Good for you and you not having a PC. too bad that most of the world (at work) still uses a PC. Sure, they have laptops and tablets, but nothing can replace the good old 19-24" monitor, keyboard, and mouse fro a LOT of things.
MOST people at work do not have touch screens, and businesses are not going to S%$#can their current working ones just to get a "neat" feature of "swiping".
The "old" menus works perfectly fine for a work environment, and MS was stupid for at least not giving a option to keep one.
I deal with this at work every day ...
Them: "I cant possibly do my job without a tablet"..."It has to weigh less than a pound and run faster than my PC..." "WHAT? this screen is too small...I cant see it...I am going to report you to the ADA..."
Me: do your required applications run on windows 8?
Them: "what do you mean...why do you hate new technology...why are you obstructing"
Me: "just saying, its probably not compatible with windows 8 since you bought this program in 1998 for DOS
Them: "I don't care, I need a tablet to do my job...its shiny"
You seem to have a lot of anger issues. Maybe you need to seek help. Also I said I don't have a desktop PC. I Do have a laptop that I use for home and work. It runs Windows 8.1 and it is not a touch screen. Windows 8 version of the start menu works perfectly
fine with a mouse. No need of fancy swiping.
Most laptops and some tablets and smartphones can connect to external monitor or TV as a second screen. You can connect wireless keyboard to any computer (desktop or laptop), to any tablet and to any smartphone.
You seem to be focusing your frustration on the wrong company. By what you have said your problem is at work not with Windows 8. Your work upgrades to windows 8, but don't upgrade their other software. That's a clueless IT department.
Microsoft is just making their OS work cross platform. Which is a very smart move. Making an old start menu along with new start menu would use more of your computers resources. So, your old work computers would work even slower.
Thanks for the good chuckle.