Windows 8.1 was released for download last Thursday. Of course I installed it on all of my computers. No real issues.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t provide any kind of install image or ISO for 8.1. So if I ever need to reinstall (which of course I will), I will need to install 8.0 again and then download the 8.1 all over again. That doesn’t sit well with me and probably a million other people who have a strong preference for a fresh virgin install.
There are some nice new features. I had a hack in the form of a shortcut that would take me directly to the all-app screen in Windows 8. No longer needed. Windows 8.1 has a setting that will give you the all-app screen in place of the regular start screen by default. And there is a setting that lets you shove all those useless “modern” apps to the end of the list. Yay!
I would have preferred a configuration option that would eliminate any possibility of seeing a “modern” app anywhere for any reason. But I guess that is too much to ask. Although I do hear that the modern apps have been enhanced to the point where one might actually consider using them for real things. I still don’t know why I’d want to. I like my desktop apps. That might possibly be why I run a desktop operating system! Ya think?
My wife is going out of town. And since I wanted to install Windows 8.1 on my laptop SSD, I pulled my Linux hard drive out of my laptop and put my Windows SSD back in. Then I upgraded it to 8.1. I did end up having an issue where I had to reformat. Only because of my lack of patience. I had a ghost printer that I could not delete. And problems with several versions of the same printer. They were grayed out, but would not let me delete them. After googling and trying some different things I decided a fresh install was in order. No problem.
In my playing around with Linux I recently came to a bit of a conclusion. Windows is a far more capable operating system. Not because it’s actually better, but because it has all the third-party support. Things just work. And while that’s true when comparing it to Linux, it’s also somewhat true when comparing it to Mac OS X. Although you’ll have a hard time getting Mac folks to admit that.