As a
desktop user - it seems you would have to be a
raving lunatic to install Windows 8. (From reading feedback on various computing websites)
The Kindergarten blocks interface cannot be turned off, and if you get into the desktop then it keeps popping up randomly.
If you have a touch screen tablet then it
may work OK for you - provided you stick to the Metro blocks UI, but that only allows a maximum of 2 applications open at a time, and one must have 2/3 of the horizontal screen space, the other is fixed to the other 1/3 and it must be a horizontal split (just saw that on the BBC "click" tech show today, and its an
absolute killer as far as I am concerned!
)
Also - again from watching the BBC demo - if you add a link to your browser in the Metro blocks Internet Explorer, then the Desktop version does
not get updated with the new bookmark (and vice versa) - the 2 Internet explorers are completely separate applications. So if you want some news site in both then you'll have to switch modes, launch the app with the same name (that isn't quite the same app - the control panel is also different in the 2 modes too for some reason) in both and enter the same information twice.
The show also demonstrated some of the weird mouse gestures that you will have to get used to, since the blocky Metro app thing is completely focussed on touch screens. Again, does not look like much fun.
Businesses will treat this like Vista I think - some are only just installing 7, so will hold onto that till Windows 9 arrives and see if its a proper desktop O/S.
My advice - avoid, sit back and watch the howls as the general public buy new PCs with this on it.
Maybe Microsoft will then add back the feature that
was in the beta release but is now completely disabled for the released version!
where you could turn off the Metro block thingy and have only a proper Windows 7 type desktop if you wanted.
Until then you will have to deal with some sort of a "Jeckyll and Hyde" split-personality operating system that thinks it's a mobile phone.
I'd be interested in any feedback from any of you who have been inflicted with the thing, to see what happens with the games. But I have nil plans to go near Windows 8 - and may well go Linux with a virtual emulator of XP for games running and development.
Windows 8 is an unsupported O/S for the games at the moment - if you want to try it, you are on your own as a trail blazing pioneer.