Surface 3 - New direction, higher prices and crappy i3

[psxphill]

I actually know people who went to PC World, had a tablet demonstrated to them, they were told "it runs windows, so you already know what to do"... They get it home and it doesn't run any of the software they already have despite the fact it is running windows...

PC World will also sell you an £85 HDMI cable because you will get a higher definition picture than a £5.99 cable. That doesn't mean it's the fault of the manufacturer.
 
I don't recall Microsoft ever making that claim about Windows RT. If someone in PC world lies to you then you should take it up with them.
 
They've agreed to swap HDMI cables (although it will be interesting to find out how that works out).
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/h9RmpnFKD38wsv6DX1Fx4b/hdmi-cables
 
FWIW the opposite argument that a cable either works perfectly or doesn't work at all is also incorrect but it's not as wrong as what PC worlds claims. Also if you want to run your 4k TV at 60hz then you need an HDMI 2.0 cable and that is likely to be more expensive. You need to know what you're buying or go to someone who does, or you're likely to get fleeced no matter what shop you go into.

[psxphill]

Yes, the graph certainly would look different if no sales of 8.1 were from someone upgrading from the horror that was vanilla 8.

You lose the argument immediately by using emotive language purely to cover up your inaccuracies. People upgrading to 8.1 don't count as sales of 8.1, this is the whole reason they should be added together as buying 8 or 8.1 you're likely to end up running 8.1. I'm not sure if he did it on purpose or whether it's a happy coincidence that it helped his argument but it's subverting the facts.
 

Tons of enterprise customers do this as well. Get boatloads of Win8 PC's and reimage to Windows 7 before they are deployed in the company.

I've never heard of an enterprise do that, they usually buy their computers without an os. Even when windows 7 was the latest and they would be running windows 7. MAK keys used to only be used for really big companies as they were effectively unbounded & the only security was that the person who had the key wouldn't give it to their mates. With Vista they switched to KMS and every company can use that now, so your 2000/XP anecdote is no longer relevant. Maybe a small company that doesn't know how to buy a machine with windows 7 or os-less will do as you say.
 

Hadn't gone to 8.1 because apparently driver support wasn't complete for the AlienFX keyboard on my model according to Dell, but maybe I'll give it a shot anyway.

I'd be surprised if the windows 8 driver didn't just work, even windows 7 drivers will usually work. There aren't many differences in the driver model. XP graphics drivers are no longer supported and they do work on windows 7, so on really old hardware you might not have noticed you were running an xp driver. If this affects you then you'll be stuck with the generic super vga driver, but your graphics hardware is probably not that powerful anyway.

[psxphill]

Installed Classic Shell, which give you the start button, and already now I feel much more comfortable.

Can you express that objectively?
 
I installed various start menu hacks in the beta versions and when doing RTM installs. I was reinstalling multiple times to get nice clean installs, rather than install a load of software figure out what works well and then uninstall the rest.
 
What I found was that I got lazy and eventually couldn't be bothered to install a start menu anymore and just got on with learning how to find stuff in Windows 8, because it was easier than installing an extra piece of software if I was just going to nuke it again.
 
My usage pattern probably doesn't match yours, which is why I'm interested in what you find more comfortable.
 
Classic Shell lost me with their customer testimonies and when I couldn't find a US registration for the trademark.

[psxphill]

I don't want to have a Hotmail account because MS has proven time and time again they can and will pry into your personal information and or leak your personal information do to incompetence.

I don't want to have one either, so I don't have one.
 

It's still got loads of issues - for instance, the fact that minimizing windows no longer sends them to the back of the Alt-Tab queue, so you can decide you're done with something for the moment and put it away only to then immediately switch back into it when you meant to go to something else. You end up having to bubble-sort your windows just to get them into the order that XP would've had them in all along.

I have never noticed that has changed, did you or did you read that online? When I'm done with software I just close it, because it makes me more productive as I'm not having to think about what order my alt-tab queue is in.
 

Win8 is feces and everyone knows it except the True Faithful. You've lost, guys. Time to admit it.

I use software I like and don't use software I don't like. I don't care what popular opinion is, especially when what "everyone" knows is second or third hand.
The slight changes in UI that I noticed took me a few days to get used to a couple of years ago, because I wasn't held back by hate.
 
If you think being objective is some form of cult then you need help.

[psxphill]

Direct personal experience on account of, as I've repeatedly said, having to put up with this crap on my work computer. But hey, you just keep insisting that I haven't tried it.

When did I insist?
 

Well whoop-de-friggin'-doo for you. I'll definitely get right on adjusting my entire workflow to fit what you think is best.

I don't care if you change it. I don't care if you use Windows 98. You're a baked cake, you don't want to learn anything. All I can hope is that you don't teach others bad habits.