Off Topic

[rolesfamily]

Hahaha nnnnice! Wish I had me a dollar!

You could get a bit of rolesplay for that

[PluMGMK]

Oh, not this again…

[rolesfamily]

Got a few spare tings or anything shiny? You too can receive some rolesplay, playa

[Master]

Anyone checked what article is being featured on Wikipedia at present? http://www.sonicretro.org/2014/10/sonic ... wikipedia/

I would never have expected that, pretty neat though.

[Snagglebee]

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/31/micro ... 7-to-oems/

[Master]

Yeah, heard about it. Win 10 better be worth it, seeing how Win 8 isn't very well liked.

[OCG]

Win 10 has horrible name and that is already one major disappointment.

[PluMGMK]

What's so bad about the name?

[Ambidextroid]

They missed out windows 9 to avoid confusion with Win 98 and that, even though there's not really any way 98, 97, 96 etc. to be confused with 9. They just made it more confusing.

I guess after their huge cock-up with the xbox one name they tried to redeem themselves, but made it worse...

[PluMGMK]

Supposedly it was because certain programmes would misread the Windows version (rather than people getting confused) but I already called BS on that since Windows 9x is actually 4.x, while Windows 9 would be 6.4.

[Ambidextroid]

Well yeah, I think microsoft have recently been being pretty BSy overall. It seems to be a phase or something, even apple have joined in. The thing I'm annoyed about is the redesign. I hate windows 8 onward, and I hate iOS 7 onward.

iOS 7/8 looks like it was designed by a child, and takes no advantage of the retina display (the previous apps looked gorgeous in my opinion, especially the now-ruined settings app logo)

And I cannot get used to windows 8, they moved everything useful to the dark, damp naughty corner seemingly only accessible by the search bar, and moved all the useless crap to the front. I just want to have things where I want them, on my desktop. Bloody start menu.
(totally just my opinion though, some people seem to love windows 8 )

[Shrooblord]

No, I completely agree with all points you made there, Ambs.

I'm a bit confused about the win10 thing, but supposedly it was something with version numbers - though I guess Plum highlighted that's not true either? As long as OSes don't start following the same trend that films and games have been following for a couple of years now, or we'll end up with the new version that'll be dubbed simply 'Windows'. Nothing more, nothing less. Just 'Windows'.

[Ambidextroid]

Argh, I HATE it when that happens. Good thing rayman didn't do that, they would never. Too good. Also nintendo seem to be avoiding that trend too, thank god.

[Master]

I recall speculation toward that naming scheme when I was following the Win 10 rumours. That being said, while a name is important in many things, Windows is an OS first and foremost. Stupid as the name is, I think one ought to reconsider their priorities if that's the turning off point, as opposed to what they're designed for, which is to allow people to use computers.

Win 8 does screw things up, I really miss Aero, the flat look works ok with the Modern UI, but the hybridised remnant of Aero just doesn't look right. Win 10 doesn't improve on that factor at present, whether it will ever remains to be seen. Forcing the Start Screen was really dumb, I'd be ok if they tried to make a hybrid between Start Screen and Desktop for normal PCs, as I'm pretty fond of the live tiles, but having the Screen instead of menu didn't work for me. My current machine uses Classic Menu to compensate, and with that in place, Win 8.1 isn't too bad, I'll admit. Win X brings back the Start Menu, but it's different from Win 7's, it keeps the left hand side as is, but changed the right hand side to use the Win 8 live tiles, personally, I like it, but I guess fellas will make their own conclusions in due time.

There's also the matter of the Modern UI apps, I don't like how they've closed it off so it's Win 8+ or nothing, and why on earth is there a PC Settings apps in addition to Control Panel? The problem with Win 8 here is how it tries to be Tablet and PC, but it needs to stick to one or the other. Them going full screen is a bit cumbersome either, but that's been dealt with somewhat in Win X, where they now behave like normal windows, for the most part. The charms bar can get in my way also, if I'm using the touchpad, they've gotten rid of it too in Win X, though I heard some would like it to be user toggled.

