I remember the "Start" button was a physical button on the card and paper tape reader! I remember, the "Program Manager" in Window 3.x will never take the place of the DOS prompt I remember, the "Start" button will never take the place of Program Manager

Easy fix for seeing your old start menu listing without having to use 3rd party apps, create a shortcut on the Start Screen to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and you'll see a folder view of all the programs listed in a treeview format.

Not sure what you mean you can't group in a nice way. It's very easy to group programs, I use task based grouping such as Programming, Publishing, CADD, Utilities, etc. Have to admit 8.1 does this better since you don't have to delete all the programs from the Start Screen, you have to add what you want while everything is added to the "Apps" screen (not the Start Screen) It's much faster for me to hit the Windows button and select a program from the start screen than to hit Start>Programs>Company X> Application. Of course for my most used programs everything is on the Task Bar for even quicker access.

If you are a developer I'd go ahead and make the jump so that you aren't so far behind when the next version of Windows comes around. Saw this alot when people stuck with XP and Vista came out (I know it wasn't great). Some developers ignored Vista, then when Win7 came out they were way behind in getting their programs up to speed (especially concerning security), where the jump form Vista to 7 was small. Even if you don't like Win8, there will be people using your software that will use Win8, will your software be ready?