I installed Windows 8 yesterday. It went pretty well considering it's beta.
Here's the Windows 8 link at Microsoft:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-previewPlan on spending around 3 hours watching it download and install.
And it took me another hour of fumbling around to feel like I could probably find what I needed. I'm still getting used to it.
The big change is the Tiles (Metro) interface. You've seen pictures of it. It has big blocks that represent programs or tasks.
This change is abrupt but I like it. It puts things you commonly do, like "People" up front as tasks you can start quickly. You don't have to start a program, locate the contacts, find the information, etc. "Weather" is there, not as a favorite on your browser. I think this is very smart.
This Metro interface looks slightly crude at first, but as you use it, it makes lots of sense. Space is efficiently used. In the old Desktop, there is a lot of blank space and the icons are smallish. The Metro interface will make fat fingered people like me happy. Easy to hit buttons.
The Metro interface should scale well. I can imagine it working fine on a phone, and it looks good on a 46 inch TV.
Missing is the old desktop, but it's there when you need it. It lacks a Start button, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
You can toggle between the two modes with the Windows Key.
Escape returns you from many, not all tasks.
There are a set of very basic task initiators that are hidden on the right side. Fiddling around in the lower right corner with the mouse gets the vertical bar with 4 or 5 icons to appear. On this bar, Search will usually find what you need.
That's all for now. I'm only about an hour into using it, so I'll report back later.