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Windows 8 / RT |OT|

L

LukasTaves

Member
The news app is amazing now. WOW, great improvement.

Edit: If I could disable some of the default news sources that don't interest to me, it would be perfect.

The maps app is now decent. Still lots to go, but I can least get nearby results, though I had to change my app location to US even though i'm in brazil for nearby results to show up (And the weirdest part, is that the US location has those locations added, but using my actual country location is a no go XD)
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
LukasTaves said:
The news app is amazing now. WOW, great improvement.

Edit: If I could disable some of the default news sources that don't interest to me, it would be perfect.

The maps app is now decent. Still lots to go, but I can least get nearby results, though I had to change my app location to US even though i'm in brazil for nearby results to show up (And the weirdest part, is that the US location has those locations added, but using my actual country location is a no go XD)
Click to expand...

Yeah I changed mine to US as well. Bings location specific features drives me crazy. Why can't they implement it in different countries.
 
A

Alchemy

Member
Welp, I'm taking the plunge. I just ordered Windows 8 on Amazon and I'm going to install it on my MacBook Air. Sounds like touchpad gestures work well in 8 so thats a plus, and worst case scenario I just install something and Start is Back and I should be good. Just miss having Windows on my laptop, need it to run some software and figured what the hell. Boot Camp should be a fun process in a few days.

Any ideas on how much HDD space I should dedicate to 8? I was thinking 70GB, ended up with 85 GB free after some cleaning and would at least like to reserve some space for OS X.
 
E

Enco

Member
Fuck you Google and fuck you Microsoft.

Updated the shit Mail app and now I can't receive my Gmail emails at it.

What a load of bullshit.
 
M

MCD

Junior Member
Enco said:
Fuck you Google and fuck you Microsoft.

Updated the shit Mail app and now I can't receive my Gmail emails at it.

What a load of bullshit.
Click to expand...

It's a shit situation but please understand.

No seriously, hope they fix it up by June because thet when Windows Phone might get the CalDAV support update.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/16/4229900/windows-8-1-boot-to-desktop-option

Microsoft is planning to change the way its Start Screen operates with the release of Windows 8.1. Sources familiar with Microsoft's plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is currently testing builds of Windows 8.1, known as codename Windows Blue, that include an option to boot directly to the traditional desktop. We're told that the option is disabled by default, allowing users to simply turn on the functionality should they want to avoid the "Metro" Start Screen at initial boot or login.
Click to expand...
 
S

SCHUEY F1

Unconfirmed Member
Now everyone can like Windows 8 right? I'm going to ask Stardock if they can make a program so I can remove the start button.
 
B

brotkasten

Member
SCHUEY F1 said:
Now everyone can like Windows 8 right? I'm going to ask Stardock if they can make a program so I can remove the start button.
Click to expand...

No! Even with the start menu and boot to desktop, Metro in Windows 8 is going to be like Fast Travel in RPGs. The OS is designed around it, so you have to use it and it's not optional.
 
M

Milchjon

Member
I only now read an article by Thurrot from January that included this nugget:

It says that the average selling price of notebooks “rose only $2 to $420.” The average selling price of Windows-based PC notebooks is barely above $400. Do you know what the ASP is for Apple’s Macbook line? It’s $1419. A full $1000 more than that of a typical Windows notebook. $1000!
Click to expand...
 
S

stktt

Banned
Cipherr said:
Ahahahh, about fucking time. One step closer. I really hope we are able to beat them into submission on these things. I will use the OS, but not until they fix some of the dumb stuff. This right here is a HUGE step forward. Absolutely massive.
Click to expand...

It will quell some criticism, but I see it as a step backwards in terms of functionality. When I turn on my computer, I either

A) Open an application pinned to the taskbar, which can be done from the start screen or the desktop.

B)Open a specific application, which can be done from the start screen. Doing so from the desktop requires an additional click to access the start screen.

or

C)Search for something. Since I've booted directly to the start screen, all I have to do is start typing. If I'm booting into the desktop, accessing search requires and additional click to open the start screen.

I'll probably keep it disabled on my laptop.
 
S

soul creator

Member
Enco said:
Fuck you Google and fuck you Microsoft.

Updated the shit Mail app and now I can't receive my Gmail emails at it.

What a load of bullshit.
Click to expand...

did you not get a message about an "alternate" way of getting it through Mail (I think it was IMAP instead of ActiveSync)? My gmail account still seems to work fine on it, I just had to re-setup my account.
 
C

campfireweekend

Member
Winterfang said:
Since Windows 8 RT bombed, are any really cheap tablets around? Like in the 200 dollar ranged?
Click to expand...

Nope. Partly because so few were released in the first place. Surface still costs the same, as does the Acer? Vivotab and the dell xps 10. Everything is still in the 400-500 range. I guess it didn't bomb as hard as you want it to. The 7 inch ones coming later in the year running rt 8.1 will probably be in the 200-300 range. You should wait for those.
 
M

Mindwipe

Member
SPDIF said:
What's wrong with them?
Click to expand...

