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[qmech]

Windows machines aren't as efficient as Macs, because Windows has to take everyone's hardware and adapt to it. There was a test done where people ran Windows's interface on a MacBook and mac's interface on a windows laptop. The mac's battery life went down like crazy, while the windows computer was the same or better in battery life. If windows made their own machine and put effort into it, it might be a different story.

nononono the lesson there is that macbooks are terrible

No, it's clearly the Windows interface that's a battery whore.

I do not know what the issue is, but it is certainly not that the "interface" is draining the battery.

[Seprix]

Windows machines aren't as efficient as Macs, because Windows has to take everyone's hardware and adapt to it. There was a test done where people ran Windows's interface on a MacBook and mac's interface on a windows laptop. The mac's battery life went down like crazy, while the windows computer was the same or better in battery life. If windows made their own machine and put effort into it, it might be a different story.

nononono the lesson there is that macbooks are terrible

No, it's clearly the Windows interface that's a battery whore.

I do not know what the issue is, but it is certainly not that the "interface" is draining the battery.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/169055-why-do-windows-pcs-have-such-terrible-battery-life-compared-to-mac-and-ios

It's because Microsoft is lazy and doesn't care about power saving.

[UmbrageOfSnow]

Inb4 "Never because my Mac/Linux/whatev doesn't run Windows." Yeah, yeah, we get it.

You should really consider upgrading to Linux.

I can't believe it went this long without being said.  Wouldn't want your inb4 to be for naught.

[jsh357]

Windows machines aren't as efficient as Macs, because Windows has to take everyone's hardware and adapt to it. There was a test done where people ran Windows's interface on a MacBook and mac's interface on a windows laptop. The mac's battery life went down like crazy, while the windows computer was the same or better in battery life. If windows made their own machine and put effort into it, it might be a different story.

nononono the lesson there is that macbooks are terrible

No, it's clearly the Windows interface that's a battery whore.

I do not know what the issue is, but it is certainly not that the "interface" is draining the battery.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/169055-why-do-windows-pcs-have-such-terrible-battery-life-compared-to-mac-and-ios

It's because Microsoft is lazy and doesn't care about power saving.

Is Apple giving you a commission for trying to sell their overpriced products to us?  If not, I'm not sure why you're bothering.  Don't be one of their drones.

[Seprix]

I'm not a drone. I like the OS is all. I'm not a fan of their phones (or the joke of the watch).

[LastFootnote]

It's because Microsoft is lazy and doesn't care about power saving.

Is Apple giving you a commission for trying to sell their overpriced products to us?  If not, I'm not sure why you're bothering.  Don't be one of their drones.

So I take it you have evidence that Seprix is wrong here? Or are you just making ad hominem attacks?

[jsh357]

It's because Microsoft is lazy and doesn't care about power saving.

Is Apple giving you a commission for trying to sell their overpriced products to us?  If not, I'm not sure why you're bothering.  Don't be one of their drones.

So I take it you have evidence that Seprix is wrong here? Or are you just making ad hominem attacks?

He came in to a Windows thread spouting Apple promotion and derailing the thread

[LastFootnote]

It's because Microsoft is lazy and doesn't care about power saving.

Is Apple giving you a commission for trying to sell their overpriced products to us?  If not, I'm not sure why you're bothering.  Don't be one of their drones.

So I take it you have evidence that Seprix is wrong here? Or are you just making ad hominem attacks?

He came in to a Windows thread spouting Apple promotion and derailing the thread

I'm pretty sure a person can compare Apple and Microsoft products without promoting one or the other, and Seprix's posts certainly don't look like promotion to me. And thread derailing happens constantly on f.DS. None of this excuses calling him a "drone" or accusing him of promoting Apple's products. I like Windows 7. Am I promoting Microsoft by saying so?

[Awaclus]

Honestly, I think the only thing stopping most people from going Mac is the price or the fact that it's not what people are used to. Same with me and Windows. I like XP, but that's it and that's for nostalgia reasons. The interface is needlessly complicated in my eyes.

