Windows 8/ Great or a Mistake?

[beth]

Actually, there is more to the tech repair story, but I didn't want to bore ya'll. LOL
First impressions with 8 is that it does seem like you have to take some extra steps just to do something, like shut down the system, or get to the control panel, but 8 is also rather customizable, which mean you can create quicker means to doing things that is designed to suit the individual user. For instance:
By default, in Windows 8, in order to shut down, you have to go to the "charms menu" on the right bottom of the screen, click on settings, then click on power, then click on shut down, restart, etc. A lot of steps that wasn't required in the previous OS. However, this is customizable. In my case, I customized it so all I need to do is press on the pc power button and 8 shuts down. This actually eliminates 2 steps which was required by the old OS.

 

[dragonzim]

At my last company (left last March after almost 30 years) we used Epicor Vantage (after ProfitKey, after DataCatcher). We implemented in '07. After several "upgrades" that fixed  few things and broke others, I found it pretty good, but this is the system I had in mind when I said "developed by groups that never talked to each other".
At my new company we use Navision, the worst piece of crap I have ever seen. "DOS with a GUI" that makes me long for the COBOL days. We plan to go to Syteline in Feb and I cannot contain my anticipation.
I've seen Mas90, didn't think that much of it, never looked at Macola.
Congrats on Epicor, if you look under the hood and tweak it a bit, its pretty sweet. Do you have a good IT puke who can run service connect? There are a lot of custom reports available if you can punch the right buttons.
Since you bought it 1 1/2 years ago, I'm guessing you have version 8.04.xx. We had 8.03. I heard 8.04 fixed a lot of broken links etc.
If you are running 8.03 then:
BE ADVISED!
The "Customer Part" table does not update with changes in the  "Part Maintenance" table. If customer items go through revisions to descriptions often, you will need to blow away the "Customer Part" data on a regular basis or your shipping docs will show prior revision descriptions. I never understood why tables did not link to Part Maintenance (thats what Part Maintenance is for, right?) and never saw a real need for the redundant "Customer Part" table. There are several quirks in Epicor Vantage, but if you are aware of them, you will be OK.
We are on Epicor 9.05, not Vantage

 

[beth]

Well, I'm on my 3rd Dell laptop. The first one had a pixel problem with the HD display, return it. The 2nd one had a problem with the SSD used for speedy bootup--stopped working so I couldn't boot without difficulty. The 3rd one I just got last evening.
My feeling is that Dell is sending me refurbished machines, but can't prove it. I should have gotten the Asus.
Windows 8 probably cool if you want to synchronize all of your equipment and become a Microsoft drone. They kinda threw out the baby with the bathwater hoping it would catch on. Unless you have a touchscreen, it becomes clunky. However, who wants to touchscreen their PC? The arm and hand fatigue would set in rather quickly I'd imagine and there is a lot on the pc that you just need a keyboard for. So type, mouse and swipe---give me a break. The few useful apps on the Start (such as IE) have dumb-downed features so I don't want to use it.

 

[ironeagle2006]

I am getting used to it called I have all the Apps I need directly on the Desktop and have it setup to go Directly to my Desktop so I love it. Loads so much Faster than any thing I had Previous to this from a Win98 computer to a Win7.

 

[beth]

You can also pin all the program apps to the Start as well as the Desktop, so it seems redundant. Seems like they expected some backlash from people used to the old desktop config. so it was kept to appease them. Windows8 does load extremely fast, I'd have to say.