Microsoft tell us that 40 million copies have been sold already. With respect to the sales figures, had Windows 7 been sold as cheaply as Windows 8 is being offered, Windows 7 sales figures would have been much harder to catch. At $15 if you bought a Windows 7 PC since June, or $40 if you had a qualifying OS, who wouldn’t try Windows 8 out.

The real question is how many will continue to use it as it installs ‘out of the box’. I am telling all who don’t like the out of box experience to use a 3rd party start menu before they make the big move to go back to Windows 7.

It’s not that I don’t like Windows 7, quite the reverse, but I am only trying to save people who have bought Windows 8 any more grief than they already have. Here is an article which sums up what I see in the forums.

More indifferent writings on Windows 8. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html

Email users have been used to pulling all accounts into one client, be it Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail. It is bad enough that each incarnation has lost some decent features, but to lose POP3 capability?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/pop-email-accounts

Microsoft’s email clients have always had the feature which lets the account holder leave mail on the ISP server, and I think that it is the default setting, so the excuses in the above link are very weak indeed.

People are hoping that some of the omissions are added back, but don’t hold breath. Microsoft has been dumbing down everything for a while now, and seem to be well pleased by the outcome.. That’s far more than can be said for some Windows 8 users..