hehe, well i was just going by official microsoft preorder promotions. these prices were run by microsoft directly on their microsoft store.
We have the alpha build installed on a virtual machine in my company and I was able to play around for few minutes today. The start menu is a most noticeable change and I admit it does its job. Applications can be pinned to the tile zone easily, either by dragging from the list or by selecting an option from the conext menu. There are two possible sizes of tiles, large and small. The classic app list with folders is back but to my surprise, the large tile screen is gone or I was just unable to switch to it. My guess was the start menu with the tile area now replaces the tile screen and if this is so, I won't miss it. Another change then is that there is no separate desktop for metro apps, they just open on the same desktop and work like normal apps, with the title bar, maximize/minimize buttons etc. The last nice change - there is an icon to bring the desktop list and the list contains a big "+" which just creates yet another virtual desktop. You can then have multiple desktops and different apps open on different desktops. Something other OSes have for a long time, though. Apart from that, it is Windows 8.
It does a small change to the UI in a new feature called continuum. It's mainly only going to be used in convertible/tablet devices. http://youtu.be/F_O-LrGL-YQ
Windows 7 is gaining market share at the expense of Windows 8. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/chrome-surges-windows-8-x-falls-in-september/
That chart might be because of business moving to windows 7 from windows xp as well since you can see the internet explorer 8 numbers moving that direction too.
I think I gave Vista more of a chance than W8. At least Vista had the Aero interface, which was really nice looking for the time. It ran like dog shit, but it was a very pretty OS. W8 had nothing I cared about, and beyond basic use it was an absolute clusterfuck to use to get anything done. MS probably needs to go to a longer schedule between releases, and stop releasing these horrible, unfinished interim OSs like Me, Vista, and W8.
You should think about going on a beginners computer course, learning the basics on how to use one before the very similar Windows 10 comes out might help you.
The exact opposite is true. W8 is fine for n00bs. It's a terrible OS for power users. I believe you've said you don't really do anything with your PC these days and you're more of a tablet user. That's probably why you're fine with its inadequacies.
You're right Windows 8 is a bit of a pain but Windows 8.1 works really well for power users. Works exactly the same as Windows 7 but quicker. I probably do so much more with Windows on a daily basis than you ever have to consider doing and I have yet to run into a single issue.
Visit any tech site on the web such as HardOCP or Anandtech. I am not alone. Most power users would not touch W8 with a ten foot pole. No businesses are using it. It's not that I couldn't figure out how to use it. I knew how to use W8. It's just that UI is so abysmal and such a step back, I didn't want to.
Actually you are wrong, look at the Anandtech thread on Windows 10, plenty of users saying how they get on fine with Windows 8.1. The problem isn't the OS it is the fear of change from people who are stuck in the past. Most of the internet haven't even used it yet claim it doesn't work. You yourself admitted on the old forum that you installed 8 briefly and then gave up. I work in the world of corporate IT, I deal with bad software all the time and trust me Windows 8.1 does not fall into that category. The desktop UI is the biggest part of 8.1 and looks the same as the one in 10. If you don't like it in 8.1 you ain't gonna like it in 10 then?
You would seem to be in the minority opinion on that. Most companies have steered clear of it. And in this day and age if something takes more than a day to win me over, it is a failure. I knew within minutes W7 was a massive improvement over Vista and XP, and that was just the RTM. W8 not so much.
The reason most businesses don't move is because of all the testing it takes to move to a new OS. Their hand was forced with XP as M$ made it EoL. We use a Thomson Reuters system at work, the biggest accounts package in the world in fact for our type of business, support is still on Server 2008, SQL2008 and IE9 tops. Enterprise support often moves at a snails pace but you wouldn't know as you don't work in that world. You can't risk upgrading if you are paying someone £100,000/year for support on a product and they say they don't support a product/OS.
Everything I've read/heard was that trial rollouts of W8 resulted in near employee mutinies, with people literally threatening to quit their jobs if forced to use it. Which I would absolutely believe.
I've got 20 people running Windows 8.1 on a trial and I never hear from them. The PCs never error or slow down. The last time I saw them was when I had to install a new printer. Been running them since update 1. The only issue I had was that M$ dropped support for XML4 as it is old and not recommend anymore but the package wouldn't work on XML6. This is an issue I would have on Windows 10 too due to M$ removing native support but I did manage to find a fix in 8.1 Knowing that these 20 people have has no problems should mean when we are ready to do a full refresh as it is so similar to 10 we won't have any issues. The biggest pain in the arse is actually the amount of changes M$ do to Office every couple of years. Saying that 2013 is still better than 2010, Outlook 2010 was a real pain. We are going to be paying a 6 figure sum for an upgrade of our accounts system to be completed before November 2015 so it should tie in nicely.
10 now? I am still on windows 7. Don't see a reason to upgrade unless I eventually buy a new laptop with it already on. Looks cool though.
Anyone gonna give Win10 technical preview a shot? It's a 3.8GB download. I grabbing it on my surface pro 3 as we speak. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview