i'm back

[MakersDozn]

Glad you're back, mosaic.

When our 10-year-old PC, which ran on WinXP, bit the big one in June of this year, we had to buy a new PC. By default, it came with Windows 8, which we don't like but have gotten used to using. We really liked XP, but it will no longer be supported by Microsoft as of April 2014.

Our FOO has a PC with Vista. Vista is horrible, and we're glad that we never "upgraded" to it. We've only briefly used a PC with Windows 7, and our experience was generally positive, but we don't know enough to comment more than that.

Win 8.1 was made available as of October 17. We intend to upgrade to it because it supposedly returns some semblance of the Start button, which we definitely miss. MS greatly overestimated the relevance of the Metro (smartphone) interface to desktop and laptop users. A large number of users then rightly pointed out that desktop and laptop users need a fully-functioning, traditional interface rather than a mobile-style touchscreen. Microsoft needs to serve the needs of both customer segments, not just the one segment that's providing immediate revenue.

For those who aren't getting a new computer and don't want Win8, we'd recommend Win7, at least for the time being.

MDs