Windows 8 - love it or hate it, you won't escape it

It's one thing for me to set up a new PC or laptop with Windows 8, it is yet another for me to purchase a laptop and then find I have no choice but to use Windows 8.
It works - but it sucks :-(
As usual I belted it into line by loading classic shell to return the start button "properly" and bypass the start screen.  I turned off automatic updates to reduce the load on my data allowance, I killed off defender and added Avast, I removed the pre-loaded Office 365 and installed Libre Office, then I added VLC to play "anything".  I then added programs like Acrobat Reader and reconfigured file viewers, etc so files didn't open full screen on the start screen.
So far so good, I had a bit of a play with the apps on the start screen, but quickly got bored and annoyed that they ran full screen and I couldn't shut them down.  I don't believe these apps use much horse-power, so they won't slow the laptop, but some of them certainly use data.
The next day I downloaded modernmix from Stardock and quite happily paid the $4.99.  Now I can easily shut down the dreaded apps and better still, if I choose to run any they can now run on the desktop - now that is civilised, why didn't Microsoft think of that?
I was just starting to think that Windows 8 wasn't so bad - in fact it was just like Windows 7 now, and that is when I received the SMS telling me that in less than 24 hours I had chewed through over a gig of data and I had exceeded my plan.  The laptop is off for the time being - I will investigate further when data permits.