Win 8 is just around the corner. Are there issues with X5 or will there be an update/patch to address the new Operating System?
Anyone using Win 8 now?
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Win 8 is just around the corner. Are there issues with X5 or will there be an update/patch to address the new Operating System?
Anyone using Win 8 now?
Larry:
I remember CA stating that X5 should run fine - very fine on Win8
you will now want to shoot me ...
I have been reading about Win8 in my PC mags and I am fairly certain that I will be avoiding Win8 big time
in fact, I will be looking for a Win 7 as my Vista desktop and laptop date back to 2008
I'll get a 2012 Win7 and skip Win8
I think MS is making a hugh mistake with Win 8
I prefer not participate in this debacle
a recent poll indicated that 81% plan to avoid Win 8
Lew
I'm planning a migration to Win 8 on another computer (it's very cheap $39.00 upon release in October) to free up a Win 7 license I have for this computer but not sure of the repercussions/ramifications of the upgrade to Win 8 - yet.
For this work computer I need to get to Win 7 but beyond that I don't see a need for Win 8 for this work computer - till Chief no longer supports Win7.
My other computer is used for music production as a hobby so I can upgrade that without much worries about printers, drivers, mission critical work etc.
I read some OK reviews of Win 8 and to be honest I'm very much an OS agnostic. Meaning I don't care which OS I use (and I certainly don't care what OS someone else uses) it just has to get me to my software so I can get some work complete. :D:D:D
It seems to me that Win 7 should serve you very far into the future and seems like a good strategy Lew - or until Win 8, 9, 10 offers some very compelling feature or Win 7 stops working with the latest CA software.
Interesting times for sure and with the cheap roll out of Win 8 I expect it to be adopted rather quickly but also stir up a hornet's nest of doom and naysayers.
I'll let you know how I get on with Win 8 Lew and we can have a laugh about ME being on the cutting edge of OS technology.
Larry, I'm proud of you.
That's a bit condescending Perry. Do you have on opinion on Win 8? I thought I remember you'll wait till the first service pack? Any change of heart? Or will you stick with Win 7 through Chief's life with Win 7?
Not meant to be condescending at all. I just think things will go better for you with an "OS" upgrade. My view still stands, I will make the move when "SP1" comes out or I read that w8 is working good. Chief says so far so good. I just want your experience with Chief to be the best it can be and while it might not be everyone's opinion, I think you must keep up with the technology to get the best out of the software.
Totally agree. Can't wait till the finances will allow.
Having Win 8 available for only $39.00 is a pretty big deal - not only to me but I think for a lot of early adopters.
I personally hope Win 8 is a big success because their OS's have steadily gotten better with each release and have opened new doors for software development with each of those releases.
I can't wait till 2020 (that's the same 11 year life of XP) when we have this same discussion about the OLD Win 7 :D:D
Hi Lew,
Thanks for the heads up on Windows 8! What are the issues you are referring to with Windows 8?
Thanks,
Paul
Paul:
stability/performance wise Win 8 is doing fine to excellent
the have made a vast change to the GUI to make it compatable with tablets and phones etc
the change is NOT being received very well
the new GUI was to be called Metro but MS has dropped it for Win 8 style
go get the latest PC World and Maximum PC magazines and read the reviews
Lew
That's the part that interests me and I've read the same thing about the GUI but I don't care about the GUI. I've used Macs and PC's since DOS. Just get me to my software program so I can work - make the GUI anything you like.
For me when I start up my main work machine. I need Chief Architect, my graphics program and my browser. That's it.
On my music machine I need even less.
I'm sure Win 8 will have an efficient enough method to get me to those programs so I can get my work done - beyond that I'm already over it. Other users are VERY dependent upon the OS to perform multiple tasks. Me, Not so much.
Again I'm pretty much an OS agnostic but if Win 8 does perform well, and all I've read about Win 8 is it's a faster more secure and an all round better OS - like Win 7 is over Vista - then Win 8 should fare pretty well in the market place. IMO.
Please keep us posted when win8 comes out for the do or don't of the system thanks
I ran the RC version of Win 8 for about a week. My PC is not a tablet or an android phone, it's a 'kin PC. I have no interest in Win 8. Win 7 works like a champion.
the 39.00 dollar UPGRADE to win 8 is just that an upgrade so will not free a win7 license.
