I Don't Think 8.1 Stinks, Actually
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Yeah, they pretty much force it upon you when setting up Windows 8. Probably because it's "for the conveniance of the user"... like if I'd want to type in a password each time I want to use a tablet... Oh and the best part? If you used your live login with 8.0 and changed it to a local user: the update to Windows 8.1 just changed it back to the live login... X|
There is an option to install/activate/update to 8.1 without creating an MS account; but it's hidden in a way that's not easy to find (even if you are a computer geek) unless you've got a second computer with Google and know to search for it.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt
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You don't need a Google account to use Android. Unless you wan't to use the official App Store. Setting your Gmail account data for the phone gives you some features like cloud backups etc. but it's definitely not needed. Same goes for the iPhone if I remember correctly.
You're correct you don't have to have a gmail account - it just enables you to access google's store and lots of other google features.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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- you don't have to login that way. you can use a local account if you want just like in Win7. they do push that option pretty strongly though, but you can avoid it. I use Win8.1 with only a local account and it works fine. 2) when you say "close an app" with Alt-F4 do you mean a windows store app? (new fullscreen apps). You can run all the same destop apps as before in Win7 which close normally. Once you find the desktop in Win8.1 its pretty much just like Win7 (minus having to deal with putting everything on the taskbar and/or adding in your own start menu of sorts with a toolbar. Despite them putting the start screen and new style apps front and center you can use Win8 without really even using those.
What can I say? I didn't buy 8.1 because I want to imitate a twenty-year old window paradigm. I like 8.1. It's much better than 7, which is better than geriatric X Pee. Apart from my slight reservations, I like it better than desktop; desktop in Fedora Gnome 3 was rendered useless by insane security obsessiveness, desktop in Ubuntu is nice(2.5 Generation), 8.1 is a 3rd Generation GUI. I have to have a Windows machine for compatibility with work projects; the ability to get to the desktop was certainly nice when running VS2008 setup from explorer, but now it even has it's own tile, as do the individual LibreOffice applications I also installed. Obviously if I'd been really serious about it as a main box, I'd have looked for advice such as you give about local login, but hey, this is quite nice as it logs me into Skype, Hotmail and the Apps Store automatically, just like a phone or tablet. This is the first evidence I've seen in a decade that MS is really trying to make our lives better. And I think that they've done a good job. :cool:
"Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?" - Oliver Heaviside
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You're correct you don't have to have a gmail account - it just enables you to access google's store and lots of other google features.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
So overall, exactly as Win 8 - you can avoid an MS account, but it will deny you access to some services unless you register for one. In fact I hate this model - having paid good money for hardware, it shouldn't be crippled without registering. Further, I shouldn't be prevented from accessing stores because I've had the temerity to tinker with my device. Imagine going to get a car serviced and they refused because you'd installed your own car radio. Or being refused service in a clothes shop becuase you'd sewn a patch onto the jacket you bought there.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
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- you don't have to login that way. you can use a local account if you want just like in Win7. they do push that option pretty strongly though, but you can avoid it. I use Win8.1 with only a local account and it works fine. 2) when you say "close an app" with Alt-F4 do you mean a windows store app? (new fullscreen apps). You can run all the same destop apps as before in Win7 which close normally. Once you find the desktop in Win8.1 its pretty much just like Win7 (minus having to deal with putting everything on the taskbar and/or adding in your own start menu of sorts with a toolbar. Despite them putting the start screen and new style apps front and center you can use Win8 without really even using those.
Or installing a third party utility that acts as a start menu - I use classic shell (although I avoid their explorer windows - as usual choose your install options carefully). Then you get to have your cake and eat it.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
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While my hooky 7 license is stuck in the wonderfully efficient Deustche-Post system, as it has been for a month, I bought Windows 8.1 for one of my redundant boxes at the weekend. I must say, apart from just two things, it is quite pleasant to use. The first thing is the need for a Hotmail account to log into my own computer; big brother, slightly moreso than Android and gmail, but not obtrusive. The second is that to shut an application I needed alt-F4, there didn't appear to be any controls, just differences in focus. There are many differences, but I find them interesting. Also, I was easily able to install Visual Studio 2008 and test it. Hello world etc work fine, with nice GUI integration. I like the built-in Skype, I like the app-style Facebook extra, I like the Android-style app shop(which also like Android, doesn't demand payment details unless you want to buy something). I like the way all and any hardware is integrated effortlessly, including wifi printing and scanning. I speak as someone who has been using Ubuntu exclusively at home for 4 years; MS has clearly done some Ubuntu/Linux homework and decided that good things a like seamless driver integration should be taken seriously, at last. And with the ecosystem control, they don't even nag about security anymore(although I installed Avast). For once, MS is being maligned for doing something actually good. :(
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:
The first thing is the need for a Hotmail account to log into my own computer; big brother, slightly moreso than Android and gmail, but not obtrusive.
