The Windows 8 (especially post-8.1) pushback baffles me. If you put any effort at all into learning how to use it effectively, the acclimation period is definitely shorter than Win95 or WinXP was. I use it on a desktop machine with two 30" displays and only mouse/keyboard inputs (i.e. no touch). You certainly couldn't pay me $150 to go back to Win7 at this point.

I even find that I use Metro apps on my desktop fairly often. I have the live tiles for a few key apps like Mail, Calendar, Weather, Google Voice, and Twitter arranged as a dashboard of key notifications that I care about and flip over from the desktop more often than I thought I would.

It's also nice how Metro apps can raise notification toast on the desktop now in 8.1 (and desktop apps like Outlook can also tie into that same system, similar to Growl but built-in). Since I'm on the desktop 95% of the time, that definitely helps bridge the gap between Metro and desktop. I can get a lightweight notification when I get an @mention on Twitter, for example, without leaving TweetDeck running all the time.

On my laptop with touch and on my Surface, Win8.1 is far and away better than Win7 could have possibly been. The Metro side of things is great there - especially since both have HiDPI displays and Metro apps .

Surprisingly, I still haven't installed Outlook on the laptop because the 8.1 update to the Metro Mail app makes it good enough for my relatively light email use while mobile. Since all of the settings sync across machines automatically, the Mail app was already configured with the six accounts I use regularly as soon as I logged into it, so it was a no-brainer compared to installing Outlook or opening six web apps all the time.

The changes between Windows 7 and 8 always seemed terribly minor to me -- a few control panels and settings shifted around as they do every OS update, the start menu became larger and looks a bit different but functions essentially the same (right down to preserving your Program Files hierarchy from Win95 if you scroll down from the tiles screen), but nothing major in the big scheme of things.

If Microsoft hadn't made these changes, and in the next few years became completely foreign and irrelevant to the current young generation of consumers who grew up on touch devices that work more like Win8 than Win7, would we be panning them for sticking with "what works" while their consumer base switches to Android/iOS?

I really do not understand why we must have one size fits all operating system in the first place. Some things work better for mobile (metro, ios, android), and some work better for desktop/laptop Windows, OS X, Linux.

Why must we try to make them the same? I would argue a set of well defined junction points like Apple did with airplay in order to share content between mobile and desktop segments is a way more elegant solution.

I've been using windows 8, and now 8.1, since public release.

For me, windows 8 answers a few questions.

1): What do we do when users want to use their fingers instead of a mouse to click buttons made for the (superior) accuracy of a mouse pointer?

2): What do we do when monitor manufacturers sell 4k+ displays and windows applications aren't written to scale up that way?

3): How do we sell users and developers on using desktop applications again (instead of web apps)?

I think all three questions are answered well, and users will be less hostile to the changes once enough applications move to Metro, and consumers are buying 4k tablets.

At the moment, what I am hearing most is "Why change something that worked so well? Why do I have to learn something new?". The next generation PC hardware will answer that question.

I spend all of my time in windows, and I wouldn't want go back to 7. I like the new start screen; I find my applications a lot quicker when all I need to do is hit the windows key and type the name of the app, or file, or whatever I'm looking for. Windows 8 really shines on the surface, where a high DPI screen and touch come together. I use desktop apps on the desktop and mostly ignore metro; but on the surface I prefer metro apps which are more finger friendly and easier to read.

I like the new store architecture, and the limitations made on apps written for it. I will have to worry less installing an application from a publisher I don't recognize. I read a lot about the APIs, but I haven't written anything for it yet. I am waiting for metro to be available to enough users to make it cost effective to put effort into it.

If I were working at Microsoft right now, I would be shouting at the top of my lungs "Let's put out commercials explaining why Windows 8 is better!". I don't feel Windows 8 is a technological or UI disaster; I feel it's a marketing disaster.

Counterpoint: "HP Bringing Back Windows 7 PCs? Not so fast..."[1]. TL;DR: this is a marketing tactic, and HP is actually offering fewer systems with Windows 7 than it was last year.

[1] http://www.zdnet.com/hp-bringing-back-windows-7-pcs-not-so-f...

I've been using Windows 8 on my laptop for well over a year, and I quite enjoy it. Especially with Windows 8.1, I just don't see how you can love Windows 7, and at the same time show an extreme displeasure for Windows 8. Have these people even used Windows 8?

IMO, the resistance has more to do with bad Microsoft PR and the anti-MS bandwagon, than flaws in the OS.

This article greatly exaggerates. A quick search shows HP offers only 2 Windows-7 laptops, but offers 35 Windows-8x laptops. Similar numbers go for desktops as well.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Lapt...

Can't "Back by popular demand" refer to the $150 discount on old systems instead of Windows 7 itself? I'm leaning that direction since I associate snowmen with December holidays.

Look at the ad itself: http://www.hp.com/country/us/en/hho/welcome.html

Who would have thought that shimming a tablet UI onto a non touch PC would be a bad idea...

Windows 8 is noticeably faster, has nice improvements all around and it's probably the first Windows that looks aesthetic.

People are afraid of change, simple as that.

the cognitive disarray caused by the metro menu is the worst UI innovation since mystery meat navigation. that being said, disabling it in favor of a classic start menu makes Windows 8 on par with 7.

This sort of workaround does not make things OK for the average person.

Because the Windows 8 UI is so bad that even consumers won't accept it.

Hidden UI = no UI at all. This peek-a-boo shit has to stop.

And "converging" mobile and desktop OSes is exactly backward. What the ascendancy of tablets has shown us is that many people don't need computers. So when someone DOES take the trouble to fire up a computer, it stands to reason that he needs A COMPUTER. That means a real OS, file system, pointing device, and other affordances that provide the precision and power needed for computer-based tasks.

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