Windows 8 comes out tomorrow should you upgrade?

I'll be doing a more indepth article on this topic in the next issue of Polarpassage but thought I'd do a quick entry as I've had many ask should they upgrade now.

I've been using Windows 8 pre-release on my laptop (which has a touch screen) for almost 2 months, the biggest thing to get used to is the interface (screen shot below) as it is much different than Windows 7.  I compare it to being like going from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95; somewhat of a culture shock!

Regardless of need though I never recommend running out and upgrading as soon as something hits the shelves, let others find the bugs and let your tech find the fixes before you go through any pain.

At this time my thoughts on upgrading are:

You should consider upgrading if:

• You have a touch screen
• You are running Windows Vista or earlier

You probably don't need to upgrade if:

• You are running Windows 7
• You don't have a touch screen (debateable) 
• Cost to upgrade is more than the cost of a new PC with Windows 8 pre-installed

Before upgrading you should run the Upgrade Assistant to determine if your hardware and software is compatible.  However I also recommend for your external devices (printers, scanners, webcams, etc) that you check the manufacturers website and see if they list the device as supported under Windows 8.  While there may be Windows 8 drivers the software that came bundled with the device may not work in Win8.