I also don't like the direction Windows 8 is going (and so haven't used it, and will wait and see how Win9 turns out),

It's amazing the overlap between the number of people who don't like Windows 8 and those who haven't used it.

I also don't like the direction Windows 8 is going (and so haven't used it, and will wait and see how Win9 turns out),

It's amazing the overlap between the number of people who don't like Windows 8 and those who haven't used it.

Not really. If someone thinks a product is bad, why would they spend money on it on the off-chance they'd be surprised otherwise? "Hmm, based on what I hear, product X is not to my liking... But what the heck! Let's spend money on it anyway, instead of other stuff that I do think I'd enjoy."

Besides, if you read my whole (admittedly long) post, I didn't say I think Windows 8 is bad. I said:
"Because Windows 8 has a good deal of consumer-focus, and I consume little and focus on producing, it doesn't offer me enough improvements over Win7 to upgrade - though it does offer a few. If I switched, I'm confident I'd adapt to it easily and be pleased with it, but I can wait for Win9. Looking at Win8, there's also the more surfacing signs of Microsoft's future strategies that I'm not liking and don't want to actively support until left with no other choice; but that's a philosophical aside."

I think the parts of Windows 8 that I'd use (as someone more producer-focused) is an incremental upgrade over Windows 7, just as Windows 7 was over Windows Vista. I explicitly said think I'd easily get used to, and enjoy, Windows 8.

The line you quoted, I should clarify as: I don't like the direction of Microsoft's long-term business plans for consumers are going, from the direction I think I see they are going in what I've read of Windows 8 both online and from Microsoft's own information about their OS, but that this is a more philosophical reason for not immediately embracing Windows 8, and doesn't directly have to do with the quality of the software itself.

But we've discussed that in other Windows 8 focused threads back when the OS was released.

I also don't like the direction Windows 8 is going (and so haven't used it, and will wait and see how Win9 turns out),

It's amazing the overlap between the number of people who don't like Windows 8 and those who haven't used it.

Not really. If someone thinks a product is bad, why would they spend money on it on the off-chance they'd be surprised otherwise? "Hmm, based on what I hear, product X is not to my liking... But what the heck! Let's spend money on it anyway, instead of other stuff that I do think I'd enjoy."

You're right on the payment front. I forget sometimes that people pay for Microsoft software! There are so many ways to get free versions (legally) that I haven't purchased a Windows OS in years.

You're right on the payment front. I forget sometimes that people pay for Microsoft software! There are so many ways to get free versions (legally) that I haven't purchased a Windows OS in years.

...? I'm interested.

The only way I know to get "free" Windows OSes is by buying an OEM machine (OS price included in the product) or being a Microsoft MSDN subscriber (>$700 a year).

How do you get free OSes and Office and such?

Win95 did have its issues, but Win98 (and Win98SE even more so) was actually quite usable at its time. Maybe not by today's standards, but at that time, it was kind of OK. Windows XP was just awesome, although a bit barebones here and there. I'm still using XP on one machine, and it works quite acceptably for a 12 year old OS.

Every time I read this I can't help but laugh... at XP's release the general feel was 'omg, why do I want this bloated overly bright OS?' ('Tellytubby' like was a phrase I heard often, but I don't know how well that translates outside the UK) and a chorus of "I'll stick with Win98/2k" (depending on your flavour).

Vista gets released and suddenly 'XP is the best OS evah!'... (Vista, for all its flaws, was a solid OS - the biggest problem it had was major companies *koff-nVidia-koff* apparently forgot how to make drivers which wouldn't take down a system if you looked at it wrong..)

Now, I'm not going to try and convince people that Win8 is 'the best OS evah!' but personally I've been using it since launch and the OS itself IS better than Win7 (look into some of the Kernel level improvements if you don't believe me) and at the desk top some things are nicer (I prefer the solid colours to Win7's glass; the task manager is noticeably better; the OS is noticeably snappier) and that's why I find statements like "mouse is being sabotaged" moronic as mouse input works just as before... hell, with the exception of the missing start button (which, yes, I have replaced with Start8 which grants me the net effect of pretty much never seeing the Metro UI) the desktop is just the same as before.

(As to the Office charge; I use Office365 - mostly I use word but despite having my reservations before trying it over all I like the experience; certainly for just sitting down and writing it's very nice, including little touches like the cursor not 'jumping' but 'flowing' forward as you type which, tbh, is the kind of touch I'd expect from Apple. Add to that the web install+update+sync is utterly painless its by far the best version of Office I've used and you'll have to go some to convince me that the free alternatives are better.)

You're right on the payment front. I forget sometimes that people pay for Microsoft software! There are so many ways to get free versions (legally) that I haven't purchased a Windows OS in years.

...? I'm interested.

The only way I know to get "free" Windows OSes is by buying an OEM machine (OS price included in the product) or being a Microsoft MSDN subscriber (>$700 a year).

How do you get free OSes and Office and such?

BizSpark and DreamSpark come to mind immediately. The bar for being a "startup" is quite low and most people here could easily get signed up.