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I've been playing with Windows 8 in both the Developer Preview and the later Consumer Preview since last year. I worked with it again at home last night, and I've come to the conclusion that it's not going to be a high priority for me to upgrade to it at any point.

The reason I'm so down on Windows 8 is this - the massive dumbing down and crapification of the system. Let's look at just one example: the Solitaire game.

Windows Solitaire has been a mainstay of Windows versions for years. Each time there's a new version of Windows there's been a new version, some major, some minor, of Solitaire to accompany it. The version that came with Vista was a major departure; the version that came with Windows 7 was Vista 1.1.

The version that comes with Windows 8 is a major departure, and not in any positive sense. For instance, I haven't found any obvious way to stop the game I'm playing, before some sort of endpoint, and just arbitrarily starting a new game - the old F2 functionality just isn't there, so far as I can discover. The Solitaire game needs access to my network and an internet connection. Really!? This is a casual card game for the computer - why does it need internet access? It's a Metro-style game. I've got a 24" LCD monitor - full-screen apps on this monitor had better be doing something more significant than playing Solitaire. I can't reduce the size from full-screen unless I dock it with another Metro app, which is still not acceptable. Generally when I'm playing Solitaire on my computer, it's in a window while something else is going on that I'm keeping an eye on, like a web download, for instance. Full-screen does not allow me to do that.

There are a few other changes that are aggravating and annoying, rather than being improvements in what should be a cut-and-dried inclusion to Windows 8. And this is an app that requests that I open Xbox Live - why?

The bottom line is that the trivial example of Windows Solitaire reflects just about all the stupidity that Microsoft is trying to shovel down our throats in the name of the latest and greatest. If Metro were a special window that appeared on the desktop of large-monitor systems, I wouldn't have a problem. Making Metro the default mode for Windows reduces Windows to a glorified Etch-a-sketch. I don't really have an issue with Metro as a default UI for Windows 8 tablets either; it's fine in that use scenario. It's when we HAVE to use Metro for things like Solitaire, or a menagerie of other apps, that I have to draw the line, particularly on the kind of desktop that I suspect is typical of a LOT of users who could run Windows 8.

Microsoft is supposedly betting the farm on Windows 8. If what I've seen so far is what we'll see when this product is released, then Microsoft's days may be numbered. This is NOT a good operating system, at least as far as the GUI choices are concerned. Shame on you, Microsoft - you really could do a lot better than this.