patrick.net

Oh I believe it.
Microsoft funds MSPAC, which donated 1.7 mil to democrats and 782k to republicans in 2012....
And we all know about the quality of software excreted by the Left...( read ACA website )

Call it Crazy says

Unbelievable a company like Microsoft can release such a piece of crap...

CaptainShuddup says

And people wonder why the Obamacare website choked.

:-)

Call it Crazy says

Unbelievable a company like Microsoft can release such a piece of crap...

Why is that? They've had 30 years of practice. Every try, key word try, to use the original MS-DOS, or Windows?

elliemae says

What a piece of shit.

I'm in IT and worked with Windows since the beginning and was comfortable with it.

Couple of years back current workplace gave me a Macbook Air, and after an initial small learning bump, I was converted.

Yes I agree MS has lost it's way, and like much of the industry is trying to churn out some shit for you to buy, with zero attenttion to actually enhancing your experience.

I would have bought a mac except for the price. For what I do with the computer, it's best if I suck it up and make this work.

bestbuy - laptops $400
macbooks $1100

Windows 8 was intended for use with mobile devices. Windows 7 is by far still the best program available by Microsoft for stationary use as in pc's or laptops. If you want it installed on your new computer, it'll cost you about $100.00 by a technician.
I feel your pain, but remember the reason you bought the new computer with windows 8 was because it was $100.00 cheaper than the competition.
In the mean time, just bypass all their app crap by clicking on the lower left hand corner of the start page desktop icon and then enter a browser setting, like Google.

bob2356 says

Why is that? They've had 30 years of practice. Every try, key word try, to
use the original MS-DOS, or Windows?

How OLD am I? Hell, I could (and sometimes still have to) drop to command line and input MS-DOS commands, and it works!!! Original Windows? Do you mean Windows 2.0, or are you so young that version 3.0 was the first one that you were exposed to? From there it went to 3.1, which was an improvement. Then came Millenium, which sucked BIG time. Then came XP and all it's versions, then came Windows 7 and now Windows 8.0 and 8.1 - basically another failure. So to answer your question - yup, did and can still do MS-DOS command lines - oh, do you remember what MS-DOS stood for (without looking it up on Google)?

curious2 says

If I can't get Win8 to work by the time XP goes off support, I'm switching to Linux.

And the reason why XP going off support is a problem is because???

This might be the most important point in CaptainShuddup's post:

CaptainShuddup says

As a result now Microsoft's whole platform has been dumbed down

mmmarvel says

So to answer your question - yup, did and can still do MS-DOS command lines - oh, do you remember what MS-DOS stood for (without looking it up on Google)?

Then you are old enough to remember how really bad it was.

MS DOS. Stood for MicroSoft Disk Operating System, which was a buggy clone of CPM (Control Program for Microprocessor a very stolid product written by Gary Kildall which was a clone of IBM's CP Control Program virtual machine for the 360/370) written by Tim Patterson for the 8086 chip since CPM only supported the Z80/8080 chip. BIll Gates bought it from Tim for 75k (if I remember right) because Gates had assured IBM that he had an OS when he had squat, the only product Gates had ever developed previously was a really bad buggy Basic for the Altair. Since Gates knew nothing about OS design he allowed drivers to directly address hardware rather than forcing the use of OS calls like CPM. IBM also screwed the pooch design wise also, implementing fixed hardware address space above the user address space.

Since you worked on MS DOS and windows then you have to know what a nightmare drivers doing direct hardware manipulation was and how totally unreliable it made every microsoft product until NT. Microsoft hired David Cutler (who know a lot about OS design) away from DEC to design NT. David very wisely ignored the gazillion lines of crap Microsoft code, started with a fresh design from scratch and finally produced a Microsoft OS that was fairly reliable. Microsoft made one more version of the their crappy segmented memory windows/95/98 OS which was windows ME then thankfully let it die.

Do I pass? I was programming before Gates got into Harvard and was always horrified at how terrible early (pre NT) microsoft products were. At least since NT it's been more bad interface design problems than true unreliability. There were a number of much better OS's out there at the time it's too bad IBM didn't use all of them and let the market choose.

bob2356 says

Do I pass? I was programming before Gates got into Harvard and was always
horrified at how terrible early (pre NT) microsoft products were. At least since
NT it's been more bad interface design problems than true unreliability. There
were a number of much better OS's out there at the time it's too bad IBM didn't
use all of them and let the market choose.

Very GOOD! Give that man a kewpie doll! Now we can move on to exciting subjects like programming in Cobol or Fortran. Yup, I'm THAT old.

SoftShell says

And we all know about the quality of software excreted by the Left...( read ACA website )

Jeez, is there anything that conservatives aren't willing to blame the left for these days? Software? Really? You guys are fixated with a one-track mind.

Besides, most people would consider Apple to be more left than MSFT. Lots of people like their software and operating systems.

Be careful with windows 8, apparently you need a Professional version if you want old programs to run on it. We have some stuff on our computer that was built probably in the 90's, won't run on basic Windows 8. Works fine on Windows 7 though.

Waitingtobuy says

Jeez, is there anything that conservatives aren't willing to blame the left
for these days? Software? Really? You guys are fixated with a one-track
mind.

No, Obama is the pits so he gets the blame - period (Oh wait, that was suppose to be my health insurance, sorry).

When u stop blaming bush for everything, we will follow suit... -)

Waitingtobuy says

SoftShell says

And we all know about the quality of software excreted by the Left...( read ACA website )

Jeez, is there anything that conservatives aren't willing to blame the left for these days? Software? Really? You guys are fixated with a one-track mind.

Besides, most people would consider Apple to be more left than MSFT. Lots of people like their software and operating systems.

It's not a problem for xp techies....it's a goldmine.

zzyzzx says

curious2 says

If I can't get Win8 to work by the time XP goes off support, I'm switching to Linux.

And the reason why XP going off support is a problem is because???

elliemae says

My old computer gave out and I've had the extreme displeasure of trying to maneuver through the piece of shit that Microsoft calls Windows 8.1. Ya'll know I'm not the most computer savvy, so I'm pretty much fucked.

The Windows 8 format is ridiculous. What's sad is that the marketing and engineering geniuses couldn't possibly have sat 20 people down for 8 hours and asked them to do typical office productivity tasks on desktops and laptops. If they did, they'd realize that touchscreens are great for public kiosks , but not conducive to detailed office work.

Also, the Fisher Price Colors might be necessary on a 10" or 7" screen, they look garish on a 19" Widescreen on your desk.

Oh, there's software called Classic Shell that converts 8 into the normal Windows machine, with the start menu, bottom task bar, etc.

http://www.classicshell.net/

It's the only way Windows 8 is usable as a productivity machine and not as a waiting for the bus, bullshitting in the coffee shop media consumption device.

Call it Crazy says

I've got some old punch cards, you want them??? They're right next to my Commodore 64 and my 5 -1/4 floppies...

I used to have a cake plate drive from a 3340 drive. You got 30 meg removable on top and 30 meg removable on the bottom (which was why the drive was called the winchester as in 30-30 rifle) for only 100k in 1973 dollars. Those were the days my friend.

Which is why I use a Mac with superior Mac OS X compared to M$ Winblows crap.