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Offline bbond007Topic starter

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I like W8. Here is why..
« on: September 22, 2012, 08:06:36 PM »
I have been playing with the Windows 8 preview on various platforms and I have to admit, I'm really starting to like it. Everyone seems to be criticizing Microsoft over the UI, but it seems to me  that this some change is necessary if Microsoft wants to go after the tablet market. I will say it is a PIA on a track-pad :)

I first started messing with it on my early 2009 Mac Mini because I was just curious and wondered if Diablo III would run a little quicker under Windows. I was reading how sluggish the game ran OSX (although I thought it ran pretty well given the age of the machine), so the Windows version would probably run even better.

The machines specs are:
early 2009 Apple Mac mini
9400m video
8gb RAM
128GB Crucial SSD.
DVD removed, replaced with 750gb HD

W8-64bit boots and seconds. It was having some frequent freeze-up problems (especially when using chrome), but enabling Hyper-V fixes that for whatever reason. The OS runs great on that hardware, but that's pretty expected as the machine still has pretty decent specs...

Diablo may be slightly faster under W8 than OSX, but the real interesting thing is that I was able to run Diablo III under Parallels desktop. Virtualization has come a long way!

I liked W8 enough that I wanted to give it a larger partition on the SSD, but I got a deal on a Corsair Force Series 3 240GB SSD. My original pan was to then take the 128 and put that into my netbook because using that thing with W7 is just painful.

I cloned the 128 to the 240 and the Mac mini just seemed to be running much slower. Benchmarks proved that the Cosair was not much faster than a standard HD. System Information showed that the drive and MB were only negotiating SATA 1.0 level and some searching forums confirmed that it is a known problem and I could not find a fix.

That was really unacceptable so I decided to put the 240 into the Netbook. The netbook seems to run horribly slow with W7 but the stock HD is surprisingly fast. The stock drive turned out to be a WD Scorpio Blue. I thought the writes were high 60s and the reads were high 70s (I use ATTO benchmark). I don't know why W7 seemed so slow. I guess I just have gotten accustomed to faster machines...

The netbook is a Asus 1015PN
dual core Atom CPU 1.5ghz
2GB RAM
Nvidia ION chipset (9400m me thinks)

Here is where I messed up. When I put the SSD into the mini the partition system got changed to GUID and I forgot to change it back. After cloning(XXCLONE) the W7 system to the drive and swapping the drives, the netbook simply failed to boot. Stupid... That should have been obvious as I had to remove the 200MB EFI partition on the command line with "diskpart"

The copy of W8 preview I downloaded was 64bit, and I did not even think my netbook supported 64bit but apparently it does. I installed the OS and all I can say is that I'm impressed...

Very fast... boot in seconds. Part of that is the SSD. ATTO puts the drive at high 170 write and high 270 reads... Everything seems way faster.

I'm downloading the 32bit version on my steam-powered DSL connection now. Unfortunately 2gb is the maximum amount of RAM the specs say the netbook can hold.

Anyway, when you look at the specs on the netbook and the performance of W8, the new UI seems to make sense because it would run pretty well on a tablet.

Also I would not recommend Corsair Force Series 3 240. Not even at $135... First there was the SSD 1.0 issue in my Macbook, but I also tried the SSD yet another machine (Toshiba Qosimo) and the speeds where not that great. low 160s write and high 170s read. Other SSDs are typically in the  270 range for reads on that machine. Also the temp monitor on that drive always reports that its running 128 degrees :/
« Last Edit: September 22, 2012, 08:26:22 PM by bbond007 »
 

Offline Pyromania

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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2012, 09:07:20 PM »
Nobody's upset about Windows 8 because it's faster; they're upset because it's a half-baked compromise between two entirely different UI paradigms in a blatant attempt by Microsoft to both have its cake and eat it, which you yourself admit makes the thing a pain in the ass.
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Offline bbond007Topic starter

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2012, 10:02:17 PM »
Quote from: commodorejohn;709051
Nobody's upset about Windows 8 because it's faster; they're upset because it's a half-baked compromise between two entirely different UI paradigms in a blatant attempt by Microsoft to both have its cake and eat it, which you yourself admit makes the thing a pain in the ass.

I think there is going to be a huge learning curve for some people.

I know some people who struggled the first few years but have finally managed to learn the desktop metaphor - like how to move, re-size, drag windows and icons... after 20 years of owning a computer... yeah... those people are going to be confused as hell.

