blog: the horrors of win8

[nikos]

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/windows8-virtualbox.htm

[RightPaddock]

Re : "Ballmer must have hired an extra-terrestrial as head of development for win8"

I heard he hired his Great Aunt Maude for the job, which would support your suggestion.

RP

[Kilmatead]

I received an email yesterday from a 3rd-party developer who wrote:

"Don't get me started about Win8 - it's an awesome OS ... for an XBox"

[bq3419]

As you suspected in the ps, the 4.1.12-guest additions and drivers do work correctly (at least on my PC).

[dunno]

when W8 is released I might consider moving from XPSP3 to W7.

My last name is "flintstone"  8)

[MCHAL]

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/windows8-virtualbox.htm

About your failure to run Win 8 virtualized. I wonder whether you might do this using Prayaya ( http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Pr ... 33734408/1 ). Dunno whether it's necessary to have Win 8 pre-installed somewhere though... so can't tell of its capabilities relative to your needs. I should also say I haven't given Prayaya a real try myself. Well, just take it in the way of a suggestion as a possible alternative solution for virtualization.

Regards.

[bq3419]

As regards other alternatives, VMware Workstation 8.0.2 (decidedly non-free) works very well (better than VirtualBox on my PC) which should mean that the free VMware Player 4.0.2 works equally well.

If you want to run Windows 8 on physical hardware with minimal disruption to your HD setup, this guide by Scott Hanselman explains how to boot off a Virtual Hard Disk.

[pschroeter]

I still run Windows XP, so I have been watching the development of Windows since from the sidelines. I have tried, and read about them and thought: Vista was a control freak, wanted and liked Windows 7, and I am horrified by Windows 8 and Metro.

So when I finally do update I think I'll wait for Windows 9.

[atitlan]

After two weeks of cautiously building up a fully functional Windows 8 x64 CP system in a dual boot arrangement with 7 on an SSD I find myself adjusting to it better than I first expected.

Metro for desktop users is either irrelevant or an irreducibly schizophrenic experience. After testing it for several days I made it mostly go away by arranging to boot through Start to the traditional desktop via the old 'Show Desktop' shortcut in the Start Folder of ProgramData. On a fast system the trip through Metro's Start screen is such a quick good-bye one may say 'we hardly knew ye'!

I gather Microsoft is committed to Metro because they have concluded the growth of Windows and its primary commercial development no longer lies with desktop computers. Personally, I think it would have made much more sense to have Eight's installer acknowledge a desktop computer with the clear choice to forgo the Metro Start screen; maybe this wisdom will find its way back from the Developer Preview into the shipping release in the fall.

As for the missing Start 'Orb' — no power user would sensibly rely on the Start Button or Orb since Windows 98. As we rely on xplorer2 and its competition (does it have any?) for file management, True Launch Bar annihilates Start's weak pretense of organizational competence and will permit it to be gratefully laid to rest this fall.

Woody Leonard himself — one of the sharpest Windows hackers and authors since the 90s — discovered a free Vista-era Sidebar gadget that perfectly expedites shutdown operations from the Desktop and the grand old shortcuts for all those things that have been around since the beginning of the XP-era are a cinch to add to Metro's Start screen — should one ever need to shut down or restart, etc. from there.

Office 2007 and 2010 have finally inured me to the appalling Ribbon, so its latest conquest of Windows 8 Explorer is a negligible event. I run Explorer with the Ribbon happily minimized and hear there is a good replacement for it called xplorer2 Pro.

My experience confirms what has been widely reported that Eight is more economical with system resources and so RAM and seems quicker to load my Office applications than Seven. For somewhat older systems this may be a consideration; but the current motherboards with BIOS-es optimized for SSDs + the latest multi-core CPUs are so fast I can't see this as a compelling reason for an upgrade.

And that I think is the ultimate conclusion here: For existing 7 desktop users Eight is a curiosity best heard about at a safe distance. For new desktop or, say, ultra-book (lovely machines!) purchasers, Eight is not to be feared (or loathed) — just mastered.

[IneedHelp]

Observe:

Win95/Win98/Win2k/ ME/XP/Vista/ Win7/Win8

'nuff said!

[nikos]

it must be a law of nature like the cycles of boom and bust in the capitalist system

[pj]

Just dual development teams. The first started at Win 95, and is led by Stephen Hawkins. The second started at Win 98, and is led by Bozo, the extra-terrestrial clown. The results from there are obvious.
----------------------
PJ

[TracyB]

You're not part of the MS top level hush-hush meets, Nikos... so you're not seeing the larger picture. But MS is.
Are your arguments valid? Yes.
Will they matter to anyone outside this forum. NURRP!
Do we matter to them? Not really.
Can we still be happy? YEPP!

[dunno]

Are your arguments valid? Yes.
Will they matter to anyone outside this forum. NURRP!
Do we matter to them? Not really.
Can we still be happy? YEPP!

Can I change OS at will to a non MS product, Hell yes......And I won't hesitate to do so. That also goes for any other piece of crappy software where the OEM's think they have a captive audience.

[nikos]

interesting under the hood article
http://arstechnica.com/information-tech ... windows-8/