Some very good points about Windoze 8.x but I suggest that your bragging about how fast it is relates strictly to the fact that you have 32Mb of core. Typical systems have 4-8 Mb when purchased these days.
All Windoze versions are memory hogs and their performance is directly related to how much core is available. And while 8.x is more efficient than Win Me, it still looks like Jabba the Hutt when compared to a Linux OS (Han Solo).
It runs just as fast in as little as 4-6gb. I tested OS speed and resource utilization first, then started to add apps and test again.
Of course, the more apps one runs simultaneously the more memory required. I do a lot of virtualization this my high memory requirements.