I've been using Win8 for a few months. I rarely see the Metro screen: Win+m brings you right to the desktop. I pin the apps I use frequently to the taskbar; have infrequently used ones on the desktop. When I have to find something not there, I press the Win key, and begin typing: the list comes up, I select from the list, and I'm back on the desktop. It's really not a bother, at all.

The OS itself is by far the smoothest I have used from MS, which is where almost all of my history and experience is. I enjoy the smoothness. Things are fast (but that's probably partly the machine: i7, 750GB hybrid drives, mirrored). Crashing an app is even smoother than Win7.

Oh, the only other trick you need (I think): when you want to restart, don't bother going to the metro screen: click on the desktop screen, enter alt+F4 (just like the old days).

Hank

>>>The reason is that web standards developed and now include a video standard. Microsoft is more supporting to web standards now than ever before.
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>>>Additionally, there are many platforms that no longer support browser plugins. iPad, and WindowsRT come to mind. Also, with phones and other small portable devices, loading additional things like Silverlight is getting less likely.
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>>>>Netflix dropping Silverlight, thought it is intersting they making the move now. I just don't understand how MSFT could spend so much money and development on something, then drop it so quickly which causes other companies to drop it. How long did it last before they announced they were droping it.... perhaps 2 years? This link is not from a tech article, but from an "so so" investing site.
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>>>>http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/15/netflix-to-drop-microsoft-silverlight.aspx
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>>I think Mel (and I ) would both agree as to *why* MS pulled the plug on Silverlight but I also think his question (in the context of "My god what were they thinking") is how they could have put so much energy, money and evangelism into it before realizing it was MS version of IBMs micro-channel architecture.
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>>I know that for some reason at MS there has been a culture of doing things like putting three teams on projects that basically compete and then killing off the losers ( Linq to SQL ) and maybe that has given them good results in some cases. I suspect that while the Silverlight/WPF team was doing their thing and getting a lot of love, the VS/javascript/HTML team(s) were quietly tolling away on what a lot of people thought would be the backup that would save their asses when Silverlight went south.
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>>But being tone deaf to a lot of consumer demand, thinking they could create demand by juggernaut as in days of yore, the resounding lack of success for Windows 8 is pretty much chickens coming home to roost.
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>>I take more than a passing interest in new OS. i have a vested professional interest in success of MS platform. I develop apps to run on MS and I advise clients regarding MS.
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>>I don't have a Win 8 device of any kind, wouldn't ever consider a windows phone (are there still such things - I've never seen one?) Would never consider putting 5 minutes into Metro (oh, wait, what is it now? ) development.
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>>If I had to buy a new PC (which it seems not many people do right now) I may get Windows 8 but like everyone I know who has one I'd probably spend the first day getting metro the hell off of the screen and getting it to look as much like Win 7 as I could.
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>>I have never seen a compelling case to use, develop for or recommend Win 8 and I know there are a lot of folks out there lest interested in and supportive of MS than I am.
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>>So far it seems through their advertising that the best argument they make for Win 8 is you get some big clunky looking boxes on the screen (which users try to figure out a way to turn off as their first "customization" ) and if you get a whateverthatis they are advertising in the TV ads it has a kickstand and you can slap it around and dance. Oh, and you get a touch screen interface for your desktop or laptop where you have got along quite nicely without one since 1981.
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>>Of course this doesn't speak to the technical merits of Windows 8. I know nothing of those, but I do know that this is a business where perception means a lot (or Apple would have crashed years ago) and MS is not winning that war.
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>>Meanwhile, the actual great developer IDE they have created - Visual Studio - is great because it makes HTML5 and javascript work and play well with good stuff - like SQL Server.
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>>Very schizophrenic company.
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>We are in frequent agreement and this is another occasion. My laptop recently breathed it's last (suspected killer: Allie) so I will be in the market for a new one and suspect it will come preloaded with Win8. (I thought were supposed to be able to choose? Wasn't that the outcome of the antitrust case?) My first step will be to drop Metro into the deepest part of the ocean.