Yes, it always ends up mimicking the features available in Windows in a "me too" sort of fashion. So it's always 2nd best.

The firewall in Windows 8 is very comprehensive, and very configurable, so I wouldn't worry about that. As for the interface, once you ignore the Metro stuff, which is easily done, it's not really any different to 7 - the GUI is a little "flatter" (and none the worse for that) and that's about it. Performance, and stability, seem to be appreciably better in 8 than 7.

Unless you have some very errant program that doesn't work under 8, I can't see any real reason to prefer 7; and you can be sure that improvements and security enchantments will be quicker and more comprehensive on the new OS. For future-proofing 8 is easily the better choice at the current time; this is not an XP/Vista situation.

But you may want to wait for 8.1 to be released; the beta is a significant improvement in some ways.

personally the gui theme drives me nuts, the lack of aero affect has dragged it back a decade. PC's have been pushed back to put them in line with tablets, effectively to try and make tablets a more attractive option to use. Win8 is so ugly I may as well install linux which is free, faster and will likely have a more stable UI design in future updates.

The fonts and cleartype is rolled back in win8 also so it doesnt display so well on a pc led as win7.

Plus is dozens of minor gui features removed which do add up.

Metro cant be completely ignored as some of the dialog boxes on the desktop are metro themed as if they half converted to metro (not sure if bug or intentional).

I guess that it's all a matter of priorities. I've never cared that much about screen decorations and whizzy effects (hence on Linux I use xfce and not one of the fancier desktops), caring more about performance, security, and the applications rather than the OS scaffolding.

8 works just fine on an LCD display as far as I am concerned; I find it cleaner and easier on the eye than previous versions of Windows. A welcome change from the charge towards form over function that characterizes so many OSs (OS X in particular, and now Linux) IMO.

Would you use XFCE to do banking or shopping and feel safe. i know nothing is 100% safe just as in windows.

I'd certainly use it rather than Gnome or KDE. But I don't think the Desktop has any appreciable influence on the security of the browser.

Is there a option to have a linux firewall and linux antivirus which do a good job.The linux i have used is a more simple one called puppy/slacko/lucid

Xfce is a Desktop, not a Linux distribution. All distributions that I have used come with a Firewall; anti-virus is normally considered to be unnecessary in Linux. I have no worries about using online banking in Linux. But I have no worries about using it in Windows, OS X, or on my iPad either.

You might want to check out if you can run windows 8 on your machine. I don't know if this link will work if you try it on your Linux machine.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/upgrade...

At worst it does give you all the system requirements

I use both (Win 8 booted straight to desktop via Classic Shell) and not noticed that much difference.
If I was buying now, and both were roughly the same price, I'd go with Win 8, mainly as the support will last longer.