That's not quite true. If you want to have your configuration backed up and be able to roam it, you need a Microsoft Account (formerly Live ID), which can use any email address (my MS account's email address is a gmail account, though I'm moving away from gmail at this point). And I know you can create accounts that are strictly local -- no need to sign in with your MS Account.
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Yeah, they pretty much force it upon you when setting up Windows 8. Probably because it's "for the conveniance of the user"... like if I'd want to type in a password each time I want to use a tablet... Oh and the best part? If you used your live login with 8.0 and changed it to a local user: the update to Windows 8.1 just changed it back to the live login... X|
Nicholas Marty wrote:
like if I'd want to type in a password each time I want to use a tablet
If you have a touch device, you can use a picture password instead. That's what I do on both of my Windows RT devices.
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What can I say? I didn't buy 8.1 because I want to imitate a twenty-year old window paradigm. I like 8.1. It's much better than 7, which is better than geriatric X Pee. Apart from my slight reservations, I like it better than desktop; desktop in Fedora Gnome 3 was rendered useless by insane security obsessiveness, desktop in Ubuntu is nice(2.5 Generation), 8.1 is a 3rd Generation GUI. I have to have a Windows machine for compatibility with work projects; the ability to get to the desktop was certainly nice when running VS2008 setup from explorer, but now it even has it's own tile, as do the individual LibreOffice applications I also installed. Obviously if I'd been really serious about it as a main box, I'd have looked for advice such as you give about local login, but hey, this is quite nice as it logs me into Skype, Hotmail and the Apps Store automatically, just like a phone or tablet. This is the first evidence I've seen in a decade that MS is really trying to make our lives better. And I think that they've done a good job. :cool:
"Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?" - Oliver Heaviside
yes, just trying to help and let you know of the options available to you. if you're new to Win8 it can appear that everything has been replaced with a whole new paradigm when in fact it hasn't. the new paradigm is there but the old one is too right beside it. depends on how you're using the machine of course. as a developer, I skip right past the start screen and store apps and it works just like (almost) Win7.
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Or installing a third party utility that acts as a start menu - I use classic shell (although I avoid their explorer windows - as usual choose your install options carefully). Then you get to have your cake and eat it.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough." Alan Kay.
yes, the addons do look nice. I haven't tried them yet, so far the custom toolbar + pinning stuff to the task bar has allowed me to pretty much completely avoid the start screen :)
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What can I say? I didn't buy 8.1 because I want to imitate a twenty-year old window paradigm. I like 8.1. It's much better than 7, which is better than geriatric X Pee. Apart from my slight reservations, I like it better than desktop; desktop in Fedora Gnome 3 was rendered useless by insane security obsessiveness, desktop in Ubuntu is nice(2.5 Generation), 8.1 is a 3rd Generation GUI. I have to have a Windows machine for compatibility with work projects; the ability to get to the desktop was certainly nice when running VS2008 setup from explorer, but now it even has it's own tile, as do the individual LibreOffice applications I also installed. Obviously if I'd been really serious about it as a main box, I'd have looked for advice such as you give about local login, but hey, this is quite nice as it logs me into Skype, Hotmail and the Apps Store automatically, just like a phone or tablet. This is the first evidence I've seen in a decade that MS is really trying to make our lives better. And I think that they've done a good job. :cool:
"Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?" - Oliver Heaviside
I'm pretty much with you on this one. The thing that impressed me the most was how much faaaaster 8 is compared to 7/XP (on the same spec h/w (I'm talking work desktops here). I just installed Classicshell to rid myself of the tile stuff as it's worthless in our environment. :)
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yes, just trying to help and let you know of the options available to you. if you're new to Win8 it can appear that everything has been replaced with a whole new paradigm when in fact it hasn't. the new paradigm is there but the old one is too right beside it. depends on how you're using the machine of course. as a developer, I skip right past the start screen and store apps and it works just like (almost) Win7.
Day three of 8.1 and I'm not quite so happy; browser and Skype unstable, failing, crashing. I applied updates manually and everything was happy though. I guess it is still Windows. Now Ubuntu would have updated at install time; and later on it would have informed me immediately if updates were available, without any of this 'Do not switch off' mullarky on power down. Kind of spoiled it for me. Yesterday I was chuffed, today not so much, it's just another wedge of cash sacrificed to the not-good-enough.Obviously as a dev, it now does everything I want, but as a 'consumer', definitely too much monkey business. :( Perhaps I'll regain my confidence in how shiny it is over the next couple of sessions. As for the start screen, I really love what it did to my Visual Studio, it broke out all the different programmes into tiles, so gone are the days of looking for Visual Studio Command Prompt, or GUIDGen etc.:thumbsup: