The comparisons to Vista are short sighted and looking to just score a quick '+1' from the anti-MS mob. W8 runs fine (while Vista chugged), the forced inclusion of the new UI has certainly been an interesting debate. Having been on the release preview for the last couple months I won't be going back to 7.
I use all my normal desktop apps just fine, btw. No 'normal desktop version' needed, and if W8 mobile phones and tablets are successful the synergy and consistency will be appreciated.
FYI I do not and will not ever own a smart phone or a tablet PC. I don't even have a cell phone!! And I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one. An OS written primarily for those devices can't possibly be good for the average desktop computer user.
Not looking to "score a quick '+1'" as you put it and I'm not what you call "the anti-MS mob"! I run a computer repair shop so so I'm not anti anything that I can make money working on. All I did is express my sentiments on what is an attempt by MS to shove something down the throats of their customers when it would be far easier and create far less drama if they would just allow the end users to choose between a conventional desktop and Metro! Hackers have already written a scrip that puts the standard desktop and start menu up and does away with Metro so it would pretty easy for MS to incorporate that into 8. Me, I'm not too fond of loading hacked software, which will probably have Gauwd only knows how many trojans in it on a new OS to correct what I perceive as a screw up by MS.
And BTW, this computer I'm on now is multi-boot with XP, XPx64, Vista, Win 7, Linux Mint 12 and Ubuntu 12.04 with the Mate desktop instead of Unity. It will not have Win 8 on it though until MS gives me a conventional desktop to work with.
And one final point for ya. What would you do if you went to a restaurant, ordered a steak then found out that the only way they would serve you one was WELL DONE, and you wanted it RARE??
Micro$oft is in for a bad row of stumps with Win 8 as I've done a bunch of searches and not found too many ppl that are happy about the Metro only desktop UI. I guess you're part of that minority.