Microsoft experimenting with free version of Windows 8.1

[Poke]

Hmm be interesting to see how that ends up..

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/28/5456374/windows-8-1-with-bing-experiment

 

[mike123abc]

They seem to be getting desperate to get people to adopt Windows 8.

It looks like MS could not have picked a worse time to try to do away with the start menu and desktop...

 

[navychop]

I believe I would go fully with Linux or even get a Mac before I'll ever go with W8. At work, whatever they want. But no need for the pain at home.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Neutron]

2 1/2 years now with the Mac at home. For what we do Mac or Linux will work for us at home.

Windows at work but that doesn't bother me as it keeps me employed.

 

[harshness]

If it is only free to the OEM crowd building sub-$250 "computers", then it is a hollow gesture.

There's no way they can hope to compete with Linux (possibly even Android and ChromeOS) at that level. The computers aren't up to running Windows software so what's the point of using Windows as the OS?

In the end, Windows netbooks arguably weren't much more successful than their Linux predecessors and they didn't have a much larger software library that made the extra cost and reduced performance worthwhile. Windows and its associated applications are just too much baggage for what most consumers really need.

 

[dewzan]

I've ran Ubuntu (Linux) for almost 9 years now never did miss Windows.

 

[harshness]

I've ran Ubuntu (Linux) for almost 9 years now never did miss Windows.

There's a couple of really cool shareware applications without reasonable equivalents on Linux that keep me from parting out my Windows XP machine.

Otherwise, my daily driver is a Mint box that would qualify under the sub-$250 price point.

 

[navychop]

I've ran Ubuntu (Linux) for almost 9 years now never did miss Windows.

Which desktop UI do you use?

And do you still do command line? Mount, etc. Which ones are still necessary?

Sometimes I miss the HDOS and CP/M days, even DOS. But the learning curve.....

 

[dewzan]

Which desktop UI do you use?

And do you still do command line? Mount, etc. Which ones are still necessary?

Sometimes I miss the HDOS and CP/M days, even DOS. But the learning curve.....

Unity, I know most dont like it but I do. i never did much command line and with the last few releases you don't have to anymore. I would suggest putting it on a old computer and then just have at it. it's NOT hard to get, they have a pretty good community support(i usually just google a problem and it will show up) and ...oh yeah it's free! I'm 50 years old, we didnt have computer classes in school, if I can use Linux anyone can.

 

[Ronnie-]

If it is only free to the OEM crowd building sub-$250 "computers", then it is a hollow gesture.

There's no way they can hope to compete with Linux (possibly even Android and ChromeOS) at that level. The computers aren't up to running Windows software so what's the point of using Windows as the OS?

How so? Full windows runs extremely smooth on the touchscreen tablets now readily available, and is FAR more useful and capable than anything in that price range running android, chrome, or iOS (no real experience with Linux).

Unless they neuter the free version in some way the hardware should be more than capable of running the software.

 

[Lone Gunman]

There's a couple of really cool shareware applications without reasonable equivalents on Linux that keep me from parting out my Windows XP machine.

Otherwise, my daily driver is a Mint box that would qualify under the sub-$250 price point.

Yeah, I've got a couple of older games (UT99 and QuakeII) that I like that I've not been able to run on Ubuntu. Tried that in Wine with poor results. So, now I've got multiboot systems and I disabled OS Prober in Grub and have different hard drives for a bunch of different operating systems in one box. The one out in the shop has 6 hard drives in it and each one has it's own OS, 2/XP, XPx64, Vista, 7, Ubuntu 12.04. When I want to change OS/drives I do it in BIOS instead of putting up with grub screwing up my Windows boot sectors. Works for me.

RE: 8.1 Tried a developers copy of that last fall and still don't like it. I did get the "shell" start button script that works well but still didn't like 8. And along that line, I read where Microsoft is suppose to release a patch to put a W7 type desktop on 8 and that was mentioned in the article I saw about the "free" version offering a month or so back.

Funny, after running 8 when it was first released I made a statement on another forum congratulating Microsoft for finally creating an OS that wasn't even worth stealing! Last I heard W8 was running 66% behind sales projections. Oh well, since they can't sell it, maybe they'll be able to give it away!