It only took them a couple of years... About as long as they are usually behind what people want, like tablets and phones, etc.
As apparently a mix of the Start Menu and Metro, with live tiles now on the Start Menu itself, some folks will love it and some will hate it. And most likely it won't be able to be customized as much as many people will want. So solutions like Start8, StartIsBack, and Classic Shell will still have a market I'm sure. But it doesn't look like Metro Mix will be needed anymore.
They (MS) need to get their revenue back somehow as with the forecast of 960 million in sales and then failing to meet this goal. With windows 9 not out till next year they will need to recoup some sales.
It wasn't an easy to task to marry the touch and desktop markets, but I think they could have done it a bit better than this. Personally, I think they need to really streamline some of the OS kernel elements, in particular how it deals with installing/uninstalling updates. They also need to revamp the .NET mess. Just WinSxS and .NET Assemblies take up many GB's of space on a hard drive. Having been involved a bit in making Lite OS's I'm finding it astounding how little of the OS is actually needed for most people. There is so much bloat in any NT6.x OS. I do think core desktop users will be a little more open to Store apps as it will become possible to run them in windowed mode, so people won't feel like they are 'leaving' the desktop anymore. The whole 'cattle-goading' mentality of forcing Metro (on even Enterprise!) was just a big mistake. The worst part about it for MS is that is showed the disregard they have not only for their own achievements of the past (start button/menu, etc.) but also for users, even when they were crying out against the changes in throngs. Still they maintain their high pricing on Windows 8.x for individual license sales. But then they sliced the cost to $0 for cheap touch devices (<$250 I believe)... So you may pay $120,- for an OEM license, whereas you get Win8 for free when you buy a $250 device... How is that OK? I think I'm getting to my main point: It's a mess!!!
So that sounds like a horrible plan Why not put a Snickers bar sign on the Moon? No, what they need to do is just sell WinX.x Pro for $50,- and they would NEVER have to worry about market decline and would get millions more licenses sold. They would fortify their position plus a system builder doesn't need to pay $120,- or more. If they must they can up the cost for the enterprise.
