OS 7 allowed more ram usage and a massively altered file structure as well as file sharing. Great for workgroups and it was paramount that major software titles get it together to reflect these improvements. Not one single developer has made the all important endorsement of the new OS as they have in the past. In fact - it's pretty much the same reaction when 7.6 came out. So the question whether OS8 is a leap like 7.0 or more of a tweak like 7.6 is not even a hard one.
Computers are no longer a tool, but a dociese.
Instead of critically judging how a given computer OS can do the job, and how many applications are available to do it effectively, it's still some kind of image war that requires an Orwellian mindset to appreciate. From Big Brother to Goldstein there's the status-quo to the one you're supposed to hate. Heaven forbid you actaully get any work done. I don't need to mention how many impassioned responses this caused.