New Computer

[joelek]

Originally Posted by herk7769

My son said to skip Win 8 just like he recommended skipping Millennium and Vista. He has never steered me wrong. Win 9 is just around the corner.

I ran my own side business for 25 years fixing and consulting for small business and residential Windows PC repair. When you download and install the service packs for Win ME and Vista, they work just fine. Vista got a bad rap as Microsoft was all about security and dropped support for older hardware as they did not include the drivers. Again install the service packs and then Vista works very stable and it supports old hardware. Not all of it, but most of it.

At home I have a still in running condition, PC turbo clone dos 6.2, lotus 123, word perfect 5.0 10 meg hard drive, black floppy disk drive and one of the first color screens to ever come out. Also have a Texas Instrument laptop running windows 95 or 98 and Microsoft BOB. BOB is some funny stuff to look at - good for a flashback experience. Also have a pc with dual partition hard drive running Windows ME or XP depending on boot choice. My specialty was keeping old computers running smooth.

My first system was a Commodore 64SX. This is a 20 pound portable computer the predecessor to a laptop. Dragged it around airports with me as I was a traveling service tech. Read about it here and other old vintage systems. Commodore SX-64 portable computer

I retired in 2009 as the future was throw away laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Nobody is going to pay very much to have their computer fixed when they can spend a few hundred bucks to get a new one. So like cell phones, many people new get new laptop and tablets every 2-4 years.

I just bought a 9" droid ice cream 4.0 tablet with micro usb keyboard and booklet style cover/case. Brand new $125 bucks. This has no support for 4g or 4g-lte. Wifi only or you can add in a usb 3g dongle. Everything I do on a windows pc or laptop, I can do on this tablet with the exception of using a mouse. Once you get used to droid operating system, touch screen instead of mouse, and using google play store to download software, you will really think twice about blowing hundreds of dollars on a new windows 8 rig. On the flip side, I hear win 8 runs really well on old xp computers as it's not a resourse hog like vista and 7.

Sorry no experiance with Apple on my end. Must be good however as Microsoft has been trying to emulate Apple since Windows 3 came out back in early 90's. Most people thought their price was too high, so they went the less money route via Windows.

[AquaMan]

We have 2 desktops PCs, 3 PC laptops, 1 media server with 21 TB of storage, 1 iPad, 4 iPhones, and 6 TVs all networked together, with the PCs running Windows 7. I got my daughter a new ultrabook for Christmas running Windows 8, spent about 30 minutes with it, and couldn't make sense out of any of it.

[Herk7769]

I started with a TI-99 and taught classes in Sprite programming in 1982.
My son could rest his chin on the card table while standing watching me type words and numbers into a keyboard and make the TV do what I wanted it to do.

Moved to the C-64; then the IBM PC-XT I built from parts. My first hard drive was a huge monster of 10 megabytes. Both my children are now software engineers eldest at Microsoft (Redmond) and youngest at HP (San Diego).

Lou Jr, the eldest, had a tour at Microsoft (his name is in the "Easter Egg" in IE4), a tour at Apple, a tour at Yahoo as a VP, and is now back at Microsoft working on something he can't talk about.

Sofia, the youngest worked for Raytheon systems and programmed the defensive systems on the Reagan aircraft carrier and took the first shakedown cruise around Cape Horn, Viasat, and now at HP as a program manager.

Internet Explorer 4.0 Easter Egg - Development Team - YouTube

Dad just goes camping a lot...

[joelek]

If you think back to when you switched from winxp to vista/7, office 2007 to office 2010, droid/iphone, etc. they all have different layouts and ways to run them. NONE of them did I figure out in 30 minutes.

Windows 8 is a totally different experiance. It is built for tablets and smartphones. Not laptops and PCs. Laptops and PC sales are going down fast! Microsoft is grasping for air and trying to survive the next generation of technology users. For the most part, they do not like Microsoft products. Win 8 is an effort to save Microsoft's future. As I recall, the guy heading up 8 Steve Sinofsky got fired shortly after it's relase for various reasosn. We all know sales numbers were way lower than anticipated.

While I am writing this, to the upper right on this forum page is an add for google chromebook for $199. check it out at www.play.google.com

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by joelek

If you think back to when you switched from winxp to vista/7, office 2007 to office 2010, droid/iphone, etc. they all have different layouts and ways to run them. NONE of them did I figure out in 30 minutes.

Windows 8 is a totally different experiance. It is built for tablets and smartphones. Not laptops and PCs. Laptops and PC sales are going down fast! Microsoft is grasping for air and trying to survive the next generation of technology users. For the most part, they do not like Microsoft products. Win 8 is an effort to save Microsoft's future. As I recall, the guy heading up 8 Steve Sinofsky got fired shortly after it's relase for various reasosn. We all know sales numbers were way lower than anticipated.

While I am writing this, to the upper right on this forum page is an add for google chromebook for $199. check it out at www.play.google.com

You could be quoting Lou. Believe it or not but Gates predicted this at some interview or other regarding the "Monopoly" trials. He said some kid in a garage would put him out of business one day.

How true was that ....

[joelek]

Congrats on the kids Herk.
Latest hi tech things I see in RVs is run the whole dang RV from a tablet. The $500K plus rigs seem to feature this. I like watching Extreme RV - show on cable/dish. In the mean time, I'll have to settle for the remote beer dispensor.

Letterman With Automatic Beer Dispenser - YouTube

[Herk7769]

"Congrats on the kids Herk."


While I would like to take all the credit, the DW would box my ears...

[joelek]

Originally Posted by herk7769

You could be quoting Lou. Believe it or not but Gates predicted this at some interview or other regarding the "Monopoly" trials. He said some kid in a garage would put him out of business one day.

How true was that ....

How do you think IBM got killed. Some kids in a garage! Gates remembers how he got started. Eventualy ms-dos took over ibm's pc-dos. Then windows and apple killed ibm's pc era. PC-dos and OS-II were gonners by then.

How Microsoft was started - Thanks to Magazine - YouTube

[Oakman]

My bet is that Windows 8 will go down as the worst operating system Microsoft ever released. I gave up using Internet Explorer with 8 and have switched to Firefox for my web browser. I am sitting here using the desktop computer (Vista) while I wait for the installation of Microsoft Office on my laptop (Win 8). It has been working on the install for over 55 minutes and it still isn’t completed. If it turns out that Office works as poorly with Win 8 as IE did, I guess I’ll download Open Office and hope for the best.

This has been such a bad experience that I won’t buy another Windows based computer in the future. Microsoft will be hearing from me, and hearing and hearing and hearing.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Oakman

My bet is that Windows 8 will go down as the worst operating system Microsoft ever released. I gave up using Internet Explorer with 8 and have switched to Firefox for my web browser. I am sitting here using the desktop computer (Vista) while I wait for the installation of Microsoft Office on my laptop (Win 8). It has been working on the install for over 55 minutes and it still isn’t completed. If it turns out that Office works as poorly with Win 8 as IE did, I guess I’ll download Open Office and hope for the best.

This has been such a bad experience that I won’t buy another Windows based computer in the future. Microsoft will be hearing from me, and hearing and hearing and hearing.

Win 8 is a touch screen optimized operating system.
Except 99% of windows users don't have touch screens.

Ooops

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by herk7769

Win 8 is a touch screen optimized operating system.
Except 99% of windows users don't have touch screens.

Ooops

We have a touch screen ultrabook that we just bought our daughter with Windows 8 on it. WITH a touchscreen, it's very nice. With more and more of my devices being touchscreen, I find myself fighting the urge to touch the screens of my NON-touchscreen devices.

[F and E Damp]

DW's WinXP netbook is starting to have keyboard problems and can be a royal pain. We're thinking a new laptop, but I want to get one with Win7 on it, and they're disappearing fast.

I subsrcibe to a Windows bulltin board (Windowsbbs.com) and there's very strong dislike of Win8. I'm still running XP on my 7-years old desktop!

[Oakman]

Well it took 4 hours of my time yesterday to get Microsoft Office installed on the laptop running Windows 8. This evening I installed it on our Desktop running Vista and the complete install took less than 30 minutes.

[Earth Station]

I installed Microsoft Office on my MAC yesterday ....... took a total of about 90 minutes and I was doing other things at the same time!
I have to say...... I LOVE LOVE my MAC!

[Jtant]

Originally Posted by Earth Station

I installed Microsoft Office on my MAC yesterday ....... took a total of about 90 minutes and I was doing other things at the same time!
I have to say...... I LOVE LOVE my MAC!

X2 Macs just keep going and going but you pay up front but me three I LOVE LOVE LOVE my MAC JT

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by Earth Station

I installed Microsoft Office on my MAC yesterday ....... took a total of about 90 minutes and I was doing other things at the same time!
I have to say...... I LOVE LOVE my MAC!

im with you on the thrice loves

[Oakman]

I never thought I'd say this but, Vista is a great operating system...when compared to Windows 8.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Oakman

I never thought I'd say this but, Vista is a great operating system...when compared to Windows 8.

[Oakman]

Well I have adjusted to using Windows 8 on my laptop and I have to say, it still sucks. I know this operating system was designed for tablets but it wasn’t until last week I discovered how absolutely true that is.

I found an app on the computer called Windows Journal. Since I journal the trips we take I thought this might be something I might like. I opened the app and the screen that came up looked like a lined journal. Cool I thought. I started typing, nothing showed up on the screen. No matter what I did nothing came from the keyboard. While playing around I suddenly discovered that to use this app, I had to “write” words by pressing and holding the left button on the mouse. This program (oops, it’s an app) is designed to use a stylus on the touchscreen so that you can literally use longhand to write in the journal. It’s an app designed for tablets. What a modern marvel that app is. I can now write in a journal in longhand using a pen stylus. What’s next for Windows, a stone and chisel app?

I also miss the desktop gadgets that were available with Vista and Windows 7. I’m sure there must be an app that I can download that would mimic those gadgets but I’m too lazy to go looking.

There is one app that came with Win 8 that I do like, it’s called sticky notes. Write a little note and stick it where you want on the computer screen. I don’t know why I like it, I just do.

My regret with this laptop is I didn’t buy one that has a touchscreen. The Win 8 start screen would be easier to navigate.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Oakman

There is one app that came with Win 8 that I do like, it’s called sticky notes. Write a little note and stick it where you want on the computer screen. I don’t know why I like it, I just do.

Sticky Notes and Snipping tools were in Windows 7.
I use them all the time and the snipping tool is very cool for snipping screen shots of PDF graphics and text for the forum.