Upgrade to Windows 8.1 worth it?

I had the same question and i decided to instal 8.1, it adds a start button on your home screen that acts just like the windows button on your keyboard other than a couple compatibility issues with my old programs i run there's nothing wrong for me with 8.1

Gateway MS2370
Windows 8.1 OS
Microsoft Office 2010 Pro
Pharos Printer Softwar
Adobe Photoshop
WMP 11

You can do it by the following steps…
1. Make sure that at least 20% of the space on your primary drive is free.
2. Apply all Windows updates and then restart Windows 8 after they're done installing, even if you're not prompted to. If you've never checked for updates manually before, you can do it from the Windows Update applet in Control Panel.
3. Restart your computer. In Windows 8, the easiest way to restart is from the power icon, which is accessible from Settings on the charms menu (swipe from the right and then Settings, or WIN+I).
4. Disable the real-time protection in Windows Defender. You can do this from the Settings tab in Windows Defender, which you can access from the Windows Defender applet in Control Panel.

Windows 8.1 than Windows 8 on a much smoother operation, all parties have been more perfect, you can go to Microsoft's official website View Profile

Windows 8.1 has a start button on the bottom left corner but that just takes you to the start menu and if you right click it it gives you shortcuts to programs like 'run' and task manager and things like that. If you have enough time to do it then go for it, but really they are just small improvements.