Windows 8 is ALOT faster, I have it myself and when I press the power button it it's in the start screen in about 5 seconds. I had XP and it was in the start screen in about 18-20 seconds (very slow, I know).
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Good for you.
i own a surface pro so bootup is lightning fast!
Visual Studio is actually a pretty great IDE, but it does lock you to windows, and it kind of terrible if you want to develop linux apps.
But you probably aren't if you are using it.
I personally like eclipse as an IDE, but I usually just use vim and a command line build process like scons or make.
Everyone has their own preferences, if you are going to challenge them, at least provide reasons instead of just "I don't like it so use something else."