[amphibian]

Work for most people already happens and will continue to happen on desktops.

People are now buying 4k tvs and hooking them up to consoles, cable boxes or home media boxes. They watch tv, movies, play games on it.

People are reading books, playing games and browsing the web on tablets. Maybe even video chatting.

Laptops in my mind are increasingly for the business travelers.I have to deal with them all the time at work. Yes, there's a need for them there, but I don't think that extends over to the home life.

I'm seeing tons of young kids and older people in my family and friends network all over the world split their time more and more on tablets/ipods/phones and big tv and desktop.

The laptop occupies a middle spot that I think looks a lot more like a barbell than a Bell curve.

[Andorion]

I won't be making TV a priority anytime soon. I hardly watch TV anymore. Most of the stuff on it bores me.

I don't get tablets. They seem too big and inconvenient to hold up. A big screen smartphone + a PC/laptop fulfills all my needs.

I like laptops at the moment because I am considering getting a good Dell laptop which will allow me to restart gaming. Tablets are a contradiction. They are midway between laptops and smartphones yet they can't do the job of either properly. A laptop is great for productivity stuff like researching and typing up reports, a phone is great for fun stuff. Why would I want to introduce a third device into the mix?

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

amphibian, on 29 June 2015 - 08:01 PM, said:

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 29 June 2015 - 03:39 PM, said:

I just gotta stop in here to say: I have a Surface Pro 3, and this device is without a doubt what they designed their metro interface for. It is very usable with a mixture of touch and trackpad.

The Windows 8 interface works very well for tablets and for the people who don't ever use their computer for anything other than browsing/shopping, video chatting, looking at photos/videos, and so on. It really does cut out lots of the hassle for them and makes their experience easier and faster.

However, most people on this board aren't those people.

I suspect the future of home computer use will be desktops for more intensive computing and tablets hooked up via wi-fi to TVs and occasionally docked to keyboards for the extended writing-focused times.

The death of the laptop will take a while, but I am fairly certain it will happen outside of business travel purposes. I'm already using my laptop less and less because my phone is a computer and my tablet is a computer as well. The laptop has somehow morphed from a really convenient thing to the least convenient thing I use regularly.

I forgot to mention that I only use Store apps for a few specific things — PDFs, reading comics, and Netflix. I don't use it for general video playing because none of the Store players are any good (I use PotPlayer, mainly because it has great gesture controls [alas MPC-HC does not]). Otherwise, I'm using the desktop for programming or design. The Surface is great for both, especially with the pen and gesture hotkeys.

Of course, I don't do the intensive stuff on it. That's what my desktop is for. But the Surface Pro 3 is a very versatile device. It's very much a laptop replacement in a tablet form factor with a kickass kickstand.

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 30 June 2015 - 02:40 AM

[Ammanas_]

It's worst OS (operating system) yet. Well, other than Vista. But, if you care about your privacy DON'T!!!!
http://thenextweb.co...07/29/wind-nos/

I'm a Micro$oft hater, so I'm not really unbiased, but...

Don't get it.

My 0.02$

[Silencer]

Psh. 1. Windows 8 was just as bad for privacy. 2. Windows 8 had a much worse UI/UX. Ergo it's automatically worse than 10. 3. What are people supposed to use? Linux? Because Mac is just as bad with privacy policy and 'features' that track you, except with Mac there isn't an option to turn them all off at install.

Much as I'd love to use Linux, it just doesn't have the software base to make the transition worthwhile, and way too many people don't know what they're doing enough to use it safely.

[Andorion]

So how is the transition going for everybody? I have downloaded Windows 10, but I have not installed it yet. I aim to postpone installation for a few more months.


I would like to know two things though. Can I download a Windows 10 ISO or setup file separately? I want a backup of my OS.


Also is windows 10 erasing all files and data on the computer when being installed?

[amphibian]

Andorion, on 19 August 2015 - 12:43 AM, said:

Also is windows 10 erasing all files and data on the computer when being installed?

