You must not read much.

Point A: Still valid, disposably cheap when the next OS comes along regardless of when it goes off-sale.

B: You agreed to a point.

C: Again, you agreed " generate higher early adopter numbers to generate sales" it is a sales tool.

D: I use sidebar gadgets for many things, they were free. Now you are expected to shop and pay for little extras like that.and yes, the start menu is included in that. However, I think Start 8 is priced right and for what it brings to the OS is money well spent.

I know you are a fan of 8, and have every right to choose what OS you are using, but at no time did I say your thinking was "retarded"  Pull your head out of the orifice you have it inserted into and get some fresh air, you'll feel better.

@Jafo, The Edsel was a marketing disaster but an OK automobile.

The Tucker Torpedo on the other hand was a revolutionary auto that was just too far ahead of its time. Win8 is not in that category.

And I still regret missing that bus.

Old OSes never die, they just go offline. When it becomes unsecure,my XP rig will remain at its station being a media center sans streaming from the internet. On that rig, XP is a keeper.  I'll run it until it drops. 

The Vista rig, a HP Slimline, meh, someday I may upgrade it , it's a fairly new PC and should last for awhile. The wife lives there on FB. She wont even notice the OS has changed.

My Win7 rig has been a huge investment for me, was overbuilt and has been nearly bulletproof and so has Windows 7 64 bit. Every game and software. I have runs well on it and someday in the far away future it will be in the position the XP rig is in, at the twilight of its life cyle. It has and will serve me well.

So really, no OS has to be disposable, a great one should last a lifetime, of the equipment at least and maybe the user too.

If Win 8 is the direction the future is going, I guess I'll have to get there eventually but I will not go quietly.

Dos 4.0, Dos 6.22, Win 3.11, et al. ...

Windows 8 for me is just a toy. I will cling to 7 pretty hard, for a while to come.

Only one company has the power to change that for me, and it's Stardock.

jafo, you have a fairly small collection of os's, MY Disc Operating System collection starts at trsdos 2.3(for the model 1 trs80), trsdos 1.3 (for the model 3 trs80), newdos 80, dosplus (various versions) ldos (various versions for various trs-80 models), and on the IBM compatables the collection starts at msdos 2.11 through to msdos 6.22, windows 1.0 through to windows for workgroups3.11 (for the GUI's that require a seperate DOS, win95,win95 osr2, win95 osr2.1, win95 osr2.5(on one of my old cd burning systems), win98, win98 osr2(on a couple of old systems that are being kept for legacy programs & support), nt 4, win me (only for extreme legacy support), win 2k (again for extreme legacy support), winxp home & pro (support & software  development) a vista (for program testing for compatability as it is the least compatable os), several win7's 32 & 64 bit mostly on the gaming beasts) and exactly ONE window 8 upgrade (again software compatability & testing only and it seems to be almost as incompatable as vista ),

and if we were to talk about other operating systems I also have COS (Cassette Operating system) for the trs80 and the model 100 dos for the serial port connected floppy drive

harpo

I have watched a few videos of people using windows 8, and that was enough to put me off it forever.

The latest Start8 does an excellent job of restoring the look and feel of Windows 8 to that of Windows 7 on a Desktop PC Kevin. I am using it on my little netbook and it works really great.

Which?  There were three.  The first two were pretty broken.

 (The third was only a little broken.)

It's also pretty damn good without it (but you knew I'd say that, so hey.)

I must go hunt and gather some sort of freezer food.  RAWR.

There you have it in a nutshell.   (with apologies to Neil for quoting him out of context.)  

I fail to  comprehend the huge rush to Windows 8, particularly since Win 7 hasn't been out all that long and has been an amazingly robust and functional OS. Your old OS isn't going to self-destruct simply because it's alleged replacement has been released.

"It's on sale", "it's new" "my friends have it" to me is hardly a justification to replace a known good product with an unknown one. So pat yourself on the back for being so "up to date" and deal with it it. Many of you act like Microsoft can do no wrong, so an immediate switch to the newest OS was a sure thing. It never is so stop blaming Stardock for your own lack of foresight or failure to at least research what the gains vs. the losses would be.

If I went out and bought new tires and rims to fit my car, then replaced the car, I hardly think I could go back to the seller of the tires and rims and demand they make them work on my new vehicle. Why is software any different?

#144 is quote worthy in its entirety.  Well said Wizard.  As far as I'm concerned it applies to upgrading o/s's in general.  That process often includes additional hardware and software costs, as well as some headaches and frustration.  It's just not the same as upgrading your Excel or whatever.

I understand people getting excited about such things, heck I used to as well, and I wholeheartedly respect their right to do so.  They do have to accept that there is more than one way to look at the situation, and they have to accept what they're getting into.    Personally, it is something I try to avoid until there's a darned good reason for it.

I really can't understand all this opposition and negativity towards Win 8, it genuinely is a robust and somewhat faster OS than Win 7 and has some great featres built in... like native ISO and virtual disc support, which I've found highly useful for some games I have.

True, the appearance of Metro was off-putting to begin with, but I rarely see that as I go about my daily computing, and since those early days, when Metro was more than butt ugly, Stardock has greatly improved its look with Decor8.  It still needs some Stardock love, as does the whole UI, but Stardock will get there and make Win 8 as visually appealing as it did with Win 7.

Seriously, guys, give Win 8 a fair go and you'll see it's not a lot different to Win 7 in daily use, just faster and more efficient.  If you'll recall, I was a Win 8 detractor and had nothing good to say about it in the early days, but I saw a need to become accustomed to it and now I quite like it.  In fact, I haven't used Win 7 since installing Win 8 a month ago, and frankly, I barely notice the difference, if at all.

Okay, petrossa, I get it, you don't like Win 8 and think Microsoft is up to its arse in some software conspiracy.  Fine, think what you like, but I'm going to continue enjoying and using Win 8