Yesterday was my first attempt at Windows 8. I'm not a big fan of change, especially with operating systems. When Vista came out a few years ago, I recommended to all of my clients to wait until the bugs had been ironed out before upgrading. Good thing I suggested that, as Vista was possibly the worst operating system Microsoft have ever made. When Windows 7 came out, the speed and reliability issues are pretty much fixed, and so far with Windows 8, I'm quite impressed. The major difference is the new "Metro" interface. It essentially replaces the desktop and start menu with an Android like tiled interface. If you have a tablet or touch screen, this can be quite useful, as you can put your favourite programs, bookmarks and files in one easily accessible place. However, if you are a fan of "Homeostasis", then check out this
guide on making the desktop the first thing you see when you log in.
As for the explorer interface, nothing seems to really have changed between Windows 7 and Windows 8. You can still access the control panel, browse the contents of drives, install games etc. as per usual. I recommend having at least 4Gb of RAM in any computer/laptop you get with Windows 8 (same recommendation as Windows 7) as the Metro interface saves a lot of info in the background (in a manner of speaking, you have 2 desktops running at any given time). The graphics requirements are also higher than Windows XP, so do not go installing Windows 8 on a computer more than 7 years old, as the graphics requirements then were quite low in cheap computers compared to now.
Something to keep in mind too is that Microsoft have already started phasing out Windows 7. If you want to get a computer with Windows 7, you have about 6-12 months to get it, otherwise your only choice will be Windows 8. Already, I can only source the x64 versions of the software from my suppliers.
Having said all of this, I personally will not be getting Windows 8 for at least a year. As with the previous operating system upgrades, it is extremely wise to wait for all the bugs to be found by other people before jumping in and finding your productivity suffers.
