You are saying that Windows 8 is an upgrade.
I don t think so.
Your wife could very well use OpenSuse or Linux Mint just fine too ,free of charge ,even more safely.
In my opinion "upgrading" to Windows 8 is a waste of money and will only fill some corporation wallet.
Now, now Vezina...no need to be so negative!
No need to be a Windows 8 hater!
You state that Windows 8 is not an upgrade....
How interesting!
Chew on these facts for a while good friend, then tell me Windows 8 is not an upgrade:
Client Hyper-V (So ability to run VMs built right in)
Much better battery life (by about 30%)
File History (similar to Apples time machine)
AppContainers sandboxed apps.
Slimline memory usage.
ForceASLR and High Entropy ASLR (HEASLR) ..security (Takes advantage of Ivy Bridge' RNG)
"Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention" (SMEP) support
Eliminates access to win32k.sys (Eliminates many security flaws/exploits)
Tickless kernel..lets processor sleep
Reset and refresh your PC (instead of total re-install)
ISO & VHD native mount (Supports Native boot VHD ... boot into OS from a VHD file works great creates a 40 GB harddrive by default for 8 rest is old system D:...dual-boot)
Native PDF reader
Enhanced Task Manager..see at a glance exactly which app is causing your hard drive to grind to a halt,
Windows Defender (True AV...basically now MSE)
Trusted boot (More secure)
Windows Store (Free apps)
SmartScreen (More secure than 7's version)
Storage Spaces (New Drive Extender replacement from WHS could make a good Home Server)
New ribbon for File management (can pause restart file transfers and has graph)
OS itself consumes less RAM and CPU cycles than Windows 7
Windows 8 is that it boots a lot faster than Windows 7
Many hackers have already gone on the record to say that Windows 8 is (and will be) very hard to break into.
Already optimized for SSD (
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/...n?p=621681)
Screenshots... Windows Key+Printscreen automatically save a PNG to Pictures
Support for ReFS the new file system, newer better than NTFS
System Wide Search.
Better File Management.
Better Device Management
Better Dual Monitor support.
Better Memory management
Registry is more compact and faster
Boot time: 9 sec cold > 5 seconds warm. Amazing
Seamless Cloud Integration (SkyDrive is pretty awesome).
USB 3.0 support.
Full touch support (This OS is killer with touch displays)
New picture login
Built- in Enhanced version of Narrator...MUCH IMPROVED for those with disabilities... fun for rest of us
..and many more little improvements... its fast!
Beneath the user interface, Windows 8 is in almost all regards a more efficient, more secure, more reliable operating system. From high-speed, hibernation-powered booting to Connected Standby and a tickless kernel, it takes the solid Windows 7 foundation and makes things better.
It is me, Soar...
Trying to fly up, up, and away into more faster and efficient operating systems!
PS Even though I believe Windows 8 is indeed a genuine upgrade, I still was never able to enjoy it long term, even after watching tutorials over and over and playing with it for months.
Finally, a frightening article [especially if you were on the Windows 8 development team at Microsoft] was released March 1st, 2013:
Title of the article: Four months in: Windows 8 adoption is almost at a standstill
Quite shocking when you read/understand the numbers and statistics and compare them with other Microsoft OS releases...
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/149762-four-months-in-windows-8-adoption-is-almost-at-a-standstillI think it is possible some of the developers, writers, designers of Windows 8 may be going wee-wee in their pants right about now...