The app store has censorship requirements which would look a bit highly strung on a childrens channel.

You're not allowed to "glorify swearing" for example. Never mind anything that might mention sex.

But if they're going to accept that people don't want to use Metro on the desktop, then the store is dead anyway. Which would leave the question of why Metro apps would be left as the default for mail, PDF reading, image viewing etc etc.

And then we're basically back to Windows 7, expect Microsoft have wasted five years with no coherent desktop notification system, no modern APIs, no coherent application update mechanism and a touch OS that doesn't have enough software to compete.
 
B

buhdeh

Member
Mindwipe said:
But if they're going to accept that people don't want to use Metro on the desktop, then the store is dead anyway. Which would leave the question of why Metro apps would be left as the default for mail, PDF reading, image viewing etc etc.
Click to expand...

I don't think many people used desktop Metro apps in the first place. Images in the desktop opening up in full screen Metro view by default was the stupidest thing ever.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Mindwipe said:
And then we're basically back to Windows 7, expect Microsoft have wasted five years with no coherent desktop notification system, no modern APIs, no coherent application update mechanism and a touch OS that doesn't have enough software to compete.
Click to expand...

Sounds like heaven to me. I don't need all that push notification, pervasive app updates and touch OS crap on my desktop. Keep it on the places where it matters, like my smartphone.

Even Apple had the good sense to leave crap like that out from OSX.
 
M

Mindwipe

Member
buhdeh said:
I don't think many people used desktop Metro apps in the first place. Images in the desktop opening up in full screen Metro view by default was the stupidest thing ever.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone on GAF does, but I suspect we are the sort of people who wouldn't have used the enclosed Windows apps in many cases anyway.

"Regular" home users? I doubt they even know it's possible to change it. My Dad has stickers on his monitor to tell him which desktop shortcuts take him to his email etc. Last time a driver update happened for his scanner it ended up with him faxing me a document for me to scan and email back to him. They're probably just going to go back to Windows 7 as much as they're able.
 
M

Mindwipe

Member
ambientmystic said:
Sounds like heaven to me. I don't need all that push notification, pervasive app updates and touch OS crap on my desktop. Keep it on the places where it matters, like my smartphone.

Even Apple had the good sense to leave crap like that out from OSX.
Click to expand...

Huh? OSX has all of those things. Not all implemented very well (the OSX app store is only so successful, more so than the Windows one but obviously not as much as they would hope as it has similar problems, and many of them are limited to app store apps), but they're there.
 
S

SPDIF

Member
Mindwipe said:
The app store has censorship requirements which would look a bit highly strung on a childrens channel.

You're not allowed to "glorify swearing" for example. Never mind anything that might mention sex.

But if they're going to accept that people don't want to use Metro on the desktop, then the store is dead anyway. Which would leave the question of why Metro apps would be left as the default for mail, PDF reading, image viewing etc etc.

And then we're basically back to Windows 7, expect Microsoft have wasted five years with no coherent desktop notification system, no modern APIs, no coherent application update mechanism and a touch OS that doesn't have enough software to compete.
Click to expand...

I disagree there. People might not like Windows Apps, but the WinRT framework that they run on is certainly modern. Even if MS do go back to a more Windows 7 approach (which I really doubt they will), they won't suddenly abandon WinRT. Especially with the next Xbox rumoured to be running some form of Windows 8.

Also, what exactly do you mean by "no coherent application update mechanism". All apps update from the same place. Or are you talking about the separation between traditional Windows updates and the Windows Store updates?
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
SPDIF said:
I disagree there. People might not like Windows Apps, but the WinRT framework that they run on is certainly modern. Even if MS do go back to a more Windows 7 approach (which I really doubt they will), they won't suddenly abandon WinRT. Especially with the next Xbox rumoured to be running some form of Windows 8.

Also, what exactly do you mean by "no coherent application update mechanism". All apps update from the same place. Or are you talking about the separation between traditional Windows updates and the Windows Store updates?
Click to expand...

All of those is Metro, remove Metro and you'll have no WinRT APIs and no auto-updater.
 
S

SPDIF

Member
Delusibeta said:
All of those is Metro, remove Metro and you'll have no WinRT APIs and no auto-updater.
Click to expand...

Right. That's why I said I doubt MS are suddenly going to backtrack.

Just because they might give you an option to boot to the desktop, doesn't mean they're going to throw away all of the work they've done over the last few years. I don't think Metro's going anywhere.
 
D

D4Danger

Unconfirmed Member
SPDIF said:
Just because they might give you an option to boot to the desktop, doesn't mean they're going to throw away all of the work they've done over the last few years
Click to expand...

why not? they do it with every other product. WinMo, WP7, XNA, Silverlight, live.com, Windows, Xbox etc etc.

There's like 7 platforms from the last few years that they pushed for a while and then dropped/changed.
 
D

Damon Bennet

Member
So my messages app always shows a duplicate of my sent messages when I chat with Facebook people. They don't see it, and it is not visible on Facebook but in the app, and it annoys me. Anyone know a fix?
 
