Hope Win 9 is out by then, because 8.1 sux. One of the problems they fail to mention, aside from its horrible interface, is that it is a huge memory hog because it has “overflows” built into it. So 8 MB of RAM is the least you can do with, and even then you will grind to a halt and all your programs will go dark every now and then. So you have to shut down and clear everything.
Seriously horrible design. Win 7 was very good and stable, much more so than XP, but none of the 8 family is worth a dime.
You don’t have to live with 8.1’s iPad interface if you don’t like it. Right click on the task bar, go to properties, then click on navigation. You can get back the start button, modify the annoying charms, and other things.