The reactions from people who buy W8 notebooks and desktops with W8 pre-loaded this Christmas season should be interesting.

One gripe I have with MSFT was always that with every new OS you needed more powerful hardware. I could not imagine haw awful Vista would be on the netbook. At least they have gotten that message....

As a programmer, I have always liked Microsoft's products, well, not always, but starting with vc++ 6.0(but not MFC). Android/Java/SDK/NDK just sucks. Don't get me started on that android emulator.

M$ft may get to have there cake and eat it too but then so do the tablet users and maybe the developers...

Finally the 32bit version is down downloading...
« Last Edit: September 22, 2012, 10:05:58 PM by bbond007 »
 

Offline commodorejohn

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2012, 10:05:52 PM »
Of course there's going to be a huge learning curve, it's a bad, unintuitive design. A bicycle you pedal with your ears is going to have a huge learning curve, too, but that doesn't mean there's any payoff at the end of it.
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Offline Iggy

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2012, 10:36:27 PM »
Quote from: commodorejohn;709057
Of course there's going to be a huge learning curve, it's a bad, unintuitive design. A bicycle you pedal with your ears is going to have a huge learning curve, too, but that doesn't mean there's any payoff at the end of it.

 
:D Maybe that's why other tablet makers use an OS specific to that type of platform.
 
If I have a real keyboard, and no touchscreen, what good are the new UI features?
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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2012, 10:42:12 PM »
An excellent question. From everything I've been reading, no good at all, and in many ways an active hindrance.
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Offline bbond007Topic starter

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2012, 11:48:14 PM »
Quote from: Iggy;709059
:D Maybe that's why other tablet makers use an OS specific to that type of platform.
 
If I have a real keyboard, and no touchscreen, what good are the new UI features?

not any good at all.

still you can have a device that you can dock and have it work like a desktop.

Android with a mouse and KB is pretty bad...

Micro$oft is just doing what they do best. showing up late in the game... implementing everyone else's ideas (rather poorly) into their products. In this case I like it, but its not for everyone and W7 will be the next XP.

Work FINALLY upgraded my PC off XP this last week. I was sure happy to see that go...

I got 32 bit W8 installed and now I'm downloading updated video drivers...
 

Offline kedawa

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2012, 12:17:43 AM »
Metro blows even on touch devices.
You need both a physical keyboard and a touchscreen for it to be anywhere near usable.
 

Offline Iggy

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2012, 05:42:47 AM »
Quote from: kedawa;709068
Metro blows even on touch devices.
You need both a physical keyboard and a touchscreen for it to be anywhere near usable.

Just what I want to do, move my hands back and forth between two devices.
God I miss the clip on thumb operated trackball I used to use in place of a mouse.
Why is everyone convinced I want a Phillip K. Dick user interface?
"Not making any hard and fast rules means that the moderators can use their good judgment in moderation, and we think the results speak for themselves." - Amiga.org, terms of service

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Offline commodorejohn

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2012, 06:05:45 AM »
Quote from: Iggy;709075
Just what I want to do, move my hands back and forth between two devices.
God I miss the clip on thumb operated trackball I used to use in place of a mouse.
Why is everyone convinced I want a Phillip K. Dick user interface?
I miss trackballs; I'd happily live with a thicker laptop if it meant I didn't have to deal with a fershlugginer touchpad, but nobody seems to make laptops with them anymore :/

Nerds want the Minority Report technology because they're convinced that making things look like The Future will mean that the world will suddenly start being more future-y. The industry wants it, presumably, because they figure nerds will buy it.
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Offline Iggy

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #11 on: September 23, 2012, 06:16:42 AM »
Quote from: commodorejohn;709076
more future-y

I liked that phrase.
"Not making any hard and fast rules means that the moderators can use their good judgment in moderation, and we think the results speak for themselves." - Amiga.org, terms of service

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Offline runequester

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #12 on: September 23, 2012, 06:19:46 AM »
Quote from: Iggy;709077
I liked that phrase.



Very Doctor Who
 

Offline k4lmp

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Re: I like W8. Here is why..
« Reply #13 on: September 23, 2012, 06:36:18 AM »
I installed W8 under Virtualbox on my PC running linux.  I wanted to see if I would like it, as W7 is ok, and I really like XP.  I absolutely cannot stand W8.  I think I'll stick to my Linux, it works great, is stable, and the price is right :laugh1: