POLL:Windows 8 speculations....

[Ishi]

In response to Windows2000 support ends on July thread , I would like to know if you people have found any info about Windows 8 which could be released on 2012 although we can't really be sure if that is how they will name it. What do you think is it gonna be like??? What were the specs and rumors have you heard of it based from your personal account??? And what do you expect, what do you want from this future operating system.

[CTskifreak]

Personally I hope it's going to be 64 bit only. With that in place, hopefully they can do some serious improvements on it that we haven't even thought of. I heard of a rumor of it possibly being 128 bit, but there's really no need, considering people haven't hit the 64 bit RAM limit, and won't for some time.

 

AJ

[Ishi]

32 bit seems enough. 64 bit has more system requirements for me.

 

I want an operating system with self healing properties.

[Andavari]

I always look at the Windows news they post on Softpedia here:

http://win.softpedia.com/

 

Just input Windows 8 into their search box and there's many articles.

[MikeW]

Whatever they call it, the result will probably be just as crappy as vista, and the renamed vista = windows 7

 

Long live XP

[Ymaster587]

Whatever they call it, the result will probably be just as crappy as vista, and the renamed vista = windows 7

 

Long live XP

 

Yeesh. People are still running that thing?

[marmite]

Yeesh. People are still running that thing?

Until W7 came out, it amazed me that some people weren't running it.

[Ishi]

Whatever they call it, the result will probably be just as crappy as vista, and the renamed vista = windows 7

 

Long live XP

Well Windows XP's support will end quite soon just as support for Windows2000 will on July. Windows 7, given the right hardware is much better than Vista and Windows XP because of newer features not available in those earlier OSs.

 

XP is old but not useless but things have to move on and so does technology.

[fireryone]

vista = windows 7

 

Long live XP

 

Don't compare vista to win7 as if they were equal.

And yes XP was awesome and still is for (now) older machines, but if your getting a new system get 7.

[marmite]

Well Windows XP's support will end quite soon ...

Windows XP SP3 has a while to go yet, I would hope.

[Ishi]

Here is a link about Windows 8.

 

http://windows8news.com/

 

I really wish for some self healing abilities above all.

 

If I am to be given a change to choose an idea for the user interface, I would like to have a virtually good desktop, with the opened windows floating on the desktop that you can span in a touch screen monitor and you can switch to another opened window just by touching or clicking them but of course you have the ability to disable this if its consuming too much memory.

[marmite]

I haven't upgraded to Windows 7 yet ... I couldn't give a monkey's about W8

 

Anyway ... computer heal thyself ...

 

I really wish for some self healing abilities above all.

What do you mean exactly?

[Ishi]

Anyway ... computer heal thyself ...

 

 

What do you mean exactly?

I want something in it that would prevent it from crashing. I know that in order to do that, you need to do maintenance tasks like what we often discuss but maybe something like "invalid registry entries be fixed or deleted automatically as they are thought to make the PC crash" and you know, automatically repair things that went wrong and notify you if there is anything wrong detected. We know that if registry cleaners deleted something important in the registry, things go bad but if the registry will automatically rid of errors and invalid entries, this can be prevented better especially for inexperienced users.

 

Better maintenance and repair overall so you won't have to format the computer as often as it is now if something went wrong. Cause if you don't have the CD, you are doomed!!!! Here is one blogger who listed his top ten list of what he would want from Windows 8 and you better look of what's number 9 in his list...

 

 

http://windows8news.com/2009/11/14/ten-ite...ows-8-wishlist/

[marmite]

I want something in it that would prevent it from crashing. I know that in order to do that, you need to do maintenance tasks like what we often discuss but maybe something like "invalid registry entries be fixed or deleted automatically as they are thought to make the PC crash" and you know, automatically repair things that went wrong and notify you if there is anything wrong detected. We know that if registry cleaners deleted something important in the registry, things go bad but if the registry will automatically rid of errors and invalid entries, this can be prevented better especially for inexperienced users.

 

Better maintenance and repair overall so you won't have to format the computer as often as it is now if something went wrong. Cause if you don't have the CD, you are doomed!!!!

Personally this isn't high on my list, although I do think there could be more things built into the OS to ensure the integrity of registry and systems settings go.

 

I think many problems are caused by badly written software and by user inexperience. It's difficult to mitigate against that. If I see a BSOD (and I don't very often) it's usually because of something daft that I've done. I've never been 'forced' to reformat / reinstall an OS, professionally or personally. But obviously these things do happen, and there does need to be a way of either reducing the risk of this happening, of providing better recovery mechanisms so that users (and as you say Ishi, particularly inexperienced ones) can restore them systems quickly and easily.

 

I'd rather see built-in software that returns the PC to a fixed state, like roll back software (e.g. RollBack Rx) or virtual machine environments (e.g. VMWare). Disk space costs peanuts these days and I think there should be better built-in recovery mechanisms that allow you to maintain up-to-date system images.

 

You're not doomed without an OS CD if you have appropriate back-ups!

[Ishi]

I'd rather see built-in software that returns the PC to a fixed state, like roll back software (e.g. RollBack Rx) or virtual machine environments (e.g. VMWare). Disk space costs peanuts these days and I think there should be better built-in recovery mechanisms that allow you to maintain up-to-date system images.

 

You're not doomed without an OS CD if you have appropriate back-ups!

I believe that a portion of this what you are saying is already implemented on Windows 7. Its called system image. This is done without the aid of any third party programs like Macricum, that some people here especially Andavari would recommend.

 

 

 

You can also create a system repair disk on Windows 7 that will provide recovery options if your computer won't start for instance.

 

The weakness of these backup methods is that they rely on removable media. Although a system image can be saved in a separate partition, if the physical hard drive itself becomes damaged, the system image will be useless unless of course the system image was saved on a separate removable external hard drive or another internal drive besides the one that broke.

 

My backup technique is that I always save a copy of an important file on a USB and some are even stored in my Windowslive Skydrive account. I also decided to create a system repair disk. But yes, there are lots of users not considering doing backups.

 

Windows 7 has done great on backup and restore although its never perfect but mind that backups stored on the same physical drive will be useless if that physical hard drive itself it damaged and become unusable.

 

I wanted something that would make the PC almost self sufficient.

[Ishi]

Lets say you don't have the Windows CD. Even if you had backups, where would you restore those backups cause you need to reinstall the OS itself but how the heck are you gonna do that without the CD???

 

You are still doomed because your computer is unusable without the reinstalling the OS with the Windows CD....

 

In short, your PC is inoperable.

[marmite]

You are still doomed because your computer is unusable without the reinstalling the OS with the Windows CD....

 

In short, your PC is inoperable.

Eh? This is straying off-topic, but to address your comments ...

 

I can restore my system partition (in fact the entire disk) with a USB stick and an external hard-drive containing back-ups.

 

Or, if the disk is still good, I can restore my system partition with a USB stick and a system partition image from my back-up partition.

 

Edited to add: one of the pieces of software on my USB stick being an ISO image of the Macrium recovery disk.

[marmite]

I believe that a portion of this what you are saying is already implemented on Windows 7. Its called system image. This is done without the aid of any third party programs like Macricum.

I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think that even the W7 image is a full system partition copy. Anyone confirm that?

 

The weakness of these backup methods is that they rely on removable media. Although a system image can be saved in a separate partition, if the physical hard drive itself becomes damaged, the system image will be useless unless of course the system image was saved on a separate removable external hard drive or another internal drive besides the one that broke.

They don't _rely_ on removable media. As you say yourself you can have an external copy or a copy on the internal drive. I have a Macrium system image on a separate partition as well as on an external drive - so I'm covered either way. Even if I lose the drive I still don't need the Windows CD and I can just restore onto a new drive.

 

I wanted something that would make the PC almost self sufficient.

I agree Ishi - all that I'm saying is that a computer can only look after itself to a certain degree - you still need some of the old fashioned methods as well, to get the best 'disaster recovery' What I would like to see are better built-in recovery mechanisms so that inexperienced users have a one-click option to get their entire system back to a usable state.

[ident]

It will have an ms-dos theme

[Ishi]

Well Marmite, its better that they put both this 'disaster recovery' options for advanced users and the self fixing and maintaining system for inexperienced and intermediate users. Windows 7 has a great improvement for backup and restore and certainly more would be better.

 

My other idea is like an improved desktop with the windows of opened programs floating in the virtual desktop that should be quick to access with touch screen monitors.

[CTskifreak]

32 bit is old news... 64 bit is here and should be the only bit version of it. 4 gigs of RAM is too little for the majority of power users, and the system requirements aren't different because the majority of newer processors are already compatible. Microsoft has the power to force manufactures to update their programs because Windows is the market leader. 64 bit is here, and should be the standard for 8.

 

AJ