http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/09/30/microsoft-windows/16474073/
 
Which is why 9 will be free I suppose. :P

Though I certainly understand their motivation, I'm wary of any attempt to make an OS cross platform friendly.
 
Desktops have different UI requirements than tablets, which are different from phones. For simple applications it's fine, but for anything remotely sophisticated, it's frustrating to use a big, dumbed-down touch interface when you have a mouse and keyboard. This is of course the main reason why Win8 got such a negative response - even though it was easily remedied by Classic Shell.

that was exactly my first thought when I saw the news, and this was the first place I came to with the same intent as you- and
you beat me to it

that was exactly my first thought when I saw the news, and this was the first place I came to with the same intent as you- and
you beat me to it

An issue peripheral to this.
 
Win 8 starts fast on my PC, have done personalization setups to get to the desktop fast. No problem there. It was just getting used to another way of getting things done.
 
Use Classic Shell to get the XP type organization. Mainly transparent, I think.
 
http://www.classicshell.net/
 
My problem is not getting win 8.1 to recognize anything but the Realtek or whatever internal sound card on the Dell. Can't get a Presonus external box recognized since it won't accept the drivers. All my dinosaur but vital useful Goldwave or Audition editors etc can't record anything. Audition 3 immediately crashes. Ver 1.5 at least opens but won't record.
 
The one software that records rock solid for me is Audacity. The guys explained to me in detail why it works when other programs are doomed to fail in win 8, but forgot most of what the reason was.
 
Audacity has released a recent upgrade, ver 2.0.6. Never had paid much attention to it until was forced to use it with win 8. Has progressed over the years into quite a powerful and full featured program. Open source and free.
 
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
 
John
 
(edit)  The new version of Classic Shell is solid. Just installed ver 4.1.0. Minor aesthetic point as the program hilights recently installed programs by default. Here's the fix if it bothers:
 
http://www.classicshell.n...pic.php?f=7&t=1566
 
 

Windoes 10 out late 2015. Nothing to see move on..

I bet it wont be free.

lawp
Free or not it'll come with an extra free window http://gizmodo.com/window...est-operati-1640805626

Thanks for that link lawp!
 
I can see why MS wants one OS for everything. MS has been trying to integrate all devices together ever since I started reading about MS! This has been their goal all along.
 
If they can pull it off correctly, then it would be much easier for developers to produce apps for the OS that could be used everywhere. Once that becomes easier, then the apps will start to multiply over and over.
 
Think of this: CW puts out Sonar that can be used on a desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, watch. Sonar would know what device it's on, and set itself with features that are specific to that device. With my watch I can press a button and start recording, IOW use it as a remote. And so on. You could see where this goes.
 
I know this exists somewhat now, but with improvements to the OS it could really be phenomenal!

The last time I bought a laptop I learned that  I didn't get a license key for Win8. My laptop's motherboard owns a license for Win8. I'm just lucky to get to sit next to it.
 
 I ended up running Win7 on it.

mike_mccue
The last time I bought a laptop I learned that  I didn't get a license key for Win8. My laptop's motherboard owns a license for Win8. I'm just lucky to get to sit next to it.
 
 I ended up running Win7 on it.

Yep. That's one of those things I am not liking about SW Lic in general. My use of it.
 
[edit] Or should have said, "My Restricted use of what I bought."