My old laptop having died I bought a new one yesterday, which came with Windows 8. I figured it's the new thing, so might as well give it a try. Worst case scenario, I downgrade it to Windows 7. There are a few distinct annoyances about Windows 8, largely having to do with not being able to do what I want. They removed the Start button and replaced it with a "start screen", which does not contain the same functionality, or at least not obviously so. Actually, as far as I can tell its main purpose is to stream Bing stuff directly to my desktop. Not something I particularly need, thanks. I have yet to find how to close a window by clicking on something. Thank goodness Alt-F4 still works. And I honestly had to google it to find out how to shut down the computer -- they hid it under the Settings widget. Again, Alt-F4 is your friend.

The part that has me 90% certain I'm junking Windows 8 in favor of something functional, though, is this: The system became unrecoverable while performing a routine, automated Windows Update and the only way I could recover it was to do a "Refresh Windows", which apparently reset the system back to near-factory condition. Deeply annoying. After several hours of recovery (largely automated) I finally have they system back up and have re-installed my anti-virus. The rest of my apps -- which were also blown away -- can wait until the morning. I think if I have to install Firefox or Chrome one more time this weekend I may scream. (I'd previously installed them on three other systems as part of being able to deal with the SDCC open reg with my primary computer kaput.)

So far it seems like Windows 8 is a true successor to Vista and ME, in the fine Microsoft tradition of every other OS release being crap.