Windows 8 was measurably faster than Windows 7, especially on boot-up. I don't think it was hard to use. Launching programs that I didn't have shortcuts for was in effect no different as I was just tapping Windows+S and typing a search term. It's just a matter of where the search terms appeared. I like the live tiles, but they'll be better served in the hybrid start menu they showed off today. MS Office is such a superior product, though, that I decided to dual boot with W8.1 on my Macbook because I loathe the Mac versions so much.
With that said, I do like iWorks. They didn't try to make them into MS Office. They made them simpler, different, elegant, and easy to use. I can't do serious work on there, but they're fun to use for simple things.