Windows 8 Craptop

[CA3LE]

... I'm such an MS hater these days.  But seriously... am I wrong?  It's like they're trying to get in the way of their own success anymore.

 

My father-in-law just got a Levono Win8 craptop.  Nice specs, touchscreen - i7... blah blah blah ...I couldn't even get it to do anything.  Wouldn't connect to my wifi I assume because it wasn't registered but to register you needed the wifi.  Seriously MS, do you have marbles for brains?  It had a telephone registration but I looked at him and said, "Come on dude!  Just trust me and get a Mac!  You'd get it, open the box and be ready to rock in like 60 seconds."   -- he gave in and took that craptop back.  I'm not saying it was a bad laptop, it had potential.  But the operating system was seriously holding it back.  

 

I have like 5 wifi networks in my house... I also created TestMy.net so I'm pretty sure that I know how to get a computer on the Internet.  It just said "Limited Connectivity" on every network and kept asking to register over the Internet!  lol  hello!  catch 22!

 

He was thinking of putting Windows 7 on it... okay, so now we have to buy new laptops and spend more money to put 4 year-old operating system on them.  Yeah, that seems really efficient... efficient for Microsoft's pocket!  My brother-in-law didn't listen and got a PC which came with Windows 7 and Toshiba gave him a free upgrade to Win8.  He upgraded and none of his stuff worked anymore.  The backlight to his keyboard, the function keys... important hardware stuff just simply wasn't supported even though Toshiba told him it was totally supported.  He also was getting errors and freezes all over the place.  He went back down to Win7 and is happy now.  What a headache though.  Could have saved ALL of that time and effort and got an Apple to start with.  All that time on the phone dealing with that BS, could have been spent smelling roses or finding a cure for cancer.  I dunno, just not on a tech support call.

 

Microsoft will figure themselves out.  They need to stop trying to be different and cool and get back to the core of what made them popular.

 

One windows device that I thought was awesome.  The Nokia Lumia 1020, however I haven't played with one.  I'm sure that it feels retarded being a Windows phone but the camera is insane.  41MP and a real xenon flash.  Does it perform well as a phone, I don't know.  But that sensor, 41MP... let's put that in perspective... the Hubble Telescope has 64X less resolution.  It has so much resolution that you can digitally zoom 4X and still have lossless 1080P quality.  Too bad they ruined it all up and put it on a windows phone.    -- still, an amazing jump in technology for sure.

 

After he got his Macbook Pro (which was maybe a couple hundred more than the other laptop). It booted up and he was on the Internet within I'd say... 90 seconds (so I was wrong... it wasn't 60 seconds, lol).  I put in his info, installed MS Office and synced his iPhone for the first time... he's been glued to it ever since.  He thought there was going to be a huge learning curve but in reality it just works how you'd expect it to so I think he's really happy with his choice.  He'll have far less headaches and be more productive for sure.

 

If you're in the market for a new computer.  Choose the one with an OS that's leading the way into the future... not the one that wastes your life with technical issues.  I'll leave it up to you which is which.     ... and remember, saving money is only saving money if it doesn't waste time.

[mudmanc4]

Well it's true. 

 

I'm not sure what MS business plan is looking like, but I feel it's much more than pleasing their end users. And much closer to closing off and cornering a future market that most are not yet aware of. 

[Pgoodwin1]

IMHO nobody makes better computers/OS than Apple. I've used them since 1988. And every one I've ever had was a fantastic machine that lasted for years problem free. And like you said, it just works. It hurts going to the office once a week (I'm retired now) and using the PC. And my wife's work Dell laptop she uses is only a year old, and it's just a so so laptop. Her 2006 MacBook Pro is still tooling along great. When you amortize the real costs of a Mac over a PC including OS updates, and security software costs for the PCs, the Macs are are a bargain when you price them with equivalent hardware.

[SlowFreddy]

  Why do PC's rule the business world and the personal computer world..? My Dell laptops have done a great job, even the 2002 still works great, of course it's obsolete by today's standards.  I like changing hardware and software on my desktops ^several PC brands) just for the experimentation kick, and I'm just your averaged user, not a geek (no pun intended). Seems some Apple users have a 'one track' mindset, or they are so technically inclined they disregard the PC as solid and functional. The PC made the computer World (Microsoft and Intel) and brought Apple along with it. I may own an Apple someday, but my first choice is the 'top' of the line Alienware machine..Apple doesn't excite me, like a PC does.. if you want a Cadillac work-horse,,get an Apple, you pay the price, ..if you want a work-horse, get a PC, and have some fun. PS. this is a friendly chat, and by any means is not to diminish any computer owners preference.. have a good day!....

