I have been using Windows 8 Pro 32Bit as my desktop computer operating system for almost 2 weeks, and  my experience have been pretty good on a non-touch screen monitor, and keyboard and mouse HPa1720n computer desktop which originally came with Windows Vista Home Premium. All Windows software like MS Office 2007, Google Chrome, Gom player, etc which I use on Windows 7 work on Windows 8, and they seem to start up a few seconds faster.
I also notice my startup, shutdown, sleep, wake from sleep, and restart times are also faster in Windows 8 Pro then Windows 7 home premium on my older computer with a Dual-Core 1.86 GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, onboard video, and 320GB of hard drive. There is also less freezing when shutting down, and restarting my computer.
Web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer 10, and Google Chrome, and other programs also seem to crash less, and seem more responsive when loading pages and scrolling through web sites. I can also now watch HD video on YouTube without any slowdown problems when I have a few tabs or windows open in my web brower, or other programs like MS Word open.
Windows Defender which is the built-in Antivirus also is easy to use, and does not slow down my PC when it is running in the background protecting my PC or doing quick scans.
Windows Update is also easy to use, and automatically update my computer to the latest updates for Windows and Windows/Microsoft software like Internet Explorer 10, Office, etc.
The Windows Store app is also pretty nice since it makes it easy for finding apps like games to install in Windows 8.