>"I see one of the features of Windows 8 is running virtual machines. I'm curious whether anyone has run Vegas virtually. It could solve a lot of problems . . . or create many others."

It'll install & run, but in a VM using a Windows host it's slower because 1) you still have to use resources powering Windows, & 2) you have no GPU hardware acceleration.

The difference between a real & virtual machine is a with the real machine the OS accesses the hardware directly -- with a VM the OS accesses the VM Host software instead. On a specialized server setup the distance or layers between the the Guest OS [what you think of as the VM] & real hardware is as minimal as possible -- running the VM Host software in Windows that Host has to go through Windows like any other app, and you're using however many CPU cores, however much RAM to power Windows itself, with the Guest OS at best using whatever portion's left. Also be aware that real & virtual machines count the same when it comes to licensing -- a Windows guest has to be licensed, same as the regular copy of Windows you're running -- if you have to license an app to run in your regular Windows, you'll often need a 2nd license to run a copy in the VM, same as if you installed it on a 2nd PC.

BTW, VMWare &/or VirtualBox VM software will run on almost anything, so win8 might not matter a lot in that regard -- a lot of people, including tech pros prefer those to Microsoft's Virtual PC stuff, sometimes a Lot.
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> "any pro will tell you NEVER us an os for business UNTIL the first sp is released...."

Multiple reports say win7's SP1 was the last Windows SP, Ever. Your statement, which is accurate BTW, is why. If everyone waits for the SP, don't use them & they'll have no excuse not to look at your new stuff & buy.
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>"I'd say Win8 was debugged more then Vegas (any version). I'm hoping to upgrade to it in 2013 myself."

There are some dueling stats, but overall less people used the win8 preview, providing feedback, problem reports etc. than win7. Research & you'll find reports of how MS released win8 before everything was done because it was on a deadline. Not good or bad -- it just is -- that's often the accepted model for software companies... get it mostly working, get it out the door, then wrap it up & fix stuff.
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> "MS changes the UI and it's lambasted and so far I haven't read a bad thing about it except that the UI was changed. And I haven't read anything that says it's horrible, just that people MIGHT think it's horrible."

MS added a touchscreen interface to drive perceived demand for apps in its store [so developers would write them], & to give the impression of a unified OS -- why take away the Start Menu if you're not driving people to your app store by encouraging them to use the touchscreen BS? Note that MS has said quite often why it COULD eliminate the Start Menu -- it never has said why it DID. Lots of people resent that attempt at manipulation, & get angry over it. Reality is that a slightly improved, but a bit more plane version of win7 lies underneath, so add a replacement Start Menu if you want & have at it -- if you can ignore the marketing no reason to get upset.

As far as the touchscreen interface itself, just consider where/why/when people use touchscreens -- they're hardly some new invention or tech [one of their early uses was with apes studying their ability to learn language etc.]. They're fine on our tablets & smartphones, where it's physically impossible to maintain the screen size yet have something else & still hold it in one hand. On a PC at your desk the monitor's too far away. For precise stuff like graphics, we gave up finger painting when we were 5 or 6. On a regular monitor using a mouse, with the last several versions of Windows you could have easily added huge icons to your desktop, &/or made it wider so you had to scroll -- why didn't you? As far as the widgets go, some people like to run screensavers, some like widgets covering their screen, some people like to use their monitor's real estate for actually doing something, like displaying the windows for the apps they're working in.

Please don't get me wrong -- I do like win8 -- I don't hate Microsoft -- I don't hate touchscreens, at least when & where they're the only option or add some practical benefit. I also know the bare minimum about marketing, & realize it when some company is trying to sell rainbows & unicorns via smoke & mirrors.

More directly to the comment, win8 isn't horrible -- it's built on win7 so it wouldn't be. On a desktop PC the touchscreen interface is less practical -- once they know there's an alternative that matters more to some than others. The thing I have seen lots of people agree on is that Microsoft's marketing may indeed be horrible, whether it's the hassles from them removing the Start Menu [which was a pure marketing move], their not mentioning how easy it is to get beyond the TS interface, or the myriad baseless claims that win8 is so much more than it is, a slightly improved win7. :)
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> "I just started Movie studio 12 and it popped the Eula up I agreed and closed the program and started it again and poof the Eula again it pops up every time I start the program and also Acid. So there is a problem after all I am going to start a ticket right now."

You might try running as admin so registration stuff gets written to the registry. If you're running 64 bit win8 you **might** check that the needed registry entries are also added to the Wow6432Node keys -- 1st had that problem when win7 came out, & had to duplicate a couple of Sony app related keys to those sections.
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> "the only issue I believe so far is that gpu encoding doesn't seem to work with my NVidia 670."

I'd suspect a driver issue -- it's taking a while for ATI & Nvidia to get all the kinks out. After a backup you might want to try installing the latest Nvidia win8 driverset -- never trust the graphics drivers that come with Windows for an add-on card.
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> "I do have a touch screen computer and would love to try Windows 8, but am scared to commit. How safe is a dual boot with both operating systems?"

1) Make sure to check out the licensing end of things, particularly if you're a pro. 2) You might have to use something like the free EasyBCD to revert to win7's boot loader -- I had to both with a physical PC & a VM [yes, I dual-booted win7 & 8 in a VM -- why not? :) ] 3) If you dual boot XP & win8, XP will delete win8's VSS records, e.g. you'll lose any win8 (or win7) restore points when you start XP. 4) Otherwise the multiple OSes are completely separate -- the only way win8 could screw up your other versions of Windows is if you had an error or malware that damaged all or part of the data on the HDD, something that can happen in any version of Windows, but you just have more on HDD(s) & so more to lose.
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> "From the short time that I've used Windows 8, I see no reason for anyone that doesn't have a touch screen PC to upgrade because everything is 10x harder to do because it's designed for a touch screen and not a mouse. It's probably a great OS for a tablet, but my desktop is not a tablet, nor do I want it to be. Just my 2 cents. :)"

Personally don't see any reason not to just ditch the touchscreen interface -- there are loads of apps that put a Start Menu back in place if you want/need one, & once you dive beneath the touchscreen stuff it's just like win7, albeit a bit more plain. As a plus it has greater compatibility & better memory mgmt. As a negative, you've got potential driver issues & some video/audio stuff is handled differently by win8, so there's a chance that not everything you're using today will work.
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> "OK, so lets say you are in Windows 8, and you've finally figured out how to get Vegas 12 to start up... now how well does it run?"

Renders [very] slightly faster for me.