Hi there
W8 DOES have some HORRIBLE problems but let's get a bit real here.
IT DOESN'T take 2 or 3 times as many mouse clicks etc to get stuff done on Windows 8 -- however it's not easy to order it properly straight out of the box.
I can run start and run any standard Windows app you care to name just as quick from W8 as I can from W7 once I've done a bit of fiddling with the screens -- I use Custom toolbars (very useful), the task bar and desktop short cuts so after the initial boot I never even have to bother with the Windows start screen.
The lack of a Start button isn't actually that big a deal anyway --and what convoluted logic says Click the START BUTTON to get to the SHUT DOWN screen -- it's a bit like understanding Geeky program coders talking about ENTERING a user EXIT (or to a lesser extent why do people SIT in the STANDS at a stadium -- although I think in the US the seats are called Bleechers (?) rather than the Stands).
I don't really even need the menu -- but where W8 really fails is when you install something every wretched .EXE file creates its own tile so you can have hundreds of these when installing large applications and the tile gets inserted anywhere so you could have say a NERO tile in the middle of some SQL server stuff -- then trying to rationalize that mess is not a task the average joe wants to do. There is almost no way either of customising these wretched tiles or even re-arranging them sensibly either.
Nothing wrong in providing touch applications but the way they implemented it trying to make desktop apps follow the same line IS a disaster. However I'm sure there WILL be changes and under the hood W8 isn't so bad.
Cheers
jimbo
Once you have what? Done some fiddling? Most who go out and simply buy a new pc won't be "fiddling" with anything but screaming they can't use it! As far as simply not having a Start orb there's a little bit more involved then just a button but a centralized point of access! With 8 you have some stuff hidden in a tool bar only seen when having the cursor in just the right spot and other items like other system setting as well as the Control Panel link found in a right click menu no one will even know about located right where the Start screen popup appears!
Go to open one thing and then back to say open a second IE window for example and a second trip through the "Metro" "Modern" apparatus each time! Without knowing about the right click on profile pic found on the Start screen you have to find the right spot to bring up the Crawler to then find the Power options to bring up one more screen to select shutdown, restart, logoff, sleep, or hibernate making the entire process "convoluted" as many a blog writer be smear a Win 8!
As for the Start screen itself it was never intended for the desktop to begin with! And you wonder why it can't handle large applications with several items? Tablets and smart phones and Windows Phones don't generally have many! Not the large office and other productivity wares that is like CAD as another to include in the list.
It was designed specifically for fast and easy touch and swipe on a hand held to portable unit only! Someone with a great deal of "hindsight" at MS however decided it would look good having everything looking exactly the same on all hardwares regardless of the consequential effects to the average user in order to promote "SURFACE" in order to compete with the Googles and fruit companies already delving into the mobile market which MS had no arms stretched into.
Marketing at the cost of the user as far as seeing a working desktop release! You can't escape that one! It was deliberate sabotage by MS on their own product line to sacrifice the desktop to push the mobile! And MS isn't worried too much since they make the big cash off of corporations with office wares not one particular desktop version otherwise between ME, XP, and Vista they would have already folded! ME being the original flop, XP a bug laden OS rushed out fast after ME flopped and left much to be desired!
And then a bigger OS bulky but far more stable gets a bad rep from the start namely Vista. Besides being a larger more service loaded OS the removal of Fat support was another hindsight as cell phone cameras and SD Cards memory cards were just coming in along with external hard drives and usb flash drives to boot seeing exFat volumes to be Windows/Mac compatible. With 7 a working formula lead to an immediate success story from the get go! But MS doesn't learn lessons well apparently!