Not interested in W8 as its microsoft window dressing
This is the biggest problem with all these updates. And I will even

include Mac OS systems in this as well these days.
It's all about Window dressing (as you put it) and fancy bull. Making operating systems more gadgety and like mobile phone app environments. I'm sick of it, what's happened to usability, accessibility and the way the user interface is supposed to be designed to make things easier and quicker, less mouse movements/distance to travel from a to b across your screen etc etc. Things seem to be less productive these days and going downhill instead of up.
Greedy companies bringing out updates to make money even to the point where one is forced to upgrade from a perfectly usable system eventually, machines as well!
I used to keep my computers up to date with the latest OS system and applications and stuff and rode that wave of keeping everything up to date as far as it could go. But this introduces more problems to work around, hacks to get around bugs/quirks in new operating systems and applications and compatibility issues. Update to a later software then you need a later system to run it on etc etc, it's never ending.
I now don't ride that wave any more and am happy with an older system with older software's and don't update anything until I am at the point where it stops me from doing what I need to do and use my computer and software's for. Even then I am still having to hack the Flash plugin, by making it fool browsers into thinking it's the latest Flash plugin. The problem is I have updated the OS on my older G5 processor mac as far as it can go and the latest Flash plug in is not compatible which causes me problems on websites because lazy/bad web designers (which is another subject) don't make their sites backwards compatible for those on older systems.
Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant but I am angry with these big companies and the technology and the way it's going. It's all about greed and ripping us off and making money. For fooks sake they don't even Beta test stuff properly any more before it's released, as the industry moves so fast. They leave the Beta testing for us, the end user once you have bought the product. So we are left with a product full of bugs faults etc that we can complain about and find workarounds. Then they release an update which they charge you again for if it's a major upgrade. When in fact they should be paying us for the work we have done discovering bugs/faults and making workarounds in the previous OS system they sold us.
Your better off lagging behind a year or two with the technology and leaving the Beta testing

hacking and workaround the bugs/quirks to people who know what they are doing and have the time, money and patience to mess around getting it all running smoothly and wanting to have the very latest tech, as I used to be like. I have now seen the light and wont do the dirty work of these greedy companies any more.
Sorry rant over.
(:-})
PS watch how many people are going to have problems with the new 4G mobile network and they will be paying a high price for it.