The OS is only a learning curve, and I’ve done plenty of swapping about. So 8.1 is just one more. No big deal. I guess I don’t get the MS hate. I don’t love MS, but to use MS flight sims, it’s usually easiest to use MS OSes. I’ve experimented with a variety of flavors of Linux, over the years, being so broke I couldn’t afford any OS licenses....
So switching from Windows 3.1 to 98 to 2000 and Ce, to XP, to 20 different Linuxes, then Vista, then 7, I have no problems moving around on 8.1.
In fact, I just ordered a brand spanking new gaming computer specifically for flight sim use, and intentionally ordered 8.1. My son also purchased a brand new computer, and it came with 8.1, but he doesn’t like the Metro interface, and uses the desktop.
Windows operating systems just work when it comes to gaming. I tried hacking drivers and kernel mode workarounds with Wine on Linux, and it just wasn’t worth it. For day-to-day automation, email, etc. Linux is awesome. For gaming, you just don’t beat MS. It’s the first PC OS game developers code to, and it’s the easiest to use out of the box.