Unless you get the results I got and Windows 8 ran slower than 7. No thanks.

Ubuntu is a nice toy. I have it VMd but it's only a toy.

Windows 8 was $39 for quite a while, I got two copies at that price.  

Well with your hardware I'd be surprised if Windows 95 would run efficiently.

I got mine for 14.99. 

Got mine via Technet...so thankfully I could justify the sub on the 'real stuff' from MS....8 was just a 'toy'....

And what is that supposed to mean? What kind of hardware did you think I have?

the weird thing is how some sites are saying ms is giving away this to win 7 users for free.

why on earth would someone with whichever win 7 edition (aside from the most basic featureless one.. whatever it's called) want to upgrade to a win 8/8.1 starter (aka crippled) edition with ads flying all over the place?

now, if they are saying a cheap/free upgrade from 7->8 equivalent (ultimate->ultimate) they might get somewhere...

I think there are a few die-hards coping with win 8, just like they did with Vista, but it will do no good.  Every day I see more and more tips appearing on how to downgrade from 8 to 7, just like it was with vista.

windows 8 is doooooooooomed.

Why W9 should be free: http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/slideshows/windows-9-needs-to-be-free-10-reasons-why.html

There you go. It's only a matter of time.  If they don't do something like this it's game over for MS.

Win 8 a massive flop, Google, Steam and Linux breathing down their necks, I bet they are pooing their collective pants.

Maybe windows 9 will be the OS that the users have been asking for, it better be.

That would only happen if they got rid of Metro and made the OS smaller, lighter on resources, faster, and less dependent on outside third party apps.

Spot on.

No worries Kona. I wasn't pointing anything at you. Sorry if it looked that way. It honestly wasn't directed at you

a device comes with an operating system, be it a phone, laundry machine, laptop, tv or game console. usually the device manufacturer provides software updates for the hardware. the concept of selling an operating system in 2014 is anachronistic.

it seems like MS is realizing this now. after all who will use services like OneDrive that are deeply integrated in the operating system if nobody uses the os?

i wrote "it seems" because nobody here knows what their plans really are. maybe this new Windows-flavour is intended to run on low-budget devices, some kind of Bingbooks perhaps.

it appears you (or those friends that leave their computers in your house) regularly make impulse purchases of electronic waste on craigslist. imho it would be smarter to save and buy a new device.

but congratulations on at least choosing to buy a car over a computer. i just hope you wont buy it on craigslist.

You are wrong. No one made any impulse purchase on Craigslist. The car we bought came from Craigslist and runs just fine. Perhaps you should do more research.

To you maybe, and the rest of the haters who won't give it a chance, but to myself and millions of others, Windows 8 is a great OS that's fast and reliable... better than Win 7.  And if my 80 y/o mother can learn to use it, then it can't be that hard to grasp... yet I keep hear twits moaning about how it's so hard to use/get accustomed to. 

I say twits [and then I'm being polite] because my mother is only semi-PC literate and manages to use her Win 8 machine without too many issues.  That, then, suggests to me there's a lot of so-called PC literate twits out there who prefer to whine rather than use the space between their ears for thinking and problem solving....

I could say more but it's probably best I exit the thread and leave you all with the following...

People are more Ovine than sheep a lot of the time.... meaning a handful of so-called experts put the mocker on Win 8 early, and the world stays away in droves... droves of sheep.

Bye.

Win 8 was a flop because of its GUI. After that Win 8 was a huge improvement over Win 7. With 8.1 I think I might go back as they improved the GUI.