I use 7 at work and 8.1 at home. I just got the 8.1 update over the weekend. Both are just fine. There are enough nice things in 8 that I would go ahead and get that if I was building another new PC.

Drag gestures on a touch pad is nonsense. How do you tell the difference between a "swipe" and a "move the pointer"? No one else has figured out how cleanly and clearly yet Win 8 insists on using "swipe" when it is not a good fit on mouse or touchpad.

On the other hand, the way the Apple/MacBook touch pad works is weak for "click-drag-release" but the UI is specifically built to avoid that. There is a lesson here....

As for the whole start menu thing, I always felt the issue was it was full of crap which confused users. If it were way more sparse like the Ubuntu 10 shell they would have gotten much better results. Imagine hitting the Windows Key and getting this:

- Text box (start typing to look for programs, files, whatever)

- The last 8 apps you ran

- The last 8 documents you opened

Instead in Win8 when the user hit the Windows Key the user is presented with a window full of squares of things they didn't install or might have a clue what they are. Is it any surprise people got confused?

Side note: It perpetually bothers in Win 8 that scrolling down in some modes scrolls right. What does dragging the pointer right or left do? Swipe.

More fun facts: You don't access safe mode in Win 8 by using F8. Oh no this is the future where you now have to use Shift-F8which I'm not sure is documented anywhere but Google (I am not sure it is even documented anywhere at Microsoft.com). And because of the Win8 handles power the actual timing window you have to actually invoke "Start in Safe Mode" is very tiny. Have fun reboot after reboot after reboot trying to get into Safe Mode.

I don't want to hate on Windows 8 but this thing has been borked from before launch. I'm beyond hating and just want it to stop. This is the kind of crap that will drive people to consoles.

@warpr: damn it.

Huh? I thought hipsters were arrogant about knowing about a new thing before others, which would make me the opposite haha

Just messing and honestly, is there really a concrete definition for "hipster"?

While I have nothing to say other than I won't switch to 8 until I am forced to and I think Microsoft are dumb assess for trying to force a Tablet UI on a PC I also found it ironic that at work yesterday everyone was bitching because we are getting new pc's and the rumor is 8 may be installed on them.

Probably not!

Behind the curtains, Windows 8 is much, MUCH better than 7.

All you gotta do to enjoy the awesomeness of windows 8 is to avoid metro/modern at any costs, and it is all completely avoidable, so if you don't upgrade because of front-end-microsoft-bs, you are stupid.

Haven't had much of a problem with 7 so I don't see a point in upgrading. Maybe if it seems vital in the future I'll upgrade.

You don't have to log into the store to get Windows 8.1. You need to use the store app to download and install the thing, but no logging in is required.

Ya know I defended Windows 8 as best I can, but 8.1 really fucked up my install.

After installing it all my apps would crash on launch (including the app store). It broke my Office 2013 installation. And I couldn't install java.

Had to go out to the internet and find a command to reregister the store app. Once that worked, I had to uninstall and reinstall any apps I used. Then I had to run the Microsoft Fixit to uninstall 2013 ( the installer was corrupted) and reinstall it (which was a nightmare in and of itself. Microsoft Accounts are fucked). And I had to install Java using the hidden administrator account.

I can't wait to find some new issues.

How are non technical people supposed to use this upgrade?!

These issues aside:
I find the UI improvements to be good in 8.1 (Touch and non touch alike). The speed is good. And multi monitor and split app support is improved. The ability to shut down by right clicking the start screen button is a nice improvement as well.

@hunkulese: Using windows 7 Ultimate x64. Will only ever change OS if I absolutely have no other choice with microsoft not allowing DirectX 12 or something on windows 7, only then will I ever change.

i have never tried win 8 and i hate it because its to different to what i have been used to
makes no sense i know and i need to try it out at some point.

well windows 8 is built for touch screens, windows 8.1 makes it a little better but its still meant for touch screens, the whole layout is bad and the tiles thing is just crap, something that belongs back in the 70s but its heading towards the xbox layout, eventually windows and xbox will have almost identical layouts and function the same eventually, no thanks heh...

windows 8 is a joke to me. 7 is the best OS since XP. if they weren't so anxious to go after Apple with 8 , they could have made 7 even better than it is.

Windows 7 will be the last version of Windows I'll ever use. I've moved on to Linux, and am not looking back :)

8.1 is quite good

I don't really care about the Metro stuff personally. I don't think it's much use without a touchpad. its still the nt kernel and its the same version of direct x. There really isn't any reason for me to change from 7 or pay more for 8. I am also flush with windows 7 keys.

