Setting up a windows 8 pc is wonderfully simple. Theres an option to reset to defaults, and the default driver discovery is quite good. Windows 8 has picked up display drivers, wifi drivers and pretty much everything else that I care about in every laptop and desktop pc I've tried. I haven't tried Linux recently (about two years ago) but when I did I had major headaches with a Broadcom wireless driver, and a Bluetooth chip, that both worked flawlessly on windows 8.

Installing "common" software is a doddle too, wth Ninite. You get Firefox, vlc, Dropbox, spotify, Skype (now in windows updates though) notepad++, up to date Java and .net run times, pdf reader etc etc. I set up the installer once about 3 years ago and the same one still works, with a one click update.

>I haven't tried Linux recently (about two years ago) but when I did I had major headaches with a Broadcom wireless driver, and a Bluetooth chip, that both worked flawlessly on windows 8.

As someone who has used Debian almost exclusively for a few years now, I've got to admit that Windows 8 really does handle drivers nicely. Linux systems are generally pretty good about drivers these days, at least if you allow proprietary drivers, but nothing beats total out-of-the-box automation.