back to article Review: Toshiba Satellite U920T Ultrabook

Whatever you might think about Windows 8, when it comes to taking the top down on the new ranges of convertible laptops, it’s certainly not boring. Every single one I’ve encountered so far has a different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work and Toshiba’s Satellite U920T Ultrabook offers yet another approach. …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how much?

    and with a shitty keyboard? Over a grand. Oh, yeah, and a gps, cause it's a business machine, lol.

    1. druck Silver badge

      Re: how much?

      Hey, the keyboard has full sized cursor keys, that's got to earn it some points.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows 8 not going away ?

    Well my wallet certailny is, no sale.

  3. W.O.Frobozz

    Windows 8 - It should go away.

    It's a real pity this industry continues to reward Microsoft by default. Any other company producing garbage like Windows 8 would be out of business.

    Thank god the company I work for has absolutely no plan to migrate anyone to Windows 8.

    1. Andrew Moore

      Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

      Maybe it will go away if we ignore it some more...

    2. illiad

      Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

      the problem with 'MS gets it all' is that it is NOT the 'vaguely intelligent' who can find this site, but the millions of CLUELESS who *believe* what the sales men say... or are at the mercy of trying to find a good enough PC, to get win8 hard sell due to DUMB plus 'greedy for their commission' salesmen....

      The biggest reason for staying with win7, is that many companies 'upgrade cycle' is *much* slower that MS.. my company's board of directors seems to have employed a pinhead who believer our min spec should be a 3 GHz multi-core.. and I can tell 1.5 dual core is well good enough for the minimal use it has, especially as it will only let us use ADSL that they got a cheap deal on that rarely goes above 5Mb/s !!

      1. fandom

        Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

        "the problem with 'MS gets it all' is that it is NOT the 'vaguely intelligent' who can find this site, but [...] the millions of CLUELESS who *believe* what the sales men say"

        I wouldn't be so sure, when Vista was released I was surprised to see the amount of loathing it generated among the "clueless".

      2. Paul Shirley

        Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

        "get win8 hard sell due to DUMB plus 'greedy for their commission' salesmen...."

        ...though this time the salesmen all seem to hate Win8 and push Win7 instead. Even a dumb greedy salesman can get it right sometimes (by accident!)

      3. aqk
        Big Brother

        Re: Windows 8 - It should go away- when BLUE comes out

        Many companies' upgrade cycle is slower? No. It is just your perception as you get older.

        Many linux systems, particular Ubuntu shove out a new version every year - oops, every six months.

        And it was that way on the mainframes I worked on 30 -40 years ago. And then midframes. New distribs seemed so infrequent. But no, they were every 2 or 3 years.

        Welcome to Windows-8! Mwahh haa haa!

    3. Paul 129
      Coat

      Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

      Actually I disagree on this. Win8 FINALLY gives the average plebeians a versioning backup system where they only have to plug in an external drive and turn on!

      This is well worth, suffering the 'metro' start menu silliness.

      Icon cause, well its Microsoft looking for our wallets again.

    4. aqk
      FAIL

      Re: Windows 8 - It should go away.

      Oh, you old fuddy-duddy. I bet you said the same thing about Windows-7 two or three years ago.

      "Why should I migrate to Windows-7? What's wrong with XP?"

      Or maybe you migrated from Vista, in which case you did not complain much.

      As it happens, I now have a desktop AND a laptop running Win-8. No problems at all!

      Every so often I boot one of them into Linux, just to compare speeds. And to DL the latest Linux updates

      Just for fun, though, I gave one of the Win-8 systems the "classic" desktop - some folks having seen it, remark "Gee! Are you still running XP? Oh wait! It's Windows 2000!". They seem generally shocked when I tell 'em its Win-8.

      But alas, old man- you will almost certainly migrate to Win-8 eventually. And then you'll probably bitch about this newfangled Win-Blue.

      Say have you tried Ubuntu?

  4. Joerg
    FAIL

    Microsoft is going away sooner...

    Windows8/Windows Server 2012 and WinPhone7.x and 8.x and SurfaceRT/SurfacePro with the awful useless childish unusable Metro/ModernUI have already been rejected by people worldwide.

    But Microsoft keeps forcing people into using and buying the Metro/ModernUI nonsense.

    So Microsoft will go bankrupt soon. And Metro/ModernUI will go away then.

    1. illiad

      Re: Microsoft is going away sooner...

