MSDN and TechNet account holders should get Windows 8 during or at the end of the first week of August. Are you guys excited? I wouldn’t go that far but I am interested enough to give it a whirl.

At the end of the day, it is an operating system designed to bring the various components of a computer together. As long as one has access to one’s favourite applications and utilities, it doesn’t matter that much.

There is going to be resistance by more than a few, especially those coming from XP. Some XP users don’t like Windows 7, and are going to hate Windows 8 come what may.

For consumers, October 26 is the big date. I don’t suppose that there will be queues as are seen for the latest iPad or iPhone, but there will be interest. I think that some, having tried Windows 8, will be in the forums asking how to downgrade to Windows 7 or XP.

You need to consider the move to Windows 8 carefully because if you don’t have a retail edition of Windows 7 or XP, dropping back to either Windows 7 or XP may present hoops, jumps, and closed doors.

Windows 8 is a culture shock, but it is not that bad, and there are already 3rd party utilities which bring back features which Microsoft have chosen to omit. Don’t expect it to be just like XP. It isn’t happening, but there is still enough there which is recognisable as a desktop operating system, and it is possible to avoid using Metro 99% of the time. It just takes a little work to get to that point.

You may even find that the Metro interface works for you better than a traditional desktop. Much depends upon how you use a computer and what you have running on it.

I will be avoiding Metro 99% of the time.