That being said, I do like some aspects of Win 8, the Task Manager is far superior than Win 7's, Explorer uses the Ribbon interface from Office 2007 onwards, which might not be to everyone's liking, but I do prefer it over the old dropdown menu system. At the end of the day, I don't think Win 8 is quite as monstrous as people make it out to be, it's a handful to be sure, but one that can be worked around pretty easily.

[Ambidextroid]

Yeah, i guess you're right. It's more that I cannot get the hang of Windows 8, so whenever I need a program, I look for it, can never find it and have to resort to using search (even worse everything's renamed for added confusion when it doesn't need to be, like "My PC" instead of "My Computer" (I think that's the case, i cannot remember well, but my brothers have Win 8 on their laptops)).

Whenever I search for something like that (I even had to search for "Desktop" sometimes) I just sigh and think about how perfect Win 7 was for me. Only problem I have with Win 7 is the task bar. The icons that stack up and that, and pinning stuff, is really good. Problem is the icons are much bigger than they need to be, so the taskbar cannot fit many programs on. It's also too high up, which is a huge problem for when I want to multitask with my multiple monitors. If I'm watching something, say subbed anime, in fullscreen, and on the other screen I'm using skype, because they are different programs the taskbar pops infront of the video when I click skype, blocking the subs.

I with there was a way to avoid this, the only things I can think of are auto-hiding task bar (which I hate) and switching the main monitor, along with the taskbar, to the other, smaller monitor (though this is annoying and messes up the wallpaper).

Well, I just have to not multitask I guess.

[Shrooblord]

Win8 certainly has its charms. It's also supposed to be more secure than previous iterations of Windows, but perhaps that's because of what I'd like to call the worst aspect of the OS: its total lack of decent compatibility. Compatibility issues have always been a thing with new iterations of an OS no matter what host you run, be that Windows, Linux, Mac or maybe something completely different. But Win8 takes the cake in how it completely abolishes near to all compatibilty with software designed to run on previous OSes and basically tells the consumer to either get replacement software that was designed for 8 or go screw themselves because Microsoft cut off all suplies to getting Win7, which was still somewhat decent in supporting older software. I despise companies that follow that buy-and-replace style of consumership and I wish everyone would just bloody stop it. It's a complete waste of everyone's resources and I don't get the point of it at all, except for the obvious 'the corporation gets more money out of it'.
I don't understand why people keep going through with it. I guess they just don't have a choice. Monopolies suck.

[Master]

Have you tried using "Classic Start Menu?" I don't deal with the Start Screen myself, as it's not for me either, the Classic Start Menu brings Win7's menu to Win8, and it works pretty much the same.

As for Win8's compatibility, I've only run across problems with Rayman 2, though granted, I don't really have much legacy software at this point, so I can't comment on that with any notion of certainty.

[Shrooblord]

Yes, I have. I found a bunch of articles dedicated in turning Win8 into a more desktop-friendly OS than it's designed to be. It's fine, this whole 'one platform suits all' idea MS has, but then at least present us with the option to say 'screw it' to that notion instead of having us rely on third-party software and life-hacks to get back to a more familiar Windows.

[Ambidextroid]

I think I like a more keyboard based OS than a mouse based one. I mainly use keyboard on my current PC, but Win 8 looks more like a mouse-selection kind of thing, like a bit more tablety.

[Master]

Yes, I have. I found a bunch of articles dedicated in turning Win8 into a more desktop-friendly OS than it's designed to be. It's fine, this whole 'one platform suits all' idea MS has, but then at least present us with the option to say 'screw it' to that notion instead of having us rely on third-party software and life-hacks to get back to a more familiar Windows.

Agreed, and MS seems to have come to that conclusion too, the Start Screen is still in Windows 10, but it's replaced by the classic start menu by default.

I think I like a more keyboard based OS than a mouse based one. I mainly use keyboard on my current PC, but Win 8 looks more like a mouse-selection kind of thing, like a bit more tablety.

Hmm, from what I've seen I think Win 8 works pretty well with a touchscreen, but it's not as efficient if one is using a mouse and keyboard. I tend to use mouse and keyboard in tandem, I don't think Windows has ever been pretty good for sole keyboard use, but seeing as I don't go by that route, I wouldn't be surprised if I were mistaken.