windows 8.1

Win 8 and Win 8.1 work perfectly well on a standard computer. I have have used them both on my laptop for many, many months. I have also tried them using a Surface with keyboard and touch screen and I found that it is still easier to use the touch pad which is just millimeters away from my fingers than it was to reach out and touch the screen that was inches away. If I disconnected the Surface from the keyboard the touch screen works quite well.
You just need to know how you want to use you computer and make your decisions based on that. Not one single person here can tell anyone else what is right for them.

I'd install 8.1 if I were in your boat.

Personally,I will wait until I get a machine with a touch screen-kinda afraid of 8...and 8.1...guessing that it'll be 8.3 or 8.4 by the time I jump in this summer-I do like the idea that I'll be able to upgrade my laptops as well so I can continue to work in a single environment. ;)

I did't want to give up NETSCAPE! I waited at least a year for a new computer just because I struggled to accept having to go the MS...

I found that Win 8.1 was a worthwhile upgrade from 8 for the additional flexibility, but it still came up a bit short of what I wanted. Now I've added "Classic Shell" to the mix, and I'm feeling a bit better about it. My "daily driver" is still my PCLinuxOS box though.

Interesting to see how different people have different points of view. I installed Win 8.1 and uninstalled Classic Shell. I could not find anything "that I used" that made Classic Shell a superior choice to 8.1.
Please don't misinterpret that as a disagreement or argument, just my personal observation of the way I personally use the service.

The nice thing about 8 and 8.1 are Metro apps. They run in a jailed context, similar to iPhone apps, and MS is meticulous about what goes onto their store, and they will pull anything dodgy, so if one needs a utility for a limited purpose, they may come in handy.

I have to wonder why the stand alone monitors are not being made with touch screen capability. All I have seen for touchscreen Win PCs are laptops or all in one computer/monitor units. If touchscreen is the way of the future as MS would like it to be, why aren't the monitor companies jumping on board?

rvten wrote:

dbbls wrote:
I don't see the problem we win 8. There is a learning period just like anything new.

X2
W 8.1 even better

x3 but you can't teach some old dogs new tricks. :)
bumpy

Well, I certainly hope 'touch screen' is NOT the wave of the future. WHo wants to reach out across the keyboard all the time and put a buncha oils and fingerprints all over the screen?

Keyboard and mouse will always be the most effective method, right there in front of you. I can't imagine typing twenty-five or thirty pages one touch at a time on a vertical screen a foot away. Let alone a hundred pages of a tech manual.

monkey44 wrote:
Well, I certainly hope 'touch screen' is NOT the wave of the future. WHo wants to reach out across the keyboard all the time and put a buncha oils and fingerprints all over the screen?

Keyboard and mouse will always be the most effective method, right there in front of you. I can't imagine typing twenty-five or thirty pages one touch at a time on a vertical screen a foot away. Let alone a hundred pages of a tech manual.

I Totally agree with you. Keyboarding, as they now call it, is still the most efficient way to enter data, in my opinion. Touch screen is fine for small devices like phones, ipods, and the like but keyboards are still going to be around.

With speech to text getting strong, the days of text forums like these and keyboards in general ARE numbered (a decade, I'd guess).

Sound proof cubicles may be needed in some offices.