That can be explained due to market size and the serious price reductions compared to previous versions (due to lack of preorders).

The actual sales figures thus far are 1/7th the sales of windows 7 last I heard. (non verified source).

Well Dave, it's hard to say exactly how much performance increase I've gotten over the pre-releases, if any, because the RTM was running on a platter drive, and the final release is on two 120gb SSD's in a RAID0 array.  However, I previously ran Win 7 on the same platter drive and Win 8 RTM was definitely faster on that, and the final release is quicker than Win 7 on the SSD RAID0 array. 

I have the AMD FX x8 8170 @ 3.9ghz, [Turboboost to 4.2ghz] which is pretty quick and built on the Bulldozer architecture.  However, it is as rare as hens teeth... like not available everywhere, and the AMD FX x8 8350 @ 4.0ghz [Turboboost to 4.2ghz], which is built on the Piledriver architecture, would be the better way to go, as several improvements performance-wise have been made to this newest series.  You can read more about it here.

I understand your difficulty and sympathise. I've been in the situation where I had no money and day to day needs were all that I could afford, and it's not a good place to be.  Thing is, while people in the same boat were hocking their stuff off to various pawn shops to enjoy a few little luxuries, I hung on to all my stuff, and thus am better off for it today.  I'm not well off by any means, but I'm as tight as a fish's arse and keep my living costs low so that I can indulge in PC related things once in a while.

Anyhow, I do hope your circumstances improve and that you can upgrade your PC sooner rather than later.

I don't want to use Metro, either. It's a pain in the arse, but MS will continue to develop on the concept and sooner or later it [or a latter incarnation of it] will be pretty much unavoidable if you want to purchase a new PC.  Sure there will be alternatives, but just how viable will they be?  Apple's philosophy is to get it made offshore for $2.50 an hour by slave labour, then sell it for a premium price like it were made onshore by union labour at $25.00 an hour, so Apple computers may never become a viable option to those at the lower end of the socio-economic scale.  As for Linux, well some improvements have been made there, but it always seems that Linux distros are a step or three behind and always in catch-up mode.  And who knows, this tile interface thing might just catch on with Apple and Linux.

True, the heavy price reduction over previous editions will have had something to do with it, but the local market size was/is miniscule, to put it mildly.  When you consider that more people live in Central New York than in the whole of Australia, and that my local vicinity comprises of less than 1/50th of the entire population of about 22 million, I'd say the market size had nothing to do with it.  Point is, Win 8 seems to have sold well here in Australia.

Time will tell, but Win 8 isn't going away any time soon... and MS is unlikely to backpedal now it has come this far.

Sounds like it's flyin'   Cool.

Those FX's look pretty tasty.

Yeah, but there's a stuff I don't like about Win 8.  Firstly there's "don't call it Metro anymore".  I will switch to it occasionally to keep myself familiar and up to date if any changes occur via update, but it is butt ugly and barely customisable.  You can add, remove tiles and change their position, but that's all.  Can't change the colour; can't change the tile sizes; can't right click tiles to add a shortcut to the regular desktop.  Nah, it's pretty lame, and why most of my time is spent in familiar territory... on the proper desktop. A couple of guys came up with a tile interface that beat the pants off MS' dour offering, and were it possible I'd replace "don't call it Metro" with their far superior offing in Omnimo for Rainmeter.

Secondly; there's no MS games [solitaire, etc] in Win 8, or if there is MS has hidden them well so's folk spend more time on that effin' Metro crap.  In between things I like to have a game of cards to fill in a bit of time while I'm waiting, but not on Win 8.

Thirdly; the shortcuts to system tools that used to be in the Accessories folder in the All Programs menu, they're gone... Gawn, I tell ya!  So, to do something like a system restore, you got to go into the Control Panel and hunt down 'Recovery'... but can you find or right click anything make a shortcut for easy access and future convenience.  Nope, can't do that, you gotta go through several more steps to get where you want to go.

Fourthly; I used to be able to call up my Microsoft Lifecam from a shortcut and adjust settings, make short videos, yak on with family on video calls at will.  Not any more.  Win 8 installed the software and drivers but I can only access the camera and settings via a tile on the 'don't call it Metro" interface, or open up Messenger, etc, and it's a far cry from its previous capabilities.  Yup, I'm pissed off about that, too.

I was going for a fifthly but I thought I'd better turn the rant off and say something positive about Win 8 before I've convinced myself it's a total crock of crap and uninstall it, which would e a waste of $40 bucks.

