Yesterday, I have been working for hours on grub via Linux to install Windows 8.1 on an external HDD, unlike windows, I cant use etcher or rufus since etcher is shit when comes to Linux, so is Rufus as they were made for windows.
Nevertheless, I used grub script to install it successfully and plan to use the official Microsoft of Win8.1 Pro as my daily driver until I find reasons to go back to Linux.
One of the reasons I switched from Linux to Win8.1 is most of my work and hobbies have programs only available on the Windows platform, some do have Linux exe(s) but poorly made or just doesn't work at all. Why did I go with 8 instead of 10?
Windows 10 has somehow with its bullshit load of updates, some-fucking-how, corrupted its own System32 without warning where logging intakes from 4 minutes to 20 minutes to just login in to my account and access the desktop.
So far, after using Windows 8 for less than a day, I have fallen in love with how fast and responsive it was unlike Win10, however, as expected of someone who's a protector of the start bar of Windows XP and 7, I was not a fan of the full-screen start and the settings taking over the whole screen but since I have duel screens, the pain of full-screen settings isn't so bad since I can still use the desktop while having my settings open at the same time.
I'm not really an expert on Win8.1 at all, I noticed that some of the Win10 programs such as the spinning tool isn't present which I used on a daily for screenshots in 10 without depending on a third party or screenshotting the whole screen and using paint to edit the area I wanted to show.
Nevertheless, in terms of its performance Im very happy with it but it never beats Win7 or its big brother XP.