My wife's new laptop came with Windows 8. Ugh is all I have to say. She hates it, I hate it. Feels like a giant kludge. Sure I could install classic shell this, etc., but I'm not one who likes to have to customize my OS much for it to be ready to work with. Hell I don't even like installing programs on my computer unless I am absolutely have to.
Several months ago my Vista laptop started flaking out after Microsoft auto-updated some patch onto it that screwed Windows up. Seeing the writing on the wall that I REALLY do not like where Windows is going, I put Linux Mint on a USB stick and booted from that. I've been running it off the USB stick ever since - no real need to even install, all I ever really do on this laptop is browse the internet and edit documents and all my data is on an NAS. Really quite surprised how well this setup is working, certainly makes A LOT MORE SENSE than Windows 8.x.
I still have a desktop PC running Windows 7 that I need to use for work (Visual Studio). No complaints about Windows 7, just hate the hell out of Windows 8. It flaked out too with the same update Microsoft auto updated on it. Had to revert the updates until I was back in business and wait a few months to take new updates that fixed their screw up. Laptop Vista works again after recent updates but I still run Mint 100% of the time on it.
I have to say I've actually been happy with Windows since Windows 95 to Windows 7. I really have no historical hatred of Windows in general. As of Windows 8 however Microsoft has lost me as a customer. I'll be using Linux from here on out unless they fix the mess they have made. Not that it really matters to them, whatever computer I buy will still probably come with Windows installed so they get the $$$ anyway.
