4 ms·

" Windows 8 on a PC, I can say Windows 8 is worse in usability than Windows 7" This is false. I have used both extensively and Windows 8 is better by a good ma

" Windows 8 on a PC, I can say Windows 8 is worse in usability than Windows 7" This is false. I have used both extensively and Windows 8 is better by a good margin.Actually my old POS HP laptop runs better with Windows 8 because of the driver, kernel and display improvements. No blogger can take away the fact that Windows 8 is very good however its funny to see them try.

malkia 14y ago
Can this be even objective? To me XP with cygwin/far commander is where I get most productivity, but lots of people would hate that. I don't use much the explorer, unless for rather arcane things that I can't do from the command line (cmd.exe from far manager calling cygwin stuff, yes I rarely use the cygwin's bash too, but use it all the time on osx/linux).
mtgx 14y ago
I installed Windows 8 on one of the first netbooks to appear (eee pc 1000h). The performance difference is not perceivable. If even at that level it's not, it will be even less on higher-end hardware. Even benchmarks show a 5% improvement at most in performance. What Windows 8 does do, though, is trick you into thinking it's running faster, or "smoother". It uses animations to make those 0.5-1-second delays a lot more bearable. But the underlying performance is virtually the same.
- Locke1689 14y ago
  Nope. I've tested it (like many other people). My 2011 Macbook air boots 4 seconds faster into Windows 8 than Windows 7.
  - sirclueless 14y ago
    Fresh installations of each? Because my boot tends to slow down over time, and by considerably more than 4 seconds.
    - Locke1689 14y ago
      RTM for months.
      - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
        My boot on my HP EliteBook (HD, no SSD) got much slower under Windows 8 RTM (~1 minute), but this was the IT version of Win8, which I guess has lots of crud so my boot is not going to be as fast as consumer (had the same problem with Win7).
        Locke1689 14y ago
        Right, this is the RTM Win 8 Pro, not IT enterprise
  - stcredzero 14y ago
    They're probably booting into the desktop even though a few things are still getting initialized.
    - Locke1689 14y ago
      My numbers are boot to lock.
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    What possible connection do you anticipate might exist between bootup time and performance during use?
  - gareim 14y ago
    Kernel states are saved or something, leading to faster bootup times. It's sort of like the hibernate option we've had for so long, but just on a smaller scale. Is it a good idea? Could be and probably is. But I'm paranoid that a clean restart is better, so it bothers me.
  - mtgx 14y ago
    Wow. A full 4 seconds? How exactly is that perceivable to anyone without having a timer nearby? Besides, for the faster booting they used another trick, replacing the "true Shutdown" with Hibernate, which makes waking from Hibernate faster than waking from a true shutdown.
    - Variance 14y ago
      Your sarcasm aside, 4 seconds can be very perceivable when you can already do a full cold boot in Win 7 in just 15-20 seconds with a good SSD.
    - Locke1689 14y ago
      First, no, 4 seconds is very noticeable, as my boot time in Win7 is 18 seconds. That's 22%, about 1/4 faster. Second, what the hell is a "trick?" It achieves basically the same result, but faster. That's called performance optimization. I once doubled a hot area of compiler performance by doing aggressive inlining and removing some tuple allocation for closure conversion. It couldn't be performed in every possible situation, obviously, but the 99% case had a 100% performance improvement. But I shouldn't have bothered because that was all a "trick", right? A brief look at your comment history says you only comment on political stories, so I don't know if you're a developer or one who has worked in performance optimization, but let me give you a little advice -- it's all tricks. It's all shuffling around your I/O patterns to avoid cache misses and reducing allocation to lower memory pressure and all that other crap. If you increase performance by caching the kernel on disk, which has the same impact for 99% of people as doing a cold boot, that's a performance optimization, not a "trick."
zanny 14y ago
I hear usability is objective and not subjective. I can't use metro, on my 24" desktop when the damn dash or whatever takes over everything it is so jarring and dumb when all i want to do is type a few letters and run something. I removed my RC copy Windows 8 and will never update to it. Windows 7 does everything well enough that it would take a radical usability / performance bump (probably directX 12 not being backwards compatible.. in about 8 - 10 years, given the longevity of dx9). If someone else likes to use it though, I really don't care, it is their choice to use whatever OS they are most comfortable with. It is why I default-boot to Arch. I do have to say the new task manager is great and I wish they backported it.

