MY EXPERIENCE WITH WINDOWS 8:
So, my friend buys a new laptop, right? Only problem seems to be that the number of decent Windows 7 laptops strong enough to do any kind of actual gaming seems to be dwindling, especially since the poor soul was stuck shopping on the Dell store (credit and all that). We decide Windows 8 will have to do. He orders his laptop, a good machine all in all, and it arrives about two weeks later because UPS Ground is fucking horrible. We start it up, and things seem to be going okay!
For 20 minutes.
First thing to note was that connecting to the school's ethernet network just wasn't possible. The second thing to note was the ridiculous number of full system crashes. It seemed like he couldn't use his computer for a whole hour without the computer suddenly crashing entirely and having to restart. Despite these issues, he stuck it out for a few days.
Then Windows 8 just stopped working one night. After working with the wonderfully awful Dell tech support, my friend managed to navigate to the screen that allowed for a full system refresh. He did that, and boom, it seemed to be working okay again. Dell had already sent out the OS disc and the drivers disc, just in case.
The system doesn't work any better after that, though the crashes seemed less frequent.
For awhile.
I guess.
We tried reinstalling some drivers when the disc arrived, but the ethernet still refused to work. We tried asking our own tech department here about the ethernet issue, since you figure, it's their network, but they're pretty much useless for at least 60% of scenarios.
We tried reinstalling Windows 8, but it kept failing to reinstall.
After that, the system lost the ability to refresh or restore to any point.
Downgrading just wasn't going to happen.
Basically, the OS seemed to come out of the box completely broken. I'm sure this isn't Windows 8 fault entirely, but the sad part is that all the issues except the failure to refresh and reinstall seemed to be fairly common. It hit a point where the computer can't even shutdown anymore. The only way to shut it off is by holding the power button.
He just went ahead and put in for a full return, since it's likely the computer came out of the box with such unfixable OS issues. I know this isn't a typical experience, but the fact that this could happen at all is astounding. Going from an OS like 7 that just works and has always been fine to an OS like 8 that seems like it needs so, so much work is sad.
As far as the interface goes, it wasn't horrible tinkering around with it, but I felt a lot of unnecessary steps were included towards getting around, getting things going, and just enjoying what should be a simple experience. The ridiculously fast boot was fairly nice when it worked, and it didn't seem like any of the normal stuff my friend ran (games and what have you) worked any worse than before (though the random crashes and lack of ethernet availability made online games near impossible to play).
I can't say it's worth changing from 7 right now though. Maybe in a couple years when Windows realizes its users still just want a clean, easy to use experience versus this extravagant tablet oriented interface that they're trying to force down our throats.
So, my friend buys a new laptop, right? Only problem seems to be that the number of decent Windows 7 laptops strong enough to do any kind of actual gaming seems to be dwindling, especially since the poor soul was stuck shopping on the Dell store (credit and all that). We decide Windows 8 will have to do. He orders his laptop, a good machine all in all, and it arrives about two weeks later because UPS Ground is fucking horrible. We start it up, and things seem to be going okay!
For 20 minutes.
First thing to note was that connecting to the school's ethernet network just wasn't possible. The second thing to note was the ridiculous number of full system crashes. It seemed like he couldn't use his computer for a whole hour without the computer suddenly crashing entirely and having to restart. Despite these issues, he stuck it out for a few days.
Then Windows 8 just stopped working one night. After working with the wonderfully awful Dell tech support, my friend managed to navigate to the screen that allowed for a full system refresh. He did that, and boom, it seemed to be working okay again. Dell had already sent out the OS disc and the drivers disc, just in case.
The system doesn't work any better after that, though the crashes seemed less frequent.
For awhile.
I guess.
We tried reinstalling some drivers when the disc arrived, but the ethernet still refused to work. We tried asking our own tech department here about the ethernet issue, since you figure, it's their network, but they're pretty much useless for at least 60% of scenarios.
We tried reinstalling Windows 8, but it kept failing to reinstall.
After that, the system lost the ability to refresh or restore to any point.
Downgrading just wasn't going to happen.
Basically, the OS seemed to come out of the box completely broken. I'm sure this isn't Windows 8 fault entirely, but the sad part is that all the issues except the failure to refresh and reinstall seemed to be fairly common. It hit a point where the computer can't even shutdown anymore. The only way to shut it off is by holding the power button.
He just went ahead and put in for a full return, since it's likely the computer came out of the box with such unfixable OS issues. I know this isn't a typical experience, but the fact that this could happen at all is astounding. Going from an OS like 7 that just works and has always been fine to an OS like 8 that seems like it needs so, so much work is sad.
As far as the interface goes, it wasn't horrible tinkering around with it, but I felt a lot of unnecessary steps were included towards getting around, getting things going, and just enjoying what should be a simple experience. The ridiculously fast boot was fairly nice when it worked, and it didn't seem like any of the normal stuff my friend ran (games and what have you) worked any worse than before (though the random crashes and lack of ethernet availability made online games near impossible to play).
I can't say it's worth changing from 7 right now though. Maybe in a couple years when Windows realizes its users still just want a clean, easy to use experience versus this extravagant tablet oriented interface that they're trying to force down our throats.
Saturday dude. 
JM 