Windows 8 Touch-Screen Laptop Price Cuts Coming

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DigiTimes, citing the usual anonymous sources, claims that Microsoft will be lowering licensing costs for OEMs in the near future and offering discounted or free software as well.

Microsoft will lower OEM licensing costs by offering a discount of US$20 for 11.6-inch and below notebooks that are equipped with touch screens, according to Taiwan-based vendors and ODMs. For below 10.8-inch notebooks, tablets and hybrids, Microsoft will offer the US$20 discount plus free Office 2013 software, the sources indicated. OEM licensing rates for Windows 8 Pro stand at US$80-90 currently, the sources noted.
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Why would you need to do this for a totally bad ass operating system that is selling very well?

Oh wait ...
 
It'd be free to simply give users the option to turn off Metro. Just sayin'...
 
pxc said:
It'd be free to simply give users the option to turn off Metro. Just sayin'...
Click to expand...

Imagine the bath they are going to take so they won't be 'bullied' by their customers. That's a company with a future.
 
Microsoft saw the light? They stopped smoking out of their ass? They saw the comments by companies such as Samsung who saw low Surface sales due to Windows 8?

Hell hath froze over?

Whatever is, this is welcome news.
 
$20 off to the OEM translates to how much of a discount to the end user? $0-2

Still not worth taking a bite out of the shit sandwich that W8 is, imo.
 
pxc said:
It'd be free to simply give users the option to turn off Metro. Just sayin'...
Click to expand...

I had a friends laptop that came with the OS, and needed to have the language switched over to Spanish. Holy crap did I ever jump through loops. I kept looking for the start button, but realized that I had to go back into the dreaded Metro UI. Charms fucking bar is basically how you get anything done, and even then I have to type to look for the option.

Ubuntu does this shit too, and I hate it. I'd rather have the options in front of me, instead of having to guess what I have to type to invoke the language options. First application I installed already wasn't compatible with Windows 8, and the application claimed to be Windows 8 compatible.

How do I get back to Windows desktop? Shift + T is the only way I know. Windows key wouldn't switch between the UI's until you do Shift+T first. How do I close a Metro app? Shift + something I'm sure. I had to have a list of shortcuts just to get anything done.

No sorry, all you Windows 8 supporters are sadistic. You guys are flipping nuts. There's a reason why the price of this OS is dropping fast. If someone gives me a laptop they want fixed, I will fix wipe it clean and install Ubuntu. Windows 7 if you give me a license key in advance.
 
Waaaa...... Windows 8 Sucks.....Waaaaa.....Windows 8 Shot My Wife and Ran over My Cat.....Waaaaaa....Windows 8 makes my job impossible......Waaaaa......Waaaaa.....Waaaaaaa.....
 
Ashbringer said:
I had a friends laptop that came with the OS, and needed to have the language switched over to Spanish. Holy crap did I ever jump through loops. I kept looking for the start button, but realized that I had to go back into the dreaded Metro UI. Charms fucking bar is basically how you get anything done, and even then I have to type to look for the option.

Ubuntu does this shit too, and I hate it. I'd rather have the options in front of me, instead of having to guess what I have to type to invoke the language options. First application I installed already wasn't compatible with Windows 8, and the application claimed to be Windows 8 compatible.

How do I get back to Windows desktop? Shift + T is the only way I know. Windows key wouldn't switch between the UI's until you do Shift+T first. How do I close a Metro app? Shift + something I'm sure. I had to have a list of shortcuts just to get anything done.

No sorry, all you Windows 8 supporters are sadistic. You guys are flipping nuts. There's a reason why the price of this OS is dropping fast. If someone gives me a laptop they want fixed, I will fix wipe it clean and install Ubuntu. Windows 7 if you give me a license key in advance.
Click to expand...

Odd, my 60-year-old mother-in-law is in her first pc (and it is not touchscreen) and asked me to install Windows 8 for her. So far (and it has been 2 weeks) she hasn't called me with a problem or difficulty in using it (of course, I gave her a very brief explanation on how to use the Charms bar and hot corners). It really is not hard to use.
 