At least if it is the same one we are being offered here.
Thanks for the heads up Graeme but come to think of it I've never been denied the use of software I've upgraded 'from'. Maybe this is different and it's not a big deal because I have 5 or 6 XP licenses as well and the upgrade is good for XP users as well. Then I can install my Win7 license on any machine I want.
Yeah I hear ya about Win 7 - it's a really good OS.
The ONLY compelling reason to upgrade to Win 8 IMO is if you don't have Win 7 - and it's only $39.00.
But mostly I'm in the 'why bother' camp if your current OS (and all your software for that matter) is working fine.
I just spent part of the last 2 days upgrading my beta version of Windows 8 to the release version and am probably going to try to make it my primary development system.
My impressions so far are mixed.
Most of the UI is mainly just a step sideways, but there are a few very nice improvements, like the task manager has not only prettier graphics, but more useful information.
The big annoyances for me at first have been getting to the control panel, application list, and shutting down/restarting the computer.
It is clear that the UI is centered around supporting tablets, which MS really had to do to remain competitive, but at the same time it seems like they kind of ignored the desktop market with the design.
So far I'm not unhappy with it as it seems like everything is still there and works. There is definitely a bigger initial learning curve than with older OS upgrades, or at least it seems that way to me.
Chief is working pretty well on Windows 8. We have one known issue where the wait cursor shows up if you let it sit idle for awhile. This is more an annoyance than a problem with chief. As soon as you move the mouse it goes away.
We will probably have a fix for that in the next update.
Other than that I'm not aware of issues with Chief. Our testing department has been looking at it for awhile.
I'm hearing a lot of the same comments about not upgrading to Windows 8, and honestly I wasn't all that motivated to do so either. If I didn't have a need to do so I probably would have put it off for awhile longer.
I don't see Windows 8 as being significantly incompatible with software, like Vista was, so I'm inclined to think that adoption of this OS will perhaps be better than the naysayers are thinking, but probably not as fast as Windows 7.
Because of the change in UI I suspect that Windows 8 will tend to make migration to a Mac more attractive.
We will not be supporting the ARM Windows 8 processors at this time so most of the tablet options won't run Chief. We will likely move in that direction in the future, but that depends on availability of libraries that we use and demand. Currently the demand is pretty much non-existant and we have some significant libraries that are missing.
In short Windows 8 is appears to be a solid option for Chief so if you want to move in that direction I don't anticipate any significant issues.
Thanks for that in depth review Doug.
"Because of the change in UI I suspect that Windows 8 will tend to make migration to a Mac more attractive"
With a native version of Mac and Chief ???
Doug
thanks for the information it was very enli9ghtening. However you state that demand for a tablet application is pretty much non-existent. Have we been asked whether we would use it if available?? I haven't, and probably would be very keen if it were available.
Currently the demand for Chief on tablets is almost exclusively for iPad.
We expect that to change over time.
At this point we are focused on making a Mac version of Chief that also makes it a lot easier to move to other platforms. Once we have that version we will be focusing more effort on seeing what we can get running on tablets. Look for a beta of our Mac version next fall.
Our efforts will be focused on the larger markets first and then the smaller ones.
Currently the Windows 8 ARM market is almost nonexistent in comparison to other markets, such as iPad and Android, but we do expect it will grow. We just don't know by how much it will grow and our availability of libraries to run on ARM is currently a limiting factor.
Our goal is to be able to move to any of these new platforms very quickly, but we still have quite a bit of work left to get to that point.
Eventually I expect that we will support the Windows 8 ARM platform. But I think we are at least 2 years out on that. We need to finish our Mac effort first.
Exciting....A Macinchief in my future.
This is very exciting news. My mind is spinning. I will be able to save all of my stuff on the ICloud instead of mozy pro. I will also be able to work at home on my home mac if I so choose. And no more of this win7 or win8 troubles. A much more stable OS.
Not sure if I'm excited or bummed that the development efforts will now be split between 2 or more platforms.
I have absolutely no interest in a MAC anything but they're not developing for me. I would like a simplified version of CA for field work which would work on a pad of some sort. An iPad? To me that's just not exciting at all. But if it HAS to be on an iPad I understand that demand will drive these decisions, not my personal preferences.
