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Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

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Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#141

This is huge for webdevs. With MS making upgrades to Win8 (and therefore IE10) so cheap/easy, the death of OldIE is that much closer.

Despite the heavy criticism on your comment, I actually agree. It's just another step closer to finally getting rid of all the garbage browser people still use on XP. Despite loving XP until Windows 7, when people get off of XP and onto something a lot easier to developer for (IE10).. I will be a lot happier.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, negative public reaction is heavily influenced by word of mouth. Will you lose anything by not upgrading? Not immediately, but over time yes. Will you gain anything by upgrading? Possibly, depending on your needs, leaning more towards yes over time. I've been using it 100% for a few weeks and spend 90% of my time in desktop mode (due to using Chrome, AIM, and Media Player Classic). Most of the time I f…

"The only time I see $UI is when I hit the windows key, type "chro" and hit enter to launch Chrome. In this use case, $UI isn't anything more than a bigger start menu" $UI = [Metro|Ubuntu Unity|DWM/dmenu] Strange how these changes all come along at the same time. Does Mac OS have a text based launcher at all?

I do the same thing on my Ubuntu PC at work. It does seem like we're in the age where launchers and menus are meaningless. At least Microsoft is doing something to keep icons relevant; live tiles are a godsend on my phone.

When I go from W7/W8 at home and Ubuntu on my PC at work to my XP work laptop, it's just an incredibly frustrating experience. I hear people say the only thing that's changed is the looks, but there are a lot of usability upgrades in the newer OSes.

In all the modern OSes I don't need to know what this app is named or what that setting is called. I can just start typing what I think it is and fuzzy matching figures out when I type "resolution", what I really want is what they call "display".

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#143
Here's the thing: if the Windows 8 upgrade was free I wouldn't take it.

Not because I have any great hatred of Windows 8-- I got bored one night and played around with it in a VM, it seems nice enough-- but Windows 7 works fine already.

Windows is the thing that I have to run on my computer so I can run the things I actually care about using. As long as it stays out of my way and doesn't have lots of bugs or security issues, I'm happy with it.

Until I'm forced off 7 due to incompatibilities I see no reason to switch.

(for the record, I still run Snow Leopard on my mac for similar reasons).

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used Windows 8? I don't make much use of the metro apps, but there are lots of smaller improvements that I appreciate, like the new task manager, file copy dialog, login screen, etc. The sight of the new start screen incites revulsion in most power users, but try to remember that you won't be spending much time there. Treat the start screen like what it really is: a fancier start menu. Like me, you'…

Spend a little time on Explorer, while you're at it. Just look at Explorer's View menu / task pane thing, and the icon size selector. It's a teeny weeny scrollable box (just barely big enough to fit up and down scroll arrows) with 6 items visible, but only containing 8 items overall! Just look at that thing!

? For me all 8 sizes are visible with no need to expand or scroll.

edit: I guess it depends on your window size - if you shrink it horizontally it does only show 6 items. Though I'm not quite sure why there need to be so many layout options anyway - what exactly are Tiles and Content view for?

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that it will take a long, long time for enterprises to move to Windows 8, with most sticking with Windows 7 for as long as Microsoft continues to provide security patches for it. If you're an enterprise with 10000 or 50000 non-technical users running Windows 7, the cost of moving to Windows 8 will be primarily IT staff hours, including all the support questions from users puzzled by the new user interface…

Windows 7? Most of them haven't even left XP behind.

XP has an end of extended support date of a little less than 2 years now. Large corporation have either moved or are planning to move to 7. They won't jump straight to 8 due to needing to wait for the first SP and all that.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#146

Is this the "new" Microsoft? I generally like what I am seeing them do. Surface looks incredible. Not completely sold on the Metro interface on the desktop but understand what they are trying to do. In general there seems to be new energy and focus coming out of MS. I wonder what's going on inside.

The court oversight of Microsoft stemming from the antitrust lawsuit ended in May 2011. I don't think it is a coincidence that Microsoft's initial publicity about the new Metro stuff cam in June 2011.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#147

Is this the "new" Microsoft? I generally like what I am seeing them do. Surface looks incredible. Not completely sold on the Metro interface on the desktop but understand what they are trying to do. In general there seems to be new energy and focus coming out of MS. I wonder what's going on inside.

For the first time in a long time, they are becoming underdogs. The surprising thing is that they are smart enough to start acting like one! http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/15/2874513/microsoft-internet... Most huge, old companies finding themselves in such a position prefer to pretend nothing changed no matter what.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually used Windows 8? I don't make much use of the metro apps, but there are lots of smaller improvements that I appreciate, like the new task manager, file copy dialog, login screen, etc. The sight of the new start screen incites revulsion in most power users, but try to remember that you won't be spending much time there. Treat the start screen like what it really is: a fancier start menu. Like me, you'…

I'll upgrade when they give us more than 2 inches to edit the PATH environment variable.

Does anyone have any answers why this has not changed over the years?

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#149
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is that it will take a long, long time for enterprises to move to Windows 8, with most sticking with Windows 7 for as long as Microsoft continues to provide security patches for it. If you're an enterprise with 10000 or 50000 non-technical users running Windows 7, the cost of moving to Windows 8 will be primarily IT staff hours, including all the support questions from users puzzled by the new user interface…

Microsoft is eyeing consumers with this announcement, and once consumers switch, they will adapt to the new interface. Once consumers adapt to the new interface, the overhead that you are talking about decreases, and companies can roll out Windows 8 without totally killing productivity. MS is betting the house on Windows 8, but they know there will be growing pains. This $40 upgrade strategy is one way to mitigate th…

And what's to say that consumers will switch? It's not like the PC market is experiencing any growth. Sure consumers who feel they have to own a Windows PC will upgrade when they're existing hardware dies, but I'm skeptical that users will be queuing up to by a Windows 8 PC on launch day. And home users just don't upgrade existing hardware in any meaningful quantity.

Re: Windows 8 Pro Upgrade to cost $39.99

#150
post #82

This is huge for webdevs. With MS making upgrades to Win8 (and therefore IE10) so cheap/easy, the death of OldIE is that much closer.

If . Enterprise and Chinese pirates[1] might not be able to upgrade anytime soon. [1]: http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/08/aye-pirates-be-reason-ie6-ju...

When the Chinese pirates upgrade their system to pirated Windows 8, they will still have IE10 preinstalled, so it's even going to work for them.
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