Windows Blue shall be named Windows 8.1

Is it possible to run Ubuntu with a different Desktop Environment? Can't stand the current one.

 

If < 1 ohm.

Yes. You can modify Ubuntu or download:
http://xubuntu.org/
http://www.kubuntu.org/

Or get something less boring and some actually good stuff, like:
http://www.freebsd.org/

 

It better be free or I'm done with Windows in the future.
There just absolutely no way I will ever pay for service packs.

 

vocal minority? Have you seen the estimated sales and acceptance numbers? It is hardly a "minority".

 

This Windows 8.1 looks like a service pack to me.

 

It's Linux, so of course! Actually, Ubuntu comes with GNOME 2 (called GNOME Classic). It's pre-installed.

deltatux

 

Give Linux Mint a try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcetTJRTdB0

 

I watched that. 6 seconds to open Fire Fox? 9 seconds to open a simple word processing program? WTF?

 

I dont know what system he is running but with my desktop it opens way faster than that.

 

Even my old Eee PC takes between 2-3 seconds to open Firefox in Linux Mint.

 

If I could find a USB wifi adapter that works with Xubuntu 64bit, I could finally throw Windows in the trash for good.

 

Some (update enthusiasts) may notice there are fewer releases of hotfixes for Windows 8 than there are for Windows 7, taking into account the time that they have been out. In other words, Windows 7 had many more hotfixes at the same point after release as Windows 7. This is not because Windows 8 vastly superior to Windows 7, but because I believe they are saving the hotfixes for 'Windows 8.1'. The other consideration is that Windows 8 is just a big update for Windows 7 on a system level (UI not counting, it's true, don't argue!), so many of the issues are already fixed.

Visually speaking, and I'm not talking about Metro here, apparently Windows 8.1 will be even 'flatter' than Windows 8, gone are things like the non-aero transparent taskbar. Of course I think the UI direction is wrong as I voiced before, but I also believe the less graphically appealing UI is also the wrong direction. A simple interface can be beneficial on a tablet due to the screen size, but graphically neutered isn't a good thing either. They really need to have a pleasant UI on tablets/phones, and have a not-dissimilar but very pleasing UI on desktop.

Anyways, there had been suggestion that there will be a separate service pack for Windows 8, but that wouldn't make sense.

It would also be nice to have separate UAC for desktop and 'Modern' app use. To disable UAC properly in Windows 8 you have to change a specific registry entry, EnableLUA, from 1 to 0. Disabling it in the control panel does not disable UAC properly. Of course, the downside to this is you can't run 'Modern' apps (if you call that a downside, since they are quite inefficient) since you need UAC enabled to run them. This may be because Modern apps are less secure than 'proper' apps? who knows? But since if when you run 'Modern' apps and it says it can't run due to UAC being disabled, it should be easy to set it up so you can have say, full UAC on Metro apps and limited/disabled UAC for other apps. Of course, this would make sense, and going by the choices of Microsoft's design team, I don't see this 'common sense' change being likely.

 

Windows 7 Support lasts untill 2020, nothing to worry about untill then.