Review by Londonnoise

If there’s one thing I’ve seen, it’s that there doesn’t seem to be any middle-ground with Windows 8 and 8.1. People either love it or hate it. Or really hate it and prefer Mac OS X. Each to their own is what I say and nobody is ever going to make everyone happy.nAs for me, it took me a long time to learn to cope with the slightly schizophrenic nature of the OS, with the modern and classic desktops only sort of co-existing. I work almost exclusively in classic desktop mode, but am finding myself using the modern UI more and more when I’m browsing around, looking at news, etc. Now if they took away the classic desktop, I wouldn’t be at all happy.nThe biggest change for me in 8.1 is allowing you to configure the computer to start up in classic desktop mode. That’s a big time saver. I really didn’t care about, or miss the Start Button that much (OK, full disclosure, maybe a little!).nThe thing is that for me, this is a rock solid, stable and fast OS that does everything that I need it to do and does it well. I’ve had no weird crashes, no driver problems and no sluggishness (and I work from home, so this thing is running all day). I also respect Microsoft’s commitment to updating the software with the most common customer requests.nI’m not going to tell you I LOVE my Windows 8.1, but I love the fact that it does what I need, is reliable, and wasn’t too pricey. Just don’t EVER take away my classic Desktop.