I like Windows 8. A lot. You know why? Because I actually installed it on a regular laptop. You know what? It works exactly like Windows 7... except that I have a bunch of new stuff on top of what I already knew. And you know what else? That new stuff ADDS to the experience, not SUBTRACTS from the experience.
Do you know how many new keyboard and mouse functions they've added? Quite a few! I'm a keyboard junkie and I've learned more neat tricks with Windows 8 than I have learned from Windows in 10 years.
But you know what else? I've doubled my battery life, and nearly doubled my performance as well (compared to Windows 7 on the same hardware), and that's not exaggerating for effect. I used to get 4-5 hours of battery life. Now I'm easily getting about 9 hours, and at the 10% mark, it still reports 45 minutes.... I've just never bothered to see how close I can get it.
Oh and the new UI stuff... you know what's awesome about it? I almost never have to see/use it... with 3 exceptions-- connecting to Wi-Fi; logging onto the computer; and accessing the start screen, which frankly is pretty neat on its own once you play with it and pin the apps you actually care about. I don't have to use it for any other reason... and I'm serious. I didn't just unpin the Metro apps, I uninstalled them... even the default stuff. On a tablet, I wouldn't do that, of course, but on my laptop I did it on a whim just because I wanted to see just how flexible Windows 8 could be... and lo and behold... it is.
So to the haters... have you used it? Or are you just mindlessly following some blogger's opinion? If you HAVE used it (and by that I mean more than just "in passing" or a day or two), opinions are valid when they're backed up by FACT... so what, specifically, didn't you like that you couldn't find a solution?
UPDATE: One more comment... ZDNet has some idiots, that's very true. Adrian, Steven, and James (Kendrick), are all VERY biased towards whatever platform they're pushing at the moment. However, ZDNet also has very talented JOURNALISTS (as opposed to bloggers) like Ed Bott and Mary Jo Foley as well. I've been following the two of them my entire IT career (20 years), and there's a reason for that... I trust them. I've even met MJF at the Nokia launch event this summer. Just asking that as this thread continues, maybe put it in perspective that just like CNET and others, there are always good and bad.