I'm fine with Windows 8 since my laptop has a touchscreen. My school computer does not though, and I would preffer Windows 7 on that one, alas it came with Windows 8.

yeah but my point is you can set windows 8 to boot to desktop and work from there without ever using the START screen and it's apps. There is no need to pay for the expense to downgrade to windows 7.

Windows 8 is designed for touch generation. Nintendo did that with the original DS.

Windows 8 has zero use at my workplace. No touchy feely needed.

MS could have just do a 7.5. Best of both worlds or do a 7/8, allowing switching between both interfaces.

really dont get why they dont just put in a windows classic theme for all the haters.

Staying with Windows 8. Much better for my needs. It does everything 7 does and more. Why would I gimp myself.

My first (and current) notebok is a HP and it looks like HP just won my next notebook purchase too. I hope Asus do the same, though, because I like their products, and I'd like to be able to choose.

PS: for touch devices, my preference goes to Android, and MS, by enforcing a closed market for apps just ensured I won't change my mind, or should I change, not for Windows.

No it doesn't do everything.

* Start button removed.
* Recent Documents removed.
* Unified Search removed, you now search catagorically.
* Gadgets are removed.
* Aero Glass is removed.
* Flip 3D is removed.
* Windows Classic and High-Contrast modes are removed. (Important for some of my clients who are vision impared.)
* Status Bar and Details pane in the Explorer shell removed.
* Some DUN options removed which are important to Dial-Up and users DSL users that may use PPPoE not to mention some forms of 2G/3G connections. (Needed some of this to dial into remote sites.)
* Network Map from Networking and Sharing is removed, I found it handy when dealing with a few dozen PC's at a LAN.
* Windows Defender no longer allows for scheduled scanning.
* DVD Maker was removed.
* Windows Media Center is removed. (It's now a seperate download.) And will not automatically start upon boot. (Important for HTPC's.)
* DVD and MPEG-2 codecs removed.

Don't get me started on the Ribbon interface for Explorer either, I didn't like it in office... I despise it in Explorer. :P

Windows 7 is still for me on my Desktops.
Windows 8 is absolutely fantastic on my Phone, the Metro GUI works incredibly well.
The Metro GUI is also really great on my Intel Atom tablet.

But try using Eyefinity and Metro. - Normally Metro shows allot of wasted space, white space or flat colour space, in Eyefinity that issue is compounded far more.

I do have high hopes for Windows 9 though, but some of the more critical and often used features in Windows 7 were removed for me in Windows 8, making Windows 8... A downgrade in every sense of the word.

Apart from load times (which may also be because of a new computer), I dont see anything done better in windows 8.
The interface just annoys me. Whats the point having tiles if you have a desktop where you can put shortcuts? There always was an option to make the icons bigger if you felt they were too small.

Then theres the whole thing about going to the top and clicking and dragging down to close an app.

They clearly forced features for touch screen users onto us because they couldnt be bothered paying for some extra staff to optimise it for mouse + keyboard use. Thats only proven when you go to the store....why the hell is it showing me all these crappy mobile apps when im on a damn PC? If im on a PC, I expect 'software', not 'apps'

Shoot I wish they were selling W7 back when i was getting my laptop. W8 isn't as bad as the rep it has (well if I didn't have the 3rd party start button it would be), but W7 is still much better IMO.

I have a start menu on the new Windows 8.1. Alot of changes on 8.1.

Everything I use it for is better n 8 for me. I have a 28" all in one Desktop. Touchscreen. It blows my old Windows 7 PC away for speed and user functionality. I say I spend 70% of my time in Metro? I guess it does everything I need. All my desktop stuff when I need it, and amazing multitasking. I use Xbox Music across 3 devices for 1 cost, and use Xbox Video. So I have never used DVD, Bluray or any need for Codecs on my PC. I guess thats why Windows 8 trounces the performance of Windows 7 for me. Plus Project Spark!