moshi and all others who hate win8 even tho they don't use it (kona, you have no say in ANYTHING since you've never used ANYTHING), when i say i find myself in 'metro' more often, i mean i use the start screen more than the start menu given to me by start8. i've downloaded VERY FEW apps from the app store. 99% of my apps were installed the old fashioned way. btw, wiz, my win8 os cost more then $40. i renewed my technet sub to get 8 and office 2013, among other apps and os's. anyway, i find the start screen easier to navigate once i customized it to my likings versus the standard start menu on the desktop. kona, i also customize my desktop start menu and have since win95. i don't leave apps and folders spread haphazardly arranged on the start menu so don't try the argument of nobody feels the need to rearrange the start menu.
my win8 experience boils down to this: when the preview was released, i installed it on an extra platter drive and test drove it for a few days. i HATED it! it was too different. i swore i'd never use it. when office 2013 was made available on technet, i renewed my sub so i could get it. since win8 pro was there also, i decided to try the final version. i again installed it on the extra platter drive and played with it for a couple of weeks or more to give it a chance to grow on me. i admit i bought and installed start8. after 2 or 3 weeks i installed win8 on my ssd drive and it's been my daily driver ever since. even tho start8 is installed, i seldom use the start menu. i gave 8 a chance and decided i like it. end of story. if others don't like it, that's fine but at least speak from a position of ACTUALLY USING it for more than 10 minutes or what OTHERS have told you.
i went to frys this morning with a 78 year old lady to help her pick out a laptop. she saw the win8 tablets and fell in love with them. she ended up getting a $900 acer tablet. it's to bad they didn't have the surface there. i think she would've liked it too but she's very happy with the acer i showed her how to use skydrive and she loves how she can now view pics of her grandkids who live in oregon whenever her son uploads them. so, if a lady of that age who had been using xp for years and years can adjust to 8 that quickly and see advantages in it, ........ let's put it this way: she bought another one for her son to pick up out west.