      ROFL !! no chance of that!!! there are just **too many** idiots who *still* dont have a clue about stuff!!

      eg.. a real coversation, would you believe he is a banker???

      where's my internet??? / wheres google???

      its on your screen, look for explorer..

      huh????

      {groan} the blue E...

      what?????

      {goes to his computer} see that? {points to icon}

      uh why didnt you say that blue thingy??? where's my google???

      {gawd how is this no brain alive?} - puts home page to google..

      thanx mate..

      1. VinceH

        Re: Microsoft is going away sooner...

        I think I might know that bloke.

        1. 1Rafayal

          Re: Microsoft is going away sooner...

          I definitely do

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Microsoft is going away sooner...

            He is my best user and super user

  5. K
    Megaphone

    Fugly..

    I have no problem with Windows 8...... Once Start8 is installed!

    1. Michael Habel

      Re: Fugly..

      Down vote 'cause your missing the point. Why should I have to pay Stardock (or whoever), for an App to clean up Microsoft's mess of an OS. On the off chance that Start8 is Freeware / Free. Again, why should I have to resort to a Third Party Fix to clean up that clusterF**k of an OS?

      Microsoft managed to get it right with XP/Vista, and 7 so what went wrong with 8?

      Ughh yeah that's right those other OS wern't as touchy-feelly as 8 is. and so didn't need to alienate the mass populous (i.e. those w/o Touchscreens) with this crap that nobody wanted in the first place!

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: Fugly..

        I'm sorry, _Linux_ users are complaining about an OS that doesn't come perfectly tuned to their needs out of the box, and benefits from customisation?! Isn't that exactly the kind of thing you love doing on a Saturday night?

        1. Michael Habel
          Linux

          Re: Fugly..

          Surprisingly Mint Linux pretty much worked OotB for me. Granted its always a bit touch and go to get the Graphic Driver started cause you have to kill the XServer to install the Driver popper over the CLI. but, that was really the worst of it. Mouse & Sound worked OotB and I didn't need to jackall to them. And my only demand for Video, which otherwise was working fine as it was with the FOSS Driver was to get nVidias' VDPAU (Video Acceleration), working. Any other "tweaking" came at the expense of choosing a Theme and a Background Image (i.e. a Wallpaper). Hardly a way to waste a perfectly good Saturday night as you seem to imply.

          Then again, I'm not some Guru Neckbeard that brews all his own Kernels.

          Not yet at any rate. I'd love to find a good Howto / Walkthough on how to do that though. Just as to get a feel for it though. Sadly I really haven't found any good examples of this yet.

      2. aqk
        FAIL

        Re: Fugly..

        1. Did you not ever install a 3rd party downloader? Or a 3rd party disk-defragger? Or a 3rd party registry cleaner, or a ... etc etc... ALL these are "little add-ons" that tweak the original system.

        Oh perhaps you didn't. Morelily some techie did it for you.

        Nothing wrong with adding a 3rd party desktop enhancer. And if enough people buy it, MS will eventually build it in to the OS, they way they did with Win2000, XP, and Win7. Until then tweaks such as IOBit's "StartMenu-8" - an excellent FREE desktop! will continue to be used.

        2. The great masses "w/o touch screens" ...huh? You mean the folks still using desktops? How far are you from retirement? When you're gone, it will be touchscreens all the way. Except for gamers and their $2000 desktops. MS knows this.

        And oh yeah- touchscreens for the desktop will be coming soon. Their prices are dropping even as I type this. Try running your Win-XP or Vista (OOPS! You finally upgraded to WIN-7? Congrats!) on one of these new desktops.

        3, MS "managed to get it right with Vista"? !! LOL! Do yourself a favour and try Win-8. And stop banging your head against a brick.

        I maintain several hosting services and websites and fastidiously track what sort of device browses them. In the last year or so, hits from tablets and smartphones have increased to almost 50% ! You think MS wants to stay current with old stubborn folks such as you who will be either retired or dead in a decade or two? They'd truly be committing suicide.

  6. DrXym

    ASUS slider

    This is essentially the same concept as the ASUS slider although the way it slides up looks a bit different. I guess it didn't catch on since it means you're essentially hulking around a laptop even when you want to use it like a tablet.

  7. Wang N Staines
    Happy

    Scan for screen res in the article ... oh, it is crap. ignore rest of article. move on to comments.

    1. Steve Knox
      Unhappy

      Agreed

      I have actually been quite impressed with the quality of the Toshiba laptops I've used -- enough so that I would recommend them as a manufacturer, which I usually don't. But it's almost impossible to get a good resolution screen from them without buying a big heavy 17+" monster.

