I've spent some time on some Win 8 and Win 8.1 test systems here at work, and it's actually not bad at all if you make sure to install http://www.classicshell.net and boot to the desktop, so that you never have to touch the Metro UI.

Although they actually removed some important and useful functionality in Win8, I can get around it with shell commands or third party utilities.

I'm not saying I'm rushing to upgrade to Win 8 right now, but if I were to buy a new computer today, I think I could make it work for my needs.