Windows 8 and 8.1, (and the rumored .2) both have a noticeable difficulty curve, which can be fairly offputting at first, but they are definitely not deserving of the general amount of hatred they have been getting. Vista and up boosted the minimum system requirements for a usable workspace quite considerably, but 8 has taken a step in the opposite direction offering (at least for the machines I've run it on) overall better performance.
Just that FUCKING charm bar. Even to this day it keeps getting in the way and I
_hate it_, _
hate it_, _
hate it_.
With regards to linux distributions I'm not yet sure that there are any 'complete' systems good enough to use as a desktop operating system, at least not for now.
There's a lot of controversy going on behind the scenes, with the GNU and the Free Software Foundation trying to take over the Linux community en-masse, which is making alternative, non-GPL, non-GNU software like Clang/LLVM (over GCC) and libmusl (over glibc) rise in popularity to the point where we are in danger of seeing a greater split between distributions supporting different things over one another - similarly there is also controversy surrounding systemd, which while a noble attempt to better support newer features introduced in the Linux kernel such as LXC and more interestingly Cgroups, is attempting to claim more ground by replacing other software than many people are comfortable with. (Already there is a divide in support for distributions like Arch which use it.)
In addition there's a move right now away from the traditional X Server model which is proving to be a pain, with the bigger contender being Wayland, and the other being Canonical's Mir. Both offer exclusive features, with basic support for Xlib and other stuff provided by the X.org server framework, but neither is a complete replacement yet and the rush to start using both is further causing notable splits in the community.
Graphics drivers are a mess right now, with Nvidia hastily scrabbling to make their offerings for Windows and Linux identical - unfortunately this seems to comprise of them removing features previously only available in their Linux drivers and AMD managing to completely flop in every possible regard. (R9 290 performing abysmally for example). Intel graphics however are looking very promising, mesa actually outperforms the Windows drivers.
Linux is definitely on the up, and I myself have run it full-time on my ThinkPad since late 2012, however these issues are not to be sneezed at and before settling with it I would honestly recommend waiting a while to see how things pan out. Personally I am running Gentoo, and so this isn't an issue as I'm the one painstakingly choosing exactly what it is I wish to support and run - right now using OpenRC but I'm planning to migrate over to systemd in the near future.
It is a matter of taste, and distributions like Debian are indeed quite awesome although the majority of these hyper-stable distributions are point release based, meaning that while they introduce fancy features with every iteration, it usually comes at the cost of being stuck with the same versions of software with very few updates (particularly with Debian where their security team is a little _too_ good) until the next major version. Which already introduces yet another layer of fragmentation, which can be a little painful (and is what pushed me to rolling release distros like Gentoo and Sabayon).
If you're really considering switching to a *nix system, maybe look at Sabayon, Xubuntu, ElementaryOS or go back to CrunchBang as they all try to offer software fairly quickly, but are still very stable and are more lightweight than their more mainstream counterparts.
In the BSD route there's actually PC-BSD, running KDE and designed to be 'user-friendly' but I personally have no experience with it to speak of.
OSX is also another option, and Hackintoshing is quite easy unless you have an Intel wireless card. Kernel extensions and drivers have been introduced by the community and run rather well, although myself I am doing it the native way and caved into buying Apple hardware. As far as an operating system goes, with a little customization it is at least a capable replacement for Windows with the added boons of the stability and flexibility Unix systems tend to afford. Plus the latest release, Mavericks, introduces ZRAM and fancy new automatic CPU scheduling which is a huge step above the offerings available in most Linux distributions and Windows (at this time).
inb4 chromeos
I for one prefer Windows XP Secumize edition.
I don't get it? Why do people use pre-slipstreamed XP systems like this?
Why would you trust some random bittorrent tracker script kiddie to pre-install your customization software and pre-cracked warez on your behalf when you can easily just do it yourself, and without the risk of being part of someone's botnet?
if you take the time and learn
arch-linux and how it works. you can build a custom OS just for you.
Arch doesn't actually give you any choice over anything, and the AUR is a mess.
It's a nice toy for sure, but the general community's inability to understand why core tools were kept separate from the main system, and of keeping stable packages and bleeding edge packages separate, really makes it more of an occasional 'fun to play with' kind of thing than anything else.
In addition it is regarded as being a pretty poor choice of operating system if you wish to learn how linux works, because in 99% of all cases, people are usually just copying and pasting commands and configuration from the wiki. So you find a lot of people with systems too fragmented to easily diagnose or repair, who have little idea how most of their stuff actually works, all because they skip the part where one actually learns anything.
Having set up Arch, do you know the difference between Pulseaudio and ALSA? Do you know of JACK? Which would you use in different scenarios, and how would you make KDE support them? Do you know how to configure and compile the Linux kernel, how about making your very own initramfs without a script to do it for you - What do you do when either breaks? All these things, and more, are examples of why one should generally avoid Arch linux - much for the same reason people while first learning how to program are advised to stay away from Visual Basic.NET; It encourages bad practices, over-reliance on pre-made code snippets and functions which skip important fundamentals of computer science leaving people with code they don't understand the function of.
If you're looking for actual choice over what you run, or for bleeding edge software, you're basically stuck with either Debian unstable, Gentoo (with the stable or untested prefix, depending on what you want) or SourceMage - of course the trade-off being that with Gentoo and SourceMage your package manager also compiles everything for you instead of downloading someone elses' pre-compiled package.