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Windows 8.1 Rolls Out Today

Posted by timothy on from the improvements-abound dept.

The newest iteration of Windows has begun rolling out, and is winning positive reviews. (Here's an in-depth review from Ars, and a more concise one from Wired — both give 8.1 a thumbs-up). Kelerei wrote with the above-linked TechDirt article on the release, noting that it is a staged rollout rather than global. Starting this morning, though, 8.1 is available to some customers. Kelerei writes: "The upgrade is optional (and free) for existing Windows 8 users, though if one looks at the changes, it's hard to imagine why those already on it wouldn't upgrade." Also at Slash BI.

4 of 398 comments (clear)

  1. Re:DO NOT WANT by xianzombie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Somewhat sadly, after a HD failure, we loaded up Ubuntu on the wife's laptop. While it did everything she needed, she really just didn't like it, and things like Skype just didn't play nice. (Which was sad, as I was working out of town for about a month and wanted to see her and the kid).

    That said, once it gave up the ghost, we picked her up a replacement laptop with Win8. She wouldn't let me tweak it, but somehow she can handle the default Win8 with Metro better than Linux with KDE, Gnome, or XFCE. *shrug*

  2. Not much improvement; drawbacks continue by jkrise · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. No improvement in user interface. Touch sucks on the desktop and Microsoft knows it. A Start button without a Start Menu is useless.

    2. Metro style apps are very painful to deploy in the Enterprise; even for those with Subscription (Dis)Advantage.

    3. Still not immune from viruses and worms - needs continuous stream of patches; customer remains at the mercy of Microsoft; like the forced ditching of XP which works perfectly fine.

    4. Many existing licensed software such as SQLE are not supported in 8 series; so all that money is wasted expenditure.

    5. Still no native support in the OS for cameras; SIM cards, etc. even Android is better in that respect despite being minuscule in size compared to 8.1.

    The list of drawbacks continue; nothing to write home about; despite these paid shill reviews.

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    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
  3. Re:Meh by zixxt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's quite silly. Considering this brings back the missing features that everyone was missing like a start button and boot to desktop. This puts it on par and better in many ways than Windows 7.

    The start button does not doing anything useful. And its still missing the Start Menu, and I very much prefer Aero over the ugly flatness of Windows 8 metro interface.

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  4. Re:You'll pry Windows 95 from my cold dead hands! by operagost · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When Windows 8 came out, I thought about all the effort they put in since Windows 95 to have as few items on the desktop as possible. So, yes, it's like they went back to Windows 3.x Program Manager, having icons scattered all over.

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    Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.