ManofGod said:
Waaaa...... Windows 8 Sucks.....Waaaaa.....Windows 8 Shot My Wife and Ran over My Cat.....Waaaaaa....Windows 8 makes my job impossible......Waaaaa......Waaaaa.....Waaaaaaa.....
Click to expand...

So, nobody is allowed to exercise their right to their own opinion about W8 and express this on an open public forum?

We are the consumers. We keep a business like Microsoft alive and well. And we should be able to let our satisfaction or distaste for a product be heard.
 
Ashbringer said:
I had a friends laptop that came with the OS, and needed to have the language switched over to Spanish. Holy crap did I ever jump through loops. I kept looking for the start button, but realized that I had to go back into the dreaded Metro UI. Charms fucking bar is basically how you get anything done, and even then I have to type to look for the option.

Ubuntu does this shit too, and I hate it. I'd rather have the options in front of me, instead of having to guess what I have to type to invoke the language options. First application I installed already wasn't compatible with Windows 8, and the application claimed to be Windows 8 compatible.

How do I get back to Windows desktop? Shift + T is the only way I know. Windows key wouldn't switch between the UI's until you do Shift+T first. How do I close a Metro app? Shift + something I'm sure. I had to have a list of shortcuts just to get anything done.

No sorry, all you Windows 8 supporters are sadistic. You guys are flipping nuts. There's a reason why the price of this OS is dropping fast. If someone gives me a laptop they want fixed, I will fix wipe it clean and install Ubuntu. Windows 7 if you give me a license key in advance.
Click to expand...

CTRL-X?
Cant blame the OS for just being a noob.
 
ManofGod said:
Waaaa...... Windows 8 Sucks.....Waaaaa.....Windows 8 Shot My Wife and Ran over My Cat.....Waaaaaa....Windows 8 makes my job impossible......Waaaaa......Waaaaa.....Waaaaaaa.....
Click to expand...
Lol!:D
DejaWiz said:
So, nobody is allowed to exercise their right to their own opinion about W8 and express this on an open public forum?

We are the consumers. We keep a business like Microsoft alive and well. And we should be able to let our satisfaction or distaste for a product be heard.
Click to expand...

I agree with what you're saying but i think he was just making a joke about all the same old complaints about win 8;)
 
DejaWiz said:
So, nobody is allowed to exercise their right to their own opinion about W8 and express this on an open public forum?

We are the consumers. We keep a business like Microsoft alive and well. And we should be able to let our satisfaction or distaste for a product be heard.
Click to expand...

And, even companies have been vocal about it too when they are seeing lackluster sales for Surface RT and for others Surface Pro.

Samsung recently switched to more mobile chips and ARM-based phones that doesn't involve Windows 8-based devices. Simply put-- Surface RT isn't selling well enough, neither is Pro regardless of what the statistics state.

Android and Apple still are the top of the pack. Apple is also the leader in the US in terms of manufacturing and sales. Around the world, it's Android-based devices. Windows 8 hasn't been compelling enough to convince some companies to continue to spend time and effort manufacturing them except for someone like ASUS which has quite a few Windows 8-based tablets and computers coming out.

And, Microsoft, again with the commercials. I don't know of many businesses with Surface Pro that are using touch-based software as their primary software in their companies. Or, let alone dress like hipsters and dance on their tables.

Rethink your advertising! The world still revolves around mouse and keyboard-based input and will not change for the foreseeable future until touch, voice and gesture input are perfected, affordable and widespread. We aren't in a "Minority Report" future yet, and majority of the desktop PC consumers are still tied to the mouse and keyboard.

Again, rethink Windows 8. Rethink your advertising. Rethink your strategy or else Apple and Android-based manufacturers will continue to release much affordable (except Apple) mobile devices.
 
DejaWiz said:
So, nobody is allowed to exercise their right to their own opinion about W8 and express this on an open public forum?

We are the consumers. We keep a business like Microsoft alive and well. And we should be able to let our satisfaction or distaste for a product be heard.
Click to expand...

Opinions are one thing but you guys are whining for the sake of whining.
 