malkia 14y ago

Can this be even objective? To me XP with cygwin/far commander is where I get most productivity, but lots of people would hate that. I don't use much the explorer, unless for rather arcane things that I can't do from the command line (cmd.exe from far manager calling cygwin stuff, yes I rarely use the cygwin's bash too, but use it all the time on osx/linux).

mtgx 14y ago

I installed Windows 8 on one of the first netbooks to appear (eee pc 1000h). The performance difference is not perceivable. If even at that level it's not, it will be even less on higher-end hardware. Even benchmarks show a 5% improvement at most in performance. What Windows 8 does do, though, is trick you into thinking it's running faster, or "smoother". It uses animations to make those 0.5-1-second delays a lot more bearable. But the underlying performance is virtually the same.

Locke1689 14y ago
Nope. I've tested it (like many other people). My 2011 Macbook air boots 4 seconds faster into Windows 8 than Windows 7.
- sirclueless 14y ago
  Fresh installations of each? Because my boot tends to slow down over time, and by considerably more than 4 seconds.
  - Locke1689 14y ago
    RTM for months.
    - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
      My boot on my HP EliteBook (HD, no SSD) got much slower under Windows 8 RTM (~1 minute), but this was the IT version of Win8, which I guess has lots of crud so my boot is not going to be as fast as consumer (had the same problem with Win7).
      - Locke1689 14y ago
        Right, this is the RTM Win 8 Pro, not IT enterprise
- stcredzero 14y ago
  They're probably booting into the desktop even though a few things are still getting initialized.
  - Locke1689 14y ago
    My numbers are boot to lock.
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  What possible connection do you anticipate might exist between bootup time and performance during use?
- gareim 14y ago
  Kernel states are saved or something, leading to faster bootup times. It's sort of like the hibernate option we've had for so long, but just on a smaller scale. Is it a good idea? Could be and probably is. But I'm paranoid that a clean restart is better, so it bothers me.
- mtgx 14y ago
  Wow. A full 4 seconds? How exactly is that perceivable to anyone without having a timer nearby? Besides, for the faster booting they used another trick, replacing the "true Shutdown" with Hibernate, which makes waking from Hibernate faster than waking from a true shutdown.
  - Variance 14y ago
    Your sarcasm aside, 4 seconds can be very perceivable when you can already do a full cold boot in Win 7 in just 15-20 seconds with a good SSD.
  - Locke1689 14y ago
    First, no, 4 seconds is very noticeable, as my boot time in Win7 is 18 seconds. That's 22%, about 1/4 faster. Second, what the hell is a "trick?" It achieves basically the same result, but faster. That's called performance optimization. I once doubled a hot area of compiler performance by doing aggressive inlining and removing some tuple allocation for closure conversion. It couldn't be performed in every possible situation, obviously, but the 99% case had a 100% performance improvement. But I shouldn't have bothered because that was all a "trick", right? A brief look at your comment history says you only comment on political stories, so I don't know if you're a developer or one who has worked in performance optimization, but let me give you a little advice -- it's all tricks. It's all shuffling around your I/O patterns to avoid cache misses and reducing allocation to lower memory pressure and all that other crap. If you increase performance by caching the kernel on disk, which has the same impact for 99% of people as doing a cold boot, that's a performance optimization, not a "trick."

zanny 14y ago

I hear usability is objective and not subjective. I can't use metro, on my 24" desktop when the damn dash or whatever takes over everything it is so jarring and dumb when all i want to do is type a few letters and run something. I removed my RC copy Windows 8 and will never update to it. Windows 7 does everything well enough that it would take a radical usability / performance bump (probably directX 12 not being backwards compatible.. in about 8 - 10 years, given the longevity of dx9). If someone else likes to use it though, I really don't care, it is their choice to use whatever OS they are most comfortable with. It is why I default-boot to Arch. I do have to say the new task manager is great and I wish they backported it.