Windows 8 is an excellent OS, if only people would give it a proper try instead of switching it on and say 'no start' button and then urghh.....! Please do not rubbish something you are not prepared to invest a little bit of time in.
I am running windows 8 on a PC, a laptop both with no touch and a tablet (Acer W510) and have found it to be fast, responsive and great to use.