Geforcepat said:
I agree with what you're saying but i think he was just making a joke about all the same old complaints about win 8;)
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Microsoft fans are like a trolls on servers:

Player 1: "Stop teamkilling me!"
Player 2: "you've been complaining about the whole teamkilling thing for days now, can't you come up with an original complaint?"
Player 1 was killed by Player 2
Player 1: "FFS"
Player 2: "Again with the same complaint!"
Player 1: "If you stopped doing it then I wouldn't have a reason to complain!"
Player 1 was killed by Player 2
Player 1: "Again?!
Player 2: "Stop complaining about the same shit!"
 
DeathPrincess said:
Microsoft fans are like a trolls on servers:

Player 1: "Stop teamkilling me!"
Player 2: "you've been complaining about the whole teamkilling thing for days now, can't you come up with an original complaint?"
Player 1 was killed by Player 2
Player 1: "FFS"
Player 2: "Again with the same complaint!"
Player 1: "If you stopped doing it then I wouldn't have a reason to complain!"
Player 1 was killed by Player 2
Player 1: "Again?!
Player 2: "Stop complaining about the same shit!"
Click to expand...

Sounds like every forum argument and complaint since the infant days of BBS and forums. :D
 
sviola said:
Odd, my 60-year-old mother-in-law is in her first pc (and it is not touchscreen) and asked me to install Windows 8 for her. So far (and it has been 2 weeks) she hasn't called me with a problem or difficulty in using it (of course, I gave her a very brief explanation on how to use the Charms bar and hot corners). It really is not hard to use.
Click to expand...

You haven't heard from her because she spent the past 2 weeks looking for the start button :)

There's nothing wrong with Windows 8, the reason the sales have been so slow is due to global warming.
 
NetApplications data

win8vsvista-600x365.png


http://www.zdnet.com/five-reasons-why-windows-8-has-failed-7000012104/
 
DejaWiz said:
$20 off to the OEM translates to how much of a discount to the end user? $0-2

Still not worth taking a bite out of the shit sandwich that W8 is, imo.
Click to expand...

Your logic is flawed: $20 added to an OEM translates into $40 to the end user...
 
ManofGod said:
Opinions are one thing but you guys are whining for the sake of whining.
Click to expand...

And when it comes to a company that has a near-monopoly on the OS market, silence from consumers = no news = no news is good news = keep cranking out shit like this and preload it on everything.

I don't mind transitions to new products or transitions to new ways of doing things, but Microsoft didn't give any of us the option to transition. They just outright changed Windows to a Smartphone interface.

As I've been saying for quite some time, MS should have provided the option to either go new tiled Metro GUI or old school desktop Aero GUI with a start button as the default. Windows 8 works well for phones, tablets, and touch-enabled laptops/desktops, but the largest complaint I constantly hear and read is that it sucks for keyboard and mouse users, myself included.

Unfortunately for MS, it seems that it's even not doing as well as they hoped on touch-enabled devices either such as phones, tablets, and touch enabled laptops/desktops. Hopefully they learn something from all of this and quit screwing with the way people want to use Windows by making such a vast forced change in a single step.

I tried W8 to give it a chance to prove itself to me. After a fresh install, I loaded all my usual applications: Office, Steam, WinRAR, Adobe Reader, etc etc blah blah. For me, the Metro interface is initially cluttered and messy, many of my games wouldn't work 100% correctly (anywhere from not detecting my laptop's LCD resolutions correctly and listing them to not being able to run at all), and the lacking ability to set the "desktop" mode as the default bugged the shit out of me. Here is my list of likes and dislikes for Windows 8:

PROS:
1. Very fast boot-up and shut-down times.
2. Once I removed all the "bloatware" tiles from the interface and arranged my tiles in a categorized 4-square quadrant layout, it was vastly improved:
---upper-left = productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Publisher, etc
---upper-right = games
---lower-left = personal folders for document and misc file storage
---lower-right = entertainment/news such as Media Player, Internet Explorer, Email, etc
3. Fast fresh install time was pretty stellar.

CONS
1. Everything else

It resided on my computer for 5 days. Yep, less than a week before I loaded the backup image of Win7 I made just before the fresh install. Pitiful excuse for a keyboard and mouse driven OS is the word I still use to describe W8. I'm very confident that if I did own a touch-enabled x86-64 tablet or laptop, I would welcome Windows 8 over any previous version.
 
