Progress? Or a pain in the proverbial?

ly scorned Windows 8 operating system.

I guess I could have avoided these elevated stress levels by buying a 'bare bones' system and then installing

Windows 7 on it but I just happened to be in PC World and you know how it is!

My association with computers goes back about 25 years and I've always had a rather unhealthy passion for gadgets and gizmos in general. I do remember having to do everything via the DOS command line; the launch of Windows 3.1 and the announcement of the pretty groundbreaking Windows 95 - but I also recall somewhat less memorable Microsoft moments like Windows ME and Vista. The less said about those the better!

Windows 7 was (indeed is) a very good OS but Windows 8 is a veritable mixed bag of seemingly disparate elements. You see in an effort to keep up with the Jones' (well Android and Apple actually) Microsoft has actually developed an operating system that is really designed for tablets rather than desktop computers!

The much despised Metro interface that confronts the user on starting the computer is actually a series of tiles that are supposed to represent apps. So every time you install a new program, a tile appears on the Metro interface. You then click on that tile which then, you guessed it, takes you to a more traditional desktop to start the program. This in a rather ironic way looks just like Windows 7 except what you used to do in one click, now takes two or more. Oh and there's no Start button either!

The Windows App Store, compared to its Apple and Android equivalents is pretty dire. There's not even a Facebook App for Pete's sake!

Any good bits? Well it fires up pretty quickly and that's about it really - this is an OS that quite obviously has been designed for tablets and touchscreens. If I'm being totally honest, it's not terrible but it offers absolutely no advantage whatsoever over Windows 7 which in my humble opinion is a better option on PCs.

It just feels clunky. It literally did take me about 10 minutes to work out how to turn my laptop off. Someone please tell me that it'll get better!

Windows 9 anyone?