A

Anton Sugar

Member
Damon Bennet said:
So my messages app always shows a duplicate of my sent messages when I chat with Facebook people. They don't see it, and it is not visible on Facebook but in the app, and it annoys me. Anyone know a fix?
Click to expand...

Mine only started doing that recently, I wonder if it's because of one of the updates?
 
C

Chichikov

Member
SPDIF said:
What's wrong with them?
Click to expand...
I personally hate the fact that you can't really have anything which is not kid friendly.
And it goes beyond the philosophical problems I have with this model, even on the most practical level, I know I use my computer for porn, why can't I have a redtube app?
I'm a big boy using a big boy computer, enable parental control for those who wants it, but don't force it on everyone just because it's the easiest way to implement such things.
It's a terrible approach and it goes against everything that made windows great.

Edit: not to mention that there are few things that can benefit more from windows 8's sandboxed approach than porn browsing.

Also, I hate hate hate HATE the fact that there are no release notes for updates.
 
C

campfireweekend

Member
Chichikov said:
I personally hate the fact that you can't really have anything which is not kid friendly.
And it goes beyond the philosophical problems I have with this model, even on the most practical level, I know I use my computer for porn, why can't I have a redtube app?
I'm a big boy using a big boy computer, enable parental control for those who wants it, but don't enforce it on anyway just because it's the easiest way to implement such things.
It's a terrible approach and it goes against everything that made windows great.

Also, I hate hate hate HATE the fact that there are no release notes for updates.
Click to expand...

But there absolutely are release notes for updates. Just select one update at a time and press view info? I think. And I don't understand why you'd want a redtube app when your browser is a click away. But that's probably a difference in wants between us. And aren't The Witcher 2 and GTA IV on the store in Europe. I know the witcher 2 definitely has nudity in it. What restrictions are you talking about and where did you read about them?

Maybe its different for things that aren't games. (shrug)
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Damon Bennet said:
So my messages app always shows a duplicate of my sent messages when I chat with Facebook people. They don't see it, and it is not visible on Facebook but in the app, and it annoys me. Anyone know a fix?
Click to expand...

My surface started doing that too, before that i was having some flickering issues in the messaging app...

It only happens on my surface, i use other 2 w8 system and they are both fine.
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
Damon Bennet said:
So my messages app always shows a duplicate of my sent messages when I chat with Facebook people. They don't see it, and it is not visible on Facebook but in the app, and it annoys me. Anyone know a fix?
Click to expand...

Anton Sugar said:
Mine only started doing that recently, I wonder if it's because of one of the updates?
Click to expand...

LukasTaves said:
My surface started doing that too, before that i was having some flickering issues in the messaging app...

It only happens on my surface, i use other 2 w8 system and they are both fine.
Click to expand...

my laptop started showing me my skype convo as notification even though im like on the app
 
M

Mr_Zombie

Member
campfireweekend said:
Would you be fine with a start button that took you to the start screen? Cuz that's probably what it will do.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's a good idea. DP already had a button and it made the UI even more inconsistent - to open the start screen you had to press button when in desktop UI and click the left bottom corner when in Metro UI.
 
M

maeh2k

Member
The leaked Windows 8 Blue improvements are interesting, but they don't quite go far enough.

I like that you can now use more than two apps side-by-side, but it's kind of weird to have three or more rather vertical apps. Will be interesting to see how that will work exactly, i.e. will they use the small view Windows 8 supports now, or just a narrower part of the full-screen view.

What I'd rather like to see is a Window management system like the view system in Visual Studio. In VS you get pretty good control of where you want to place the views, which don't overlap.
I think it would be neat if you could e.g. have one vertical view on the side of the screen and two horizontal views stacked vertically next to that view ( |= ). Or even ( ||= ) on a big screen.


Also I still have other issues I mentioned before: OS X Expose-like task switching because alt-tab sucks, pinnable task bar (e.g. the current bar on the left, but pinnable and ideally using program icons instead of small screenshots; also used for notifications and stuff like the task bar and the OS X dock).
At some point I'd also really like native virtual desktops in Windows.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
maeh2k said:
The leaked Windows 8 Blue improvements are interesting, but they don't quite go far enough.

I like that you can now use more than two apps side-by-side, but it's kind of weird to have three or more rather vertical apps. Will be interesting to see how that will work exactly, i.e. will they use the small view Windows 8 supports now, or just a narrower part of the full-screen view.

What I'd rather like to see is a Window management system like the view system in Visual Studio. In VS you get pretty good control of where you want to place the views, which don't overlap.
I think it would be neat if you could e.g. have one vertical view on the side of the screen and two horizontal views stacked vertically next to that view ( |= ). Or even ( ||= ) on a big screen.


Also I still have other issues I mentioned before: OS X Expose-like task switching because alt-tab sucks, pinnable task bar (e.g. the current bar on the left, but pinnable and ideally using program icons instead of small screenshots; also used for notifications and stuff like the task bar and the OS X dock).
At some point I'd also really like native virtual desktops in Windows.
Click to expand...

This x 1000

Being able to dock apps like that would be incredibly amazing!
 
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