  8. andy gibson

    "different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work "

    The author claims "Every single one I’ve encountered so far has a different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work "

    Surely that shows why the whole thing is flawed if there's no standard?

    Am I so wrong in wanting my OS to be "boring"?

    1. VinceH

      Re: "different take on how to make the laptop-tablet duo dance work "

      I don't want this laptop-tablet duo dance at all.

      What I want is just a tablet with (at minimum) HDMI output, two (or preferably more, so I don't have to use a hub and accidentally leave it somewhere) USB ports, and an SD card slot. And a decent amount of storage. I don't like Windows 8, but I do need to use Windows, so I'll put up with that.

      I want to be able to use it as a tablet when I'm lounging around, so I can just use it to read web pages, e-books, and so on. But when I'm at my desk, I want to be able to connect it to a decent sized monitor and a decent keyboard and mouse.

      Make a separate keyboard (and stand if necessary) available, certainly, so that people can buy them and use the tablet as a laptop - and if they're sensibly priced I might even buy it/them to carry in my bag with the tablet.

      This thing almost gets there: It has HDMI, and a couple of USB ports, but it has a crappy amount of storage - and a shitty little keyboard so that it can be called an ultrabook and a premium charged for it. And that premium is what the laptop-tablet duo dance is all about.

  9. oldcoder

    Will it run Linux?

    And if so, which distributions?

    1. Professor Clifton Shallot

      Re: Will it run Linux?

      I think that ought to be a standard part of Reg reviews - it is mentioned in some and it is the sort of thing Reg readers are likely to get up to.

      By the same token they probably ought to test how the keyboard responds to sp...ills. Liquid spills.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Will it run Linux?

      Probably just as badly as it runs on any other laptop. If you're not fussed about using the audio, webcams, wifi or touch then I'm sure it'll be just great.

      1. aqk
        Windows

        Re: Will it run Linux?

        BS. I've had several laptops running Ubuntu-dual booted with Windows.

        A "long time" ago (3 or 4 years), there were some problems with Linux and 802-11 drivers. But all appears OK now.

        Currently my Ubuntu runs almost as fast as the Win-8. And both of them seem to run faster than Win-7! Certainly faster than Vista!

        But perhaps it's just my perception.

        When was the last time YOU used Linux on a laptop? Oh yeah- stay away from KDE! Perhaps that was your problem.

    3. aqk
      Linux

      Re: Will it run Linux?

      Most likely it will.

      I have a (obviously older) Toshiba laptop that runs both Win-8 and Ubuntu.

      There MAY be some problems installing Grub on a system already running Win-8. I have heard this, but there's probably a solution to this now. In my case I already had Ubuntu & Grub installed on my laptop, before I installed Win-8.

      Win-8 installed into the Grub quite easily. (By that, I mean Grub found it).

  10. JDX Gold badge

    Eeew

    The back side of the tablet looks horrendous from those photos.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Plastic cover

    Plastic covers for SD slots or USB slots = something to snap and get broken.

    Rebuilding a Toshiba T2130, it took me to find a broken model for spares that had some of the plastics that were missing around the fold-down PCMCIA slots. And that laptop is 17/18 years old, seems we never learn!

  12. MGman
    Thumb Down

    Seriously? Over £1k and we still have to put up with a 1366 x 768 screen.

    Phones have more pixels.

    1. kparsons84
      FAIL

      Yeah...wtf is it with these crappy resolutions on laptops?! How do they get away with it.... Oh yeah, the saps keep on buying them.

    2. hungee

      The "wisdom" goes that a phone needs more pixels because it is closer to your face. Ever notice that the iPhone has a higher pixel density than the iPad (320ish vs 230ish) but they are both "retina" displays. This is because the iPad is meant to be used on a table.. Say about .50 MTR away rather than the .2mtr away iPhone. They both (according to the apple reality distortion field) are supposed to be pixel less and amazeballs.. But one is definitely inferior. That is why manufacturers of the screens are running common display sizes at that pixel count 1366x768. Also add in a completely shithouse Intel 4000 GPU running the show. It performs better at 768p. Ever notice the nicer screens generally have a GPU card running the show?

      Basically, ultra books are going to continue to be average (at best) until Haswell changes the game up a bit.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sure Win8 is not going away... But the alternatives aren't either!

    Sure Win8 is not going away, and may be on most new Windows machines by default... But the alternatives including smartphones aren't going away either, and there's a lot more choices now than there was in 2007!

