[300bps]

>I don't get why people are so upset that the start button is gone.

I get it. The Start button is useful. When I first installed Windows 8, it was a little painful to find my way around. Then I realized something... Windows 8 does have a Start button. If I move the mouse to the lower-left of the screen, a button labeled "Start" pops up. I click on it and up pops my pinned applications. Sure, it's called the Windows 8 interface (formerly known as Metro) but when it gets down to it, it's actually a fairly similar methodology to previous Windows versions. If I right-click in a blank area on that list of pinned applications, I get an option to see "All Programs" in addition to the pinned ones.

Basically, after an hour or two of using Windows 8 I became used to the new interface. The only other thing that's important to do is replace the crappy Metro versions of applications with standard Windows versions. The biggest one to replace is the PDF Reader.

[canthonytucci]

>The biggest one to replace is the PDF Reader. I think a PDF reader inside IE would make the most sense here. I have been using Chrome/Firefox's built in PDF reader with good results for my uses.

Which other ones do you dislike?

I think Mail is pretty weak, but I also think if you're displeased with it, you probably also have a copy of excel or use a browser client.