I'm not up to speed on this, but from a developer's perspective, wasn't the main concern the fact that Microsoft was moving towards closing the OS, and that people will no longer be able to release applications unless Microsoft approves of those applications?

This is only true for metro applications which can only be installed from microsofts windows store. Yeah, but still pretty bad for a desktop system.

Whilst it is true that Windows 8 doesn't have a start button, it certainly doesn't stop you making one with a third party app. I have had Windows 8 on since before Christmas, at first when I installed it I liked the speed, it was much faster than my previous OS which had been the dreaded Windows Vista 64 bit (although actually Vista I never found as bad as some people - possibly because I had a decent level of hardware to cope with it).

The only thing I didn't like about 8 was the absence of the start button and the awkward way of closing anything that has opened up in that Metro interface, the lack of a close button seems really annoying when your sat there looking at a document in reader and you try and get out of the damn thing looking around everywhere for the close button.

However luckily StarDock Start8 software came to the rescue and for a couple of quid I could have my faithful start menu right back where I wanted it, and change it so that when it booted up it would show me the desktop along with the start menu instead of plunging me into the Metro interface.

Now for me Windows 8 seems fine, it runs super fast and I've got a standard desktop as well as the metro interface.

I also found that I recently purchased a second monitor, and by having two monitors it is really useful as you can have the metro interface taking over one, whilst having the desktop on the other. It does make things a lot more easier at that point.

Yes, but also remember a lot of developers think that a walled garden is the only way to go. If that wasn't the case iOS would have flopped miserably, yet there are lots of people who swear for that system.

If that is the case then why has Android been so successful - there is no walled garden there, Android is far more open to everything, has a large number of apps and is available on a lot more different manufacturers devices than iOS giving the end user free choice as to what they want their device to do, and I don't see Android losing any ground soon. Actually the biggest flop was years ago when 3 launched the Motorola A920 which was an amazing smartphone, totally ahead of it's time (I had one and it was really nice!), but it was 3's walled garden that caused major problems as they locked down everything on the phone - the built in GPS, web browsers, bluetooth, symbian app store, etc and so it turned what could have been such an amazing smartphone into a useless brick. 3's main concern at the time was for viruses to infiltrate their phone network, but eventually they had to give in to public demand and offered to remove the brick wall from peoples phones so they could use the additional technology. The only reason why iOS is so popular is not because of it's walled garden, it's simply because of the Apple name, it is like in the 80's people had Sony Walkman's, and it was the in thing to have a Walkman with Sony on it, even if you had the latest top of the range Panasonic cassette player which probably had more features on than the Sony Walkman.

I still can't understand the hoopla around the Win 8 Metro start screen. To me it's simply a fullscreen start menu that has the advantages that

a) it can fit many more default programs/shortcuts

b) it can display more search results

c) it will allow you to allot desktop space to "start menu" space by simply defining where your shortcuts lie

Can anyone really say that they've ever used the desktop while using the start menu?

In short, it's a matter of perspective: the entire Metro screen is the start menu. The only thing I'm not sold on is the mouse swipe to display the helper bar to show it. Pressing Win key on the keyboard is okay, but the mouse version is a bit slowpoke. IMO people's fixation on the orb seems near ridiculous. Furthermore, any argument that Win 8 is a lesser OS than Win 7 is just plain abstract rumbling.

Win+X alone is worth the upgrade for me. It's be come as second nature to me as Win 7's drag-to-edge-of-screen-to-split-or-maximize.

In short - on the surface it's the same OS. It just uses a different start menu system. If anyone can fault Win 8's internal workings, then please go at it. I haven't found anything more wrong with it than with 7.

When I want something I just type it instead of seraching the start button tree. I find it more convient

That's a 35 year step backwards in user interface, though.

Agree with the person above me.So we created an UI just to go back to writing commands again?!

Windows 9 will be the same for pc users,you can already see that they are desperate to gain some control,mostly because no one wants a windows phone,and not too many people want their tablets.

In my opinion their only strong point are the games.If devs started creating games for some other os,Microsoft would be done.