Curious... Is anyone here using Windows 8 for "real work"? (Development/programming, 2D or 3D design, engineering/CAD, etc)
I've been using Windows 8 exclusively for the past few months for development/programming as well as light gaming. Love it so far, though I've found Start8 to be a necessessity - not for the Windows 7 style start menu, but the alternative mode that reduces the size of metro to a box in the bottom left, fixing the mental context switch of full-screen metro. Metro is far superior as a start menu t0 the old style one. No idea why microsoft didn't see its potential to be used in this way and instead forced the full screen version.
How long have you been running it for?
Has it been stable?
Any major snags?
Probably not long enough to tell... but, how does NTFS and the registry hold up over time?
Have you bypassed the startscreen/metro apps?
Is your overall impression that's it can be a serious OS for getting work done (when cash and clients are on the line)?
There's a distinct lack of info online regarding people using it for serious/heavy work.
Thanks
- If the modification date of windows.old is anything to go by, since 16/11/2012
- Some initial driver issues and kernel security-related BSODs, but eventually resolved these. All my issues were caused by the fact that I'm on a laptop and reliant on OEM drivers, plus that I upgraded rather than fresh installed. Fixed without reinstalling by simply waiting for updates and disabling a few dodgy internal (service) drivers. On the subject of stability, a number of things that were broken/dodgy on Windows 7 and previous windows versions (such as the Steelseries Xai mouse) have been fixed in 8. The new USB stack is excellent.
- Nothing of huge significance. The worst thing is not having a left windows key on my keyboard, and Autohotkey didn't work with Metro when I tried (hence can't use alt as a replacement) so some combos are kind of awkward. And then there's the fact that you can't workaround the security with drag+drop/explorer extensions from unelevated to elevated or vice-versa. UAC can't be fully disabled to fix this like in windows 7, though of course it can be disabled to the extent that there are no popups. Also you can't disable Aero any more, potentially annoying for gamers, however a number of Aero compatibility issues in windows 7 (eg Autocad R14) appear to have been resolved in 8.
- I use an SSD primarily, so if you're talking in terms of performance, can't really say.
- Have bypassed metro to desktop on login, but use metro as a mini start menu as explained above. Occasionally use metro apps such as calendar, but 99% of my time is on the desktop. They're nowhere near as bad as people say with a mouse and keyboard (I don't use my laptop's touchpad often).
- Absolutely, I wouldn't be using it otherwise
My productivity has increased slightly, mostly due to the nicer explorer files interface as well as forcing myself to use jump lists as opposed to pinning folder shortcuts to the start menu (faster once you get used to it). Everything seems slightly faster too