I installed it a few days ago on my desktop (infrequently used). Nothing was deleted or changed beyond the basic operating system. All my files and programs are still there.

I dunno about the ISO stuff, but you should make a back-up of your current OS anyways.

[Macros]

Took a few hours, no hassle, no problems with it yet.

[Andorion]

My current OS is Windows 7 and I have the original dvd for that. What I was wondering about was how to get a backup of the windows 10 file, in case I need to format later. It downloaded the same way regular windows updates do so I don't know how to find and backup the file.

[Silencer]

https://www.microsof...nload/windows10


^Microsoft provides. You can also use the built-in recovery option to do a full reinstall (either keeping or trashing your existing files) if necessary (assuming the computer is functional enough to do that and you're not trying to be 100% certain about doing a clean start).


As far as experience goes, mine wasn't the most fluid update - but that's likely because I was using an old laptop that had a lot of junk on it (it's my testbed upgrade device, as I don't want to commit my main PC to it yet). It was really slow in terms of startup and shutdown when I first upgraded, and it has had several instances of the UI simply not responding. Since I've cleaned it out it's running better though - make sure you let it update again to get all the latest Windows 10 updates immediately after you upgrade, as they fix a reasonable amount of problems.

[HoosierDaddy]

So, I was pretty early on the reserved download yet. How long should I wait before fixes are good and the system stable? I HATE Windows 8 or whatever the hell is on my comp right now.

[Silencer]

Ah, if you're 8 there's a compelling case to upgrade sooner than later. It will still probably pay to give it a full month (so another couple of weeks) for safety, but the current release is not unstable.

If you were on 7 I'd say leave it as long as you want, but on 8...uegh. You can give me and 'phib and maccy a week or so to confirm any issues and then do it. Also depends how valuable and backed up your data is on the pc(s) you're going to upgrade.

[Gredfallan Ale]

Ammanas_, on 18 August 2015 - 08:32 PM, said:

It's worst OS (operating system) yet. Well, other than Vista. But, if you care about your privacy DON'T!!!!
http://thenextweb.co...07/29/wind-nos/

I'm a Micro$oft hater, so I'm not really unbiased, but...

Don't get it.

My 0.02$

I think you are rather biased in this case. The privacy invasions of W10 are not worse or better than most other popular OSs or services used by the average computer user.

Usually people then continue and say "Well, that's why I use Linux", but the truth is that the most popular Linux distro, Ubuntu, already had one of the most controversial and discussed "feature" of W10, namely that everything you type in the system's search bar is shared with popular commercial companies, like Amazon, to "enhance the experience of the user". Moreover, just like in Windows, it's enabled by default, but unlike Windows, there's no notification of that. You have to know it exists and then look for the settings yourself. So, in that sense, Microsoft is relatively late to party, well after the likes of Canonical (Ubuntu), Apple, Google (Android and all other Google services, like Search, Mail, Youtube, &c.) and several independent phone manufacturers that all modified Android to share more, rather than less, than the original OS already did.

Just face it, Microsoft is not unique and certainly not innovative in the field of "personalized computing", that is, gathering data to "enhance the personal experience of the user" by offering personalized advertisement, relevant links, and search results "enhanced" by the experience of the system with the specific user. You might even say it was reluctant, but due to the popularity of "search assistants" and the general shift in the direction of "personal computing", Microsoft had to join or risk falling behind.

I think most people don't think twice that the only way search engines are capable of "guessing" which city you are in to provide the "optimal" (personalized) results for cinema timetables relevant to you is by gathering and processing personal data, search history, ip-information &c.

EDIT: I'm sure you do realise that, but I mean "the average user, ignorant of the technology they are actually using".

This post has been edited by Gredfallan Ale: 19 August 2015 - 07:33 AM

[HoosierDaddy]

Silencer, on 19 August 2015 - 07:29 AM, said:

Ah, if you're 8 there's a compelling case to upgrade sooner than later. It will still probably pay to give it a full month (so another couple of weeks) for safety, but the current release is not unstable.

