Tablet revolution

[phongn]

Possibly a slow and cheap hard drive. A lot of laptop companies skimp on them. Turning off the eye candy almost certainly will not make a difference on any reasonably recent machine.

[Tolya]

That's actually the first positive feedback I've heard about Win8. I find it to be such a disaster, but I knew there had got to be a degree of unfamiliarity playing into it.

What do you like the most about it? Maybe I can try to sell her on some of those features. It also feels really slow so if you have any optimization hints I'd be greatly desirous to hear them.

I am with this one. Win8 is faster and lighter than Windows 7. If you install a start menu mod like Start8 or ClassicShell you will hardly notice a difference between Win7. There are some specific compatibility problems, but the common user who does not want to play old games or use old programs will not notice them, regardless of what the internet whines about. I can explain more on the compatibility issues if you are interested.

[Wing Commander MAD]

I wouldn't mind hearing about the compatibility issues if you've got the time. IIRC older games using DirectDraw tend to have issues with Windows 8/8.1.

[White Haven]

My experience at the shop has been that, under the hood, 8/8.1 are pretty solid. They're burdened with a hilariously klutzy UI for non-touch systems, highlighting how desperate MS is to parley their PC dominance into the mobile market, and the 8.1 update installer has about a million different ways to fail. Once you're on 8.1, it's fine, but the update itself fails waaaay too often.

[Enigma]

For me the update to 8.1 from 8 was seamless.

The one thing that I really don't like about 8/8.1 is having to have a Microsoft account. Why do I want MS to have my computer's password tied to their online account? I'd rather have an administrator account with a password that only I know.

[Malagar]

For me the update to 8.1 from 8 was seamless.

The one thing that I really don't like about 8/8.1 is having to have a Microsoft account. Why do I want MS to have my computer's password tied to their online account? I'd rather have an administrator account with a password that only I know.

It is possible to avoid that, just give it an incorrect email/password.
And yes the fact that you have to use a workaround like that is quite annoying.

[Enigma]

The thing is that if you want to download any Metro app from MS you need a Microsoft account. That ties in directly to your computer's account.

[Malagar]

The thing is that if you want to download any Metro app from MS you need a Microsoft account. That ties in directly to your computer's account.

Possible, haven't tried that.
Don't like the apps that came pre installed and the way apps work seem far inferior to traditional programs.

[Xisiqomelir]

I have an iPad 4, a ThinkPad T420s and my newest desktop, a 4670K I built in August.

I spend most of my time on the desktop, mainly because it's simply more functional. The laptop gets used for short 2-day trips or if I go out for coffee. I use the iPad strictly in bed just before sleeping or for when I feel a massive crap coming on.

[Sharp-kun]

For me the update to 8.1 from 8 was seamless.

The one thing that I really don't like about 8/8.1 is having to have a Microsoft account. Why do I want MS to have my computer's password tied to their online account? I'd rather have an administrator account with a password that only I know.

Since I don't use any apps I just turned it off. The MS account is optional.

[Tolya]

You can create a local account. And frankly, I wish more of the system settings would get tied into the cloud account. It is very convenient when reinstalling the system to just synchronize using the online account.

Also, passwords that are stored on servers are not visible even to server administrators, so I wouldn't worry about that.

[salm]

My job requires a fast PC so obviously I can not exchange that for a tablet.

I bought a tablet two years ago and it has so far pretty much replaced my lap top, though. I use it mainly for short internet browsing like opening recipies while cooking, reading the news and as an ebook reader. It´s also useful for entertainment during long train rides and navigation device in the car.

For longer research on the internet, though, like finding the chapest flights to somewhere or anything that requires inputting lots of data into online forms i find the tablet to be nearly unusable.
I´m not 100% sure what it is but I think it´s a mix of Android being a piece of shit and websites not being optimised for android and/or mobile devices.
Some sites will forward you to their mobile sites which will contain less information or will have a horrible layout. If you go to the non mobile versions half of the features will not work at all or be painstakingly annoying to use. Forms will not work properly, drop down menues will fuck up, check boxes won´t check and so on. Even the google page has some glitches with my device.
My tablet is a two year old Samsung Galaxy Tab with Android 4.0.4 Jelly Bean, so perhaps it´s just that the hard and sofware is old crap but other people report similar annoyances.

[InsaneTD]

I used to have some of those same problems on my phone until I updated the firmware. Did make it a lot better for some stuff. Worse for others.

[Simon_Jester]

Unfortunately, when you DO encounter something optimized for a tablet, it's usually grossly suboptimal on a traditional computer...

[salm]

I used to have some of those same problems on my phone until I updated the firmware. Did make it a lot better for some stuff. Worse for others.

Yeah, i try to keep it as updated as possible but I wasn´t able to update it past Android 4.0.4 as far as I know.

[aerius]

The only thing I might possibly use a tablet for is browsing the 'net while I'm on the crapper.

Everything else I do requires a proper keyboard & pointing device, typing blows goats on tablets and touchscreens don't have enough precision. Tablets to me are media consumption devices, they're fine for viewing photos, video, or text, and that's about it. If I actually need to produce something they're horribly inefficient at best, typing on the damn things is hard enough, running spreadsheets or CAD programs is pretty much out of the question.

[Edi]

It's an ASUS laptop, so I assume the hardware is what is making it slow. I'm happy to hear it's normally faster, but annoyed that the origin of the problem is a relatively difficult to fix hardware sluggishness.

Since it is a laptop I can't exactly crack the thing open to see how it has been wired up, so I'm going to assume there's manufacturer garbage running in the background that I need to purge. A lot of these store-bought rigs seem to be bloated down with crap that comes 'as default' from the assemblers. I've already disabled most of the aesthetic features for her--your feedback does help me narrow my focus.

Never used Win7 so I cannot tell what improvements they've done overall, but Win8 hasn't seemed like a drastic improvement YET. I presume most of it is in the background, and that's getting missed by me because either the specs are bad (slow ram, big numbers?) or because of bloatware.

Windows 8 as an OEM install is (apart from a few Lenovos I've seen), complete shit. The problem is that they tend to be absolutely fucking loaded with completely useless bullshit that runs in the background. So the first thing you would need to do is take an axe to all the extraneous crap you don't use. It's there, trust me. No different from OEM XP, Vista or Win7 in this regard. If you did a fresh install without any extras, just the OS and drivers, you would probably see a marked improvement in how it runs.

Even the couple of Lenovo laptops I've dealt with were annoying as fuck until I wrestled them into submission and installed all the programs and preferences so that everything runs in the desktop environment. The one I did the most work on was my uncle's machine, since he upgraded from a 2004 vintage laptop that has problems even running Puppy Linux never mind the XP it was saddled with.

Once you take the time and put in the effort to actually tinker with the programs to use on a Win8.1, it's decent to use. The amount of work required to really get there is well above the capabilities of the average user, though.

[Zaune]

You know, I guess that's one thing laptops do quite definitely have over tablets, or at least the cheap Android ones; if you haven't got the time or the patience to get rid of all that crap with Add/Remove Programs, you can drop in an install CD or a thumb drive and start afresh.