Windows 7 or Win 8?

[zxcvbob]

Daughter in college has a 5 year old Macbook and it's on its last legs.  Might not make it to the end of the school year.  (from her description it might just have a virus, yes I know it's a Mac, and I told her to take it to the IT department and get it checked out, and maybe the Apple "Genius Bar")  Anyway, she is looking at PC's this time.  Something with an i5 processor, unless she finds a good deal on a i7.

I'm concerned most about software compatibility (MATLAB, Office2007, and I dunno what else she runs); I haven't heard anything good or bad about Win 8 issues with old software, printer and scanner device drivers, etc, but it was off my radar screen until today.

AFAIK, the main differences between W7HP and W7Pro are the Pro version has better connectivity with local networks and has an XP mode for your *really* old apps.  (either of those *might* be worth $40 for the upgrade)

I guess she could also go with a older refurbished "workstation replacement" XP laptop; that is still supported by Microsoft for about 2 more years.  But I don't think she wants that; they tend to be heavy and bulky.  So I'm leaving it off the poll.  Thanks.

(I may send her a link to this thread in a day or two; kind of depends how it goes.)

[mtnbkr]

Win7 Home Premium because it'll run fast on just about anything these days, is well understood, and well supported.  Home instead of Pro because I don't think Pro adds a lot for the average user.  If the price is the same, then get Pro, but don't pay (much) extra for it.

Chris

[AZRedhawk44]

Go with latest-and-greatest OS.

The only time to go retro, is when making evaluations for corporate lots of workstations.  I remember being involved in decisions for workstation support between Win2K and WinXP (we stayed on 2k until we could come up with a licensing mechanism to overcome Microsoft's piracy checks newly built into XP... our deployment tech at the time was Altiris workstation imaging and the XP labs we imaged didn't care for all having the same key from our master image), and WinXP to WinVista (Vista was teh suck so we stayed away from it entirely until 7).

She's not part of a corporate network, and this laptop will be 3-4 years old by her senior year.  You don't want her fighting a 7 year old OS in her senior year of college.

[zxcvbob]

This is her senior year.  I also don't think the corporate network thing is important, but would be nice to have if it doesn't cost much.

[Brad Johnson]

From what I can see Win 8 is pretty much Microsoft's attempt to capture the attention of the Apple Fanboy user base, and to make Windows more mobile platform friendly.  Unless you're going with a mobile device I don't see a lot of reason to go 8.

Brad

[Gewehr98]

Windows 8 needs work still.

I just bought the downloadable upgrade version of Windows 8 Professional the day it came out, for $39.99.

This was to go on a quad-core workstation that is still running XP Pro.

I figured I'd skip Vista and Windows 7 in one fell swoop, and the price was right. 

I'd already upgraded 2 other identical machines to Windows 7 Pro, so I figured this would be a cakewalk, right?

Microsoft even said Windows 8 needed fewer hardware resources to run than Windows 7, no more Aero desktop eye-candy, etc.

Wrong. The installation failed at "Incompatible Intel Primary IDE channel"

I searched for a remedy.  As of this week, there are still no drivers from Microsoft, and none from Intel.

I'm trying the install again using the SCSI channel. I'll also pay attention to the Windows 8 help forum, mine isn't the only complaint of that nature.

However, if the fix doesn't materialize soon and I can't find a machine to install this on, I'm requesting a refund and sticking with Windows 7 Pro.

BTW, those Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack upgrades with 3 licenses?  They're drying up, and the remaining NOS packs are really climbing in price since Windows 8 arrived.     

[AZRedhawk44]

Windows 8 needs work still.

I just bought the downloadable upgrade version of Windows 8 Professional the day it came out, for $39.99.

This was to go on a quad-core workstation that is still running XP Pro.

I figured I'd skip Vista and Windows 7 in one fell swoop, and the price was right. 

I'd already upgraded 2 other identical machines to Windows 7 Pro, so I figured this would be a cakewalk, right?

Microsoft even said Windows 8 needed fewer hardware resources to run than Windows 7, no more Aero desktop eye-candy, etc.

Wrong. The installation failed at "Incompatible Intel Primary IDE channel"

I searched for a remedy.  As of this week, there are still no drivers from Microsoft, and none from Intel.

I'm trying the install again using the SCSI channel. I'll also pay attention to the Windows 8 help forum, mine isn't the only complaint of that nature.

However, if the fix doesn't materialize soon and I can't find a machine to install this on, I'm requesting a refund and sticking with Windows 7 Pro.

BTW, those Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack upgrades with 3 licenses?  They're drying up, and the remaining NOS packs are really climbing in price since Windows 8 arrived.     

That's like complaining that Win8 doesn't have driver support for 5.25" floppy drives or LPT-based printers.

You're putting Win8 on some sort of old dual CPU Xeon server you have, right?  Probably parallel IDE ribbon cable style interface?

While I agree that Win8 SHOULD ship with drivers for that particular interface... I don't exactly fault them too harshly for not including it.  SATA has been the desktop standard for at least 5 years now.

[lee n. field]

Daughter in college has a 5 year old Macbook and it's on its last legs.  Might not make it to the end of the school year.  (from her description it might just have a virus, yes I know it's a Mac, and I told her to take it to the IT department and get it checked out, and maybe the Apple "Genius Bar")  Anyway, she is looking at PC's this time.  Something with an i5 processor, unless she finds a good deal on a i7.

I'm concerned most about software compatibility (MATLAB, Office2007, and I dunno what else she runs); I haven't heard anything good or bad about Win 8 issues with old software, printer and scanner device drivers, etc, but it was off my radar screen until today.

