Windows 8

[Aliem]

Windows 8 is absolutely fantastic with a touch screen setup. As a traditional desktop though, it's not very intuitive. Though I would like to try it again with Start8 or Classic Shell. It is an all around solid os, and is blindingly fast.

[Glenn the Great]

My question: who would ever want to use a touch screen with a desktop computer? I don't want to have to squint look through greasy smudges when I'm playing vidya.

When I was a kid I learned quickly not to touch my dad's computer screen unless I wanted to get smacked.

[Aliem]

My question: who would ever want to use a touch screen with a desktop computer? I don't want to have to squint look through greasy smudges when I'm playing vidya.

When I was a kid I learned quickly not to touch my dad's computer screen unless I wanted to get smacked.

Exactly that. That's why I never quite understood touch screen desktop setups. Microsoft really should have released Windows 8 Tablet edition along with a proper desktop release. That way, everyone's happy and customers who want the benefit of a speedier, lighter OS without fucking around with stupid start screens won't have to rely on third party software to fix their UI.

That said, I love 7, and in the almost three years I've been running it, the only BSOD's I've ever gotten were from bad overclocking. That's another reason I haven't upgraded; there's really no need.

[Mercy]

My question: who would ever want to use a touch screen with a desktop computer? I don't want to have to squint look through greasy smudges when I'm playing vidya.

Ditto. I can see having something like a tablet that doubles as a touchscreen input device for my dt monitor but that's too much screen smudging and unergonomic (is that a word?) reaching for desktop purposes. I would love to have a digital, touchscreen artist's canvas but probably too niche to be affordable any time soon.

CST:
I was training AT&T customer service phone rep's when the first iPhones were released. The release was a customer service nightmare on our end. Less than two months after the release, I am standing on cue at a Target behind a man and his toddler son. K. and I cringed in horror while we watched said toddler mauling dad's iPhone and intermittently banging it on the floor, the racks, and the the partition walls. We took comfort by laughing over the iPhones not being insurable through our insurance programme at that time.

[CJC]

I would love to have a digital, touchscreen artist's canvas but probably too niche to be affordable any time soon.

I purchased an Asus EP121 about a year ago for it's digitizer pen functionality. Ran about 12 Bens at the time, but it was worth it for my self-publishing artwork. That tablet's out of print now, but they've got a new model now--the Asus BP121--which is about the same price.
I mention it because I know the name-brand digital art canvas (Cintiq) is perpetually expensive for no good reason.

I disabled touch functionality and use the Digitizer Pen exclusively for the device. It's got gorilla glass, so any smudges I might make wipe away easily with the microfiber rag that came with the purchase.


But both tablets I mentioned ship with Windows 7, so this might be off-topic. Sorry.

[rock_nog]

I currently have Windows 8, and I'm just fine with it. From my experience, it's the most stable Windows OS I've used since XP. Vista and 7 always seemed a bit twitchy to me, but 8 has been smooth sailing so far. Beyond that, while it does add some odd new features, there's nothing forcing you to use them, so you can take advantage of the new features that seem useful, and ignore the rest. For instance, I don't use the Metro UI all the the time, and in fact I rarely use it, but there are certain situations in which it comes in handy. And at the same time, I'm glad that I'm not forced to ever even deal with it if I don't want to. Sure, maybe the tweaks I've found useful don't warrant paying full price for an upgrade in and of themselves, but the OS came with the computer I bought, and because the tweaks can largely be ignored, I never have the feeling that, "Oh, I wasted money on this OS," or, "I really wish I had a different version of Windows on this computer."

I mean yeah, I get people who have current computers who say they won't upgrade to Windows 8 - if you don't need to replace your PC, if upgrading would require buying a new OS, that makes sense. The changes made don't in themselves warrant that extra expense. I'm just saying, like let's say your computer craps out and you have to completely replace it. If the new PC comes with Windows 8, the OS seems solid enough to me that I can't see anyone going out of their way to downgrade it to an older version or anything. Most of the complaints I've heard have been along the lines of, "It adds new features I don't need," as opposed to, "It removes features that I did need."

Allow me to make a comparison - we all know TF2 basically became Hat Fortress 2. A lot of people think the hats are completely unnecessary. However, no one forced you to buy an upgrade to the game to allow for hats. So, if you don't care about the hats, you don't have to bother with them. Windows 8 seems a lot similar to me. It adds a bunch of extra bells and whistles while not restricting people who don't care about those features. Sure, you have to pay for it now, but in time, as people replace their old computers for new ones, it'll become the standard, and when it's basically included with whatever PC you get, I don't think people will complain about it as much.