Windows 8 is a disaster

Disclaimer: I am an apple fanboy, and i don't like windows, i hate it.

That being said i can understand Windows XP, Vista, Win 7 etc.

A co-worker bought a new toshiba laptop, i had sold him my old imac g4 (the upside down salad bowl one), it was showing its age, but was good for email, some web browsing, but web videos were a problem, so i had said i would set-up his new laptop (transfer files, music, pics etc).

Setup

After turning the new computer on choosing language, wifi, Microsoft ID etc you are greeted to Metro (Modern UI or Windows 8 UI or what ever Microsoft is calling it now), its different, not unappealing, I launch Internet Explorer to start downloading the things i need to get (libre office, VLC, iTunes, Firefox etc), not a big fan of IE 10. After running firefox (my friend likes it, i would use chrome on Windows) i get the programs all downloaded.

Desktop VS Tiles

Moving between the old desktop and the new win8 tiles is a mess, I think of myself as experienced computer user and i found it frustrating.

Windows 8 Mail

Well this was fun, first off to get to setup my friends gmail account you have to have a microsoft ID? WTF! you can't get past it to the account prefs, I know microsoft wants you to use their services, but thats crazy, I am sure there must be a way past this, but I just created a new Microsoft ID and then login to gmail.com, opened the email from microsoft, clicked the verify link, sacrificed a goat to Steve Balmer and pleased the Windows Gods and got gmail set up.

Toshibas Shovel ware (not windows fault)

Next i have to get rid of all that crapware that comes on most wintel machines, first to go was the Norton Anti-virus 30 day trial, Windows 8 comes with Built in anti-virus (security essentials called windows defender in win8), since the norton software had turned off windows defender I had naively thought it may turn on after a restart, but not such luck, after searching google to find out how to do this (its call action center i think) I got that working.

So after and 1 1/2 hours work i had it setup, for someone that is a new computer user (my fiend) i feel sorry for them using this OS.

I know a lot of people like windows, and that is fine, whatever works for you, but i would stick to Windows 7 for as long as you can.

Paul W