If you were on 7 I'd say leave it as long as you want, but on 8...uegh. You can give me and 'phib and maccy a week or so to confirm any issues and then do it. Also depends how valuable and backed up your data is on the pc(s) you're going to upgrade.

Valuable and not backed up, because I suck. Let me know when it's good to update because I frigging hate 8.

Thanks Silencer.

[Silencer]

HoosierDaddy, on 19 August 2015 - 07:33 AM, said:

Silencer, on 19 August 2015 - 07:29 AM, said:

Ah, if you're 8 there's a compelling case to upgrade sooner than later. It will still probably pay to give it a full month (so another couple of weeks) for safety, but the current release is not unstable.

If you were on 7 I'd say leave it as long as you want, but on 8...uegh. You can give me and 'phib and maccy a week or so to confirm any issues and then do it. Also depends how valuable and backed up your data is on the pc(s) you're going to upgrade.

Valuable and not backed up, because I suck. Let me know when it's good to update because I frigging hate 8.

Thanks Silencer.

Alright, it shouldn't be too long - most of the remaining issues I'm finding *could* just be my laptop, and are fairly minor, but common software-update logic says wait a month or so before going to the new version at least, so I'll let you know once I'm comfortable recommending it.

Also; back up your data! XD Even if it is just a 1-stage backup like a portable external drive, it's better than nothing. You don't have to go all cloud storage or off-site files to be able to recover from local system data loss.

[Gredfallan Ale]

I've upgraded to W10 from W7 last week. I haven't used it much*, but the upgrade went smooth and my files and programs were easily accessible. I do occasionally have longer log-on or shutdown times than I'm used too, but I don't know if that is compared to W7 or the Linux distro I use on a daily basis. One strange thing was that Skyrim (a game) actually ran better on W10 than it did on W7 and I have no idea why.

However, I never actually hated W8, especially not for "casual" use (Internet, e-mail, text processing, &c.), so my experience of an OS might not be stereotypical for the average user.

*) I mainly use a Linux distro, as my workflow is moulded to that.

[Ammanas_]

Silencer, on 18 August 2015 - 11:58 PM, said:

Psh. 1. Windows 8 was just as bad for privacy. 2. Windows 8 had a much worse UI/UX. Ergo it's automatically worse than 10. 3. What are people supposed to use? Linux? Because Mac is just as bad with privacy policy and 'features' that track you, except with Mac there isn't an option to turn them all off at install.

Much as I'd love to use Linux, it just doesn't have the software base to make the transition worthwhile, and way too many people don't know what they're doing enough to use it safely.

Unfortunately that is somewhat true. Linux isn't nearly as difficult to master as people make out, but most people don't have the time nor energy to bother learning the ins and outs. Humans always take the easy route just like water

On the software front I disagree. It has everything any general web-browsing, email checking user would generally use in there day-to-day work. Games are starting to increase with the immient release of SteamOS.
There are two other options: ChromeOS and Android. Both by Google (which probably isn't much better than Microsoft, but I have a special hatred for them ever since they wiped my harddrive due to a system bug and 20 thousand pictures, documents, books (am I allowed to mention the existence of pirating? ), programs etc).

Three options, which probably aren't much better than Windows (other than Linux, of course). Still, I'd choose any of those over W10.

And if Google Self Driving Cars become a thing, I'll definitely buy them over the Apple Car, but maybe you won't have to pay extra for the Windows in the Windows Car

[rhulad]

Stick with Windows 7 until at least after the first service pack comes out for Win 10. By then the consensus should be out as to whether or not it's worth upgrading.

[Tiste Simeon]

I'm sat on it atm and am planning on upgrading around October/November time

[LinearPhilosopher]

downloading it now but upgrading later for my laptop. I've had multiple friends have issues with it.

Ill be sticking to 7 for my desktop, its better for gaming all around. Ill be upgrading my laptop as its on 8