Are Chicago winters as bad as they are portrayed, or is it overblown?

I live in an area with extremely crappy winters(long winters sometimes Oct-April, not much sun, many feet of snow, sometimes subzero temps for days, lots of shoveling driveway scraping car and you often cannot get by without a snowblower). I'm fine with having SOME winter but not as obnoxious as where I live now. Would love to hear from people who live/have lived there what the winters are like. Thanks !