AFAIK, the main differences between W7HP and W7Pro are the Pro version has better connectivity with local networks and has an XP mode for your *really* old apps.  (either of those *might* be worth $40 for the upgrade)

I guess she could also go with a older refurbished "workstation replacement" XP laptop; that is still supported by Microsoft for about 2 more years.  But I don't think she wants that; they tend to be heavy and bulky.  So I'm leaving it off the poll.  Thanks.

(I may send her a link to this thread in a day or two; kind of depends how it goes.)

Win7 Pro.  Tried and true, well understood.  Likely to be around and supported for a long, long time.

If you're concerned about software compatability, it's not a good time to be jumping to a weeks old latest and greatest.  Let Win 8 SP 1 come out first.

[BryanP]

For what you're describing I'd go with either Win 7 Home or Win 8.  The ability to log on to domains and the XP virtual machine aren't of much use to the average user (he says typing on a copy of Win 7 Enterprise, logged on to a domain and having the XP virtual machine running  )

I happen to like the Aero interface, so the fact that they ripped it out in 8 is kind of annoying, but if you're buying a new machine then I see no reason not to go with 8.  If you don't like the Metro interface, the standard Windows desktop you're familiar with is supposed to be a single click away.

[Gewehr98]

That's like complaining that Win8 doesn't have driver support for 5.25" floppy drives or LPT-based printers.

Let's remain apples to apples.  Parallel ATA isn't that ancient, and Windows 7 ships fine with drivers for that data bus architecture.

Just like Windows 7 using Vista drivers, Windows 8 should be able to use Windows 7 hardware drivers.  That's only one (1) iteration in reverse.

My gripe is that I had no problems running Windows 7 Pro on these same IBM workstations, and Windows 8 advertises the same hardware requirements (less, actually) than its predecessor.

While it's true that SATA and SAS have supplanted IDE and SCSI, there are still many decent systems out there that are viable in 2012 with the former. 

4x 3.2Ghz Xeons and 4Gb memory are well above the minimum requirements for either Win 7 or Win 8, the WEI score for one running Win 7 is 5.1, not shabby for a 2004 machine.

I can also find a PCI-E SATA controller card and have the machine boot from that, as long as Win 8 or the manufacturer of the controller card has drivers...

[Tuco]

Why have windows hate when you can stay in windows heaven?

[zxcvbob]

Why have windows hate when you can stay in windows heaven?

OK, that was clever.  Bravo.

[Hawkmoon]

While I agree that Win8 SHOULD ship with drivers for that particular interface... I don't exactly fault them too harshly for not including it.  SATA has been the desktop standard for at least 5 years now.

Right.

And of course NO ordinary (non-geek) computer user might reasonably be expected to have a computer that's five years old. 

[Hawkmoon]

For what you're describing I'd go with either Win 7 Home or Win 8.  The ability to log on to domains and the XP virtual machine aren't of much use to the average user (he says typing on a copy of Win 7 Enterprise, logged on to a domain and having the XP virtual machine running  )

Win7 Home Premium doesn't offer an XP virtual machine, but both Vista and Win7 (even the starter edition that came on my Acer netbook) have a compatibility mode that allows running individual legacy programs in Xp (or Win98) compatibility mode.

[AZRedhawk44]

Right.

And of course NO ordinary (non-geek) computer user might reasonably be expected to have a computer that's five years old. 

  right back at ya, Hawkmoon.  The request by the OP was in regards to shopping for a new computer.  Not loading a new OS on a 5+ year old computer.

We're not loading Win7 or Win8 on the OP's MacBook.

[slingshot]

From what I can see Win 8 is pretty much Microsoft's attempt to capture the attention of the Apple Fanboy user base, and to make Windows more mobile platform friendly.  Unless you're going with a mobile device I don't see a lot of reason to go 8.

That's my take also.  I see no point with Windows 8 in a laptop or desktop computer.  Its main utility is on tablets and I hear there is a steep learning curve.  I would stick with Windows 7 if I had a choice.

[RevDisk]

Windows 7. Pro if it's priced right.

Please, don't install 8.


- from the guy that manages hundreds of PCs.

[Ben]

Perhaps I'll be wrong, but Win8 is looking a lot like Vista to me.

[RevDisk]

Perhaps I'll be wrong, but Win8 is looking a lot like Vista to me.

Come'on, that's a little unfair to Win8. It may be bad, but not THAT bad.

[Ben]

Come'on, that's a little unfair to Win8. It may be bad, but not THAT bad.

 

[cosine]

Windows 7. I like it, and use it in doing a lot of significant number crunching in programs such as Matlab, Simplorer (network simulator), and Maxwell 2D (finite-element software for low frequency electromagnetics simulations).

[Blakenzy]

Every IT guy who I have heard discuss the topic has said to stick with Win7. My conclusion: IT guys aren't feeling the 8... for good reasons I hope.

If a touch screen is out of the question I wouldn't bother with Win 8 just yet.

[zxcvbob]

Does a Win 8 license come with downgrade rights?  The reason I ask is she found a promotion on a gaming laptop; it is reasonably priced iff she gets it preloaded with 8.  The same system loaded with 7 is (from memory) about $500 more.

I should probably be asking Lenovo or Microsoft this...

[MillCreek]

After reading this thread, I made a point of looking at the new computers at Costco yesterday while I was there getting some Xmas gifts for the wife.  All of the new computers came preloaded with Win 8.  Where can you still find new computers with Win 7, mail order?  I am curious about this, since I have a laptop on its last legs, and I am currently pondering either a Chromebook or a new Win laptop, but I don't want to go with Win 8.

[Phyphor]

Windows 7. Pro if it's priced right.

Please, don't install 8.


- from the guy that manages hundreds of PCs.

Totally THIS.

8 works great on touchscreens.  It's absolute total ass with a mouse.  I STRONGLY suggest sticking with a flavor of 7.