P.S. Upadte: I'm getting a little more used to using the mouse with Metro, but the other things I mentioned I still wonder about. One can use Search to find Character Map .. but that seems such a long hard way to go about getting to, what for some, is an essential application .. and I simply don't want to have to memorize every character's Alt + Number code! LOL

Alt + 0153

I really think they should have a "Start Menu" incorporated into the thing somehow .. the Metro page just doesn't make enough readily available. I found the Metro search, but that requires the user to know the specific executable name or the specific title name of the application .. and it is decidely counter inutiive to DISCOVERY which one can do VISUALLY with the Start menu.

Anyway ... it's coming off too much like an App Store marketing scheme and not like serious programmers serving the computing public. If I wanted bull I'd buy an Apple iPad.

Windows 8 is pretty, but I have a few concerns:

There's no Start menu - unless one says the Metro page is a glorious but underpowered Start menu. Try finding Character Map without using Windows Explorer to find the executable. So far I haven't been able to figure any other way to it but to drill through Explorer and find charmap.exe in the System32 folder. The same goes for WordPad and Notepad and just about everything else unless it is in the Control Panel.

The other concern is that when using the Metro apps with a mouse, I find that I'm having to swing the mouse around again and again and again before it catches to the thing I want. Sometimes one swipe does it, sometimes I have to swipe five times or more before I get what I want. It's a real slowdown. It makes me feel like it's some sort of Windows for babies. They really need work.

And one more concern: when a Metro app is on, how do I close it? There's no obvious way for some of them at least - something like an X or close button. I've had to resort to Task Manager for several of them now to turn them off as they don't go off on their own. What gives?

I have always been amazed how mac users lurk and post in Windows comment threads when Windows users have no interest in macs. I guess there isn't enough happening in the mac world to keep them occupied there.

Also@Brian Hill:

Microsoft wants to tie the OS experience into the hardware for tighter integration, and in the world of reality, hardware makers don't want to open source their firmware because it's their intellectual property. If an OEM really cares that much about being "open", they would put Linux on open source hardware and release the firmware source code. You know, so that they can undercut their own manufacturing process.

...How's that proceeding so far?

I am not saying that OS X is better or that MS did not drastically improve the boot time for Windows 8, which they appear to have done.

I was trying to make the point that the super fast boot time is a result of a saved state. As I said, for most users this is fine. They shut down their computers and get a great benefit of a quick boot time when they next power it up. They don't care about a saved state reboot vs. a full reboot.

However, that may not be the case for all restarts, which was what I was pointing out. Yet as usual, Paul has to bash Mac users. If Apple did this, Paul would be the first to point out all the situations when the super fast restart would not work. Its just his usual hypocrisy as work here.