The verdict on Windows 8 is pretty much in: avoid it.
Personal, business and industrial judgements are in agreement that:
1. Windows 8 is for tablets and smartphones and is a dreadful, frustrating, experience on a desktop or laptop computer.
2. Windows 8 offers nothing of value over Windows 7. In fact, it takes away much of the functionality of Windows 7 (and XP). There is no need for it.
3. Microsoft is not going to listen to its customers and will continue to take Windows 8 in the direction of hand-held devices. Some consider this a suicide mission.
That leaves most of my clients with Windows XP or Windows 7.
The problem is that Windows XP is on the way out.
Microsoft will stop supporting it next April.
What that means is that you will no longer receive windows updates including security updates, and your computer could be wide-open to hackers.
From Microsoft’s own website, here are the announcements:
“Support for Windows XP is ending on April 8, 2014. If you’re running this version after support ends, you won’t get security updates for Windows.”
The fine print:
“An unsupported version of Windows will no longer receive software updates from Windows Update. These include security updates that can help protect your PC from harmful viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, which can steal your personal information. Windows Update also installs the latest software updates to improve the reliability of Windows—new drivers for your hardware and more.”
The other bad news about staying with XP will be your Internet experience. Websites will be slower to display and may appeared garbled. This will be especially true for people using Internet Explorer as their browser. The latest version that XP can use is version 8. Already, many websites look terrible or won’t load at all with this old version. Add to that increased difficulties in doing online transactions, from software downloads to banking to purchasing movies or music.
It will not be an enjoyable experience.
Microsoft’s solution: “Upgrade to Windows 8”
Very helpful, but we won’t be taking their help. Thanks anyway.
So, if you’ve recently been thinking of getting a new computer or are planning to get one within the next year, think about doing it now.
There are a couple of compelling reasons:
- Right now, laptops and desktops, are priced to sell. All computer manufacturers are in a sales slump (largely thanks to Windows 8) and it’s a buyer’s market.
- You can still get Windows 7 on a new computer. How long you will be able to do so is not certain.
So, unless you’re a Mac user or a dedicated tablet person, the clock is ticking.
