I have a windows 8 tablet / laptop hybrid as my hobby coding machine (asus t100), and i have to say that the bad rep windows 8 got does not match my experience. I've found the touch ui easy to use, and i even configured it to launch my ide in full screen mode, so i can go back and forwards between that and my browser without seeing a desktop in between. I've also noticed that i'm touching the screen quite often even while coding, and that's with an ide completely not optimized for touch (webstorm). The whole thing has convinced me that touch is an added value for any use case, even for programming.
As far as I can tell, the "bad rap" is mostly from people who haven't used it at all, or haven't used it for very long. (Typically XP users who are extremely averse to change.) The Windows 8 users I know personally like it a lot, though that doesn't stop them from complaining about the parts they don't like....
