[MysticLlama]

I really have to shake my head at some of this stuff. It's really no different than any of the conversations about the issues with Win2k drivers, the green XP start menu, Vista driver issues, etc. etc.

I run 8 on my 5 year old laptop, which I'm typing on now, and on my Surface, on my primary work PC, and so far have 7 or 8 users at the office moved over. All new deployed PCs are getting switched.

The big problem is in perspective and frame of mind when looking at new things. Instead of getting hung up in what you can't do the same old way, spend some time and see what you might possibly gain. The developers didn't spend a couple years of code just to get rid of the start menu and put in a screen of tiles.

A few examples:
Pin your most used items to the taskbar or make desktop shortcuts so that you don't have to go back and forth from desktop mode.

Learn that when on the metro start screen, it searches quickly by default, you don't have to pin everything. I can more quickly hit start->type c-o-n-t and hit enter and get to control panel faster than you can move the mouse around. (btw, has worked this way since Vista, but oddly hardly anyone uses start menu search)

To shut it down, just hit alt-f4, why mess with the charms menu?

The charms menu and app switching are slightly awkward until you get used to it on a desktop, but work awesome on a Surface.

All apps created specifically for Win8 now have their search button and options in the same place, this is a huge bonus.

We're rolling out video conferencing here and there and there was a lot of push to put iPads at all the sites and use Facetime. That's be great and all, but iPads suck for multiple users, they'd not be charged, etc. etc. Conversely, Skype was a bit of a pain to use on Win7 for the less technical people, involving calling, getting the other person to log in, making the call, etc. etc.

With Skype on Win8, it runs in the background, your MS account can be attached to your domain account for single log on, and when someone starts a call, it pops up on the screen and you click it. It also will run on the PCs we already have and will continue to have for business apps, the iPads we already have out there, some Surfaces we're about to buy, and several phones. Apple blew it here not making Facetime cross platform. I would have easily bought 10 iPads and 50 copies of Facetime at $20 each since that's what the boss originally wanted.

Hooking your MS account to your domain account will let you log on to your PC, see your OneNote notebooks that are synced to SkyDrive, then wander off and check them on your phone, or borrow one of the company Surfaces (that do multi-user very well) and head into a meeting or out of office somewhere.

It's not going to go away, it's not going to die off, can either learn to get the most out of it right away or wait until you're eventually forced. Some people may think XP and Office 2003 work just fine, but we use a ton of features in our environment that help us be productive that require at least Win7 and Office 2010, and we're basically immediately going to Win8 and Office 2013, seeking out the new features, and making use of them.

Sorry for the rant, but some of the focus on little stuff just gets super annoying. If you went and bought a new 911 you wouldn't ***** constantly that the windshield wiper stalk was on the other side, you'd just get used to it.