I'm an Arch, OS X, and Windows user. I'm a developer in my day job, on the .net platform. I prefer Arch any day of the week, but I really like windows as well.

> network management in Windows 7 was usable, whereas in 8.1 it is totally fucked

I have zero problems with network management. It has not changed how you do it from the CLI, and the GUI is just different. If your definition of "totally fucked" includes "new GUI", then I'm not sure what to say. I agree that it's a step back from Windows 7, but saying it's totally fucked is downright wrong.

> Microsoft accounts are on their way to become mandatory, as creating a regular account is not user friendly and there's a big and scary warning when you go that route; they are basically trying to resurrect Windows Live ID

I was throughly against the Microsoft ID to start with, but for other reasons I had to get one and since I use multiple PCs it has actually been a positive experience for me. I see that as a good thing, and if you don't like it you can still create a local account. The warning is fair, because a lot of the new functionality depend on the MSID.

> Microsoft has started to force people on using their products - I could not figure out a way to turn OneDrive off completely

Nobody is forcing you to use OneDrive, it's a feature and if you don't like it don't use it. Simple as that. You either do not use a MSID as your login or disable it as this (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/wiki/sdinstall-s...) MS article instructs. Just because you cannot remove an integral part of the OS because you don't like it, doesn't mean it's bad. It actually benefits a lot of people.

> or to use anything other than Bing as the search engine in their "Search Everywhere" (this also happens on Windows Phone)

And? Of course they want you to use Bing and not a competitor - I'm sure you'd be just as outraged if they offered a version of windows without bing for an extra cost.

> I haven't seen a "modern Windows" app that I like, they are all pieces of crap, including stuff from Microsoft; modern Skype for example is lacking crucial functionality; their app store is filled with trademark-violating malware and I've never seen such a low quality app store

Valid points. MS needs to step up their game, and developers need to take the Windows Store more serious.

> from a usability perspective Windows 8 is a failure - there's something inherently different about a PC with 21 inch monitors, keyboard and mouse, versus a tablet, yet Windows tries to unify both worlds, becoming hostile in the process - see this funny video on the subject - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTYet-qf1jo

That simply is not true (that is a failure). The video is just a circlejerk full of hyperbole and the last 1m40s contains the essence of it. It was really hard to take it seriously. Yes the forced "Metro UI" was not good for desktop, fortunately it just meant an extra mouse click and it's gone. That is it, and MS even admitted it improved it a lot with 8.1 and Windows 10 is even more of an improvement as a result.

> of course, you can totally ignore the "modern Windows" side of the coin for now, except that's where Windows is headed

You obviously haven't really looked at the changes from 8 -> 8.1 -> 10, because they've, A: admitted that it was poor UI, B: toned it down a lot and committed to making it a good UI instead.

> I bought the standard edition, then I discovered that I needed the Pro version to get disk encryption or to connect to it through Remote Desktop; plus you need the Enterprise edition to make it boot from an USB stick - apparently Microsoft considers disk encryption and Remote Desktop to be meant for businesses and not for personal usage

Oh, so you didn't actually research what the different versions contain, you just assume it and somehow it's MS fault? Don't get me wrong, I think RPD server, and full disk encryption should be part of the standard edition, but that's a different talk.