Microsoft knows how much their sales have dropped off. If they were really smart they would have known this was going to happen.

As long as StarDock has their Start8, Modern mix and the rest of the programs who cares what Microsoft changes as these programs already do the job required. What should be done is all the PC makers should purchase all the win8 programs from SD and include them with the PC purchase. So maybe there are some laws against this but if not they aren't to smart either as they all have to know these programs are available.

So what ever Microsoft decides to do in the future win8 is just fine thanks to SD and their programs.

I doubt there are laws against this- because Microsoft and Stardock have worked together before, (Wasn't it on W7?) and I believe Dell has at one time used a pre-bundle of SD products (At least in some form)

Hopefully Microsoft gets it right, but W7 is just fine as an OS, and still avaliable, so W8 isn't necessary , and won't be for a few years.

Microsoft won't make W8 and W9 both stink, that would threaten Microsoft's position- they can afford one mediocre OS, but not two in a row, and Microsoft isn't willing to play with fire that much.

They're calling it Windows 8.2. That sounds to me like a service pack and I thought they did away with them. Stardock is a Microsoft partner or that is what I believe. If Microstuff were really smart they'd design the next OS with SD products in mind. That alone would make Windows incomparable and send a message to the Fruit (Apple) that they'd better step up their game.

Apple has no need to step up their game. They are doing just fine.

For me it wasn't the lack of a Start Menu button, it was the absolute garish system of icons they fostered on us. I know with 8.1 they allowed a setup that would take us to something more pleasant but my experience with Win8 has made me cautious about upgrading.

Not really.

Sorry Doc if i go a bit off topic but
I think the sluggish PC market isn’t due to a windows8 release or a missing startmenu or Tiles
It is because people realized that there is no need in upgrading currently and that drop in sales is because Enthusiasts noticed this as well.
Gamers do make a good percentage in sales... in fact enthusiasts have the biggest impact
They buy everything that gives a boost...
Now if you take a look how long gaming stations lived until just recently a new generation reached the market there was no need for a gamer to upgrade and waste money.
If he/she had a mid-range PC they had been able to run every ported game on ULTRA settings.
NOW we have the new generations with specs of a mid-range gaming pc, what would move gamers to upgrade if the new generation has a GPU with 1,84 TFLOPS while a TITAN has 4,5 TFLOPS? And some Gamers run three of them in SLI
The station has 8cores with 1,6ghz and a boost that can boost 4 of the 8cores to 2,75ghz - ( 1,6*8 = 12,8 and 4*2,75= 11ghz) that alone proofs that the cat Jaguar is more of a house cat... a mid-range pc has 3-3.5 GHZ on 4 cores and they still use the virtual cores, high end is currently at 3,9ghz un-multiplied on a K processor  3*4 =12ghz + virtual kernels / 3,5*4= 14ghz + VK, 3,9*4 = 15,6ghz +VK + without boost ( K )

The only thing worth upgrading on a desktop is the hard drive never less what system (and that is what SSD´s did ) SSD´s gave the biggest performance boost in a single upgrade.
People realized that it is cheaper to buy (a new outdated generation game box) to play on, while they keep their desktop or laptop for everything else i think the OS doesn’t matter sine we have 2 good ones to choose from.

Nope.

8/8.1 is crap to work with. That's why SD's apps are popular (Start 8 and ModernMix).

That's why Threshold will be coming, as well as to move towards a more unified OS. W7 will be phased out, though there will be great resistance.

In fact, China is asking MS not to kill XP as most computers there are XP. 

As for the desktops? They won't die because in the work environment, most offices haven't adopted mobile tech except for sales/delivery people. In the office, the desktop is king. That's why "Threshold" will be MS's "make or break".

Windows 8 and 8.1 are/were both fine.

People are just resistant to change, that's all.

It takes a couple days to get used to, just like if you move from Windows to iOS or to Ubuntu Linux, then it's fine.

ME and Vista were both horrible, but everything else in the lineup was fine.

Once I learned to work in a slightly different way everything was fine and perhaps even better than in Windows 7.

No need for Start8 or anything else except for people that refuse to spend 5 minutes to learn a new way to do something.

Well, I have been using Windows 8 and now 8.1 for several months as my main OS.

I still prefer to use Start8, even though I have thoroughly learned the "metro" way to do things.

So, I guess I have to disagree.

I have to use both Windows 7 computers and Windows 8 computers on a regular basis and 8 seems to be able to do everything at least as well as 7 can.

I have used the start menu since it was invented and when it was gone I didn't really miss it that much TBH.  Tiles are fine for everything most people want to do with the start menu anyway.

8.1 put a tiles icon in the lower right for people that didn't care to learn the old way to get to it.

Opinion,... nothing factual..

But they are butt ugly.

Go look up how Apple is doing on the stock market. Not an opinion. Apple is doing fine.

Windows 8/8.1 is just fine to work with.
If you already have Windows 7, don't bother getting Windows 8 - imo.

But..... I still miss my rock solid Vista.