Okay. So I've been using Windows 8 nearly every working day for the past year. I'm a programmer, multi-monitor user, and a "power-user". And how do I use Windows 8? Pretty much exactly as I used Windows 7. I've never used a "metro" app outside of playing with a few on day one. The learning curve was insignificant given my many years of experience using all sorts of different computers and operating systems.

So am I less productive now using Windows 8 than I was using Windows 7? Not at all. However I'm also no more productive than I was. Which is disappointing in way: many of the previous OS revisions have seen huge gains in usability and productivity (2000 -> XP -> Vista -> 7). But not this one.

But even though the changes in Windows 8 haven't affected my day-to-day productivity, there are plenty of annoyances that I've learned to live with. Such as:

- Start menu search is nearly unusable in Windows 8 despite the "improvements" in 8.1.

- Metro UI "leaks" in some places such as Outlook notifications, and the Open With -> Other dialog. Though that open-with dialog gets worse in every Windows revision.

- Before 8.1 the charms bar and hot-corners sometimes got in the way.

Edit, more comments:

So why upgrade? It's probably safe to say that being on the most up-to-date stable version of any OS is ideal for any number of reasons ranging from security, platform features, and general "future-proofing" of the software you use.