    Many many people got burned with the Vista fiasco and have long memories. People are also getting wise to the fact that ultra-books might not be worth the extra $ compared to cheaper netbooks as covered in the recent Reg article 'Netbooks were a GOOD thing and we threw them under a bus'...

    I hope MS banked mucho deniro from the good ol days because its a brave new world now. People are more technically literate, and even when they're not, they still know to read reviews on Amazon etc first before buying anything resembling a windows PC.

  14. Christopher Rogers
    Windows

    Windows 8 is doing the business for me.

    I didn't use the Win 7 start menu for anything other than searching (hit start, start typing)

    I don't use the Win 8 start menu for anything other than searching (hit start, start typing)

    So basically it operates like Windows 7.

    I'll save my MS bashing for their Office 2013 Licencing policy.

    1. aqk
      Happy

      Win7 start menu?

      I do almost the same as you. Almost.

      Once Win-8 was booted (15 seconds?) I clicked the big "DESKTOP" square which brought me into the familiar old desktop.

      Of course any new app installs were placed at the extreme right-side of the "Metro" screen. So I'd switch to Metro, sweep over to the right end, and then drag the square back to the left side.

      And optionally right click and place it on the taskbar. And then go back into desktop mode. This takes 10-15 seconds, tops!

      But I admit I have gotten lazy now and just installed the IOBit "STARTMENU8" on one of my Win8 systems. It saves me those precious 10 seconds a week I guess...

      Ya know, it's fun reading all these idiotic posts from old geezers (I'm 71, BTW) who swear they will NEVER use this accursed newfangled devil's spawn Win-8! Wish I could track them. It would be fun to see where they are in two years.

  15. Bill the Sys Admin
    Thumb Up

    Windows 8 - My thoughts..

    I got win8 free from uni just as i graduated and I couldn’t get 7 so I reluctantly use it for playing games.

    And with my new z77 UEFI motherboard and SSD combo. Windows 8 is running at the click of a finger. Its much faster to boot than 7. And once im on the machine I launch steam and stay on the desktop for most of my time rarely ever going into the cluster fuck that is the metro interface. I really didn’t want to upgrade but now im kind of glad i did.....its just so quick to boot in comparison.

    And this is coming from a openSUSE user during the day at work :)

    1. Michael Habel

      Re: Windows 8 - My thoughts..

      Thats just likely down to the use of your SSD then.

      And UFEI... No lets us not go there this is the kinda crap that needs to be smacked down with a 5Kg Hammer before it gets a chance to gain market penetration.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/31/ubuntu_uefi_bricking_samsung_laptops/

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/01/linux_samsung_laptop_fix_advice/

      and best of all it forks itself over with Windows aswell...

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/11/samsung_uefi_boot_bug_windows_linux/

      So why would I want this when the BIOS (No matter how old and less trendy it is to todays yoof), just works like it has always worked quietly in the background doing it thing never hurting anyone or saying One unkind thing at ya?

      1. Bill the Sys Admin
        Pint

        Re: Windows 8 - My thoughts..

        Its not to do with my SSD. As I had win7 running on the same SSD and I did not get such performance.

        Im not telling you why UEFI is better im merely saying I get better performance with win8 than 7. I assume BIOS was absolutely perfect when i first started out. Software takes time to mature. Settle down and get with the change if we stuck to your thoughts we would still be bashing rocks together.

    2. Jason Terando
      Thumb Up

      Re: Windows 8 - My thoughts..

      I put Windows 8 on a Windows 7 desktop, Xeon X5650 with 12GB of RAM. After living with it for a couple of months:

      1. The UI for copying files and folders works *much* better, Windows 7 was a pain when copying over existing folders (two different dialogs with different hotkey shortcuts). The progress graph is nice too. Network copies seem a little slower, but not by enough to make me miss the multiple copy dialogs. The Explorer ribbon is fine, although I wish they would have kept more of the older keyboard shortcuts.

      2. My system *seems* faster. Boot up time is definitely quicker. Things like Control Panel render much more quickly, Visual Studio (still on 2010) comes up more quickly and seems perkier.

      3. I am not a Metro fan. After putting on StartIsBack I never see Metro and the old Ctrl-Esc works exactly like it did before, this utility is among the best $3 I ever spent.

      Overall, my computer runs better, and I have not had to make major changes to my usage patterns. It kind of reminds me of when I went from Windows 2000 to XP. I'm happy with it.

    3. aqk
      Thumb Up

      Re: Windows 8 - My thoughts..