[CA3LE]

  Why do PC's rule the business world and the personal computer world..? My Dell laptops have done a great job, even the 2002 still works great, of course it's obsolete by today's standards.  I like changing hardware and software on my desktops ^several PC brands) just for the experimentation kick, and I'm just your averaged user, not a geek (no pun intended). Seems some Apple users have a 'one track' mindset, or they are so technically inclined they disregard the PC as solid and functional. The PC made the computer World (Microsoft and Intel) and brought Apple along with it. I may own an Apple someday, but my first choice is the 'top' of the line Alienware machine..Apple doesn't excite me, like a PC does.. if you want a Cadillac work-horse,,get an Apple, you pay the price, ..if you want a work-horse, get a PC, and have some fun. PS. this is a friendly chat, and by any means is not to diminish any computer owners preference.. have a good day!....

 

Hey, if you buy a quality PC.. it will probably last.  I'm not doggin' the hardware... I'm talking about the OS.

 

There are plenty of awesome PCs out there... like totally insane, make people jealous computers that can blow away any Apple computer... it's just too bad you can't put OSX on them.

[nanobot]

This is why I use Unix.

Kthxbai.

In all seriousness, I have Windows 8 on my Laptop and have had NO issues whatsoever. The problems you had must have been unique to the manufacturer, or device. My laptop came with Windows 7 and I upgraded to Windows 8, so it's even more sketchy.

I also use Ubuntu on the same laptop, but it's time to upgrade that as well.

Thanks,

EBrown

[TriRan]

Hey, if you buy a quality PC.. it will probably last. I'm not doggin' the hardware... I'm talking about the OS.

There are plenty of awesome PCs out there... like totally insane, make people jealous computers that can blow away any Apple computer... it's just too bad you can't put OSX on them.

As long as you buy hardware osx has the drivers for you can install vanilla osx on it no problem

[tommie gorman]

I just got HP windows 8 machine going the last few days, and yes its a super pain to understand, but no issues I don't run into with every new computer I ever get.

 

I will never own a MAC.   I have better things to do with my money.

[coknuck]

I'm still on the same Acer Laptop since 2003 or 2004 and it runs great! Came with XP. I Partitioned with Vista what a piece that was. Wiped clean and went with W7 and Partitioned W8. Other than adding a extra gig of ram and bigger Hard Drive I have done nothing with this. Since I don't have a touch screen I start straight into W8 Desk top and bypass the regular start screen. I like the W8 better than the W7 because its a little faster, 

 I guess its all in what your used to working with. 

[Pgoodwin1]

The guts of the PCs and Macs for sale are pretty similar. What the PC hardware has going for it is the customization aspect, where a skilled person can build what he wants. The average user can't really do it without getting himself into trouble from a lot of different engineering aspects. To me, the PC and Mac OSs are where the real differences are. Apple has more control over all the hardware/OS and OS/AS interfaces and the result is their integration results in fewer anomalies than Windows. The PC manufacturers can do a good job integrating their hardware with the version of Windows that ships with the units. Some of them do a lot better job than others. When both the OS and the hardware are new, they all have a much bigger challenge. Once the user gets a machine, the likelihood of it staying secure and stable is much higher with OS X because of the tight controls Apple has in place on application software in their app stores. A savvy person can keep a PC secure and stable. A not-so-savvy person has a much bigger challenge because the applications can come from anywhere. Plus the malware developers target PCs by orders of magnitude more than Macs. One of my bigger issues with MS has been that their developer brains don't work like mine. The logic they use to name and locate functions in the OS escapes me. Too many times, after a frustrating search, my thoughts are "why would anyone put that there?" And "Why did they call it that?". That and it always takes twice as many mouse clicks to do things. Years ago, the initial cost of getting Macs was higher than the PC. It's not any more. When you load up a PC with equivalent hardware now (from a store), the Mac prices are on par. So it basically comes down to the design and quality systems of the PC supplier. In the case of Apple, their hardware design and quality are consistently among the best.