Upgrading to windows 8

[Minimalist]

I understand the move from Microsoft's pov - tablets are the current rage - but Win 7 gives me a level of stability on my desktop that I really appreciate.

My tablet is mainly a toy....and it runs Android anyway.

[Spectrum]

Is it likely to cause problems with my laptop?

Probably. New Windows versions are always buggy, though they are fastest as new systems.

But really, running BSD or Linux is always a better experience. Or Mac, if you are computer illiterate (though it is BSD at heart).

[Darkstar]

'nuff said

[Autumnlicious]

Probably. New Windows versions are always buggy, though they are fastest as new systems.

All consumer grade software is "buggy". The priority of the bugs that are found does matter and usually is worse off in new releases of any software. Only with continuous spotting and fixing of bugs can one reduce the known incidence of bugs, but does little for fixing yet-to-be-found bug.

But really, running BSD or Linux is always a better experience. Or Mac, if you are computer illiterate (though it is BSD at heart).

Considering there are dozens of Linuxes (of which I'd recommend Ubuntu) and several *BSDs, nominating BSD or Linux as a "better experience" is moronic, as you've essentially said the equivalent of "Running NT is always a better experience over running Mac OS Leopard" (if you are confused, the family of kernels for recent Windows OS'es is NT -- "New Technology").

Nominating Mac OSX, Ubuntu or DesktopBSD makes sense.

What you said makes none.