In reply to a post by BatBoy:

I believe it's possible to buy a number of peripheral devices for various specialised requirements, such as keyboards for typists.

You mean like the naff ones that you can get for the surface?

I know someone who tried to type on both of them and failed.

A lot of the negative comments lately in this thread are reminiscent of when the iPad was launched.

Touch screen have it place,, i admit I did not like the idea of touch screens on mobile phones, but I am ok with them now, but I don't like tablets, I have tried two and they are not for me.

Touch screens for desktops, nah, I don't think so. I know of someone who got a all in one with a touch screen and they never use the touch screen part as it means reaching out.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

That may be in a far off future, but for now the future is touch, as shown by the iPad etc.

Google glass?

I think this illustrates my point rather well

The product - which is still a long way from being ready for consumers...

...you need to learn a series of touch commands on the arm of the glasses...

In reference to www.pcworld.com/article/2040309/microsoft-outs-the-new-features-in-...:

The Start button is back�but the Start menu isn�t.

Instead, clicking the old familar button will dump you into the modern UI Start screen. While the new feature is notable for adding a helpful visual cue to an operating system rife with hidden menus, it isn�t exactly what people begging for the return of the Start button were looking for.

One much-clamored-for, keyboard- and mouse-friendly feature will be making a debut in Windows 8.1, however. The update adds the option to boot directly to the desktop, bypassing the modern UI start screen completely. (Actually, you can boot into several alternate locations, including the All Apps view.)

This is all still months away from release and who knows what MS will do by then, especially if they have an awful E3 over the Xbone.

As for me I have started the migration over to Zorin Linux which is a win 7 interface over Ubunutu 12.04.

So far going very well and the wife decided to give it a go and even though she has to boot it up on a 64GB memory key she says it is very easy to get to grips with and is running it now almost all the time.

And the only thing I am using win 7 for now is my wife's sewing machine, games and video capture as I still have to get the right drivers for the video capture card and haven't tried WINE on the sewing machine software yet.