I'll consider it alive when Microsoft don't have another 900 million worth of leftover stock to sell. WIndows 8 is only alive because people have no choice. In the Surface RT/2 market there are competitors that do a much better job. Given that you can't join it to a domain and can't run legacy apps, there is approximately ZERO reason to purchase a non-pro Surface.

Give it 3 months after the currently hoarded exploits for Windows XP are put out (awaiting end of support announcement) and they will not work any more.

I get that people don't want to change. But they are going to have to. Whether it be to Linux, a tablet, or whatever. XP is not going to remain an option for long. Man up, take the short term pain, and get to something maintainable and secure.

It has worse multi-monitor support in my experience, the hi-dpi scaling is incredibly brain damaged and wants to scale things to different sizes between my 2 displays. I cant turn that off. Applications still open on a random monitor irrespective of which one i launch them from. It starts up faster because it doesn't start everything Windows does - stuff that i might want like oh I don't know - the desktop, and reconnecting to network shares (they are delayed until 5 minutes after login).

I've run 8/8.1 for 6+ months both at work and at home, and have downgraded back to 7 at work and am getting things done faster. If i include power button to opening things from the network - windows 7 is FASTER.

Power button to login screen on Windows 8 is faster, but that isn't useful to me.

Metro the start screen is easily avoided, but the level of brain damage elsewhere within the OS is not. Try troubleshooting a dodgy wifi connection. Try searching for stuff using advanced search terms that worked in 7. Try actually using it on a tablet, only to discover the whole reason you'd want windows on a tablet is to run office and other enterprise type Windows apps - none of which are touch friendly. It's a dog. It wouldn't be so bad if MS commited to a metro version of office, and a metro version of the Windows server management tools. But they haven't - so you're left with a half-assed UI with no native apps anyone gives a shit about - and the legacy apps you want to run don't work very well at all with touch.

Because that doesn't leverage their desktop monopoly in the tablet market. Windows 8 is not about the desktop customer, or anything to do with the customer, really. It is purely about microsoft having a way to attempt to leverage their desktop OS monopoly in tablets. I think they misjudged how much people want Windows on a tablet.

Because it doesn't work any more. It is insecure and no longer patched. If you want to run the gauntlet and put the security of your machine and personal info down to decreasingly attractive chances, go for it.

Well, at least the competition (Windows) doesn't even have one standard UI within the same fucking OS install now. Yes, apple will benefit, but not everyone is a potential apple customer. Those who aren't need something to migrate to, and Linux for all its warts is looking more attractive than ever.

Its not a perfectly good computer any more. It is an old, unsupported security risk. If you don't want to buy new hardware that is capable of running a supported version of Windows, and money is tight, then you should seriously consider running Linux.

That said, I have junked hardware capable of running Windows 7 and Windows 8.

What they DID with their Windows RT tablets you mean. RT is dead.

You aren't far from the truth. It is window dressing on teh safari rendering engine. As to why apple do this? Browsers need to be able run executable content like javascript. Apple want to be able to control what code runs on their platform. Hence, no other browser as a vector to run untrusted code.

The difference is that apple actually improves their product generally. Also, get your facts straight. The MS Browser included thing was about microsoft's monopoly position being extended from the desktop platform to the internet. If they weren't a monopoly (and apple aren't) they could do what they like.

Make that 36 months + and you're getting there. Still don't have reliable 3d support and opening files from network shares without the file manager wanting to copy it to my machine temporarily (which if i want to say, stream a 4 GB video over wifi is mind numbingly retarded), and Windows had that back in the days of Windows 95.

Hardware replacement.

Also, windows XP mode is still a virtual machine running Windows XP, with all of the associated security issues.

Ahh bringing logic to a slashdot argument. Prepare for the down-mods.