An additional factor perhaps to be considered in deciding whether to try out Win8 is the "reasonably firm" announcement made while people were still trying out beta versions that Win8 would not include Media Player as a default.

At that time Microsoft was complaining that the licensing fees were too high, so they decided to leave it out. It was never clarified in what I saw whether the licensing cost was for the MP program or for the codex licenses needed to make it work.

A little after the first rumors came out, it was claimed that Microsoft had issued a clarification, that Media Player wouldn't be in the default installation, but you would be able to download it from Microsoft if you wanted it. That "clarificatin" implied that that there would be a "small fee" for MP for people with the "Basic" Win8, but it would be free for those who had the "Premium" version. Some may have been confused since at that time it was unknown how many versions there would be.

A later rumor was that there might be a charge for MP if you "upgraded" an existing computer from WinXP, but no charge if you upgraded from Vista to Win8 of the proper version, suggesting that the first clarification applied only to OEM versions (new machines with Win8 preinstalled).

Since all this happened while the beta versions were still out, all or none of it may be the case now that Win8 is formally released, but of course the clarifications of the clarifications will be clarified soon, and Microsoft surely will make it all clear.

I hope that's all clearly understood, but if any of you think you've figured it out please post an explanation here for the rest of us.

John