Windows 8 forum: I cannot decide at this time whether Ilike win 8 or not.

I like Windows 8 but I HATE Metro the way it presently works. Fortunately I see it only at start, and a single click takes me to my email client or Firefox or or whatever it is that I wish to use initially after boot-up. Just a reminder; under Windows 7 it took a DOUBLE click, so already the terrible burden on me of clicking my mouse is reduced by a full 50%!

But boot-up from cold is really, REALLY fast, almost as fast as reawakening a 7 or Vista computer from sleep on my computer, which is aided by an OCZ Vertex 3 MaxIOPS SSD. And everything seems to work faster and crisper.

The loss of the Aero interface makes it a little uglier but may explain that increase in "crispiness," as Aero was a resource hog.

Everything, with only very few exceptions, worked right out of the box after an "overlay" install from Windows 7. Indeed, it installed more like an application than an O/S, and a lot more quickly and with fewer complications than, say, Office Professional or Adobe Creative Suite. It was by a VERY wide margin the easiest O/S upgrade I have ever done.

The only applications that did not work out of the box were my full-featured HP AIO drivers (the printer drivers worked fine), a Win 8 version of which had to be obtained from HP, and the skin I preferred to use with WinAmp, which required Aero (WinAmp reverted to its "Classic" skin). Those were the ONLY exceptions I have discovered so far.

But I, like many others, find Metro to be nearly unusable on the desktop, opening everything full-screen, not permitting your own personal background, and making it difficult to control the appearance of the tiles. That mandatory full screen thing is the biggest shortcoming. I hope MS decides to fix these deficiencies in SP1, but as I said, Metro is nearly irrelevant, acting only as a sort of replacement for the Start button.

Many critics of Windows 8 are actually criticizing the Metro interface. This may be relevant criticism for smartphone or tablet users, but the old desktop is what desktop users will continue to use, and it is automatically invoked upon a single click on any "legacy" application you have included among your Metro tiles.

I find it logical (I love the shutdown by hitting the power button on the CPU, "the intuitive way"), fast, less resource-intensive, easy to use, and easy to learn. Folder displays now use the MS Office "ribbon" interface which takes a little getting used to but IS an improvement.

Familiarity in my case has bred content rather than contempt.