>If you're talking about getting Office with a new machine, it's been that way for Windows for as long as I can remember. The solution is to not buy machines with Office but purchase it separately or through an enterprise agreement.

Seeing the matter through german legal shades: EULA had in it that OEM OS was bound to the particular machine, but that clause was regularly thrown out in court as they ruled on the lines if MS wants some say in the matter they should not sell. If they sell, customer is allowed to do with this single copy whatever he wishes: port to VM or other HW or sell if he does keep backup copy. Before UEFI that was reflected in newer EULA, as they allowed porting the single copy for the user and were still mum on selling. Now as there are technological barriers in place, the no port rules resurfaced.

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>I'm not sure what the disadvantages are that you're talking about. But for WIndows 8, I've found it easier to use, it boots faster, wakes up faster, uses fewer resources, and is more secure than Windows 7. As for Windows RT, it's even more secure as Windows Apps run sandboxed. This also has the added advantage of not bringing down the entire machine when a memory overrun occurs (fewer blue screens).

>For years, there have been complaints about Windows not being secure or that applications crash alot and require reboots. Microsoft fixed that and now people are complaining about the fix. So, which way do you want it?

BSOD happened here since 2005 on XP twice - and a faulty HD might also be trouble for W8. Fast booting is a pro, and if finger input is used it will be great. But I am not there yet. Paying for security maintainance and some tightening for fast boot - yes and gladly so. But always reshuffling the interface with no real benefit and trying to sell the same sow a fifth time as new silk purse while forcing me to learn still another way to use it - that part I dislike. Asking for money for the media stuff sold as a special download "because the license cost for 3rd parties should be handled fairly" is totally bogus, as I must have oodles of those licenses already with my old stuff. Write a license mover disabling that in the old stuff I own ;-)

And since I paid for half a dozen upgrade licenses I will decide just on personal taste if I prefer W7 or W8 prof as main Win desktop VM guest OS. Probably will go either for a Surface Pro or other Intel pad or get one touch enabled screen to test and stay with Win8.