I've only had Windows 8 running for a few days so still "breaking it in". I did an upgrade from Win 7 Pro 64 bit - and pretty much everything works fine.
 
I've found that if anything *doesn't* work - just uninstall and then reinstall. I did this with Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 (metro tiles didn't work until I reinstalled) and my MOTU USB MIDI driver. Also I had to reinstall a printer driver for my Canon Printer (on my "non music" partition).
 
Other than that - everything seems to work fine, but I'll let you know if that's not the case.
EDIT: I stuck start8 on too. It's handy and only $5.00. It gives you your start menu back...

I didn't read the all 30 plus postings, but you need to consider the sound card drivers for win 8 as this effects Sonar's performance. You will need a sound card with good Win 8 drivers or your SOL

CJ

I played it safe and installed Win 8 Pro on another Hard Drive.  That was several weeks ago and have not booted to win 7 since then.  I had to search for lots of drivers and had to retire my Focusrite Saffire 24 DSP (no drivers) and purchase the Roland QUAD-CAPTURE but everything is 100% working.   Because I switched form the Saffire to the Quad-Capture, I cannot say if Windows 8 is the reason things work much better.  The octa-capture handles both Sonar and Windows audio/sounds without any gliches.  I never turn off networking (wired) and have no problems.  Generally I can work with the 48 samples buffer - around 6.5ms roundtrip latency.   Also I can run those metro apps and they never seem to get in the way ---- I guess because they are in a standby mode when the desktop / Sonar is active.  I hope my experience is not the exception.    

firefly9000


Anybody read this: http://news.yahoo.com/win...nielsen-174300612.html

Doesn't bode well. I only played with the system in stores and at a friend's house. Speaking only for myself, I would have to do a lot of changes to bring it closer to what I'm used to working. I'm not exactly a computer noob, but I have to say that I hate when I buy something only to have to spend time tweaking it as soon as I take it out of the box.

Others on this thread seem to love it. I wonder if this isn't just a result of trying to see the glass half full on a product that they have bought and now have to deal with... sort of the way there were a lot of Vista champions when it first came out.

That sounds authoritative and well done yet how is it that his results are so different from my own?  I think the answer is in the text where he says "Windows 7 fixed problems with Vista". Not exactly unbiased.  True that Windows 7 was an improvement over Vista but fixed problems? I wonder how much he really knows about OSs. 

As far as tweaking goes I think we all engage in it to a lesser or greater extent in order for the OS to feel more like our own.  Windows 8 is very tweakable.  Keep in mind I didn't need to go very deep to have it my way.  

Here is a very different take on Windows 8.

First the start menu is there. Its called Start.  It can be customized and it works well. You don't need the old start button.  I have Classic Shell yet I find it not as needed as I thought. 

Because something is new or different doesn't mean its worst automatically. It might be a better way. 

John


First the start menu is there. Its called Start.  It can be customized and it works well. You don't need the old start button.  I have Classic Shell yet I find it not as needed as I thought. 

Because something is new or different doesn't mean its worst automatically. It might be a better way. 

Hey John,
 
So what you're saying is: the "steering wheel" IS there, it's just that it's thrown somewhere in the trunk and you have to find and put it back on :) ... Either that or use the SQUARE steering wheel they provide out of the box...  lol
 
On a serious note - I agree, new is not bad and as I've stated my only Win 8 experience has been limited. I've also had a Windows phone, that introduced me to the whole sliding tile feature, that I thought would be great upon purchase, but found to be annoying and uncomfortable after a while. But that's just me, to others the tile concept may be heaven.
 
Still, the point stands - Win 8 is geared (out of the box anyway) towards the touch screen tablet market... isn't it? Just seems to me like it's a tool that tries to straddle the PC/tablet market therby needing adjustment because it really can't do both (either IT to you or you to IT).
 
At the end of the day, I hate to say this, but an OS has to feel comfortable and attractive to you. For me this would mean a lean and fast OS (I hear 8 is like that) but also one I feel comfortable with (for me 8 does not have that).
 
Sort of like how all clothes can serve the function of covering you and keeping you warm, but you still go shopping for something you like and you think suits you and your needs.
 
To show you how much I wanted 8 to work for me, I'll tell you this: I actually seriously considered adding a touch screen monitor to my setup to touch-screen my way through Sonar and other programs I have. Unles you have a stylus though, it's NOT very precise... and also, the whole touchscreen thingy becomes cumbersone as you have to move it (the screen) to certain close positions in order to have access to touch it comfortably.

I agree with John in that I find the Start screen works fine although it takes some getting used to on a non touchscreen device. To me, on a touch-screen, Win8 really starts to come into its own. It's still nice that people can put it back to Win7 familiarity relatively easily though and get the start back.

FWIW: I don't agree with Jakob Nielsen at all. :-) Nor the methodology. Sticking some newbs in front of an OS and judging its "usability" based on an initial learning curve is only getting at one aspect of the OS and ignores its long-term usability and performance for a user who is past the learning curve and using it day to day for productivity. In other words,  learning curves can pay off in the long run.