      When you have a chance, go into that Metro clusterfuck and organize it. Just drag all your favourite shit over to the extreme LHS. Those "boxes" drag very quickly and easily. It will not take you long.

      And if you left-click on a frequently used app, you can choose to place it on your desktop's taskbar.

      The Metro isn't so bad once you get used to it. At least if all your apps are organized PROPERLY. and you don't go into the Metro too often with a mouse.

      I'm saving up for a big touchscreen! ;-)

  16. fandom

    Of course it is going away

    You don't really thing MS will keep it going for more than a couple years, right?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I tried it, finally

    Whilst it is true that I have tried the completely counterintuitive WP8 and not felt the need to lambast it, I wasn't too taken by it either. OK it is a different take on a mobile interface, and credit for that instead of yet another iOS clone. Not for me though.

    I live in the server world, so Server2012 finally made its entrance.

    Fuck me dead mate. This is the worst bollocks I have. Encountered. Schizophrenic does not even remotely generate the impression that this bastard makes. What's with these giblet thingies? Oh, there me lucky charms m'lad! What a pile of parrot droppings. How can i kill em? FIIK. And the hover zone, talk about bizarre, who thought of that? I can't figure out what it is trying to do or where anything is. I get paid to do work, not fuck around with this bullshit

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: I tried it, finally

      What are you messing about with the GUI for anyway? Aren't you a proper server guy?

      1. aqk
        Childcatcher

        Re: I tried it, finally FINALLY HUH?

        ...." Aren't you a proper server guy? "

        LOL. He probably never saw a command line before. And he is obviously not familiar with Gnome.

        But hey! With all his advanced talents in the linguistic area, they gave him a server or two to run.

        Lucky charms indeed.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I tried it, finally FINALLY HUH?

          What has Gnome got to do with it, and why should I care? (I do know what it is by the way, so what?)

          I didn't choose WindowsServer as the corporate platform and I am certainly not going to propose a version of Linux in a room full of Windows weenies. Religious OS wars are for children, and there would be no point in starting one here. Linux is just an OS. Windows is just an OS, Unix is just and OS, OpenVMS is just and OS etc. etc. etc. I use what is around and most suitable for getting the job done. That's why they pay me.

          The first command line I used was probably before you were born, and on an OS you have never heard of.

          I have a room full of children with attitudes like yours. Last time I looked we had 40 odd windows servers, but I only care for the ones that do the heavy lifting - I have peons for looking after the rest of them and a room full of children who write programs the same way Stevie Wonder solves a Rubriks Cube. But damn, they know so many buzzwords even I am impressed and they are superb button pushers. Clueless of course, but that is the standard available today.

          Finally, only a demented, masochistic moron would believe that headless windows server is a test of "server manhood". Some of you need to get out more, really.

          1. aqk
            Holmes

            Re: I tried it, finally Repeat-

            Mr. Anonymous Coward:

            I repeat: >> it's fun reading all these idiotic posts from old geezers (I'm 71, BTW) who swear they will NEVER use this accursed newfangled devil's spawn Win-8! Wish I could track them. It would be fun to see where they are in two years. <<<

            I'm 71 and (almost) involuntarily retired. Worked in computers for >45 years. From Remington-Rand's Univac-II, IBM's MVS, DOS, DOS/VSE and with COBOL (ugh!), FORTRAN, PL/I (ugh again!) and BAL (my favourite and even the occasional REXX and then machine-lang input. (Now THIS was a bitch!). But yeah, I probably haven't heard of your "OS". Just guessing...

            I suggest you let one your children install that Win-8 and tune it for you. As the title above states: "Windows 8 - it's not going away, people"

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: I tried it, finally Repeat-

              So you know about GEORGE or VME/B from ICL?

              I don't have to be older than you for my claim to be very likely correct, I merely need to be not an American IBMer.

              My list also includes RSX, RSTS/E, VMS and the rest of the Digital family of which you likely are aware. I did MVS and VSE as well as the S/34 and S/36 early in my career. Then there was WangVS which was OK for its time. How about PRIMOS which had the most defective COBOL compiler in Christendom and was bad in so many other ways? Then there was MPE, another OK effort.

              Great, you a few years older than me. Your commentary about Windows 8 relative to me is still drivel though. The Metro interface looks cute, but is window dressing (pun intended) that actually gets in the way, and that is an egregious design error for a UI. It may be here to stay, but as it stands now, it is a schizo freak and a right royal pain to set up and use.

