Bit worried my experience will also be voted down...
...but I had 2 kids (12 and 14) who also got new laptops and also hated windows 8. No, they didn't do a PR thing for Apple (ah, the vote down?), they wanted Windows 7 back. The daughter stopped using the laptop in favor of a tablet, which in its self is interesting, and boy asked for a Win 7 desk top for the following birthday, which he got. The two Win 8 laptops are currently sitting under my desk gathering dust as I type.
In retrospect I asked them both why, and both said it was essentially that Win 8 is an OS for a tablet, not a laptop or desktop. On a tablet, fine, other wise, not frustrating and close to unuseable.
Later on, I had to rush out and immediately buy a new PC for me. I had zero choice and had to buy a Win8 PC. I nearly cried. I hated it, and couldn't get my head round how I could have several application running, switch, and all that. It was like everything is locked in to full screen, and so on. The one single thing that saved it, was installing the classic menu thing, which I could configure to make Win 8 have a start menu, boot to desk top and remove the hotspot things. Now Win 8 runs like Win7, Vista, etc, Im fairly happy with it. The only problem for me now is that nagging feeling that a load of un-necessary Metro stuff is chugging int he back ground.
Lastly, No1 son (20) had to get a new laptop, and was again stuck with Win8. The classic menu thing has saved his day too. Shame I didnt know about it at the time for the other two.
No3 son (16), is due a new PC, and he was essentially refusing anything with win8, and was prepared to go second hand to avoid it. Now he knows he can get round metro in various ways, he's much happier about the idea of a Win8 machine.
Over all though, the one thing I want to know is why on earth a UI so obviously designed for a touch screen is being forced on laptop and desk top users which mice and keyboards and not touch screens. I have not used Win8 on a touch screen tablet, but I imagine it might work well. Now, Im quite happy with Win 8 as long as I get straight to the desktop, have a start menu as it vaguely was before, and can completely avoid metro. Win8 is fine, its just having this tablet UI forced on to my PC I have areal issues with.
Oh, never found a way for my 2nd screen to work with the metro thing either.
Lets hope my experience is somehow valid enough not to be voted down.
I have been using Apple machines since, I was 11, now 26. One year in high school, after I moved districts, I had to use Windows OS. I never used it too much as a teen or kid. A job after college required me to use a Windows XP desktop and it was un-fun.
Alas, I now have a Surface Pro. And it has become my sidekick, my go-to, it sleeps on the floor next to me. I still use my iMac, but its rare.
I have very few complaints for Windows 8 running on the Surface Pro. I think the OS was designed for machines just like the Pro. You can call them hybrids, for lack of a better term. Something you can use for both leisure and work.
Windows 8.1 is downloading right now on my Pro. And, not going to lie, I am still new to Windows and a little nervous. I hear so many stories of Windows "going bad" but that is on non-Microsoft made machines.
I guess what I am getting to, is Windows 8 was designed for machines with touch screens. It really excels in that format, but OEMs a year ago, were not selling hardware to support that.
I would pick up a Surface and give it shot.
>I use metro on a secondary monitor when hooked up to my Pro, without problems.
EDIT [long answer] When the iPad came out, I was happy and disappointed at the same time. I had dreamt of a tablet machine that could run Adobe CS Suite and Ableton, and more...But it didn't. That was okay, I still liked it, and iPad 3 was awesome. But still, I since a kid, dreamt of that "all in one machine." I at one point was saving up to buy an third party created macbook touch.
When the Surface Pro was announced, I was hooked. It was finally going to exist, a portable touch tablet with a pen that could run desktop programs. Not going to lie, its been great so far. If Apple makes a comparable tablet, I will buy that! Windows 8 felt like a compromise at first. Now, all the swipes and features are second hand, and work very well!
I made the decision to purchase 12 Surface Pros for our company's executive team for their need of mobile computing and entertainment in the air. They are pretty, fits all the criteria on the paper and seem more business oriented than the iPad.
