Windows 7 or 8?

[alberkhav]

I currently am using Vista on my PC. It's working fine, no complaints, except Vista doesn't support html 5, which I have a need for.
So, I'm thinking of upgrading, but aren't sure whether to get windows 7 or 8. I've heard quite bad things about 8 and it's interface, but I understand you can get software to restore the classic windows interface,
Any of you folks got thoughts on this?.
I use my PC for gaming, fractal generation and internet browsing at home. It's quite a high spec one.
Thanks

[horngeek]

Apparently, the 8 'classic' interface provided by Windows isn't the best. But there are 3rd party patches that give a better classic interface, and apart from the whole interface thing it's actually a good OS.

...so, whichever you can get more easily, I think.

[Flickerdart]

Windows 8 has a desktop mode that works pretty much like 7's, only with much faster boot times and general performance and tool stuff. The only thing it doesn't have is a start menu - bringing the mouse to the corner where the menu used to be (a great change, actually, since now the button doesn't take up space but you still know it's there) and clicking gives you the tiled not-Metro screen. I like it a lot better than 7's, because it has more room for stuff (if you navigate your start menu using icons) and the search is much faster (if you navigate your start menu by typing in the name of what you want).

99% of my usage (as in, everything that doesn't involve bringing up the start menu) is in desktop mode, which is virtually identical, in terms of interface, to what Windows 7 had.

Switching between desktop and not-Metro mode is trivial - in addition to good old-fashioned Alt+Tab and Win+Tab, you can also mouse to the top left corner to bring up a list of running not-Metro apps (of which desktop mode is one) or even run both modes at once, with desktop mode on one side and a not-Metro app on the other.

Any claims that Windows 8 is unusable stem from people looking at Windows RT (the tablet-only version with no legacy support) and not bothering to actually do research.

As for touch screens, you don't need one even if you use not-Metro mode a lot, and you definitely don't need one for desktop mode.

[Ashtagon]

Neither. XP. If I had to choose between 7 or 8, my first choice would be linux, followed by 7.

Also, there's no logical reason why vista shouldn't be able to do html 5. That's a web browser issue, not an operating system issue. It sounds like you're updating the wrong piece of software if that's your only problem.

[Aedilred]

Neither. XP. If I had to choose between 7 or 8, my first choice would be linux, followed by 7.

Also, there's no logical reason why vista shouldn't be able to do html 5. That's a web browser issue, not an operating system issue. It sounds like you're updating the wrong piece of software if that's your only problem.
I completely agree. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with 8, but I've seen nothing to make me want to get to know it any better. I can cope with 7, but much prefer XP. If I were somehow forced to use anything post-XP I'd seriously consider a switch to ubuntu and just use a Windows system for gaming.

Then again, if the OP gets on well with Vista, maybe 7 is the right OS for them, although I've yet to discover what it is that Vista and 7 do that XP doesn't (usually more satisfactorily). Given that I spent much of the last five years wishing for Vista to die in a fire, we're probably on different pages.

[factotum]

Guys, you know this is a spambot, right? Made the same mistake myself but deleted my post as soon as I realised.

[Flickerdart]

Guys, you know this is a spambot, right? Made the same mistake myself but deleted my post as soon as I realised.
I don't think you should discriminate against robo-Americans like that. For shame! :smallamused:

[Castaras]

Guys, you know this is a spambot, right? Made the same mistake myself but deleted my post as soon as I realised.

:smallconfused:


....they're getting good... :smalleek:

[Eldan]

They take a post from one forum and randomly post it on another forum.