Windows 8 question....

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
anyone using it? Time for a new PC and I have the option of Win 7 or 8 on what I'm interested in. I'm leaning toward 7; experiences with 8 welcomed.

No interest in apples, oranges or qumquats :D
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Coastal NJ
That's unfortunate. You could run Windows 7 or 8 in an Apple as well as the Mac operating system, both at the same time.

http://home.comcast.net/~teegate/win_mac.jpg

Unless your running some kind of business, why would I want to do that? I have all the time in the world and would stay on XP if it stayed supported by the stuff I use. But alas, it will not be, so I must make another vendor forced move from something I like; similar to ObamaCaresLess. :D Besides, I like my apples in a pie.
 

Teegate

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Sep 17, 2002
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Just like you are forced to move from XP, I was forced to buy Windows so I could run a few programs that made my life easier when searching for stones. I didn't want to but was forced to as they are not on the Mac platform. So instead of using two computers I can do it all with one.
 

Teegate

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I will miss XP. Right now have XP,Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8,but I like 7 better. Just my Thoughts


My wife and other daughter agree. Windows 7 to me is as close to Mac as they have come.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Coastal NJ
I will miss XP. Right now have XP,Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8,but I like 7 better. Just my Thoughts

I miss MVS and its varients, as well as TSO and VM. Systems we had in the 70's, 80's and 90's with Z/OS continuing today. All this so-called new stuff is really old school in a new wrapper. I run 7 on my laptop in classic mode, makes it look & run pretty darn close to XP.
 

Boyd

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People keep telling me there is no reason not to use Windows 8, but I don't really buy it. My Dell desktop is about 6 years old and living on borrowed time. But I've had a bunch of other expenses recently, so I will keep limping along with It (running Vista!) until it dies. I have two separate backups, just in case.

When it finally dies, or when I feel like spending some money, I will get a new machine with Windows 7 Professional (which I have on a tablet computer now). What I'm not sure about in the PC world is the relative performance of difference chipsets though. In the Mac world, dual core i5 and i7 processors are the norm (quad core on some of the desktops). I still see Pentium and i3 chips on Windows machines.

My old Dell is is core2 Duo 2.6ghz. That is the same as my old Mac laptop, and my new i7 dual core 1.7ghz Mac is almost 3x as fast. What would give me, for example, 2x the performance of that old machine in today's Windows World? :confused:

I only use Windows for my GIS/mapping software. Not interested in multimedia, office software, games, not even e-mail. I thought about putting Windows on my new Mac but have decided against it. I still have Windows XP on my old Mac laptop. For a variety of reasons, it makes more sense for me to keep a separate Windows machine for my map making.

46er, some people actually buy Mac Mini's and MacBook Airs and run Windows on them all the time, even completely removing the Mac operating system. The new models are said to run Windows really well. Certainly not the cheapest way to do things though since you have to buy a copy of Windows in addition to the Mac.
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Coastal NJ
When it finally dies, or when I feel like spending some money, I will get a new machine with Windows 7 Professional (which I have on a tablet computer now). What I'm not sure about in the PC world is the relative performance of difference chipsets though. In the Mac world, dual core i5 and i7 processors are the norm (quad core on some of the desktops). I still see Pentium and i3 chips on Windows machines.

i3, 5 and 7 are now common options for PC's, at least on the Dell's, which are the only systems I would consider. Decades of use with them and no issues or failures. I'll probably go with one of their XPS systems with the i7. Pretty good prices now. Speed is pretty relative to what your running. Raw speed means little in the real world, except for the marketing.
 

Boyd

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Raw speed means little in the real world, except for the marketing.

I think that depends on what you're doing. I work with multi-gigbyte GIS files that can take a long time to render. Compiling vector based maps can also take a lot of time. These operations are CPU-bound and faster will be better. But really, my old Core 2 Duo isn't so bad. I would like to double that performance with a new machine though.
 

ecampbell

Piney
Jan 2, 2003
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I have a 2 year old Dell XPS8300, I7, 1.5 TB, 12 GB ram, Windows 7. I process large High Def video, so I wanted computing power. It does a nice job, never stalls but it does say I sometimes max out a couple of cores. A nice big monitor too, and it is networked to my 60 Inch HDTV by Ethernet, WIFI occasionally was dropping pixels. Linksys WRT54GS "G" router, plenty fast enough
For how I am using it I don't see a need for windows 8. It seems apps oriented, with a link to their store :confused:, and cloud storage if you need your data to roam. The user interface might be nice, I don't know.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1001064761
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
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Coastal NJ
I have a 2 year old Dell XPS8300, I7, 1.5 TB, 12 GB ram, Windows 7.

That config looks similar to what I ordered; the minor differences are it is now called an 8700 and I went with standard 8GB ram, and 1TB HD, I keep all of my stuff on XHD's. Used primarily for photo editing and inet research.
 

Pan

Explorer
Jul 4, 2011
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Arizona
7 or 8 for new computer, I was wondering about that too. If 8 is so great why are they still selling the top of the line laptops with 7?
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
46er, it's not just leftovers that come with W7, it's the most expensive business class laptops, like this Lenovo W530:

Did not say leftovers. As Win 7 is still alive and supported, some are preloaded for retail sales and Win 7 is also a choice when you have something custom built, as with Dell.
 

Pan

Explorer
Jul 4, 2011
555
246
Arizona
Anyway I'm same as you, undecided what to choose in new computer, leaning towards the 7. Seems to me 8 is meant for tablets.
 

Boyd

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From what I've seen of Windows, upgrades sound like hell also. I stick with whatever was originally installed until I'm ready for another computer myself. Pretty much like that with my Macs as well. :)
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
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Coastal NJ
I stick with whatever was originally installed until I'm ready for another computer myself. Pretty much like that with my Macs as well. :)

I agree, but once you move up, it can be pretty difficult to go back should the need arise, usually only an issue if the independent software you use complicates things. MS has been good in the past coordinating those software products that have been tested on their new releases. Without that I'd still be on DOS. :eek: I think they learned that from Big Blue.
 
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