Installing Windows 8 after 8 years of Linux

Impressed by the writer's dedication to putting spaces both before and after punctuation.

Also nice to start to read from Linux natives being confused with Windows. Oh how the worm has turned!

I've a foot in both camps, but any serious computing happens on Linux. With the exceptions of Excel and some niche Win-only software I work with.

I had to install Windows 8.1 Pro in order to use the Kinect v2 SDK. Boy is it annoying.

The worst part is if you want to use Skype - don't use the version of Skype that comes bundled with Windows! It forces you to change your Windows login into a MSN login and will only run while in the foreground (fullscreen). Total crap!

I had to change my login back to a local login and then download a "normal" version of Skype that also works in the background and doesn't force me to use MSN to log into windows.

That's just one of the many annoyances I ran into. I'm somewhat looking forward to Windows 10 - it can only get better (oh no, I said it!).

I respect the writer's persistence. I got a new Acer laptop with Windows 8.1 on it and decided to give it a shot. I already had a live USB ready to go but decided I'd see how much I could work on Windows before getting frustrated.

Not long apparently. Once the setup process started asking me for an e-mail address with no option to skip I gave up and put Linux Mint on it. Keep doing your thing, Micro$oft.

Seems that author is confusing Microsoft Windows 8.1 with the Lenovo stuff which it ships along when you buy a laptop with the pre-installed software. And because of this reason I didn't bother reading other parts of the article.

Though, I have been using FreeBSD as a base for 10+ years, Linux at work and with the arrival of Windows 8.1 I have switched to base of 8.1+Hyper-V+FreeBSD as a VM. This perfectly works on the Lenovo hardware (which I prefer) and I am amazed how Microsoft improved, since the year of 1992+, when I have discovered their products.

I had experiences very similar to those of the OP. After almost 20 years with Solaris or Linux as my primary OS (with a brief interlude using OSX), I bought a Lenova Yoga 2 Pro and I thought I'd try using Windows as my primary OS. Two motivators: Windows had at the time better HighDPI support than Linux, and since I use Vagrant for everything anyways, I thought I could get the best of both worlds. That experiment didn't last long.

It works both ways. My boss is a Dev that's been developing in Windows for a similar amount of time, and he's being exposed to Linux for the last 3 years due to the project we're both working on, and I can understand his frustration.

It's a different mind set, really. Emacs & the CLI are second class citizens on Windows. Big IDE's are second class citizens on Linux. Not too mention 20 years of experience solving problems and knowing where to look for answers....