@Lio Eters
The guys at "Digging Into WordPress" put up a post about bringing back columns. Maybe this will help you:

http://digwp.com/2013/12/bring-back-single-column-dashboard-in-wp-3-8/

@Michael Scott
I use Chrome as my primary browser of choice for surfing/blog posting etc. (FireFox for dev tools like firebug) and I haven't run into any issues yet running v3.8 and Chrome Version 32.0.1700.41 m Aura.

I tested all post/page new/edit features as well as "distraction free" writing and can't find any hiccups. I know that on rare occasions a router can hold/cache a website until it's cleared/flushed (it's happened to me before). Maybe that could be an issue?

@Jobi Harris
What exactly are you trying to set up in 3.8?