The thing is, the vast majority of people who buy computers don't have the slightest idea of what they're doing, nor are they willing to figure it out. The key factors for these people is price and how fashionable the brand is. A Mac is definitely a great choice for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, because it's pretty much guaranteed that you can just buy one within your price range and it will immediately work when you boot it up and it's easy to figure out how to use it, but unfortunately for Apple, it still requires some level of knowing what you're doing to realize that.

[GendoIkari]

So the latest automatic update to Windows 8 completely bricked my computer. Upon restarting (automatically without asking if I wanted to), it wouldn't boot back up. Couldn't even get to the boot options. I had to use the restore functionality built into a different partition to set things back to factory condition. It did save my user folder; so I have all my documents and such, but it's still terrible. Have to reinstall all software I need, and some I can't get again. Also lost all browser cookies even though those should be in the user folder, so not sure why. This means I lost all progress on various browser games I was playing. Now it's reinstalling all the Windows Updates that have come out since I got my computer, 173 of them, including 8.1.

[TrojH]

The date when Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7: January 14, 2020.

So I have about four and a half years to turn myself into a Linux user. I refuse to use Windows 8 or higher. I'm so done with Microsoft.

Gendo: I made this decision some time ago, but thanks for giving me another reason to switch to Linux. I hope things work out for you, though... 

[Awaclus]

So I have about four and a half years to turn myself into a Linux user. I refuse to use Windows 8 or higher. I'm so done with Microsoft.

Why is that, though? The only practical differences between 7 and 8.1 is that the audio actually works in 8.1 and you can customize things a lot more in 8.1.

[Davio]

Windows (for desktop) follows a wavelike pattern:

95: Not quite there
98: OK!
ME: Sucked
XP: Good!
Vista: Sucked
7: Great!
8: Sucked
10:

Microsoft has to recognize that there are still a bunch of advanced users who want to use Windows on their desktops/laptops and not on tablets.

[Kuildeous]

I expect that I will upgrade to 10 within the year, but I'll wait as long as possible to see if it causes problems for any people running the same hardware.

The tricky thing is that Windows 10 is being offered for free through July 29 (I think). So that's why I came here with this question. Of course, since nobody's seen Windows 10 yet, it's a bit of a gamble. Do I get in on the ground floor and get Windows 10 for free, or do I wait it out and ultimately pay for it later?

I have two machines. I could upgrade only one and leave the other on 8.1.

[Witherweaver]

I expect that I will upgrade to 10 within the year, but I'll wait as long as possible to see if it causes problems for any people running the same hardware.

The tricky thing is that Windows 10 is being offered for free through July 29 (I think). So that's why I came here with this question. Of course, since nobody's seen Windows 10 yet, it's a bit of a gamble. Do I get in on the ground floor and get Windows 10 for free, or do I wait it out and ultimately pay for it later?

I have two machines. I could upgrade only one and leave the other on 8.1.

If you're running Windows 8 now, I can't imagine 10 doing much that's worse.

The date when Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7: January 14, 2020.

So I have about four and a half years to turn myself into a Linux user. I refuse to use Windows 8 or higher. I'm so done with Microsoft.

Gendo: I made this decision some time ago, but thanks for giving me another reason to switch to Linux. I hope things work out for you, though... 

Just download Ubuntu.  It's free and fairly easy to set up and use.  Only problems I ever really ran into is media stuff (can't play all videos, browser plugins, etc.).

[markusin]

I expect that I will upgrade to 10 within the year, but I'll wait as long as possible to see if it causes problems for any people running the same hardware.

The tricky thing is that Windows 10 is being offered for free through July 29 (I think). So that's why I came here with this question. Of course, since nobody's seen Windows 10 yet, it's a bit of a gamble. Do I get in on the ground floor and get Windows 10 for free, or do I wait it out and ultimately pay for it later?

I have two machines. I could upgrade only one and leave the other on 8.1.

If you're running Windows 8 now, I can't imagine 10 doing much that's worse.

The date when Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 7: January 14, 2020.

