Windoze 8

Quote: TheCesspit

As with all new technology, try before you buy.

I suppose I'll wind up doing that.

BTW I learned to use a PC when DOS reigned supreme. So even using the mouse was a big deal. More so with Win 3.x, which was as bad an OS as I recall using. Really, were it not that Netscape was the coming thing at the time, I'd have concluded the whole graphic interface was nothing but a crutch for the feeble minded ;)

Quote: AcesAndEights

I had never heard of BOINC specifically, but had seen many of its ilk.

It's a shared computing plattform for processing data. It began as SETI@Home in the late 90s, but has grown since then. I run SETI and a protein-folding thing called Rosetta.

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Casual games you're SOL, along with any CD or DVD-based Windows games.

?

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But yeah, if you couldn't even find a web browser, that's pretty awful.

I couldn't figure out anything about it.

Sometimes I think of Linux users as being clones of Sheldon Cooper saying "My new OS is user-friendly. I don't like that." ;)

Quote: Nareed

It's a shared computing plattform for processing data. It began as SETI@Home in the late 90s, but has grown since then. I run SETI and a protein-folding thing called Rosetta.

Yeah a bunch of my friends ran SETI@Home back in college, I had no idea it had transitioned to the BOINC platform. Cool.

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Casual games you're SOL, along with any CD or DVD-based Windows games.

?

SOL=Shit out of luck. Meaning the games you run right now on Windows won't work on Linux, generally. Some of them might run on wine, but it's usually a pain in the ass.

If the casual games are web based, you'll be just fine. There's plenty in browser casual games around these days as well.

Quote: TheCesspit

If the casual games are web based, you'll be just fine. There's plenty in browser casual games around these days as well.

They're not. You download them and run them whenever you want. You do need a web connection to validate the license, but it runs on the PC rather than on the web.

This article in Scientific American captures succinctly my problems with touch screens and Win8:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-touch-screens-will-not-take-over&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_BS_20130104

If you are going to try an Ubuntu derivative, I would recommend Linux Mint. If you have a recent, powerful machine try the Gnome (default) or KDE version of Mint. If you have an older, slower machine, try the XFCE or LXDE version of Mint.

There are a probably around 400 active Linux distros, and most of them are easy to use. The great thing these days is that almost every distro has a "live" version, which you can try without installing it. You can boot a live CD/DVD (or USB) without affecting your installed OS.

I wouldn't try to find one that works exactly like Windows 7 or Vista. If you can point and click a mouse, you should have no problem using the native desktops/window managers offered by most distros. Software names will be unfamiliar, and control elements will be in different places, but it is easy enough to get up and running right away and to learn these particulars as you go along.

By the way, I would recommend booting a Linux live CD and use its browser whenever you access your online banking, credit card account, race/sports book, online stock broker, etc. Viruses can't be written to the CD/DVD, so the OS will be fresh and uncorrupted each time you boot it.

Quote: tupp

If you are going to try an Ubuntu derivative, I would recommend Linux Mint.

Thanks.

But since I brought it up, I feel more and more like Alice in Wonderland after each reply or piece of advice...

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I wouldn't try to find one that works exactly like Windows 7 or Vista. If you can point and click a mouse, you should have no problem using the native desktops/window managers offered by most distros. Software names will be unfamiliar, and control elements will be in different places, but it is easy enough to get up and running right away and to learn these particulars as you go along.

It's not so much a matter of learning new ways of doign old things, but the irritation of having to learn new ways to do old things. That's my main gripe with Office 2007-10. And that the new Office versions often involve a lot mroe steps to get where you're going.

BTW I had occasion to handle a Win8 machine at a store. I spent less than five minutes with it, because by then I was frustrated at my inability to do anything. I wanted to find the control pannel and do a quick check of the machine's info. I foudn how to reduce the size of the junk on the screen, and then got stuck on something that was trying, for some reason, to connect to Xbox live....

But it's not like you need a computer in order to function in today's world, right?

It's not going well.

I've checked some stores, and the few Win7 machines available are more expensive. true, they come with better hardware (more RAM, bigger HD, larger screens, etc), but the price difference doens't justify it.

So I did some more reading and it turns out there's an app for that :) IN other words, there are apps installable on Win8 which change it to look and handle like Win7 or WinXP.

Problem solved!

I've defered buying a new PC for a few months. I need to see about getting a tablet, too, but that's another matter.

In the meantime, I think MS really blundered with windoze8. At least judging by how much invective it's been receiving from tech writers and some pretty high officials in hardware companies.

So here's a prediction: before the end of the year, MS will launch a "service pack" giving users the option to set up a desktop PC in such a way that it looks, works, performs and feels like a desktop PC.

A few companies are already selling apps to do just that. MS will have to follow. I mean, seriously, do they expect large businesses or, worse yet, small businesses to spend money on new hardware with the new OS and to also spend on the massive retraining their Win8 requires? did they learn nothing from the New Coke debacle? The parallels are uncanny: yes, people are turning over to tablets in droves, but you can't do serious work on a tablet. You can't do lots of things, at elast not easily or well, like word processing or accounting, for a business on a tablet. you need a nice desktop or large laptop with a big screen, multiple tabs, etc. So why make a PC look, feel and perform like something you wouldn't use a PC for?

Here's another prediction: the next Windoze will likely revive the look and feel of Win7 with a tablet-like option (you don't throw out a failure just because it failed; even New Coke hung on, died, and then was resurrected). Possibly it will be released within three years, with buzz beginning in 16 to 20 months.

really. My life would be a lot easier if all these idiot CEOs bothered to check with me first :P