It isn’t all about raw speed, and the boot up time for Windows 8 is faster to Metro, but still takes a little time to set up the desktop if that is where you are going..

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2c2817%2c2406668%2c00.asp

It still doesn’t alter the fact that Windows 8 is primarily a touch OS, and is more fiddly to use.

Benchmarking games is one thing, but a game is a game. Not so with operating systems as we all have stuff that we like to run on top, all of which takes a toll on times. This is real world.

Windows XP is still very much in evidence and will be right up to the 11th hour because users like the way it works, the way they can set it up, the general speed, and the fact that all of their old hardware still works. As good as Windows 7 has been, it still hasn’t seen XP off.

At around the time that XP is taken off life support, there will be a lot of buzzing about Windows 9, with only a little more than a year before Windows 8 is taken off the shelves. If Windows 7 was half a bad as Vista was, Windows 8 might stand a better chance, but Windows 7 is just too good, despite the bleating about long boot up times. The only users who care that Windows 7 takes seconds longer than Windows 8 are the same type of people who swap parts until the entire WEI = 7.9.

What could save Windows 8 is 3rd party software like Stardock’s Start8, Classic Shell,  DellDock,and variations on that theme being supplied as part of the OEM bundle. For Dell, it is not out of the ordinary to supply a 3rd party start menu, but the other OEM’s may have a tougher time explaining their actions to the big blue M..

Stardock have just released some more blurb re Start8..

Time will tell..