Many people hate Windows 8 to death. Why? Solely because of the new “start menu” design. Some people have other reasons too (such as compatibility issues that may crop up ocassionally), but by-and-large, it’s the start menu.

Me, though, I do not hate Windows 8. In fact, I was an early adopter of it, having used the Consumer Preview version as my primary OS for a very long time until eventually switching to the full version. Computers running Windows 8 boot up substantially faster than those using Windows 7 or an older version (if they have the same specs). Windows 8 + SSD = a very fast bootup!

Like many web developers, I’m not a Microsoft-only type of guy. I prefer Apache to IIS, MySQL to MSSQL, PHP to ASP, Google to Bing, etc. But I do love their OS as a desktop (not server) environment.

So here’s my short perspective on the update.

My Immediate Reactions

+ Start Button is back
+ Option to boot straight to desktop instead of menu (why was this not in the initial release?)
+ Option to show desktop background as start menu background
– Start bar and desktop are not functioning properly on my LAPTOP (but do function fine on my desktop)

They added a bunch of things that, personally, I would never use (such as Bing search, more tile sizing options, etc). It’s an incredibly minor update and, as such, you should treat it like so. If it worked fine on my laptop, then I’d recommend it to everyone for purely aesthetic reasons.

Edit: I have fixed the issue I was having with the Start Bar and desktop icons becoming glitched. Check out How to Fix: Windows 8 Desktop, Task Bar, Applications Zoomed In. With this being so easily fixed, there is now no reason to not upgrade.