Well guys... I tried Windows 8 and really... No. Just no. Can't tell ya: this is not Windows, this is VISTA all over again. I don't like the fancy coloured blocks, I don't like hwo you have to enter your password ALL THE FRIGGING TIMES you have to get into 8, and I REALLY DON'T LIKE THE DEPARTURE of the Start button!! Sorry. After an hour of testing I downgraded back to good-old 7 and I'm planning to use it till hell freezes over! I don't want to get my hands dirty again on that monstrosity! If you want to buy 8... save your money for something else. I beg you! (Or install it at your own risk!) (Or wait 3 years for Windows 9, I heard they are already working on it!)
Vista still had that Windows-feeling whereas Windows 8 is almost a completely new OS without any traces of its predecessor. I'm still using Windows XP but in 2014 I'll update I will be updating to Windows 8.
Have a look at this: Start8 for Windows® 8 - Bringing back the Windows Start menu it will add the start menu back to Windows 8. I personally liked Vista, it wasn't perfect however a nice upgrade at the time. Especially to Windows Media Center and 64bit support something I was very big on back then. I can take it or leave it with Windows 8, its not as bad as you think when you get used to it. I do think its far from perfect though and i personally dont find it much of an upgrade from Windows 7 when used on a desktop PC. The Metro apps are totally useless too. Of the two i prefer Windows 7, however i am pushing for us to upgrade to Windows 8 at work because of the very cheap upgrade cost, plus its a massive upgrade if your coming from Windows XP.
Vista gets a caining big time but I liked vista too.... I found it quite stable and once you stripped back some of the more annoying aspects like the tutorial windows etc the features- for the time at least- were a great improvement, not to mention the security being much better than xp..... and...... Windows Aero looked nice with the screen savers
Hehe indeed Vista had a lot of good features, must admit i loved the ribbons screen saver and the "aero" one i think it was. So much changed in Vista under the hood, sure that broke some things but that had to be done otherwise Windows would be no where near as good today. In general if you had a somewhat modern dualcore PC with 2gb+ of ram it was great to use!