My Take on Windows 8

Simple enough for you?

Windows 8 hit the shelves recently, so I thought I'd give my input on my experience so far. Based on a 1 day experience, I've already found some very decision-making differences from Windows 7 or any other previous versions of Windows that might affect whether or not I'm going to stick with it.

So here goes!

Pros

1. The boot time is incredibly fast - even on a standard HDD. It pre-loads the OS before displaying the OS choices menu, so the moment you select Windows 8 from the list, it's ready to log in. Creates a seamless loading process.
2. Despite other reviews and the fact that Windows 8 was designed for those with touch screen devices or monitors, the Modern UI Start menu works considerably well with a mouse and keyboard.
3. The Start menu is sleek, and scrolling is smooth. If you have a background image set, a parallax effect is obvious which makes the whole thing look nicer.
4. Windows 8 is completely different to previous version? Au contraire, mes amis. Sort of. The Start menu has a complete overhaul, but the Desktop Windows environment is still perfectly accessible, and using legacy apps isn't really a problem.
5. The Taskbar, title bar of open windows and scroll bars aren't clunked up with gradients and unnecessary graphics. They are solid colours  creating less distraction from what really matters on screen.
6. Viewing System information now tells you what CPU architecture you're running (i.e. x86 or x64). This is extremely useful and will probably save me from having to download a third-party program on another machine in future to find out what architecture it has.

Cons

1. You can no longer easily edit a connection's info (the name and icon), and it's weird to change between a Public/Private network setting. To change the name and icon, you have to go into the registry and do it yourself. (Microsoft changed it because it was an unused feature - but I used it.)
2. Shutting down is an awkward process. You have to move the mouse to the top-right or bottom-right to bring up the Charms, then select Power, then Shut Down (as opposed to the classic Start > Shut Down.)
3. You can't change your LIVE password to a previously used password, despite how long ago the password was used. This is more of a Microsoft problem as a whole, but it affected how I like to run my operating systems. (This also applies to Google, but that's for another topic.)
4. If you don't own a secondary monitor, the Desktop program isn't loaded automatically - you have to run it yourself (by opening the Desktop app from the Start menu, or hitting WINDOWS+D on the keyboard). If you have a secondary monitor, however, hitting the WINDOWS key on its own will do the trick since the Desktop app is already running on it.
5. The stock Messaging app only supports Windows Live Messenger and Facebook Chat protocols. Because of this, I have abandoned it and reverted back to the Pidgin IM client.
6. Apps that aren't optimized for the Modern UI look out of place in the new Start menu. Icons display, but they don't match the Stock icons, and the tile's background colour is just set to that of whatever colour you've set in the Personalize settings.
7. Internet Explorer runs in two different processes depending on the UI you're using, each running different tabs in different UI environments. The same goes for the new Photos app (vs. the classic Windows Photo Viewer.) and the Music app (vs. Windows Media Player). Control Panel also does a similar thing when you want to edit user accounts.
8. You need to sign in with a Windows Live account to download apps from the Store, which makes the brand new Start menu kind of redundant if you're using a local profile on a machine with no Internet connection.

Conclusion

Overall, despite my outweighing negative arguments, I find Windows 8 somewhat successful. The way Microsoft have presented us with a new environment, whilst keeping hold of the old one, is a good way to introduce their users to a new milestone in how Windows works.

But this - as I said - is based on a 1 day experience and my opinions might change in the future.  I might discover more Pros. I might discover more Cons. Windows might amend the problems. Third-party developers may choose to make their apps integrate better with the Modern UI. Who knows?

What I can say is, don't take my word on your decision. I only wanted to express how my experience is going. If you're unsure if you should get it, get a copy of the Windows 8 Release Preview for free from Microsoft and dual-boot it with what you're running now (or run it in a VM). That way you can always go back to what you're used to if you don't like it.

Peace.