I have to say that I've persevered and I'm now getting used to Windows 8 (well. 8.1). Mind you, I am using it on a HP 13" Ultrabook with one of the new Haswell processors, a 256 Gb SSD, 8 Gb of RAM and a touch screen. It's beautiful and one of the best machines that I have ever owned. I find that I can live with the odd moment of bafflement with the operating system. But, then, I've had moments of bafflement with operating systems since I first started using computers.