No, it was a support person who was assisting me with a purchasing issue, and due to there being a delay in some information he required, there was time to chat a little, and me being the inquisitive one, probed him for answers on Win 7 and 8, the direction Microsoft is taking.

And here we go again, the "I'm afraid Win 7 will disappear" dance.  Nobody said Win 7 was going was going away in 2015.  As I stated previously, support will start winding down towards the end of 2014, meaning non-essential updates will begin to cease, and by mid-2015 Win 7 will continue to receive security updates but that's all.  So how you get that it's going be fully retired out of that beats me.  Put another way, as a businessman, would you keep throwing money at old products when you have something that's new and improved?  Exactly, and Microsoft simply wants to pool its resources to embrace the future of computing, not the past.

Now this just says to me that you've not even installed Win 8, much less tried it/given it a fair go.  Yup, it's deja vu all over again... the "Vista's a pig of an OS and Win 8's no better" dance. 

I mean, it wouldn't be so bad if the people saying this kind of thing were actually qualified to do so, with at least some quality time to get to know the OS, but alas. it's the same old thing in most cases: "My cousin's sister works with a guy who knows somebody whose sister's boyfriend said it was no good because his boss's son said it sucked shite."

Like I said earlier, all this pissing and moaning about Win 8 is aggravating to say the least, particularly when the loudest gripers have had little or no experience to qualify their comments.  More annoying will be when Win 9 is released, Win 8 with a couple of refinements, and all the detractors come out singing its praises, saying it's the best thing since sliced bread.  It happened with Vista to Win 7, and it's happening again.

Glad to know I'm not the only person who thinks this...

Yeah, and if you want to know who the biggest whingers are, start a thread like this and they'll come crawling out of the woodwork, armed with more 'Windows 8 sux shite' comments than you can poke a stick at. Like my dear old granny used to say: some people aren't happy unless they're miserable/have something to complain about. 

Hmmm, human nature, it's stranger than fiction.

Mark, I have been running Windows 8 through the Developer's Preview, the Consumer Preview, the Enterprise Eval, and now the Windows 8 Pro release.  I even bought a touch screen PC so I could experience it that way.

I don't talk a lot about it because I'm not at all enthused by it.

Overall, I think it pretty much sucks. I now only use it as a toy/learning tool.

And, like Jafo, to stay on top of the Stardock stuff for it.

That said, some still like XP, and even worse, some like a Mac.  So, if you like 8, I'm happy fer ya, but I think I'm as qualified as the next guy, or you, to say it sucks. 

Say Happy Birthday to Shaunna for me, mate. 

7 is so much better than Vista ever came close to being. It's like you're comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges.

Ok ... I'll give my unqualified opinion why the 'metro' UI has no purpose on my computers, not Win8 in general ... because it's just an OS which does what an OS should do and does it well, which what Win7 does and, as Anthony R had said, why bother to upgrade ...

For me a 'desktop' on a computer has one use, that is to move data around visually in the form of icons. This is my workplace ... uncompleted projects files lay around my desktop, when they are done a quick drag/drop to a linked project folder and then onto the next. The folder stay on my desktop until the project is done and then the link is deleted. At times my desktop is totally icon free and usually a time for kicking back and relaxing. I've been using GUI's like this for around twenty years, since I had a book on the GEM OS and how to use your desktop. Everything is saved onto my desktop for editing/storage until I'm finished with it...

All my programs are a fast click away on a launcher and it's not uncommon to have multiple programs running while I'm working. I do not want to move away from my workplace just so I can launch a program.

My laptop, which has Win8, I got because I needed to write/edit documents while on the move. I've only have MS Word and Acrobat installed ... why would I want a touch UI on it?.

'Metro' does not enhance my workplace, if anything, it gets in the way.

P.S. The whole move icons around a lot, is the reason why I love Fences ... Thank you, StarDock 

The metro ui is rubbish.  Outside of that, I have no complaints about the OS.  Everything works, I got the OS for < $30.  Give me good tech for $30 and I'm not going to bitch.  Windows 7 was the best OS I've ever owned.  Again, for $30, I'm not going to talk much smack about a POS ui.  I click a button after I launch and I have my desktop.  If you find it's worse than this, you might be doing something wrong.  Be happy that m$ is dumb and hooking up companies like SD up with money to add a start button back, etc.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't SD be really grateful for the bad UI? 

What is so bad about XP? What is so bad about a Mac? I don't understand the attitude.

I'm qualified enough, thankyou...I've 'coded' GUIs - shells...via Litestep [and older - Dos ones]...and know a shit interface when I see one.

I have also run every Windows OS there ever was, and am intelligent enough to differentiate between the bullshit and the hype.

Rejigging an OS to load a desktop fast does not make a faster OS, only the pretence of such.

Hopefully [for all our sakes] the actual 8 kernel IS an evolution of and beyond [better than] 7, but the shell is utter asinine rubbish.

Good luck to MS for wanting to have all their systems share a common architecture...but as with ALL 'architecture' the common is utter shit...and I should know...I've been dealing with it for 40 years.

And again...I'd stock a hell of a lot more credence in someone whose opinion of an OS didn't vacillate from both extremes...once it was rubbish...now you say the sun shines out of its arse.

You can't have it both ways and expect any credibility.

Yet the fact remains that you still haven't loaded Windows 8 and tried it Jafo.

Wrong.

What in God's name makes you think that?

You're as bad as starkers.

Between you both you couldn't scrounge up a clue.  I didn't take one look at 8 and declare the end of life as we know it.  Exactly what level of idiot are you classifying me as?

Did I like Vista? No.  Did I install it? Yes.  Did I have legitimate resaon to declare it uncooked/half-baked and a mess?  Yes.

Did I install Me? yes.  Did I have legitimate reason to declare it a disaster? yes.  [is there anyone who refutes that? no.]

Now it's 8 ...and all of a sudden I simply MUST be parrotting others' opinions rather than my own.

Thankyou for the undying confidence in my professional experience....

It's not that, simply that it happens so often...there are tons of people who say they hated it until they actually tried it.  One of my best friends among them.

It's a charged topic and I do wish some people on both sides would take a step back from the combative stances on it and just debate it on its' own merit.

W8 is not the end of the world, you can always upgrade to W7

The wording of this suggests you have not as yet installed Win 8... as in "I'll be loading...."

Hence my previous comment regarding 'qualification'... cos there's a difference between "I'll be"... and I have.

@ RedneckDude.  Yeah, I know that you have given Win 8 a whirl, and I know you don't like it.  However, my comment was not pointed at you or anyone else who has at least tried the OS for some reasonable time.  No, I was referring to the gathering mob who simply decided to jump on the bandwagon purely to have a bitch about something... and there's plenty of them just itching to have a whinge about it for no good reason, other than to bump their gums.  So when I say that I'm annoyed at Win 8 detractors, it's that kind of person who's pissing me off.