Except for the fact that the 8.1 upgrade process is about as seemless as a kick in the balls, I would say it's worth doing. It brings back some of the shit that was dumped from Win8 and overall responsiveness is much improved. I would recommend doing a system restore before upgrading to 8.1 and once you got everything sorted, create a system image so you don't have to go through that tedious process anymore. I haven't used any of the metro start menu or apps whatsoever and never intend to.