Windows 8 Arrives in Our House

I will admit up front that I am a life-long Apple user.  I got my first Apple in 1982.  I worked at Apple for almost twenty years.  I used MS/DOS before I went to work for Apple, but I didn’t really spend any time with Windows until 2004 when I bought a Dell Pentium 3 desktop with Windows XP.  I hoped to use it for GIS, but I got sidetracked and ended up using it as a general purpose machine and installing Linux on a second hard drive.

In 2007, I bought a HP laptop with Vista.  In 2010 I replaced it with one that was running Windows 7.  I ended up giving my original Windows 7 machine to my youngest daughter who was stuck on an ancient lampshade iMac.

I got a Lenovo Windows 7 laptop which is now my main desktop machine together with my somewhat contrary iMac which I like to call my iLemon.  When my Lenovo laptop became my main desktop machine, I did some research and a bought a Lenovo Yoga touch screen ultrabook running Windows 8.  I needed something to travel with besides my Kindle Fire

I’m at a bit of a loss to figure out what Microsoft wanted to accomplish with Windows 8 other than to drag many of its users screaming and kicking to a new world of touch interfaces.  It is not that Windows 8 doesn’t work well, it just works very differently, and I suspect many current Microsoft users are going to be reluctant to buy a laptop or desktop with such a radically different user interface.

Having said that I like my Lenovo Yoga.  It works well as a laptop and Windows 8 has not gotten in the way of it doing what I hoped it would do.  I’ve added a USB 3.0 external drive for photos, and I have also made a conscious effort to use the Microsoft tiles. So far I haven’t found enough utility to keep me going back to them regularly.

I have used the Lenovo Yoga some as a tablet, but I rarely need that much horsepower and screen real estate for my tablet needs which are generally confined to checking the weather and reading a few web articles.  Either my Kindle Fire or my new Nexus 7 can handle those jobs with ease.

There are some new backup features that I like in Windows 8. I also like the integration of Skydrive and even find the latest version of Internet Explorer much more usable.  However, none of this makes for a compelling reason to go out and buy Windows 8.  Windows 7 happened to be the most reliable operating system that I’ve ever used.

I haven’t noticed any issues with Windows 8, but I was pretty confused with it until I installed Start8 which made the transition much easier.  I’ll have a more detailed article on readwriteweb sometime soon, but so far I see no reason to go out and buy a Windows 8 machine unless you just need a new computer.

While my technology recommendations have often included the Macintosh, my recent experience with Apple has led me to hold back on suggesting someone go out and buy a Mac.  It might be time to start looking seriously at Linux once again.  My Dell Pentium 3 has been running Ubuntu for a number of years.  It has been trouble-free.

I keep my Mac around mostly for the video editing and simple production of DVDs that I do.

Author: ocracokewaves

An escapee from the world of selling technology, now living on North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks where life revolves around sun, sand, and water. I work at WideOpen Networks helping communities get fiber to their homes. In my spare time I am a photographer, writer, boater, fisherman, kayaker, swimmer, and walker of the beaches. View all posts by ocracokewaves