Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for only $39.99!

[Iggy]

Hmm, I can upgrade XP?
I have two copies of that, so I might upgrade one.

BTW - I paid less for Windows Home Server 2011 (which is Win7 based).

[Iggy]

How you liking WHS 2011, Iggy?

I recently switched from FreeNAS to WHS 2011 on my one NAS server and I'm loving it so far.

It was kind of a pain to set up, but its helped tie all my hardware together.
Which reminds me, I need to update my signature.

[Iggy]

Can the win8 upgrade be installed as a fresh installation?
I've got a laptop with the administrator password locked out and I'd just like to wipe the whole thing.

[Iggy]

Speaking of not liking something (and I know this isn't Win8 related, but let's face it, you guys are way off that topic anyway)'m really hating reinstallation of WinXP.

I have two copies of WinXP Media Center 2005 Edition. That's not that old, but in order to get it to update properly (after installation) I had to manually install SP3. Then it installed 117 service patches, restarted and installed two more.

Freakin' ridiculous.

[Iggy]

I didn't mean to imply that Windows 8 is the same kind of crap like ME  was, but I'm convinced that lots of people in the future will look at 8  with the same type of "disgust" as many do with ME today.

Funny, but I don' find that much difference between 98 and ME, except that ME has more drivers built in and requires the CD less often when adding hardware.

Then again, people gave Vista a bad rap, and it might deserve it more in that it is more crash prone then its predecessor (ME is not, in fact its pretty much a polished version of '98).

I've been using Windows since version 3.0 and each time a new version comes out there's always some part of the market that dislikes the new version. Then, eventually, enough people adopt it (or wait) that it becomes a hit (or a miss).

[Iggy]

I went to the Microsoft store yesterday to check out the Surface, Windows 8 etc . The store was slow and very boring.

Personally, I have more interest in ChromeOS.
Microsoft is struggling to remain relevant.

My hope?
ARM gains market share.
As do alternative OS' like Android, ChromeOS, Ubuntu, etc.

And maybe we see a few new systems (PPC and ARM).

I'll keep my copies of WinXP and Win7.

Win8?

No thanks.

[Iggy]

Even Android, which is a Unix distro and open source has locked down the OS.

Android is Linux based, not Unix based.

And while Linux only makes up about 1% of the market, that still places it at number three behind Windows and OSX (unless you want to throw in Phone OS' like ios).

As far as ChromeOS goes, the first really big product to use it has just been introduced.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/

Since Android has done quite well, its not unreasonable to expect other alternative OS' to gain a foothold.

Hey, you guys are encouraging development for AmigaOS. What the market share for that (and, yeah, it probably is larger then the one for MorphOS).

I'm not as interested in commercial success as I am in overall ease of use and utility.

The only thing commercial success helps bring is developers and software.

[Iggy]

Well said.

Um, yeah, IF you're using a current version.
AND btw, even WinXP SP2 isn't current enough for Windows update to work with correctly.
As I've mentioned before, in order to use a 2005 copy of Win XP Media Center I had to manually install SP3, then let the system install 119 software patches, then install Java, Flash, a PDF reader and a bunch of audio and video codecs (so that I could play DVDs and work with video and audio files).
 
So no gentleman, it doesn't "just work".
 
I can install Ubuntu just about as easily as Win7 and get similar functionality.
 
But like ANY OS, if I want to do something that isn't mainstream I'm going to have to work on it.
BFD.

[Iggy]

In double closing: Java.... ewww.... burn it off your computer because **** Oracle.

Actually, Java has never been a problem for me. Now ActiveX, that was just stupid.
I forgot about VLC Player. Thank God, that's available (its one of the packages I downloaded), plus with it onboard I now have additional codecs for Media Player.
 
And I'm not likely to adopt Win8 any time soon as there are no features that it provides that I desire.

[Iggy]

Not sure I'm ready for this yet (I don't own a Smartphone or any other multi-touch device).
Who knows? Maybe in the future.

[Iggy]

That actually sounds like a breeze. The only thing that makes it sound slightly annoying is that going from SP2 doesn't automatically download SP3. It always used to, but I never used media centre & it could have broken in the mean time. Big deal that it downloaded 119 patches automatically, that counts as it just works.

Actually, my primary complaint is being forced to manually download SP3.
It used to work via Windows update, but Microsoft has decide to stop supporting older (than SP3) versions of XP. Which is silly because they'll still let you have it if you use the method IT managers use.
 
And no, I don't consider spending a couple hours sorting out an instillation to be a case of "it just works".

[Iggy]

Just kill the TV (or use it as a monitor).
Except for news and weather, I only watch AMC or DVD/Blu-Rays anyway.

[Iggy]

Perhaps because someone doesn't have the latest version, but only the one with service pack 2 :rolleyes:

 
Thank you!
Virtually all commercial WinXP CDs are SP2 or earlier.
Win Vista came out before Win XP SP3.
 
The XP Media Center CDs I have (XP SP2) came with free upgrade offers for Vista.
 
"Why would any one ever install windows with anything other than the most current install disc? "
 
Because some of us actually pay for our install media.

[Iggy]

Thanks TCMSLP,
I wholly agree that Linux is a mature and complete useful alternative to commercial, closed OS'.

[Iggy]

...unless you are still running XP on a P4.  Then, you should upgrade)

P4?
Hey, I sold my Phenom II a couple of months ago, and bought an i5 for my Hacckintosh.
But I've still got one machine with a PIII (@1.5GHz)!
And another with a Socket A Athlon!
Both of those are going to continue to run XP for pretty much forever.

And I have Win7 on the i5 Under Parallels.
Why would I want to upgrade to Win8?

On the two old machine, upgrading the OS to Ubuntu would be more economical then changing the hardware.
And there nothing offered by Win8 that would improve the Hackintosh.

Win8 might be a great product if you're running XP or Vista on relatively modern hardware, otherwise why bother?