My fragile, complex drivers for a convertible laptop got nuked in the forced upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1. The voluntary 10.0 upgrade didn't help much, but I can see it is a more sensible product otherwise. Where there is pain you can usually customize around it to something even better.
I had used an obscure trick to boot directly into a desktop web browser, and it pretty much converted ok (one extra click needed to nudge autohide of taskbar). IE has gotten so ridiculous (pesters you endlessly if you disabled flash) and Firefox has gotten so well touch-enabled that I could make the switch to a nice autozoom web environment.
One problem is every time I boot one of the forced updates, it turns my screen sideways, locks the mouse and keyboard, but doesn't allow an onscreen keyboard for my password. If I close the cover to put the laptop to sleep and reopen, it recovers ok! It seems to detect my convertibility to a tablet, then forces it on me. There is an optional tablet "mode" that is dumbed down beyond belief... must be for a tiny tablet.
On the other hand, my Mac gives a more simple and useful environment after their free OS 10 upgrade, aside from a few maddening drawbacks. Apple hardware isn't that pricey if you buy from their refurb bin.