I am neither for or against Win 8 having said that I use an 8 machine only because the new HP computer I bought came with Win 8. Also, it seems there are a great many more articles indicating MS is having problems with getting Win 8 out to the public then the other way around.
It appears that also some of the retailers are having the same problem. Best Buy along with Staples are offering deals that seem as though they are having problems moving Win 8 machines and devices.
OEMs came out with their own Start menu gui replacements to bypass the "Modern" or "Metro" borrowed mistakenly from Windows RT and slapped on the desktop OS knowing sales would slump for new desktops. The negative reactions have been industry wide despite the W8 fan clubs due mainly to two factors 1) being the change 2)replacing a desktop(traditional and long accepted) gui to see a tablet "touch and swipe" gui on the wrong platform.
You're not going to change that fact simply claiming that this is the new trend when in actuality it was someone's brain dead idea that "it will look pretty having all look the same!" when actual functionality becomes impaired requiring more steps to perform the same tasks as well as hidden tool bars and hidden right click menus in order to get at things previously found in Start>Settings!
As for how retailers like Best Buy and Staples are handling things Staples stepped out in front mentioning their "free lessens on how to use 8" last fall following 8's launch knowing people were going to be stumped by the awkwardness of how things in 8 were changed.
Some like it, some (most) not...
But after seeing the charts: man! even Vista did better!
I use an 8 machine only because the new HP computer I bought came with Win 8.
Yep, also HP here.
Vista fared better initially when first bringing in the Aero and gadgets along with the then new sidebar by including the "Classic Windows" options! For themes and appearance like a Start button instead of orb people had choices not seen with 8 as far as no Start>All Programs and Shutdown options where you can find them right from the start without any "search and destroy(slam head against wall)" brain death over how contorted things appear to be for everyone not being familiar with the CP and RP builds ahead of time but running out to buy a new pc and "what's this?".
When that old Vista case with a brand new drive just put in lately following a rebuild with new board, supply, cpu(upgraded cpu on 7 case and passed the 965 along), and DDR3 to replace the old DDR2 from the first board a frined decided to buy a slightly used 8 laptop when it seems the new drive installed in December is having problems. The first thing besides creating a new local account for the new owner was to... download and install Classic Shell so he would be able to use it without being stumped as he was already made aware that he wouldn't like the changes when previously shown snaps from the CP and RP desktops.
Here if I was only running 8 or any other OS I would "make it work" for me with whatever it took. But for the novice or simply non OS tweaking user who expects to see only a new look not a major gui overall when going out to buy a new pc to browse the web and check the mail the chief gui designer as reported in one article from SUN Microsystems had it correct when stating that 8 gui was more or less a disaster in the making since it doesn't work for the desktop environment.
Whether in love or hating the changes MS has made in 8 the one thing for certain is that the underlying core improvements are simply being drowned out by the contorted hind sight someone at MS made for 8. The first right off the bat is not seeing any options for the user to decide whether or not to use the RT gui or set Win 8 up for the long accepted desktop platform seeing the Start orb, menu, All Programs menu, and shutdown and settings all where you would expect to find them not explore Antartica looking for gold and getting frost bite instead!
Here it isn't actually the All Programs but lack Start as well as programs and settings right where you can find them in order to right click to copy and paste a new shortcut for each new program that lacks a desktop shortcut made by the installer to drag into the appropiate folder for the addon "Quick Launch" type tool bars right on the task bar itself where everything is launched from. In fact I now have RocketDock on the unchecked from startup except on rare occasions when the primary display is in use by a full screen app. The smart bar extensions over to the second monitor never include pinned items there unless the desktop is cloned or the task bar itself is cloned where you then see two Start orbs!
Now for the drab look of the Start screen that immediately saw too many complaints it was only a matter of time before ways to customize things like changing the background(ugly as H) to something else was to be found. You will now find guides for customizing the Start screen, bypassing that upon starting Win 8 up as well as changing the background for the new Lock screen. I knew that would only be a matter of time and expect to see more options as time goes along.
The largest URK with 8 however is the need to go for some 3rd party ware since MS deployed hindsighted thinking into forcing the RT gui on people from the start.Without touchscreen or not wanting it to begin with you are still stuck with a tablet gui without any options provided by MS which is the line to be crossed when people first get into 8 and then want out in a fast hurry! Too many jumped on it too fast just because it was new just like every other version when first out before "looking into it first" and then were dismayed.
The main reason the bug laden XP lasted even this long is that MS took longer then usual to see Vista finally out and then understating the correct system requirements where people running old pcs were stumped. Vista on under required hardwares thought it was a bloat OS instead of simply needing an updated system requirements MS failed on there to satisfy OEMs selling underequipped pcs with it installed on which regardless of how more stable it was didn't go over well. At least once people got into that with better hardwares they found they liked it some now even better then 7! Some went back from 7 to Vista for that reason.
