Windows 8, is it worth it?

Hi folks. Since today is the last day for the $39 upgrade to Windows 8, are there any opinions to the value of upgrading? I am presently still using Windows XP, 32 bit.My comp is 5 years old but meets all the requirements. The comp still does everything I need it do do and fairly quickly, including playing Lineage II online, so a comp upgrade is not in the works.
I have an Asus P5K, Core Duo E6750, 2 gig DDR 2 ram, 2 500 gig HDDs, and Asus 550Ti video card. Thanks.

 

Seems like you answered your own question. If you have no need or desire to purchase new hardware and the system is doing everything you need it to do, then the answer is pretty simple.

 

Greetings, BillD...

I'll not offer an opinion about Windows 8 - I haven't used it much yet (only on customer machines) and don't own a machine with the OS installed. I'm sure others will jump in with their experiences/opinions, so be patient.

I do suggest that you download and run the Microsoft Upgrade Assistant offered on this page to ensure that your machine meets the minimum Windows 8 requirements.

* Sorry, jconstan - didn't see you lurking there.

 

We all have our likes and dislikes about new OSs and for me personally it is not what i want.

This is a good insight to Windows 8 written by one of our well respected members.

http://adrynalyne.blogspot.be/2012/09/windows-8-survival-guide-v-10.html

 

I personally have just recently upgraded to windows 8 but I have installed Start8 which returns the windows 7 menu.

The only reason I upgraded was for the faster bootups, file transfer pausing and better battery life.

I wouldn't recommend the upgrade to the average user at this point until service pack 1 has been released unless you happen to be upgrading anyway and you get it free like I did.

 

well me too installed it and yet again i am back to windows 7, i think it will take quiet a long time for me to adjust to windows 8

 

I think if someone wishes to upgrade to Windows 8 now, they should go for it. There are no showstoppers or major bugs in Windows 8 at this time. In terms of stability from the get-go, Windows 8 is the best so far for Microsoft.

Although I wouldn't upgrade just "because". Have a need or reason.

 

Once you get past metro, and work in desktop, it is really nothing more than Windows 7 with a glossy overlay. Think of it as someone taking a chassis with a motor, and constructing a new body over it. Motor is still the same, and same for the structure holding everything together, but you have a new box that makes everyone think you have something special.

 

Thank you! I got totally flamed in another forum for daring to suggest that upgrading to Win 8 wasn't worth even the cheap $40 price. You have nailed my opinion perfectly.

 

Here we try to be informative about all thing PC and what some people think is a silly question is to the person asking it an important part of learning so you will never get flamed on here.

 

David, it is still NT6 kernal, so again, it is still Windows 7 with just a new glossy interface. Things are not going to change, until MS gets away from the archaic programs that they keep embedding into every OS.

I personally hate the Metro interface, so I paid the extra $4.99 for Start8. I am more of a power user and do not need a tablet interface. Worse is going to be when companies adopt Server 2k13 & Sharepoint 2k13. Same holes that have been with XP, are still there, never to be fixed.

 

I did it just for the fact that it was still $40, and yes I am one of those, that needs to keep up on this stuff, since I support people that have Windows computers, outside of these forums, but it also makes it easier to understand what people are getting, instead of running a bunch of VM, or multiple OS's on a couple of hard drives.

I probably ran 7 for about 5 years, Vista maybe 2, XP still using it at work, so really going on 14 years with XP. I will not though be jumping over to Office 2k13, or 365, since they have become really far fetched with both of them. Office 2k10 is the last Office package I am buying from MS.

Once this Netbook dies, I am moving over to a full Apple platform, since both my wife & I use iPhones, and I really do not see MS getting any better, when Blue comes out, if they can get away with that name, since Amex uses & owns the rights to that naming.

 

People hate on MS a bit much for incrementing their kernel. Is it not the same exact thing that Apple, BSD, and Linux does? They too call their updates new OS versions.

 

But at least with Linux new versions depending on the distro, includes a totally rewritten Kernel for the most part. As for MacOS, most times it is incremental due to Security updates, or for the most part a new Kernel revision.

As for 8, I do have one question in general. With Defrag, it shows my SSD as not being allowed to be Optimized, due to that choice is grayed out. That of course is another topic in itself, for why I find 8 to be annoying in certain aspects.

 

Not uh. I've been using Linux for 13 years now. Kernels are always incremented and are never rewritten. The 3.x kernel isn't a rewrite, its incremented from 2.6.x. Linus just decided to start at 3.0 instead of 2.6.40. Nothing more than a name change and minor updates.

As for the SSD thing, its not alloing optimization probably due to your sata controller drivers. Mine optimizes fine (it just runs TRIM optimizations instead of defrag).

 

I figured it out David, it was the updated Intel driver from 2009, not the default that comes with Windows 8, that was causing Optimize to be grayed out, when selecting the C: drive. Who would have funked.

The only thing is, Intel has not released any new drivers for the NM10 Express chipset, for the AHCI side, since 2009. Only have had this Netbook since 2010, and has worked with Ubuntu 11.x to 12.10, Windows 7, now Windows 8. I can see getting at least another 3 or more years out of this machine, until it dies, it will be used every day.