Pay for Windows 8? Microsoft you're not funny. I wouldn't use it even if they gave me small payments to do so.

Such ignorant statements like this make Win8 sell bad. Some people are just too blind to realize how well this system performs. I use Win8 at work, and I've shown superior responsiveness, usability, performance, Start Menu lookups and customizability, and the effect? Jaw drop striaght into "meh, I've read that is sucks". ---- Still, don't get me wrong - Win7 is a good system and if you're satisfied with it now, you'll likely be satisfied with it in a year or 2 or even more. Nonetheless, stop bashing Win8, as it really works well. ---- Back to topic: Box - it's not very appealing. Win7 box looked more interesting. Pricing - we'll see them at the release, and I'd like EU prices to be similar. However, MS products frequently cost way more in EU than in US, which is sad. There's also no Ultimate version of Win8 - there is Pro and Enterprise and you can't upgrade Win7 Ultimate to Win8 Enterprise, but only Pro.

How much pro are we talking about?

How much pro are we talking about?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_8_editions <== not really super-detailed, but you'll get a glimpse. Pro is not that bad. It's actually quite decent as it gets some stuff known from Win7 Ultimate/Enterprise, like BitLocker. However I opted for reinstall to Enterprise as I wanted to be able to use "Windows To Go" in the future.