Windows 8.1 is scheduled to be released Oct. 17 and as Bob said is going to have an option to boot into the Win 7 desktop. I don't think MS will abandon Windows 8 as they did with Vista. The Surface 2 is being released next month and they appear committed to the metro interface. 8.1 is also bringing back the Start Menu(to a degree). A good read about 8.1 release is here: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/18/windows-8-1-start-menu-17-october

They note an interesting tidbit about upgrading:
Windows 8.1 will only be installable on a computer without an operating system, or as an upgrade on a Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer.
Windows 7 users will have to reinstall all their programs after the upgrade, as only documents and file transfer is supported. Upgrades from previous versions of Windows, including Windows XP and Windows Vista, are not supported by Windows 8.1, unlike Windows 8.

Dan:

The Windows 8 release to manufacturer documentation of changes does not mention anything about a Windows 7 interface option. The tech writers still say that v8.1 will still a third-party solution to give you a Windows 7 interface.

My mistake. It's not the Win 7 desktop. But the Windows 8.1 product guide does specifically note that it can be configured to boot directly into desktop mode.

Dan:

I think all that means is that you don't end up with the really large tiles in front of you.

We have a site running about 5 Adagio computers, where all the workstations are either XP or Win 7.
All machines run nicely.
They purchased one new laptop with Win 8 and we managed to have Adagio running on this machine, but it is noticeably slower.
It takes considerably longer to start up the applications, and also the processing is slower.
I am not sure why this is the case, and I have asked the client to get their IT professionals involved to trouble-shoot.
(But at this point, it suggests to me to continue to avoid the new operating system.)

Samuel:

As several other commenters here (and a few million others worldwide) have noted: Windows 8 is another Vista.

In this case, the problems are in the whole concept of touch and swipe in a few million programs that are mouse and/or keyboard centric. This includes all normal office applications such as accounting.

Try to find a dealer who builds his/her own computers and was far-sighted enough to buy a bunch of Windows 7 licenses while they could.

I think you will find that all of the major brands can still provide business class machines with Windows 7 Pro. MS may be big but it's hard to ignore Dell and IBM when their insisting that Windows 7 is what they need to keep their customers. Same reason we were still able to get XP long after Vista was suppose to be king.

Hi Sam,

If the client's not able to downgrade to Win 7 PRO there are options to make Windows 8 act and feel like Win 7.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/make-windows-8-like-windows-7

Hi Doug,

We have a Win 8 machine in the office and desktop mode is very much the same as Win 7 without the start button. The graphics may be slightly different with flatter looking windows but functionally it isn't much different. The taskbar is there and windows explorer works pretty much the same way. I used desktop shortcuts and had Adagio modules on there working fine. With the 8.1 uprade, you can skip the metro UI on boot up and run pretty much exclusively in desktop mode. The link I posted for Sam is an app that apparently disables some of the annoying things about Win 8 and gives you a start menu back. But I haven't used it personally.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer Windows 7. But if people have purchased the machine already and can't get a downgrade, it's not the end of the world.