Anyhow, Win 8 is definitely faster than Win 7, in more ways than one.  It starts and shuts down faster; it copies and moves files faster; it executes programs faster... and that's not all.  Things just seem to run more smoothly and transition more fluently. I'll get used to all the other stuff, and as time goes on I'm sure various developers will create stopgaps an software for where MS fell short.

Yeah, I'm now wishing I'd waited a few more months for the 8300 Piledriver series, given the improved specs.  Oh well, what I've got is no slouch, and by the time I'm in the market for another CPU, who knows, AMD may have developed something positively groundbreaking.

The games are actually on the Windows Store, just not in by default.

And I bet they cost money. Figures.

No, they don't.

Thanks for the heads up there, Savyg, much appreciated indeed.  In fact, I'm feeling quite elated and feel Metro may yet prove to be useful.  While at the MS store I collected a few free apps for entertainment value and to help with with productivity.  There's one which has a cheat sheet for Win 8, showing various shortcuts and ways of navigating the OS, and an instructional app that shows videos on how to use Win 8, so yeah, I have a few more tiles to mess around with. 

In particular I'm looking forward to playing with one that accesses my webcam and all its features.  The original software that came with it and allowed me to perform various tasks, isn't compatible with Win 8 and the updated version for Win 8 just doesn't cut the mustard, feature or access-wise.  However this free app looks like the solution to my previous gripe

I got some apps for free internet radio and TV; apps to keep up to date with technology and science; an app for in depth local weather; an app for the local TV guide; one for local news and current affairs; a few more card games plus minesweeper and other old favourites.  Yup, there's a whole shipload of free apps in there for all sorts of uses, so Metro gets better looking by the minute.  I just with it were more customisable...as in be able to change the background to one of my own choice; alter the size of tiles; to be able to give category titles to the various groups; a right click capability to place shortcuts on the regular desktop; a quick hide feature on the tiles panel and a one click feature on the desktop or taskbar to show it again.

Yup, Metro could use some major love to make it easier on the eye, more efficient and user friendly.  Hopefully MS will consider these and other ideas to make Metro a more convenient and friendly environment for desktop users.

No, like I mentioned above, there literally hundreds of free apps there to cover a wide variety of uses and desires., so yeah, the app store is a worthwhile place to visit.  I saw a few pay for apps while I was there, and honestly, the prices seemed reasonable and usually well under 10 bucks.

Hey, Mark. I noticed this on Neowin.net this morning:  http://www.neowin.net/news/windows-8-manager-101

You might want it...or not. Does seem to have a load (30) utilities which might be of some use to you...

I did go looking for reviews of it, but haven't found any... just offerings on various free dl sites. Most of those quote the dev.

I don't use W8, so I didn't bother with it... but it might be of some use for you.

There's also a free "W8 for dummies" via Dell (you do have to register to get it) although with your knowledge of computers, I doubt you'll need it. I'm sure you'll have it all sorted in little or no time.

For those who want the free Dell 12 mb manual (which might not have all the pics it should), here's the link: https://marketing.dell.com/windows-8-ebook

Hey Doc, thanks for the heads up on that. However, I'm not too sure about using a 3rd party beta app to tamper with settings and the like.  It may be something to consider later on when more is known about Win 8 in day to day application, but for now is running very well and probably doesn't need and tweaks or optimisation.  Besides, if I were to invest in it, I'd wait until there was proven, stable edition rather than trusting a beta.

Anyhow, you old bugger, how the heck are ya... still forgetting to warm the stethoscope before listening to womens chests?

So out of curiosity how do you switch between the before named Metro to the regular desktop on a default new installation?

On the Metro screen (start screen) there will be a tile that is called "desktop". Click it.

Let's say I want to get back to Metro. How is that done? How is is done while I'm using an app?

Move the mouse to the bottom left corner, click the small thumbnail of Metro that comes up.

But why? Use Start8.

Thanks for the info. I was just curious. I'm still stuck in XP land but if I ever get a new machine I was wondering how that would work.

But why?  Then I'd have the same crappy start menu I had before 8.

(I'm kidding, just pointing out not everyone hates the screen.)

I see W8 ties the user into their Microsoft email account. Can I use Gmail instead?

If you want to use gmail you need ChromeOS.

Windows ties into a hotmail account

Or at least, that is what they think... I do not approve of such lock in