After sitting for so long, Microsoft has finally responded to complaints with Windows 8. Enter Windows 8.1, supposedly better than ever before
Oh really? I just found it to be filled with even more UI stupidity than before.

The start page is miraculously pretty much the exact same thing as before. You can now have four different tile sizes instead of two, but any sane desktop user wouldn't even be using Metro now would they?

The "all apps" page is now more readily available (and visible too; click the arrow thing at the bottom of the page), which is a good thing.
However, in typical Microsoft fashion, they fail to fix the feature, and the page can still be a mile long, plus it displays a redundant list of Metro apps which do NOT need to be there.

Not sure if this was in Windows 8 (it probably was), but this was neat. There is a redundant personalization option here, when it was already in the settings app.

Apps still require a Microsoft account, however that shouldn't be a problem since Windows 8.1 no longer has local user accounts (unless you work around it).

The only reason I can see for this is to provide Microsoft an avenue by which to force Skydrive and cloud based crap on everyone. That is a huge insult to my intelligence, I KNOW how to back my **** up, I don't need some dumb cloud storage space in order to do it. It also removes choice from the end user. And I don't even want to think about what would happen if Microsoft were to go out of business tomorrow (which won't happen because they are Microsoft).

Online user accounts have been around since the advent of Windows NT 3.1. Workplaces use domains and NT servers to provide a way to log in using one set of credentials on most computers on campus. The problem comes when the server get's knocked down due to whatever freak of nature it is today. Suddenly all login is broken, user's can't access their files, it is a mess. Granted with Windows 8.1 you can still log in without internet, but all your files are not there if they were stored in the cloud. Which is why I refuse to adopt the cloud as a medium of file storage.
Plus I like to have control over my drives, thank you very much.

I do not understand why the decision was made to not have local user accounts, or at least why to make it even harder than before. It seems like more Microsoft forcing services down everyones' throats.

Here is IE 11 for Metro, now in Windows 8.1
It is the same piece of **** that IE 10 for Metro was in Windows 8. With a few security "improvements", meaning that for every bug fixed there are now six more. Nice.

Firefox still is and always will be my browser of choice, however, even if it doesn't have a Metro mode. Metro sucks anyways.