DejaWiz said:
And when it comes to a company that has a near-monopoly on the OS market, silence from consumers = no news = no news is good news = keep cranking out shit like this and preload it on everything.

I don't mind transitions to new products or transitions to new ways of doing things, but Microsoft didn't give any of us the option to transition. They just outright changed Windows to a Smartphone interface.

As I've been saying for quite some time, MS should have provided the option to either go new tiled Metro GUI or old school desktop Aero GUI with a start button as the default. Windows 8 works well for phones, tablets, and touch-enabled laptops/desktops, but the largest complaint I constantly hear and read is that it sucks for keyboard and mouse users, myself included.

Unfortunately for MS, it seems that it's even not doing as well as they hoped on touch-enabled devices either such as phones, tablets, and touch enabled laptops/desktops. Hopefully they learn something from all of this and quit screwing with the way people want to use Windows by making such a vast forced change in a single step.

I tried W8 to give it a chance to prove itself to me. After a fresh install, I loaded all my usual applications: Office, Steam, WinRAR, Adobe Reader, etc etc blah blah. For me, the Metro interface is initially cluttered and messy, many of my games wouldn't work 100% correctly (anywhere from not detecting my laptop's LCD resolutions correctly and listing them to not being able to run at all), and the lacking ability to set the "desktop" mode as the default bugged the shit out of me. Here is my list of likes and dislikes for Windows 8:

PROS:
1. Very fast boot-up and shut-down times.
2. Once I removed all the "bloatware" tiles from the interface and arranged my tiles in a categorized 4-square quadrant layout, it was vastly improved:
---upper-left = productivity applications such as Word, Excel, Publisher, etc
---upper-right = games
---lower-left = personal folders for document and misc file storage
---lower-right = entertainment/news such as Media Player, Internet Explorer, Email, etc
3. Fast fresh install time was pretty stellar.

CONS
1. Everything else

It resided on my computer for 5 days. Yep, less than a week before I loaded the backup image of Win7 I made just before the fresh install. Pitiful excuse for a keyboard and mouse driven OS is the word I still use to describe W8. I'm very confident that if I did own a touch-enabled x86-64 tablet or laptop, I would welcome Windows 8 over any previous version.
Click to expand...

Well, I find that Windows 8 works fantastic on my HP Laptop with external monitor and no touch screen, my near high end gaming desktop/HTPC/everything computer hooked to my non touch screen 37 inch LCD TV and my Acer W500 touch screen tablet.

The only thing I do not like now is, since I only bought this tablet back in May, 2012, I cannot justify buying another one so soon. :( I really really want to because, the new tablets are fantastic and getting better all the time. :D
 
ManofGod said:
Well, I find that Windows 8 works fantastic on my HP Laptop with external monitor and no touch screen, my near high end gaming desktop/HTPC/everything computer hooked to my non touch screen 37 inch LCD TV and my Acer W500 touch screen tablet.

The only thing I do not like now is, since I only bought this tablet back in May, 2012, I cannot justify buying another one so soon. :( I really really want to because, the new tablets are fantastic and getting better all the time. :D
Click to expand...

Oh, and I have IE10 desktop/Metro version, Firefox, Chrome, Tigerpaw, Outlook 2010 and 5 different virtual machines all running on said laptop. (AMD quad core N970 with 16GB of ram, 120GB SSD and a 500GB hybrid harddrive.) I also have a few other Metro apps running and the coretemp desktop gadget as well. (All on Windows 8 Pro which is running beautifully and stablily.)

I test harddrives on it, run virus scans off of it, have my Windows Phone 7.8 phone hooked to it, do remote desktop work on it and have multiple tabs open in all 3 browsers. This is all the proof that is needed that Windows 8 works as is.

Some stuff may have compatibility issues but that happens with all operating systems. (Those things get fixed as well.)
 
ManofGod said:
Well, I find that Windows 8 works fantastic on my HP Laptop with external monitor and no touch screen, my near high end gaming desktop/HTPC/everything computer hooked to my non touch screen 37 inch LCD TV and my Acer W500 touch screen tablet.

