>> that will give you the some performance in Win7 as Win8 and the same "flat" Win2k look

Incorrect on every point. The speed increase in Windows 8 is not related to the GUI. Tasks that are not at all related to GUI sees a 10-20% (depending on what they do with memory etc) speed increase. This can not be contributed to GUI simplification.

Why buy Win8 - simply because it is a better OS than Win7, and heads and shoulders above WinXP. If you don't like Metro apps, don't use them. Nobody is forcing you to. I can't remember when I last used (or saw) one. I run Win8 as my main OS now, and I never see Metro apps, never see the Start Screen unless I specifically want it for some reason. I thoroughly enjoy not only the improvements in performance, but also stuff improved in Hyper-V, but that might not be relevant for everybody. Win8 is also a bit more stable than Win7, and Win7 makes WinXP feel like a house of cards in a tornado.

>> Microsoft should examine the Linux model, where the OS and the GUI/shell are separate entities

They actually always have been, but you have not been able to turn the GUI off. If you buy the Windows Server version, you can turn off the GUI. Now we just have to wait to see if anyone wants to put that ugly, buggy, crappy monstrosity that is X on Windows Server.

>> What i don't have is video cards with an externally accessible general purpose GPU that can be used by software running on the computer

For someone who does video editing, that doesn't appear rational to me. Why?

How did you test the 10-20% speed increase? VP12 for sure isn't 10-20% faster in Win8.

My experience of Windows 8 is that it has been less stable than Windows 7. I've had a recurring driver issue. Contacted the manufacturer (Asus) but their help wasn't helpful. I haven't noticed a speed difference significant enough to make me want to ditch Windows 7 64 bit.

"They actually always have been, but you have not been able to turn the GUI off. If you buy the Windows Server version, you can turn off the GUI."

Well, you can boot most versions of Windows in "command prompt only with networking", which gives you a fully functioning OS with no GUI.

"Now we just have to wait to see if anyone wants to put that ugly, buggy, crappy monstrosity that is X on Windows Server."

Who wants X? I want the Classic Win98SE GUI running on top of my more modern OS.

"For someone who does video editing, that doesn't appear rational to me. Why?"

What use would i have had for a GPU while editing video? Pretty much none at all.

Which versions of Vegas have made any use of a GPU? Certainly not any i've ever used. Even those versions that do use it are very recent, in the last two years. I've been doing PC-based video editing for the better part of two decades. Most of the things that GPUs assist aren't things i use a computer for.

>> How did you test the 10-20% speed increase?

Our internal benchmarks. I am a software developer and we use various benchmarks to measure the performance of our server software. Also, geekbench reports the same.

Here are results of a clean box with Windows 7 and Windows 8, Windows 8 was installed by upgrading Windows 7 (so perhaps not 100% optimal). 8.1 results are not published for this box, but 8.1 seems to have no reduction in performance in our benchmarks. I could, of course, have rigged these tests to prove my point, but then I would have had to have don that a few years ago in anticipation of this discussion.

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/474450
http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1636586

>> Which versions of Vegas have made any use of a GPU?

OK, makes some sense, we're only on our third year for GPU acceleration in Vegas, but I also watch video on my PC and video playback software has had GPU acceleration for a long time. I can vividly remember when installing a new graphics card in my PC and the CPU load when playing a video went from about 100% down to around 2%, Suddenly I could use my PC also when it was playing video...

My experience has been that way without a GPU for 15 years. Before that i had a dedicated MPEG-2 decoder card, but that didn't assist anything except it's own playback software. Then when i got a 500MHz CPU it was faster and more efficient than the decoding card.

>> My experience has been that way without a GPU for 15 years

You are probably right, as a photo/video enthusiast and a geek to boot, I suffer terribly from GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) both in photo and video equipment as well as (probably a lot of unneeded) computer equipment.

I'm only that way for audio equipment. For video and photo, i'm content with the lowest level that lets me achieve acceptable quality results, and i'll use whatever it is for decades.