@CountMike
Which all due respect I do still think that You are missing the point.
You are assuming, and that's correct, that normal user will use web browser, email client and probably play some games. But what about power users or developers? There are people, like me, who are using PC for their jobs. So to me OS it's tool that will allow me to earn money (not directly, but still). And, as in any job really, one seeks for the tools that are best suited for their needs. And I could simply move into Linux world, but unfortunately majority of my clients need Windows software. Granted I could use Wine / VM's etc. but VM's are simply slower then normal install, don't have all API's correctly supported (like OpenGL etc. - speed issue also here) and I also use software that is not available, yet, on Linux so...just a meter of time, but that's not important.
I'm using Windows 8 for 1 month now, was used Windows XP for like 6 years or more, before that Windows 2k, Windows ME (practically not at all), Windows 98, Windows 95, Win311. And on Windows8 it's first time that I ever used "themes" - not really because all "flashy" stuff is turned off, no way to turn off themese. Normally I disable everything and use "Windows Classic" mode. But Windows8 don't have "Classic Window" mode.
Also I did skip Windows Vista and 7 (did some work in it) because new Ui and icons (same story with Windows8) are just ugly for me.
And in my experience I see that starting from Windows Vista they constantly bringing into OS features that are just unnecessary and constantly removing features that are actually useful.
Simply example:
File explorer - in Windows XP when entering directory we could see total size of all elements in that directory. Now that option is removed. Ms explanation and official statement was "it's confusing for user" ... no comments from me on this one.
Another one - arrange icons by date will tiger always Descending order, even thought I did set up lastly Ascending order.
Yet again - try do delete over smb 1mil files... good luck to us all ... or do that when You are going away from PC. Half of that time is "Computation items". No comments .... Same for local files. I do have SSD's and file operation because of that seams slow (Indexing turned off of course).
And another one - translucent selection rectangle. Can be disabled but only for Desktop. Explorer don't honour these settings.
For me, because I did pay for OS this means that I will have bridge between hardware and software and also a way to modify / access and interact with files. Using third party software for this is just IMHO face slap but unfortunately these days its seams that this is only way to have fast file access.
Why do I comes strong on these small details? Because, as You said, it's just don't matter for the person who use web browser and PC not so much. Me, I'm developer and need to spend min. 8h / day in front of PC - 10h is norm, and task that normal user don't do, like regular work data backups - manipulation (sometimes very large amount of files - frameworks etc.), application testing on various OS's, including MacOSX and Linux, heavily file usage like file copy / delete etc. are my daily task's. Some task that seams to You or maybe "average" user not important (and I do agree that i.e. when deleting 100 files it's fast enough) are important to me. And now I can see that performance of i.e. deletion is slower on Windows 8 then on Widows XP or Debian.
I do realise that this is probably not the place to discus this but this discussion actually motivates me to send letter to Microsoft
so maybe not all is in vain but probably my suggestions won't make into Windows and if they do then I will need to pay for Windows again (9 maybe?)
.
Anyway @CountMike please don't take it personally, I just explain why Your reply in my opinion is mistaken and don't see whole picture and most of errors are Explorer related anyway.
Regards