And doesn't that necessarily mean that features will be put on hold as those company energies drift to develop those other platforms?
Larry:
I agree - hoping Mac development doesn't hurt windows development
Lew
...and what happens to the SSA members - do they just wait that much longer for an update because resources are being redirected - or are resources being added with no discernable down side for current users?
I KNOW these questions have been asked at the offices of CA and the best part of this news is that CA is doing well enough financially to consider such a move.
So far, I think, the company has treated its user base very well and I see no reason to think that will change - unless it changes.
I've been using Win8 for about three weeks now (MSDN early access). X5 has been running great on it. Like Doug mentioned earlier, I've seen the wait cursor show up on occassion when I let the mouse sit but as soon as I move the mouse it goes away.
Other than that, I haven't had any issues with it at all in relation to Chief. Things have been very stable and VERY fast. The UI is a bit of a step sideways but it's not so bad that it can't be lived with. Some small annoyances with getting to certain places (like control panel) but it won't break the system for me.
Larry:
I agree about the SSA...
CA is aiming for a 12 month cycle
if that starts to slip to 18 - 24 months then SSA starts to lose value rapidly
Lew
With a range of Windows tablets to be released at the same time as Win8 I think the demand for Chief to run on them will surge. I for one have been putting off buying a tablet in the hope that there will soon have one that will run Chief.
I know that historically there has been a call for Chief on mac but I think this new market will be even bigger. I also like the idea of running Chief on touch screen desktop.
It is interesting that we havent seen a poll to find out what the demand would be.
There have been tablets available that can run Chief for several years now. Just make sure they are Intel instead of ARM based processors.
The project of supporting Mac is also an overhaul in our user interface. The result will be improved toolbars, better support for multiple monitors and improvements to our dialogs to make them easier to navigate to name a few things.
We have also been keeping our development moving forward in other areas by increasing our staffing to support the porting effort.
Doug:
I'm hoping that with the re-coding effort that we can have full access to the API for Ruby scripting along with a script recorder
until then Ruby is of limited use
Lew
I've been running Windows 8 with X5 since X5 was released. I have been running it on a Acer Iconia W500 Tablet. It works great, no issues that I have noticed. The new Microsoft Surface Pro tablet that is coming out in January will probably run Chief even better than the Tablet I'm using. Windows 8 is a great OS. It's basically a better version of win 7. It runs smoother and requires lesser hardware to run well than Win 7 does. Any program that can run on Win 7 should run just fine on Win 8. I've been using the beta versions of Win 8 and I really like it. Win 8 will take some getting used to for the majority of PC users but the features it has are excellent. Win 8 has a lot of really great built in apps. Personally, I like the new UI I think it's intuitive but will just take some getting used to. To me it would be a no brainer to upgrade to a new and better OS for $39.99.
I am looking to purchase a new computer with a better video card and have a choice between windows 7 & 8 after reading this post I still am not sure which way to go.....what would most people do if this decision was sitting in front of them?
Thanks all.
I would usually recommend going with the latest OS and getting a PC that was built for that OS
I, personnaly have some doubts about my not liking the Win 8 GUI based on all the negative reviews I have been reading
BUT.... I haven't used it yet either
so it would probably be best if you went somewhere and tried Win 8 and Win 7 and make up your own mind
I'm not in the market for a PC yet and probably won't be for another year or two - I'll decide then
Lew
To me the look and feel of an OS is of very little importance as I do my work in the software app not the OS and I can quickly adapt to any new OS interface.
For that reason I would choose Win 8 because the technology is just another notch above Win 7. Win 8 uses less resources than Win 7, is more secure and has a very clear future mapped in front of it.
The technological differences may not be dramatic in every day use but 8 will be an OS that should last for many, many years.
On the other hand if a new OS GUI is going to distract you and cause you to be less productive then Win 7 will be very familiar and comfortable despite its slightly lesser technology.
And please remember anything that will run Win7 will run Win8 with no problems, there's no good reason to get a new computer to run Win8 if the one you have now runs Win7, unless you're just more comfortable doing so and have extra money to spend on unnecessary hardware.