Glyn Barnes
+1 for classic shell. However there are some potential advantages with the Win 8 start screen such as building groups of programs, my main beef is the tiles are big and ugly. I wish there was an option to reduce them to icon size.
 
There is a lot of crap "apps" bundled with it as opposed to "programs" and once you get rid of them things improve. There too much stuff pulling things off the internet all the time. I never understood why you need a special "app" for, say, Facebook when it works perfectly well in your favourite web browser.
 
Other nastys are things like the PDF reader app, install Acrobat or Foxit or whatever and associate PDFs with that.
 
The OS itself is very good indeed.
 
 

The 8.1 update gives you the option to do this. They can be 1/4 the size of the 8.0 small size. Haven't been brave enough to install it yet because of the stories about it being v e r y  s l o w compared to 8.0. The tile size doesn't bother me at all and I could go as far as to say I ike it, but then I don't have masses of programmes to sift through. I can see how it might be an issue for those that do, but IMHO the old menu wasn't great for this either and as you say the grouping thing is a big plus.
 
Agree with your other points, first thing I did was get rid of the social disease crap. I think the idea behind the apps is that you can divide the screen up and have more than one on screen at a time (and maybe because it forces the use of IE ?). Again, not a facility that I want to use, but seeing as I don't have to, then I guess there's no harm in having the ability to do so if that's your thing.

ampfixer
If you just bought it perhaps there's a free 8.1 upgrade. I hear it's a little more familiar interface.

I have not upgraded to the 8.1 yet, and yes it is free, although it takes me to the "store", which makes me suspicious as something that is "free" does not need to be in a "store".
 
I wish that someone would nail Microsoft on stuff like that. In the end, it also hurts the grammar and the language, and it is very typical "geek", to ignore everything else. Microsoft has a download section and that is where this "update" should be.
 
At this point, I'm not considering that upgrade at all, as things are working just fine right now, and I don't trust the new version and Microsoft's **** rated networking that was not working on the 32-bit version.

Glyn Barnes ...
The OS itself is very good indeed.
...

The 32-bit version was crap, and had networking issues with losing the name resolution information and not connecting to the other computers on your networking. The folks at Microsoft would NOT check it, or try to fix it, and they were not helping the support folks in India that tried like hell and heaven! In the end, after a complaint to the State Attorney General (it's online, too!), I gave up on their bullmerde and some lady trying to soft-step the whole thing, and not doing a thing except wasting time on emails. I mentioned that to the lawyer and he smiled, and agreed that she was just ... doing emails!
 
I gave up, and installed the 64-bit version and have had no issues whatsoever. And this is the Windows 8 PRO version, btw, not the Home variety, which is far worse, since it is designed for offices and professionals. It kinda tells you that Microsoft did not test this and did not take notes and fix what was wrong.
 
One of these days, Microsoft is going to take it in the shorts, just like Apple will, when their stock finally falls off the California coast into the sea, and they are shown to be the biggest rip off there is. Both of these are in dire need of a serious humble experience to learn something about success.

I'm happy with Win8, but my experience with the Win 8.1 update was a nightmare. After the update, I was only able to get into Win 8.1 a couple of times. The error I found out was in Device Mgr.......the intel graphics HD 4000 driver gave a Code 43 error: Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.I was only getting a blank black screen (neither my dedicated graphics card nor the iGPU worked). I couldn't see anything to fix anything.
 
Apparently Win 8.1's Automatic Update causes some graphics driver issues and Intel is suggesting to manually install it. It seemed to be a known issue and a lot of people have experienced this Code 43 error, but at the same time, many have not.....YMMV.
 
Anyway, I had to do a clean install of just Win8 to get my PC working again and now, all is well. You might not run into this on the upgrade, but it's good to be aware of it and be ready to do some digging to get back.
 
A BIG +1 for Classic Shell......(I don't like the Tiles/Metro thingy)......and this just simply.....works!! 
 
 

Yeah, I've been watching these developments with a lot of interest.  Is this finally some serious market competition to the iPad?  It's got iPad beat on price, keyboard and USB connectivity (and I'm not sure, but I've heard that MS Office is standard issue for the basic price).  I've been very tempted to buy one for my wife, just to keep her out of the computer room for hours a day doing emails.
 
I wonder if the amount of crapware depends on who you buy it from.

we actually still support XP ,
we are moving to 7
and AFA 8.. blah its a lame attempt at mimicking touch screen phones ... although 8.1 gives you a traditional desktop..
 
BUT hey SONAR X3 luvres touchscreen 8 stuff

dmbaer
...
 I wonder if the amount of crapware depends on who you buy it from.
...

A bit different. It's the same thing. It's that if Microsoft or Norton do it, it's OK, but if someone else does it, it's considered "malware" or whatever other name for that cancer we can give it!
 
In the end, this is about Microsoft (and any others) getting money for their code, and it not being "legal" to be used without a license.

Windows 8 - The merde of tomorrow, today...

Moshkiae

dmbaer
...
 I wonder if the amount of crapware depends on who you buy it from.
...

 
It's that if Microsoft or Norton do it, it's OK, but if someone else does it, it's considered "malware" or whatever other name for that cancer we can give it!

Norton? No way in my book.  The worst virus I ever had was Norton Internet Security.  Took a massive effort to get it off my machine.  No Norton for me, ever again.

Yo Yoro,
 
Call me an atavistic Luddite if you will, but my DAW still has XP on it. And I like it just fine. (I could be missing out on all kinds of cool functionalities, but I doubt it.) My general purpose laptop I'm on right now is Win7. And I like it just fine for that.
 
My wife had a VISTA machine a while back which I think we left in a dumpster in Louisiana 4.5 years ago.
 
One thing  that I have learned from hard experience (sad to say more than once): never allow upgrades to WINDOWs on a fully functioning DAW!
 
Cheers,
Bert