Wary after all these gloomy reports, I finally went ahead and repurposed an old laptop to run Windows 8 a few days ago, half expecting to end up putting Linux o

Wary after all these gloomy reports, I finally went ahead and repurposed an old laptop to run Windows 8 a few days ago, half expecting to end up putting Linux on it instead. The screen is officially too small (1280x800) and the chipset (Intel's 965 Express) is not officially supported; I had to resort to their Windows 7 drivers to get OpenGL. Needless to say, it has no touch support. And yet, I do not hesitate to call it the best Windows ever. The optimization work which went into the kernel really shows on this old hardware; where I used to get 3-4 FPS under XP Pro I now get around 13. Every Windows program I have thrown at it, new or old (going back all the way to Windows 98), just works. Don't-Call-It-Metro is just a big launcher where I can pin and group icons of programs I use a lot; I was already doing that anyway with folders on the desktop, since it's much faster than navigating the old Start menu. I was still maintaining an organized but nevertheless humongous Start menu out of old habit and as a way to remind myself of less frequently used, "might be useful in special situations" tools, but as MS noticed, I was not really using it anymore. Basic workflow: start laptop, wait a few seconds, log in, click Desktop tile, and you are in the familiar Windows environment, just better than ever. Down in the left corner of the taskbar, a couple of icons launch a much improved File Explorer and IE 10 (which is scary fast compared to previous iterations). Hover over them and you get a "lightbox" with views of currently open windows; the same functionality extends to other application icons you pin on the taskbar. File Explorer does most of what the old Start button did, i.e. gives you quick access to Documents, recently visited locations, Favorites, drives and groups. Move the mouse cursor down to the left and bottom of it, and up pops a small "Start" representation of the Start screen. Click that, and you are on your big customized launcher. Hit Esc and you are back on the desktop. If that isn't sufficiently similar to the old ways for you, you can right-click the File Explorer icon to get a menu which looks even more like the old Start menu. Still not happy because Start | Programs is missing? Right-click the taskbar, check Toolbars | Desktop, and a classic menu is pinned which includes, among other things, Control Panel | Programs. I don't think I'll be using it, but I suppose somebody might. Choice is good. As far as I can see, all the chatter about Windows 8 being oh so confusingly different is just a storm in a teacup. Do people seriously expect workers to be "retrained" to use this? Please. The new "concealed" stuff adds functionality, but you don't really need it. Put the mouse in upper left corner and you get small tiles of running apps, which you can click to restore or right-click and close. Neat, but you don't need to know it. Swipe down from the upper right corner and you get the famous charms with Search, Start and so on; again, neat, but you don't need to know it. They just add new ways to do things. Oh, and finally... the desktop themes are gorgeous. :)