Skyline_UK
If Windows 9 is a genuine improved OS that these huge buyers like, MSoft will ship millions and regain their footing. I will buy it for my studio

I'll probably hold out for Windows X1. 
 

I happen to have purchased the author's book and it is as poor as that article. I wound up with Windows 8 Inside  Out and it is everything Windows 8 Secrets is not. There are no secrets in Windows 8 secrets and it is really a rehash of the help file. Windows 8 Inside out on the other hand builds nicely on the basics that it assumes one would know and goes into detail about various things that are important for users to know. If so inclined. BTW I have them on Kindle.  
 
The article was disjointed to me and I found it difficult to understand how he comes to his conclusions. I think he is rather superficial in his knowledge of Windows.        

Iinstalled Windows 8 twice and after both times went back to W7 - for some reason my W8 installaion got hosed. User error ? Perhaps ...... But not convinced.

The passage from W7 to W8 should be painless, regardless. But its not. Maybe for MS wizbods and whatevers it is. But for the average user ..... Mmmmmm, not at all convinced. Try upgrading from Office 2010 to Office 2013. Now THAT is neither easy NOR well explained.

Ok, there are success installations, but then you have my experiences and just google, there are other bad case scenarios. Ok (again) prolly not representative of all users, but '.......

Anyway i will try upgrading again, but can i exchange my W8 licence for a W8.1 ?

Cheers,
J

Win 8.1 is a free upgrade. 

I've just come over from 7 to 8.1 Read the article and there is nothing new in there that hasn't already done the rounds. 9 will be here sometime next year.  The crazy thing is Windows has never been a straight out of the box program that can do audio or video.  It always needed to be tweaked.  It's gotten better and less and less tweaks were needed particularly as the amount of ram installed in systems went up.  And of course the quality of the components got better.  I've been a Windows user since Dos days too.  Windows 8.1 is fine and the only tweak I've had to do, admittedly I haven't done any audio, is make the system boot to the desktop and change a couple of file associations. 
 
If you want a straight out of the box system then that is what Apple is for, I still don't understand how people don't get this yet!  It's these people who are ruining it for the rest of us!!
 
The one thing I do agree with in this article is Windows should focus on what it does best and not try and port a proper operating system into a phone or tablet.  Leave that to Crapple, that what I do.  I would not buy a windows phone or tablet or Android for that matter.
 
Ben
 
   

vanceen
I was surprised at how easy it was to get used to 8.1. For a number of reasons, the change was less disruptive than previous new OS installations. Performance is at least as good as Win 7. "Disaster"? Why?

It was 8 that was considered a disaster. The commonly-held belief is that 8.1 is the first step toward recovery.

8.1 is a better OS than Windows 7, but only just (assuming you have needs/requirements for it). That's a recovery but sadly for M$ it doesn't turn it into the $'s they had in the good old days. Their ""eco-system"" has been damaged.

I'll hold off on switching from W7 as long as it keeps working with no problems.  My wife has W8 on a laptop and it has had issues a couple of times, so I'll just wait and see what happens.  I'll probably be due for a new computer by the time I have to change anything.