I was one of you h8rs when I first played around with this version in the beta days. My opinion remained unchanged well into the retail stage, but this is only because I was so resentful of the fact that Microsoft was forcing us to migrate to a desktop with no start button. Once I got over it and gave the new configuration a chance, I realized windows 8 can be a very productive OS. That is, if you just take a little time to learn where everything is now.

True, it is designed to work best with a touch screen, but many of these advantages are backwards compatible with the traditional mouse and cursor. For instance, if you swipe in from the left, you switch between active apps. No need to return to start screen. If you want to launch a new app, just swipe in from the right (revealing the charms bar) and type the first few letters of the app's name. Still no need to return to start screen. Whether you launch an app from start screen or charms bar, you still only need to swipe in from left to switch back to any previous app.

For those of you lacking a touch screen:

Swipe in from right = Move cursor to top right corner

Swipe in from left = Move cursor to top left corner and click to switch through apps.
Move the cursor down from this position and reveal tiles of all open apps.

8 is Gr8, just give it a chance. ; )