

I'm glad to see they're offering an upgrade version. It's so cheap for one reason: they know that Windows 8 is going to go over like a fart in church for anyone that has any actual productivity needs on their PC. It's great for "consuming content", terrible for anyone that actually DOES anything with a PC.

 

It will be fine as a tablet interface. It absolutely blows for people like me.

 

When they come out with a version that actually offers a desktop and a flipping start button (or something) rather than a "blazing new paradigm", I'll consider it.

Edited July 6, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD

[Ashi]

I seem to remember the article talks about burning a DVD reinstall option.

 

Oh cool. I used to have someone who taught me how to do all these nerdy stuff. I missed him....

[Myr]

I have been testing Windows 8 on my old laptop. It runs well... but I'm not sold on the interface for a mouse and keyboard. Don't get me wrong, I love it on my Windows Phone and on my Xbox 360... but not so much on the laptop.

 

I might be jumping in with both feet on a Intel-powered MS Surface though. As a touch screen interface, it rocks.

[Daddydavek]

I have been testing Windows 8 on my old laptop. It runs well... but I'm not sold on the interface for a mouse and keyboard. Don't get me wrong, I love it on my Windows Phone and on my Xbox 360... but not so much on the laptop.

 

I might be jumping in with both feet on a Intel-powered MS Surface though. As a touch screen interface, it rocks.

 

I think a lot of PC users may be jumping in if the MS Surface is priced right and performs as advertised. Being able to synch your desktop, laptop, tablet and MS phone address books etc would be a boon for those of us that can't quite force ourselves to pay the Apple premium and are not really enamored by Google's Android either.

 

I have not previewed Win8 and am intrigued by your comment about using the mouse and keyboard. Are they less responsive or do they behave oddly that has a bit of a learning curve?

Edited July 7, 2012 by Daddydavek

[Traveller_23]

I haven't played with Win8 anywhere, but I have seen videos so yeah...I can see why it would be bad for a) mouse and keyboard for work and productivity in general. I can't see it going down too well with people who actually do stuff with computers

[Gene Splicer PHD]

I think a lot of PC users may be jumping in if the MS Surface is priced right and performs as advertised. Being able to synch your desktop, laptop, tablet and MS phone address books etc would be a boon for those of us that can't quite force ourselves to pay the Apple premium and are not really enamored by Google's Android either.

 

I have not previewed Win8 and am intrigued by your comment about using the mouse and keyboard. Are they less responsive or do they behave oddly that has a bit of a learning curve?

 

I'm definitely interested in getting a Surface if the pricing is right and the app store isn't a huge MS walled garden, aka Apple. I do think the Metro interface is really sweet on a tablet. It does have the potential to get under Apple's skin - the Apple IOS is getting pretty dated, in my opinion.

 

Daddydavek, Windows 8 doesn't have a standard desktop and start menu as its primary interface. It has the Metro interface, which is touch-oriented. On the Start screen, you have a set of panes that you touch to launch applications. To access the computer more deeply, you touch the right-lower corner of the screen to present "charms" which offer access to things that aren't visible in Metro. Many things are not visible in Metro - without coaching, it's difficult to find the "shut down computer" command, for example.

 

Now, I have two 22" screens that make my desktop something like 3840 pixels by 2160 pixels. This is because I run a lot of windows/applications concurrently. And Metro scales up or down to fit the monitor. A 1" pane on a laptop is about 4" on my monitor - in mousing, it's about a full wrist-turn. So I have this huge blot of very big boxes on the screen, and to drag a mouse from the left side of the screen over to the "charms" area is a real pain. Also, what is intuitive on a touch screen, like swiping down from the top or swiping up from the bottom - which is how you get to the Windows 8 logon screen - isn't intuitive with a mouse. There are no instructions for it anywhere - the first day I had it running, I had to google how to access Windows 8 to know what to do.

 

Also, file management in Windows 8 is pretty bad and I really hope they fix it,. When you want to access files (and not applications - for example, I open Excel spreadsheets directly, I don't open Excel and then open the file - I just double click the file or drop it on the Excel icon on my desktop). Windows 8 kicks you into the old "desktop" interface from Windows 7. That's great if you have the precision of a cursor and a mouse to do things like expand a folder list, but it's awful when you try to use it from a touch screen - your finger just isn't that precise of a tool. I don't like that it limits how many applications I can run at a time - its common for me to have 12-15 windows/programs open at once, and it limits this.

