I am not really a fan of 8 and 8.1 either. I used it since the first days of the beta releases - even made a dozen tutorials about it - but I could never get really in tune with it.
I have 1 of the early RTMs that they sold for $40 which I run in a virtual partition just to stay up-to-date. And a second one installed on a system that came with 8.1. But that system is mainly used by my wife. I don't want to totally skip the Windows 8 era, but my workhorses are all Windows 7 and Linux Mint Mate.
Hi there
I hated W8 to start with -- W8.1 was better it's a bit more configurable.
However after trying various Linux distros (Used for a server for years) I've found Linux Mate (latest release 16 petra with KDE desktop) fulfils about 95% of my needs and I now only run windows as VM's on a laptop.
The hardware detection on my laptops was actually BETTER in Linux mate than in Windows 8 for things like built in webcam and card reader - dual card reader - PRO DUO sony and SD - Linux system recognizes those fine now and I share those with the VM via SAMBA - which these days is configurable with a nice GUI ( Linux mate users - apt-get install system-samba-config).
I use W7 for access to corporate I.T systems such as SAP and W8.1 for y Office 2010 / Photoshop and a few programs that I can't (or haven't) been able to find suitable replacements for.
The Linux Mint system boots up really fast and I can configure a MENU any way I want to. I can also run totally portable systems as well that run entirely of an external HDD. This type of facility is only offered by Windows in Windows 8/8.1 ENTERPRISE so it's not really readily available to the general user.
I can't see myself returning back to running Windows full time any more -- running these days as a VM it's about 99% native speed.
Linux has improved beyond all recognition these days - plug 'n play saves all those arduous mounts and weird lines in fstab and other configuration files and you can get a system TOTALLY HOW YOU WANT IT.
I don't like the modern GUI in Windows at all -- I even HATE the tile system on Mobile phones too -- but I've tolerated it on a mobile phone. - On a Laptop NO THANKS. I might review my strategy again when Windows 9 comes out but running Linux Mint 16 had been a pleasant experience with thankfully ZERO problems -- worked STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX !!!.
Linux networking WORKS -- I've often had problems with Windows shares / getting machines even to see each other.
Scr shot enc -- Linux host sharing data from built in dual slot card reader and for those interested the incredible powerful and easy SAMBA GUI configuration tool -- it's more WINDOWS than Windows !!!!!
(I'm beginning to think Linux Mint is the best OS ever -- OK it's slightly more difficult than installing Windows - but usually no probs with UEFI or whatever, install clean and easy and is lightning fast. Took me about 2 days to get used to it (I'd been using OPENSUSE - so getting used to a DEBIAN based system needed just little care -- new users are better off since you won't have to "Unlearn" a few things.
And BTW I LIKE the menu system - I've configured mine to look like the XP small menu but again configure HOW YOU LIKE !!! Windows should have used the same model.
(bottom screenshot shows menu).
Cheers
jimbo