So I have about four and a half years to turn myself into a Linux user. I refuse to use Windows 8 or higher. I'm so done with Microsoft.

Gendo: I made this decision some time ago, but thanks for giving me another reason to switch to Linux. I hope things work out for you, though... 

Just download Ubuntu.  It's free and fairly easy to set up and use.  Only problems I ever really ran into is media stuff (can't play all videos, browser plugins, etc.).

I'm using Ubuntu now at my research lab. With Linux, you'll be spending the first couple of weeks or so relying on Google for how to use the command line for your basic needs, but after that you're treated with a clean, fairly efficient OS.

[Witherweaver]

Yeah, I really didn't need to do a whole lot with it, and whenever I did I just looked up the commands.  Also, there are GUI interfaces for a lot of stuff (package manager, etc.), so you don't really need to resort to command line much.

[markusin]

Yeah, I really didn't need to do a whole lot with it, and whenever I did I just looked up the commands.  Also, there are GUI interfaces for a lot of stuff (package manager, etc.), so you don't really need to resort to command line much.

Yeah I'd say Ubuntu has reached a point where it feels a lot like Windows for most everyday things, with the added benefit of a nice package manager when you're looking for more complex services like databases and programming languages and such.

I still like Windows for it's easy-to-download-pointless-junk philosophy.

[AHoppy]

FWIW I have a friend who tested windows 10 a while back and even back then he thought it was better than 8.1.  Given that, and that it's free, I'm signing up my laptop. 

[pubby]

No, it's clearly the Windows interface that's a battery whore.

I do not know what the issue is, but it is certainly not that the "interface" is draining the battery.

Worth mentioning that Atwood's article was updated

UPDATE: Turns out the Surface 2 Pro was shipped with bad firmware. Once updated, the WiFi adapter enters lower idle power states and this helps a lot, going from 6.6 hours of browsing time to 8.3 hours, a 25% improvement! That puts it much more in line with the rest of the field, at least, even if it doesn't achieve Mac like runtime

I'm not sure if the software issues were resolved though.

[TrojH]

So I have about four and a half years to turn myself into a Linux user. I refuse to use Windows 8 or higher. I'm so done with Microsoft.

Why is that, though? The only practical differences between 7 and 8.1 is that the audio actually works in 8.1 and you can customize things a lot more in 8.1.

Maybe I didn't phrase that quite right. It's not that I think Windows 8.1 is so much worse than Windows 7. It's just that, due to my general hatred of Microsoft, I've decided that my current Windows 7 laptop will be my last computer that runs Windows. I'm giving myself a deadline to force myself to make a change.

Just download Ubuntu.  It's free and fairly easy to set up and use.  Only problems I ever really ran into is media stuff (can't play all videos, browser plugins, etc.).

I'm already playing around with Linux; my dad (who spoils me rotten) bought me a small netbook computer, and I put Linux on it. I'm liking it so far, but it will take me some time to get used to it.

[qmech]

I expect that I will upgrade to 10 within the year, but I'll wait as long as possible to see if it causes problems for any people running the same hardware.

The tricky thing is that Windows 10 is being offered for free through July 29 (I think). So that's why I came here with this question. Of course, since nobody's seen Windows 10 yet, it's a bit of a gamble. Do I get in on the ground floor and get Windows 10 for free, or do I wait it out and ultimately pay for it later?

I believe that it's free to upgrade at any time during the first year.  29 July looks like the first day anybody will be able to get it (although not everybody, as they can't get it out that fast).  I have no intention of paying (explicitly) for Windows.

[TheEmerged]

At a previous place of employment, I spent about three weeks updating all the computers to Windows ME because the CFO* had read an article about how XP wasn't reliable.

About a week later, I was assigned about a three week task of updating all the ME machines to XP.   NOT the highpoint of my IT career, I assure you


*Yes, the CFO, not the CIO.  Long story I'd prefer to keep as a repressed memory...

[Rubby]

Free upgrades have started. Rave reviews pouring in already!

Well, this seems to be going well so far.

[Seprix]

Looks like Win10 is another failure from what I'm reading so far.