I won't go into a long winded response, but there's really no reason to go with Windows 7 anymore. Revit 2012 and up all perform equally on Windows 8 with the appropriate updates.

Depends on the version of Revit. 2014 is officially supported on W8. 2013 (with the latest updates) should work fine on W8, but I don't believe it's officially supported.

We just buy Windows 7 OEM via Amazon and install it ourselves. W7 64-bit Home for ~$90 US and W7 64-bit Pro for ~$130 US.

In my experience, most people who use W8 on a non-touch screen device don't like it. That's reason enough for a lot of folks.

Thanks guys.

So...in theory I could buy the one equiped with 8 for the $350 savings, strip it and install 7?

I'm a student using free the download from Autodesk. With a new computer I'll need a fresh download. It looks like 2013 is still available.

One more question if I may. In the event I wind up with Revit 2014......Is it supported by Windows 7?

P.S My extension monitor is "not" touch screen and I have no intention of getting one. Don't really like them much.

My experience is that it's mostly tech snobs(no offense ) that don't like it. Teach the average user two shortcuts and they have a hard time telling the difference. Spending money to go BACK to 7 is just silly. Startup speed is quicker, performance is better, it comes with free anti-virus... 95% of the hate comes from the start screen alone, which is ONE click(or shortcut) from disappearing entirely from your workflow. And once you learn to take advantage of some of the new features, it's a substantial improvement over 7.

But of course, it's all opinions when it comes to which is better. Except for the quicker startup speed and performance, those are facts.

Yes. Autodesk will continue support W7 for the foreseeable future.

LOL, no offense taken - it's a fun discussion. It's funny that you say that, because I've found the opposite - it's mostly "advanced" users who are good at memorizing shortcuts that don't have as much of a problem with W8. Users who only web surf and check their gmail probably won't care all that much in the long run either.

The internals of W8 are great - rock solid, fast, etc. When you're strictly using the "desktop", Windows has never been better.

It's the UI outside of the "desktop" that is problematic. Discoverability is atrocious, it's not intuitive, you have to memorize shortcuts (both keyboard and figuratively), the charm bar is difficult to use, Metro is difficult to understand how it works with no visual clues to navigate. It's not intuitive how to switch between Metro and desktop. Once in Metro, it's easy to get stuck there with no visual cues on how to exit it. Switching to the "Start Screen" takes you out of the desktop environment, even if it's just to launch another desktop app - the switch between Metro and the Start Screen is jarring and not conducive to the desktop workflow. Getting to something like the control panel, or shutting down your computer, is now a major navigation chore.

Now, Metro may make a lot of sense on a touchscreen interface where a different interface paradigm is necessary. However, the mashup of a touch interface and the traditional desktop is, in my opinion, a disaster.

Windows "Blue" 8.1 might help with a few things, but simply restoring the start button misses the whole point of why so many people dislike W8.

I would agree with this. I have Windows 8 on my PC at home and don't have any real issues with it. I kind of actually like it and if I had other devices phone, XBOX, tablet, all sharing a similiar experience, I think I would appriciate it more. Currently I just have PC and XBOX.

Our IT Manager has it installed on his tablet....here it is Windows 8 is a tablet OS...and he hates it. So if it doesn't work right for a tablet do you think we will upgrade on our workstations???

I don't have any problems with these personally but I do understand most users don't like it. Which is why I take 5 minutes to setup our machines so users never have to worry about any of these items. Pin every program a user might need to the taskbar, done. There is literally no reason to even go to the start screen or charm bar on our standard setup. The key to not having to memorize shortcuts is not needing them in the first place.

Win+D is probably the only shortcut I teach people. On top of that, the Desktop tile is the first tile separated in it's own group of tiles on the start screen on our setup. In the off-chance that you need a seldom used program, just hit the windows key and start typing the name. That's a Windows 7 thing, but it's more in your face in 8. I don't get the jarring, if I need to start a program, I don't need to see other things on the screen. I just need to see my list of programs. It's actually annoying now when I have to browse through that TINY little start menu on Windows 7.

Alright, you lost some tech snob points here. Getting to the control panel and almost ALL of the admin. tools is as simple as right clicking the start screen button. You get the Event Viewer, Device Manager, Command Prompt, Control Panel, etc... all one click away. There are probably hundreds of shutdown/restart shortcut programs by now, and of course, we've got one on our standard setup. Yeah, it's annoying I have to do it in the first place, but there's not much effort in returning similar(or better) functionality.

It's not as good as it COULD be, but it's far from a disaster.

Summary: It's different, that's why people don't like it. It's not perfect by any means, in fact there are some pretty dumb things going on. But I'm not gonna let a few little(easily fixable) issues keep me from all the improvements it brings along with it.