The only thing I do not like now is, since I only bought this tablet back in May, 2012, I cannot justify buying another one so soon. :( I really really want to because, the new tablets are fantastic and getting better all the time. :D

Oh, and I have IE10 desktop/Metro version, Firefox, Chrome, Tigerpaw, Outlook 2010 and 5 different virtual machines all running on said laptop. (AMD quad core N970 with 16GB of ram, 120GB SSD and a 500GB hybrid harddrive.) I also have a few other Metro apps running and the coretemp desktop gadget as well. (All on Windows 8 Pro which is running beautifully and stablily.)

I test harddrives on it, run virus scans off of it, have my Windows Phone 7.8 phone hooked to it, do remote desktop work on it and have multiple tabs open in all 3 browsers. This is all the proof that is needed that Windows 8 works as is.

Some stuff may have compatibility issues but that happens with all operating systems. (Those things get fixed as well.)
Click to expand...

I'm glad it's working perfectly on a variety of systems for you. As I said earlier, we all have the right to praise or puke on a product. For me, there's not enough antacid on the planet. :p
 
ManofGod said:
Well, I find that Windows 8 works fantastic on my HP Laptop with external monitor and no touch screen, my near high end gaming desktop/HTPC/everything computer hooked to my non touch screen 37 inch LCD TV and my Acer W500 touch screen tablet.

The only thing I do not like now is, since I only bought this tablet back in May, 2012, I cannot justify buying another one so soon. :( I really really want to because, the new tablets are fantastic and getting better all the time. :D
Click to expand...

I can find kidnap victims that fall in love with their abductors all day long too. :rolleyes:

You can claim you like it all you want, but the reality is the majority of the market hates it and has made that quite clear over the clamoring of the few fans.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I can find kidnap victims that fall in love with their abductors all day long too. :rolleyes:

You can claim you like it all you want, but the reality is the majority of the market hates it and has made that quite clear over the clamoring of the few fans.
Click to expand...

Oh crap, you claim the majority of the market hates it, WOW, how could I have been so wrong, I will jump up right now and go get an IPAD, Iphone and Android tablet. Phew, good thing you found me out in time. :D

Sheeple, as I have heard, can come in all shapes, sizes and types. :) Have fun. :cool:
 
So, if you hate Windows 8 (a lot of people do), then you're using it wrong.
If you love Windows 8 (some people do), then you're a fan boy.
If you just like it, but realize it has flaws and it's not perfect, but it's not that bad.... What are you?

I'm the third. It's not terribly bad. It's not really that great, either. I can use it perfectly, and I've had no problems with it. But, there are things that I look at and think "WTF were they thinking?!".

$20 discount on OEM costs. Somehow, I doubt that reduction in cost will be passed onto the consumer anytime soon....
 
Metrocall said:
I feel like we're gonna see these threads until Windows 9. :(
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Dude, we're still seeing these threads about Vista! :D ME threads just stopped because of Vista. 8 is the new bitch in the saddle.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Dude, we're still seeing these threads about Vista! :D ME threads just stopped because of Vista. 8 is the new bitch in the saddle.
Click to expand...

Haha, true true.

And to your your post above, I'm sort of in that third category, I used for the 90 evaluation and afterwards I went back to 7. I like a lot of what it did but to me, it always felt like it was "fighting" me, like it was harder to do the exact same thing for no real benefit and even worse, at an added cost. If I had a touchscreen maybe that would change but for a gaming only computer that idea makes no sense to me. If it could give me say at least a 10% performance boost in games over 7, I would probably learn to live with the annoyances.
 
Ashbringer said:
I had a friends laptop that came with the OS, and needed to have the language switched over to Spanish. Holy crap did I ever jump through loops. I kept looking for the start button, but realized that I had to go back into the dreaded Metro UI. Charms fucking bar is basically how you get anything done, and even then I have to type to look for the option.
Click to expand...

The language settings are in the same place in 7 and 8, Control Panel->Clock, Language and Region. The Start Screen or Charms Bar would have nothing to so with it unless you didn't know where the language settings are which in that case you hit the Windows key and type "change language" and then select settings. No hoops involved if you know how this works in 7 and the search while Metro based will take you exactly to the right place.
 
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