@jayjonesjunior: Why? What makes windows 8 better behind the scenes?

I found that 8.1 was rife with issues for my desktop and laptop :(

On my laptop the sound drivers were replaced with generic Microsoft ones, and I was unable to change them. They were constantly blasting 100% and wouldn't let me mute them. On my desktop it was throwing unhandled exceptions with just about every program at start up. Additionally my event logs were cluttered with tons of critical errors. A real bummer. If I had a way to wipe my drive and go straight to 8.1 it wouldn't be an issue, and this is exactly why I recommend never "upgrading" your installation of Windows. It's a shame I can't upgrade my Windows 8 key to 8.1, even for a nominal fee.

8.1 is being pushed as a service pack though, and I never had these issues with XP going to SP1/2/3, or with 7 going to SP1. I guess the difference here is that previous service packs were just bundled updates and 8.1 is a re-jiggering of how Windows 8 worked.

@s10129107: I have noticed since upgrading from 7 to 8 a couple things. Mostly decreased boot speed. It over all seems snappier when opening large programs as well. And this was on both SSD and HDDs. Plus there's just little perks, like being able to mount ISOs without needing 3rd party software, the extra information on screen when moving or copying files, etc. The real reason I stuck with 8 is because I just like the aesthetic though - I know a lot of people dislike how Windows 8 controls and after using it on a touch screen laptop I totally agree. At this point I'm so used to Windows 8 that going back to 7 feels the same as it did going back to XP/2k when I'd been using 7.

Hey at least you admit to it not making sense, the majority of Win 8 haters out there will try to convince others that it's because of an imagined huge flaw in the OS that is keeping them from ever upgrading when they're actually just afraid of/hate change.

I'm really thinking about getting a 250 GB SSD and a copy of Windows 8 and slowly migrating over.

There are good thing and bad things about Win8. Personally I think the bad things outweigh the good ones. I don't know that I'd Rage about it however, I kinda feel more of a smoldering indifference toward it.

I have Win7, so why fix it if it ain't broke?

The problem now is the negative stigma attached to Windows 8. It's Vista all over.

We buy and set up new computers for clients all the time at work and nobody ever wants Windows 8. This is lame for us since we normally just go to Costco and pick some Dell's or whatever it is they sell there and set em up out of the box.

Metro tiles might be ok for living room use (I really wouldn't know) but dedicated PC users seem to despise them. Personally I prefer to just look at a folder hierarchy.

My only other thoughts on 8 is that I used a surface recently and was thoroughly disappointed. I hate that you can't have mulitple windows on an iPad but by god I would never trade it in for a surface at this time.

I still hate the way it does pictures and video and the calendar and all that, but its really not that bad.

I've messed around with 8 on some of the university computers here (most have 7 still) and it's been enough of an annoyance to convince me to just go with 7 on the PC I plan on building. The fact that most of the functions I try to do take an extra couple of steps every time for no discernible benefit just sours the whole thing. The startup time difference isn't dramatic enough to me to make it that appealing, especially since running 7 off an SSD will be plenty fast.

I "moved on" to Linux too -- for a few years. Such a transition works for some people, but I ultimately went back to OSX/Windows because I got to a point in my life where I just wanted shit to work. Fucking around for hours with bootstrapping my new Gentoo install, or noodling with ALSA drivers, got old after a while. It gives you a sense of complete ownership over your computer that is fun, and I definitely could see it having enterprise applications (where you're rolling out multiple specialized installs for standardized hardware), or as a server, but for a person who just wants to use their computer, it can become a pain. Then again, that was like ten years ago, so maybe it's gotten vastly better since.

Bought my new monster pc last year. It came with Win 7. Got bluescreens every fucking time I booted up a game and / or while playing them. I recently decided to do a fresh 8.1 install and I've had close to zero problems. Tried many different games.

I like that 8/8.1 hogs less system resources and let's me push my laptop further when I'm producing (open multiple instances, run at a lower latency, so on and so forth) without chugging. I don't really care all that much how it looks, so *shrug*, I like the improvements

8.1 It made my computer ill... but then it got better. I don't actually hate win 8, took me a year to install it (bought on sale, eventually installed when switching to an SSD) it takes a little retraining, but it's basically win 7 at it's core or indeed 3.1 for that matter! 8.1 was just a poorly realised update that broke shit.

I don't mind it. I mean, I boot to desktop and never use the metro anyway. I have the taskbar, don't really need it.