
Why I use Windows 8 - namzo
http://owened.co.nz/why-i-switched-to-windows-8
======
UnoriginalGuy
Windows 8 boots faster because Windows 8 lies to you when you "Shutdown."
Windows 8 actually hibernates instead of shutting down for real; and you can
get the same effect by enabling hibernation on Windows 7 (or disabling "Fast
startup" on Windows 8).

I'm also very surprised it took 20 second to boot in Windows 7 with an SSD. I
have an SSD (an M4 specifically, on a SATA-3 connection) and Windows 7 never
took 20 seconds to boot (with a UEFI "bios"). Closer to 10~12 seconds I would
say.

I've been running 8 now for weeks and my biggest complaints are, firstly that
they removed tons of "desktop" software (e.g. Picture Viewer, Media Player,
the Games, et al) and secondly that they removed DVD playback (and even if you
purchase it, it still only works in Media Centre).

Metro is something you can ignore. I will say that most Metro apps like the
built-in Mail app are just horribly bad. So bad in fact that they're beyond
use in some cases. Hopefully third parties can do useful things with Metro,
because right now it doesn't have many use-cases.

~~~
josteink
_Windows 8 boots faster because Windows 8 lies to you when you "Shutdown."
Windows 8 actually hibernates instead of shutting down for real; and you can
get the same effect by enabling hibernation on Windows 7_

Incorrect. This is provenly false. Windows 8 _boots_ faster from a cold boot
than Windows 7. It really does. The memory footprint is much smaller. The
runtime environment is much more optimized and snappy.

You can tell Microsoft has cut out lots of cruft and optimized critical code-
paths, especially with regard to boot.

Hibernation which you refer to is a different feature, and provides you with
the same session and programs and state as you had running before, just like a
normal sleep would do on a laptop, except it will survive a flat battery. It
does so by persisting your entire RAM to disk for reloading on boot. This is
completely different from booting which would give you a new, empty session.

So if you end up with an empty session, it's provenly not hibernating, it's
booting. And boot is much, much faster.

On all system's I've had, hibarnation, designed to save time, has only caused
_increased_ latency for shutdown/sleeping/hibernation, and similar increase in
boot times since not only Windows needs to load, but all that persisted state
must be restored as well.

On machines with more than 4GBs of RAM this leads to horrible performance and
I've permanently disabled the option for the OS to use this due to the
performance issues involved.

On Windows 8 I've kept the defaults and things are just flying.

~~~
davedx
"This is provenly false"

Citation needed.

~~~
josteink
OP claims that a Windows 8 uses a feature which without exception causes 1.
extra IO workload, 2. reduced performance and which 3. persists entire
sessions to 1. reduce IO workload, 2. increase performance while at the same
time 3. session is not persisted.

I point out how this argument makes no sense.

I don't think I'm the one you should target with "citation needed".

~~~
EwanToo
Hibernation over shutdowns massively improves the shutdown and startup times
of my work PC.

Primarily because I have SQL Server on it for development - the services have
a extremely long shutdown and startup time, which doesn't need to happen for
hibernation.

~~~
jasomill
Interesting. I rarely bother to keep MSSQL loaded because it starts so
quickly...

    
    
      PS C:\> (Measure-Command { Start-Service MSSQLSERVER }).TotalMilliseconds
      1127.5208
    

Alternatively, if you want SQL Server to start automatically without
materially impacting startup performance, why not set its startup type to
"Automatic (Delayed Start)"?

As for shutdown, while it depends on how you're using it immediately
beforehand, I've never seen it take more than a few seconds on a development
box.

------
eyko
Seems like he's apologising for using Windows 8, and that we don't really
care.

------
eckyptang
He's pretty much spot on.

My encounters with Windows 8 so far have lead to literally zero interaction
with Metro other than for searching for stuff and starting programs for the
first time which it's quite good at.

Win+X is my start menu.

~~~
s_henry_paulson
This is super nice. Thanks!

With all of these options, I have to wonder why they wouldn't include a link
to Network Connections.

It's the one thing that I seem to always need to change, but something that is
always like 8 clicks to get to it.

~~~
eckyptang
Just hit start -> type connections.

~~~
s_henry_paulson
No luck :(

<http://i.imgur.com/6EWJO.png>

EDIT: Ok, I see that I have to also click settings. Thanks!

~~~
pca
Win+W lets you search Settings directly instead of Apps. You can also press if
after you've already typed your search term. (In case you don't want to reach
for the mouse)

~~~
eckyptang
Thanks for this - very helpful :)

------
madprops
I've had those combined file operations on nautilus for quite some time, the
pause button is nice though

------
scrrr
Yes, good points, and good for Microsoft. But a sleeping Mac wakes up in about
2 seconds. And OSX had the copy dialog nailed down before. Not sure about
multi-monitor support. I really wish Microsoft would make a real competitor to
OSX in terms of perceived quality.

~~~
eckyptang
My Lenovo T61 does the same and has done since I bought it a long time ago.

There is perceived quality and actual quality. OSX has perceived quality, but
little actual quality. You'll experience that if you have to deal with
projectors, other monitors and hotdesking regularly - it's utterly
frustrating. Windows - seriously just plug it in and it works.

When you see a Windows "workstation class" machine (Dell Precision) with an
uptime of over a year on a trading desk with 6x 1600x1200 monitors off the
back of two Matrox cards, you'll understand what I mean. They just don't go
wrong.

~~~
nicholassmith
Weird, every time I've used projectors and monitors with a Mac I've never had
any problems, but had significant issues getting a multi-monitor setup to
work. Granted, this was way back in the XP SP2 days so maybe the situation is
improved.

~~~
eckyptang
It did suck a bit on XP. Vista pretty much fixed it all to be honest. It's
pretty much perfect in Windows 7.

------
quickie
the file copy/move/delete dialog combination was something that BeOS did 10
years ago. I always why Windows never picked that up...

~~~
eckyptang
I agree. It's one of the easiest wins as well and one I've campaigned about
for years.

------
m0skit0
Oh and when is tab file browsing coming? Windows 10? Dude these features are
available in other OSs since long time ago. I still don't see why I would go
back to use Windows (be it 8 or any version) at all. There's no coming back,
Microsoft is outdated.

~~~
owenw
I don't think tabbed file browsing is necessary, but you're right, Microsoft
is waaaay behind.

------
barbs
I wonder if he's thought of using Classic Shell to get rid of the metro
interface: <http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/>

~~~
s_henry_paulson
I've used 8 for about a month now, and I don't miss the start menu at all.

It's just a lot of un-necessary clutter. If you want to start a program, if
click start and type the first letters of the application.. done.

If you want to dig through a giant list of apps, that option is still
available, but it's much nicer that it's not the default.

I think the things like the Classic Shell will help the elderly and those
resistant to change, but for any power users, the new interface is an
improvement.

As far as metro, I never use it either, so I don't see it as an issue.

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dschiptsov
What antivirus software you're using?)

~~~
Achshar
I am not OP but i use win 8 for my primary OS too and i don't use any AV.
IIRC, win8 had some built-in virus protection. Also my usage is primarily pro
and don't use thumb drives etc on my workstation. Also my internet habits and
chrome protect me from internet side of things.

