...And Linux Mint 14 with Cinnamon 1.6 has disappointed me by its lack of support for ATI Radeon graphics. So since I do not yet want to buy a new computer, I will soon have a third laptop running Windows 8. I am sure I will go back to Linux at some point, but not with the current batch of laptops.

I suppose that classic shell thing might make the whole thing a little more enticing for me. If I never, ever, ever have to use that new desktop look that is clearly for tablets, I'd be more happy.

The sooner I see more Live Tiles that tie into my monitoring apps, the happier I'll be. Seriously, what could be more delicious than seeing that EVERYTHING on your network is alive and kicking with a single glance to your Start screen?

This by itself is almost enough to make me want to take up coding again.

Almost.

It's not the Desktop, DarkJester. The Windows 8 Desktop is nearly identical to the Windows 7 Desktop. You're thinking of the Start screen. You don't care for it; that's fine. Me? I'm loving it (see post above). I ordered it on my admin workstation at a client site, and so far everyone - and I do mean everyone - that's seen it in action has commented on how easy it is to access things.

It's useful for tablets, but it's by no means a tablet thing. It's more like a...a command center. I was looking for a new car recently, and was wishing that AutoTrader had coded up a Live Tile that would update in real time with new listings that matched my search criteria. It would have saved me a bunch of wasted time refreshing their site only to find that there's nothing new. It's that sort of stuff that I'm looking forward to having.

It won't be to everyone's taste, certes, but its usefulness doesn't depend on having a certain type of screen.

Can it be turned off?

I'm not doubting that the whole thing is an upgrade overall, just simply stating why I'm not in the "upgrade mentality". So far I've only seen something that would potentially bother me, and nothing that really entices me to upgrade. I know there is a supposed speed increase and sure, that's good. But I don't have any issues with Win7 so I'm just lacking incentive to upgrade so far.

There's a way to bypass it with settings, since there's an Asus laptop that does so. The trick hasn't been discovered widely, but I'm sure it'll happen quickly. The easiest thing to do is to make a big ol' button on the Start Screen for going to the desktop (like Krimson has in his pic earlier).

I think there might be add-ons that bypass it, as well, but I'm not sure.

If you have something like Classic Shell installed then you can pretty much use the computer without ever having to see the Metro Start Screen. But I bet once you start using the Star Screen, you won't hate it. Aside from live tiles, its a nice place to keep your icons sorted. I would have to agree it is not a tablet OS by any means. The more you use it, the more it feels like Windows, even without the start button.