Worst career decision in the recent 5 years. It's too heavy; it does not last as long; sometimes it became unresponsive; it does not have the popular app of the month; Office lost certifications between continents(how such thing happened I have no clue) it had to be re-activated multiple times while I talked my boss through the process when he was literally in the tropical jungle with a bad cell signal; our legacy business applications craps out 3 times during the week anyway... the list goes on
That does sound terrible. It's always a gamble on first generation products. Hopefully you returned them and got iPads. Nothing beats the Apple app store. I almost returned mine after a week.
I kept thinking, Windows sucks. The reality was, I didn't know how to use it. I do much of my work in Chrome, InDesign, Photoshop, Lightroom,and Illustrator. Haven't had any problems. Office is nice to have, but really only use OneNote.
I'm Chinese, my bosses happen to be Chinese too. We have iPads, tonnes of them, if not for the iPads laying around to distract the executives on several occasions I might be in a bigger hole than I am in right now.
I really wanted to like it, our COO still likes it(iPads everywhere, Surface shiny and not everywhere), but there is no way in hell I'm gonna let him go abroad with only the Surface Pro beside him. Never again.
Consider getting your kid a touch screen laptop if you are still in the market for one. I wasn't a bug fan of metro until I got one and now I use it more and more.
I've been thinking about a surface, anyone have any anecdotes about how their kids responded to that? I selfishly want the Wacom stylus functionality for myself.
A friend's children (aged 6 and 8) use my Surface occasionally, mainly for the Fresh Paint drawing application. They love it, and have very few problems using it -- sometimes they misjudge the swipe gestures but they have learned how to recover in most cases. (They also enjoy ArtRage on the iPad, so it's not that Surface is the only thing they know.)
I don't think it costs much extra. I have seen a decent touch screen laptop at around $500. Many lower than that. Find some here. http://www.edealpc.com/ Filter by touch screen.
...but I had 2 kids (12 and 14) who also got new laptops and also hated windows 8. No, they didn't do a PR thing for Apple (ah, the vote down?), they wanted Windows 7 back. The daughter stopped using the laptop in favor of a tablet, which in its self is interesting, and boy asked for a Win 7 desk top for the following birthday, which he got. The two Win 8 laptops are currently sitting under my desk gathering dust as I type.
In retrospect I asked them both why, and both said it was essentially that Win 8 is an OS for a tablet, not a laptop or desktop. On a tablet, fine, other wise, not frustrating and close to unuseable.
Later on, I had to rush out and immediately buy a new PC for me. I had zero choice and had to buy a Win8 PC. I nearly cried. I hated it, and couldn't get my head round how I could have several application running, switch, and all that. It was like everything is locked in to full screen, and so on. The one single thing that saved it, was installing the classic menu thing, which I could configure to make Win 8 have a start menu, boot to desk top and remove the hotspot things. Now Win 8 runs like Win7, Vista, etc, Im fairly happy with it. The only problem for me now is that nagging feeling that a load of un-necessary Metro stuff is chugging int he back ground.
Lastly, No1 son (20) had to get a new laptop, and was again stuck with Win8. The classic menu thing has saved his day too. Shame I didnt know about it at the time for the other two.
No3 son (16), is due a new PC, and he was essentially refusing anything with win8, and was prepared to go second hand to avoid it. Now he knows he can get round metro in various ways, he's much happier about the idea of a Win8 machine.
Over all though, the one thing I want to know is why on earth a UI so obviously designed for a touch screen is being forced on laptop and desk top users which mice and keyboards and not touch screens. I have not used Win8 on a touch screen tablet, but I imagine it might work well. Now, Im quite happy with Win 8 as long as I get straight to the desktop, have a start menu as it vaguely was before, and can completely avoid metro. Win8 is fine, its just having this tablet UI forced on to my PC I have areal issues with.
Oh, never found a way for my 2nd screen to work with the metro thing either.
Lets hope my experience is somehow valid enough not to be voted down.