I HATE Windows 8. This is the worst OS ever invented.

Yes, you are right. We won't change a complicated operating system of a currently 'designed?' operating system. However, this operating system was NOT 'designed'. It was foisted upon us by idiots that thought they knew better and hoped to get a name for themselves as the next 'Steve Jobs'. The internal wranglings inside Microsoft are apparent to all and no matter what bullshit you put forward is irrelevant. Developers and previous Microsoft supporters are angry at your complete ignorance of our requests for operating system features. The Metro interface is a pathetic attempt to copy Apple. The apps that are available are DIRE and the interface provided is so pathetically designed, it's an irritant (Music apps with no volume control (ffs!) Photo apps with no rotation!) You include desktop app links as Metro (Yes METRO, Your f**k up, not MINE in selecting the name! don't your marketing department research anything?!) Windows 8 has been a marketing disaster from start to finish. Windows RT (Underpowered limited implementation (Not to mention Sinofskys failed demo! Hilarious!)) Windows Surface Pro, (Useless battery life) When are you people at Microsoft going to realise you've been found out? **** Software. **** hardware. Period. Developers left in the lurch as to what is the way forward (.NET)(Silverlight?) Microsoft engineers should be ashamed of themselves to allow the idiot managers within their organisation to dictate policy and allow this to happen. (Bill Gates, you are still Chairman and you let this happen? Shame on you! You idiot!) Windows 8 is SO MUCH a bigger failure than Vista. What a wasted opportunity! (All you had to do was make METRO optional....Simple, You would have had a winner, but no, you decided to force people...people like options , it's human nature, sorry!)

I have no idea how much an update costs since I got my new laptop with it but I think you miss the entire point of the conversation and you keep on coming back to the least important elements of my point, which is fine... not everyone has the same understanding (and by the way, you do need to run experiments after you PhD to get tenured but that's another point). 

In any case, the point is: appearances matter if the people want to remove them... that means people need to have a choice.. Win 8 does not give that choice without a 3rd party software. That is a huge problem. It still does not give a choice in the logging on and the Live ID. Huge problems. This is what my discussion is about. Forget everything else. remember only one thing: CHOICE!

You chose to bring up the wine and people's choice being affected by price.  It was your point, not mine.  Counterpoints to point made by you.  Windows 7 upgrades cost more RIGHT NOW than Windows 8 upgrades.  Using your wine experiment - do people think they are getting a better wine with Windows 7 and a lesser wine with Windows 8?

Who says you have to be tenured?  Who says you have to use your PhD in academia?  Do you know how many different types of PhDs exist?  Not everyone who has a PhD did it to teach or experiment - some actually did it because they were bored, wanted to learn, thought it was a worthwhile endeavor at the time, etc.  You seem to want o lump everyone into some neat packages - 7 billion people from all walks of life with different points of view on just about everything - those neat packages only exist in small bubbles.

The following statement is made with this caveat: *without third party utilities and/or hacks that were not approved or suggested by the original manufacturer*

As far as choice - Windows XP succeeded despite not having a choice of making it truly look and act like Windows 95/98.  Windows 7 succeeded despite not having a choice of making it truly look and act like Windows XP.  OS X succeeds despite it not looking like Windows or even being able to make it look like Windows (and vice-versa.)  iPads succeed despite not looking like anything else and some competitors succeed despite not looking anything like an iPad.  Your whole bolded "the point is" part was the same complaint in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.  11 years and another OS later...

Now - having said that - you have a choice.  You can buy it and use it as is or change it where it looks like you want and perhaps some functionality you want with other tools/utilities (want the Bentley engine in the Hyundai - go for it.  Want the opposite, do that too.)  You can not buy it at all.  You can buy it and voice your opinions and see if in the next version they take that in consideration - using one of the other choices already mentioned in the meantime.  However - what's *not* going to happen is your opinion is not going to change something as widespread and complicated as the design of a currently released OS tomorrow, next week or even next month.  In fact - it is likely that other than encouraging more third party vendors to come up with ways to make the new look like the old - perhaps even act like it... You won't change much in any version of the near future.

I have no idea how much an update costs since I got my new laptop with it but I think you miss the entire point of the conversation and you keep on coming back to the least important elements of my point, which is fine... not everyone has the same understanding (and by the way, you do need to run experiments after you PhD to get tenured but that's another point). 

In any case, the point is: appearances matter if the people want to remove them... that means people need to have a choice.. Win 8 does not give that choice without a 3rd party software. That is a huge problem. It still does not give a choice in the logging on and the Live ID. Huge problems. This is what my discussion is about. Forget everything else. remember only one thing: CHOICE!

Windows 8 isn't just a touch tile OS. It has a desktop too, and using the desktop does not lessen the fact that one is still using Windows 8..

If it appears to not work correctly, then no other aspect of it matters enough to keep it, if the problem cannot be solved. That includes looks. Especially.

Not work correctly for you or not work correctly for anyone?  Not look right to you or not look right for anyone?

What's the difference? You want me to speak for others now?

Anyone who views it as I do, and I'm sure many do. Those of us who value function above form.

The parallels drawn above regarding cars are specific to PLAY scenarios, not to WORK scenarios.

Ask a UPS driver who's preparing to head off on his route whether he'd rather drive a truck with new paint, shiny and new, that ran poorly, or an older truck with faded paint that runs dependably. He'll say, "load up the old truck."

When there's work to do, hard workers know that appearances take a back seat to equipment that gets the job done.

You said "if it appears to not work correctly" - yet it works correctly for what I have used it for.  What did not 'work correctly' for you?