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I went the other way and dropped OS X for Windows 8. I was a beta tester for Mountain Lion back in the winter. I realized early on that there was nothing particularly innovative or exciting about Mountain Lion. Its primarily designed to help sell more iPhones, which is Apple’s primary cash cow these days. OS X has gotten boring, and while it is becoming more like iOS, its pretty much the same as 10.7 or 10.6.

In contrast, Windows 8 is a tremendous leap forward. I tried it on a lark in a virtual machine, but I was so impressed I sold my MacBook and bought a ThinkPad. Now I run Windows 8 as my full time OS. Visually, its gorgeous. Once you get used to it (takes a couple of days) you realize that along with the beautiful Metro apps, its easier to navigate and use than the traditional Windows desktop. In my opinion, Apple has gotten lazy and is resting on its laurels, charging a lot of money for itoys, and Microsoft has kicked itself in the butt and become the innovator. Tech pundits will bitch and moan about Windows 8 at first because change is difficult, but I think it will be a huge hit with Microsoft’s customers.

"I went the other way and dropped OS X for Windows 8."

Sorry about that. We'll see how it works out for you. :-)

"Tech pundits will bitch and moan about Windows 8 at first because change is difficult, but I think it will be a huge hit with Microsoft’s customers."

I tend to think PC World is a bit closer to the mark:

Windows 8's Metro UI: 7 Things You May Just Hate
The brightly colored, interactive tiles of Windows 8's Metro interface are fun and innovative. But they can also be frustrating and completely unintuitive to use.

Maybe it'll be better by the third version... =:-D

You might also be interested in Does Windows 8 succeed as a true tablet operating system?

(After discussing how much of the system uses the old, non-touch interface...)

None of these are particularly weird or wacky things to want to do. In Android, iOS, or even Windows Phone, all can be done comfortably with an interface designed for touch. This creates a tremendous problem. Android and iOS are the competition, and their proponents can point to these parts of Windows 8 and make a very credible argument that, for all the thought and care and work that have gone into the touch parts, it's only half of a real tablet operating system.
And they'd have a good point.

I am not an apple drone per se. But, several years ago I made the switch for an iMac. The reason? I use my machine primarily for photoshop and other graphic programs. At the time I was having to restart my MS machine two or three times a day. It would take about five or six minutes to cycle down and back up. That’s about fifteen minutes a day. About an hour and a half a week. About a full work week per year.

When I realized I was spending a full work week per year watching my computer restart, I had to make a change.

The Mac needs to do that once a day.

The rest of it is BS. My time is worth it.