Hey I consider myself a power user. I use a $2200 laptop. It's a 2006 laptop, but it was still a $2200 laptop in 2006. And there is no way I'm trading in this beautiful all-metal machine for some piece of $1000 plastic lower-res non-IPS garbage that is sold today. My $2200 machine is still plenty fast and the repair parts cost ALMOST NOTHING and are PLENTIFUL so why should I mess with Windows 8, 9, 10 or anything else for that matter ??

Try google docs or libre office. Libre office has a horrible draw program, and so does google docs, but the spreadsheet and word processing systems are virtually indistinguishable for all but a book-length project. Viola, no need for MS-Office !! PS. Open Office is a dead project.

The entire Windows ecosystem sucks, not just Windows 8. With computers not getting faster, Microsoft has a business model predicated on, "Force the user to throw away their perfectly good computer, and buy a newer cost-reduced model in order to get the next generation of Operating System". I'm sorry Steve but you'll never get me to pay $90-$130 to install Windows 7 on my $160 used computer which is 10 years old (Thinkpad T42p or T60p) and kicks the butt of any netbook or chromebook in performance! And I doin't have 4+ hours to get the install CD to work, including that nice 30-minute conversation with the fellow in India who holds my testicles in his hand while I beg for a security code!

Wake up and smell the reality! Forcing people to trade older high-end old computers for newer low-end new computers (the only thing that is offered) is a FAIL !!

What is happening, is people who had 1000 sq ft. apartments for 20 years, and who are paying only $1400 a month (instead of $3000) due to the magic of rent controls, are getting turfed out of their homes because the landlord is selling the place for a condo conversion. This is the only way for the landlord to monetize a NET LOSS on their investment in the apartment building, after inflation, due to the compounding of rent controls over a decade before [ heard on KQED public radio in the Bay Area]. And these people who had a "free ride" over the last 15 years, are angry that their free ride is over. COMPLETELY over.

You forgot the sunk costs of the college education, which today is paid for with borrowed money at usurious interest rates. But after these costs are taken into account, the software engineer probably makes $14 an hour vs. the $8 per hour for the minimum wage. This is just how the bourgeoisie have always organized it : keep the lower classes fighting each other so as to detract attention from the raping an pillaging that is happening at the top!

In case you didn't notice, many of the Google and Apple employees themselves are refugees from the high housing prices ($700-$1000 per sq ft) in places like Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Cupertino. What goes around, comes around. Northern CA has this anti-growth mentality that makes housing horribly expensive no matter what job you work, no matter where you work.

If they were serious about asking people to upgrade from XP, they wouldn't be asking $90-$130 for a retail copy of Windows 7, the last Microsoft Operating System that worked ...

Windows XP was released at the Zenith for hardware quality in some respects (think 4:3 screens, thinkpad keyboards). Microsoft forcing people to buy a computer is forcing people to downgrade their computer. It aint gonna happen!!

Windows 8 is not a piece of crap, there is a killer app for it called "START MENU" *snicker* ..

I don't recommend a computer at age 4. My 4-year old jumped on our laptop screen (SXGA, a $700 repair). I mail-ordered a new screen from Malaysia and repaired it myself (cost: $240).

At age four, I highly recommend www.headsprout.com. My kids went through it and then began to REALLY AND TRULY READ. We gave them NO COMPUTER = NO TV = NO VIDEO GAMES, and by 2nd grade, they were reading 30,000 pages per year. That's what NO COMPUTER will do to your kid ==> Make them more engaged in reading and that will make them smarter !!!