I have been using sonar 8 with Windows 8 since November 3rd.
I am quite happy I upgraded from XP 32bit to Windows 8 64bit.
Anyone would be. Luckily my audio interface (Echo GINA 3G) had drivers for Windows 7 that work fine on Windows 8.
Could be the new Samsung SSD, but Sonar is faster and more stable than ever before.

I have quickly learned to really like Win 8.

There is a small learning/cursing curve, but it is really a slick implementation and well positioned for lots of devices out there.

I am in the process now of re-installing all of my software, as I forced a clean boot on purpose.

Bob Bone

How about just typing the name. It brings up search instantly with the program before you have a chance to finish typing.

 
John not to quibble but this is available in the Win 7 start menu. Many users don't use it because it is unusual to them.
 
I do agree with the assessment that just because a given user doesn't understand the new methodology (I dislike 'paradigm') that does not make it bad. It makes it unfamiliar. I vaguely recall sitting at a DOS prompt trying to understand the syntax of the Copy command...the whole <source>, <destination> really threw me for a loop.
 
Regards,

From a post I did at kvr but same holds true here - 

 
Just 2 more cents but... I re-animated an old Q9450 desktop recently by downloading the $40 win8 pro upgrade. Yeah, it's a little different and I really have no use for Metro but beyond that it was a good deal for $40 ($30 at a few place on Black Friday I see). No real issues at all... loaded up my old apps after a clean install and everything just seems to work. The new features included in the Pro version are nice too. Definitely a "to each their own" deal but for me not bad (and definitely worth it for $30 on Black Friday).

John



There are some things that MS could do to improve win 8 but as a first release its a winner. I think we need to be very careful what quotes we listen to about it. I do remember the Apple campaign to discredit Vista. Don't let that happen again. See if there is a motive for someone bashing it. It may not be apparent but look into their funding. 

John,
 
Sooner or later I'll have to give 8 a try. I'm dreading the whole installation thinggy but what can you do.
 
BUT I will say this about Vista - that system was a piece of doo doo as far as I am concerned. Had experience with 3 laptops (mine and 2 friends) and 2 desktops (mine - custom built & my counsin's HP) - I was the tech guy for all.
 
I know there will be some guys out there that will say something like 'Vista works GREAT for me' and that may certainly be the case... but I know far too many people complaining about Vista.
 
Even though I hate their snobby, whollier than thou attitude, you have to give it up to Apple... you just turn on their stuff and it works. I'm sure that somewhere you can dig up a problem even with Apple - but compared to Vista, their OS at that time rocked.
 
So when you say 'campaign to discredit Vista', its really that Microsoft dropped the ball and Apple swooped in to capitalize on that mistake. I'm sure that if Apple put out a POS OS, MS would be all over it trying to captialize... assuming that MS didn't put out a piece of crap of their own.
 
And this is coming from a long time Apple hater - not the products but the company policies such as outsourcing to China's suicide factories etc...
 
Even installing Win7 on my MacPro 12 core was made easy peasy by Apple - you have a program that goes to the Apple website and dl all drivers needed for Win opperation and writes them automatically on a cd and you pop it in after win install. So even when they drop you off in 'Windows Land', Apple still takes care of you - NO sitting around trying to figure out drivers and system setting!
 
Sorry for going off topic, but Vista was acknowledged as a failure even by MS. 
 
Don't take this the wrong way, because it's not meant to be confruntative but when you say "I think we need to be very careful what quotes we listen to about it. I do remember the Apple campaign to discredit Vista. Don't let that happen again." it sounds like you are an MS fanboy... which is fine, but it's not quite unbiassed.
 
It's like Jets or Mets fans here in NY - they haven't won anything in a LOOOONG time, but God forbid you should say something about their team because they'll come to you with a vengeance with all kinds of obscure facts and articles to document how you and the whole world is wrong
 
When people say that Vista (bloatware) was good..... and then say Win8 (which is lean & mean by all acounts - thank God) is good - it kind of makes you think that MS could put out a toothpick & a rubberband and they would STILL say that it's a fantastic OS.
 
As much as I like MS (when they get things right) I'm not going to drink the kool-aid when they put out crap... but that's just me.
 

In my experience, the initial Vista release was sketchy, definitely not good for audio, and I ran into driver problems. I kept it on a separate drive and continued to use XP. By Service Pack 2, Vista was actually very good. MS nailed it, to the point where there wasn't that much of a difference going to Win7. I thought moving to Win8 might be the same situation for me as the initial Vista release, where I'd end up booting to Win7 for a while, but it's actually been fine. No driver or application problems for me, performance is good, and the whole Start Menu thing has been a non-issue for me once I figured out how things are set up. Pretty easy transition.

Mike, right, that's the way it works. And you can switch between Metro and the Desktop just by hitting the Windows key on your keyboard.

Thanks StepD!

Regards,