 

I really like how fast Windows 8 is, especially on my 4 year old desktop - its even pretty quick in a virtual machine. I like that I can just start typing commands - without a directed window for me to type in - and things happen - the keyboard is pretty much always on. So, start Windows, type "2008 budget folder" and the "2008 budget folder" opens up. That's very cool. The touch interface is quite good on a touch screen - I've been playing with it on an old Gateway tablet PC and its pretty intuitive. Gestures (two and three finger touch commands) are pretty good.

 

The biggest pain though, is that the interface is so different, and can be so frustrating if you don't "get it", that it can be pretty frustrating for people - like my mom - who are going to have to be almost completely retrained to use it well. Ever try to train a 65 year old? Like herding cats, I tell you.

 

/rant

[Ashi]

The biggest pain though, is that the interface is so different, and can be so frustrating if you don't "get it", that it can be pretty frustrating for people - like my mom - who are going to have to be almost completely retrained to use it well. Ever try to train a 65 year old? Like herding cats, I tell you.

 

/rant

 

Very nice breakdown of the features/pros/cons. My parents, to this day, still can't use mouse well, so maybe the new interface has some merits to them (I am crossing my fingers it'll be easier to train them than regular Windows interface).

 

It looks like it's not for me though. I also open files the way you do, drag icon into the program icon. I edit my photos day and night, so to me it's much more productive to group the photos I want and drag them all together into whatever the software I am using at the time. I also copy and paste my files this way between Windows (drag and hold files and click on ALT+Tab at the same time to switch windows). Love the "Run..." command always on.

 

Wonder if Win7 Ultimate would go down in price.

[VictoryPanda]

That's AMAZING. But I want to have a full version versus an upgrade sadly. My laptop isn't old at all and is running Windows 7 at the moment, but I kind of want to just buy an entire new laptop. I wonder how much the full version is going to cost...

[Houdinii]

I've read and read, but can't find a price for people currently running on 8. None of the information says anything about it. Is it a simple upgrade? Or am I going to have to revert to 7 and upgrade?

[Menace]

lol, think about all the hackers out there right now. They're screwed.

[Gene Splicer PHD]

That's AMAZING. But I want to have a full version versus an upgrade sadly. My laptop isn't old at all and is running Windows 7 at the moment, but I kind of want to just buy an entire new laptop. I wonder how much the full version is going to cost...

 

The upgrade will be the full version. The current rumor is that there isn't going to be a retail boxed version - only the OEM system builder version, and the upgrade. Microsoft has never made money on a boxed version, so its rumored that they're eliminating it. If your laptop is pretty new, consider running windows 8 as a host, and running windows 7 as a virtual machine within it. That's my current plan.

 

Anyone running the preview version qualifies for the upgrade, which implies to me that you don't have to do a clean install, it should take your existing install up to the released version without losing anything.

 

Interesting read here: http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-could-be-cheapest-yet-due-to-no-retail-option

Edited July 14, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD

[hh5]

nice article but I hate upgrades all the time .. win never seems to run right

I love fresh installs

 

The upgrade will be the full version. The current rumor is that there isn't going to be a retail boxed version - only the OEM system builder version, and the upgrade. Microsoft has never made money on a boxed version, so its rumored that they're eliminating it. If your laptop is pretty new, consider running windows 8 as a host, and running windows 7 as a virtual machine within it. That's my current plan.

 

Anyone running the preview version qualifies for the upgrade, which implies to me that you don't have to do a clean install, it should take your existing install up to the released version without losing anything.

 

Interesting read here: http://www.neowin.ne...o-retail-option

 

[Gene Splicer PHD]

Oh, sorry, I wasn't clear. The windows media (whether you download it or have them send you a disk) is a full version of Windows. That's how windows 7 works, anyway and I've seen nothing on the partner site to make me think MS will do anything differently this time. This means you can do a clean, fresh install with the upgrade media. When you do the install, it will ask if you are upgrading or want to do a custom install - the custom install is a fresh installation. At some point in the process it will ask you to insert an older version of windows (a disk) to verify that you own it, after that it finishes the installation and asks for the Windows 8 product key.

Edited July 15, 2012 by Gene Splicer PHD