              FWIW, my heir ditched Windows for OSX before puberty and hasn't felt the inclination to change in adulthood.

              ps: BAL is still in demand (bizarrely enough), so you can supplement your pension cutting code

    2. aqk
      Thumb Down

      Re: I tried it, finally

      WP8? You mean WordPerfect-8?

      Yeah, I suppose that would be typical of the old geezers here railing against Win-8...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I tried it, finally

        WP8 seems to be the standard abbreviation for Windows Phone 8 in these forums.

        Please do try to keep up.

  18. Tom 38
    FAIL

    Costs over a grand and has shittier cameras than the original iphone.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows 8 might not be going away

    ...but it's not coming here either. Much like Millennium and Vista, this looks like one to wait out...

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Too bad it's a Toshiba

    And too bad it's Windows 8

  21. Dropper
    Devil

    Windows 8 Won't Stay Either

    In times past, with DOS 4, Windows ME and Vista, IT departments just used the clause built into OS licensing that allows them to downgrade a license to the previous version. This can just as easily be done with Windows 8 and if Microsoft have changed this they risk killing new government and corporate PC sales altogether.

    Having said that vendors are more than just a little bit desperate to keep or even gain large business contracts. They will bend over backwards to give large customers what they want and if that means pissing off MS by imaging hard disks with Windows 7, they wouldn't give two shits in a barrell. No salesman worth his salt is going to be so thin skinned that he will won't use whatever edge he can to get a large order. If we asked him to piss down Balmer's throat shouting "Windows 8 is fucking shite", he'd probably do that too if it meant a foothold somewhere with the potential of selling 10,000+ PCs on 3-4 year life cycle.

  22. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Some fast talking salesman managed to get my boss to take a couple of Win8 laptops to replace 'old fashioned' desktops while I was away on holiday. Fortunately one of the other guys stepped in and prevented them from taking out my development machine. Anyway, I tried really hard to get some usability out of the -ing things, doing some web surfing and note taking, but eventually gave up in disgust. Boss was severely miffed but remained silent (possibly noticed the steam coming out of my ears).

    1. aqk
      Thumb Down

      Well!

      From you lack of inquisitiveness, and an inability to quickly figure things out, as well as somewhat of a closed mind, where do you think you'll be in 3 years? Still running your Vista or XP?

      I certainly would not hire you.

      You gonna wait for "Blue" or wotever it's called? It will only get worse you know....

  23. gizmo23
    WTF?

    How to judge Win 8 popularity

    Take one normal work laptop and replace it with a Win 8 laptop without telling the support techie who uses that laptop. Stand to one side and count the number of times you hear "WTF!?" in response to something the new shiny Win 8 install does or doesn't do. If that number is less than a dozen in the first 20 minutes, be amazed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How to judge Win 8 popularity

      I really don't get the IT guy trait for avoiding learning anything new.

      Oh, and don't say "I'm happy to learn, but only when it's an advancement" because it's not true, many IT guys form their opinions and stick to them regardless of any actual facts. See Linux vs Windows flamewars for evidence.

      As far as I'm concerned, the more I know the better, I don't just dump something because it's different, I consider it a personal strength.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: How to judge Win 8 popularity

        How true. So many people deliberately won't learn how to use the bloody Ribbon so they can complain it's too difficult, while their parents struggle for an hour or two and then get on with it.

        1. Tom 38
          FAIL

          Re: How to judge Win 8 popularity

          So many people deliberately won't learn how to use the bloody Ribbon so they can complain it's too difficult

          No, like me, they have progressed beyond living their life in Office suites. As a result, if you change the interface for no reason other than to spruce it up in order to sell new licences, then you can no longer expect these people to be au fait with your new interface.

          Before, even if you don't use Office, it was easy enough to support newbie office users, since the interface is so straightforward. I've not used Word since Word 97, but can still guide someone around adding a graph or a table in Word 2003, but in Word 2007, not a scooby.

          From your POV, this is my fault for not wanting to rush out and buy a copy of Windows and Office 2007. Yeah...

  24. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    You're right. I won't bother with the ribbon interface. I'm far too busy learning new SOC architectures and their IDEs.

  25. Dana W

    Cancer isn't going away either, but I'd as soon not buy any.

    1. 1Rafayal

      Doesnt stop people from buying cigs though, does it?

  26. ecofeco Silver badge

    Anyone Remember ME?

    Even Windoze Millennium eventually went away.

    Oh, and a 1K laptop? Pass. (and I like Toshibas)

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