It would be nice to think that Microsoft would realise that StarDock are selling products to alter Windows 8 so that it acts like a Windows
Operating System (Start menu, Windowed Metro Apps), because that is what people want. And it would be nice if Microsoft decided to deliver what people want, than trying to force them to use that which they DON'T WANT. However I really don't believe they are
that humble so as to "listen" to their user base.
I do agree with Microsoft on one point, that whether I am using a Desktop, Laptop, or Tablet, I want to run Windows. However I want Windows to be smart enough to adapt its User Interface to which ever device I am using, while keeping most UI features the same,
but not all. A Start screen has little use on a Server, a Metro app should not exist on a server (but I guess could be there). I hate Metro apps, they are so difficult to use, they also break the whole "windows" aspect of what I like about Windows as an
Operating system. So far they also lack any richness, only supplying such a small set of features, it is like going back to DOS (if anyone reading this remembers a time before Windows).
The article (see below) that I read today aptly sums up the situation, Microsoft's leaders are telling people "take it or leave it", and are showing that they are not interested in listening to customers. So we customers are "leaving it" until both hardware
and software (i.e. Windows and it apps) can supply what we need in a personal computer, whether that computer is a Desktop, Laptop, or Tablet.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/07/microsoft-redesign-windows-8
That's a problem in itself, said Richard Doherty of Envisioneering, a market research company: "they had the Vista misstep in 2007 [when an earlier Windows update alienated users] and this is more of that. They're telling people 'take it or leave it', and consumers have been leaving it."
Even so analysts don't think the Start button will return in exactly that form.
At Gartner, a rival research company, vice-president Michael Silver says Microsoft "didn't listen to customers who were pointing [the start button problem] out in testing. They could have had a middle ground, but chose not to – I think Sinofsky made sure it was pretty difficult to make major changes if he didn't want them."
Sinofsky and Ballmer are understood to have argued over such flexibility – which saw the junior leave quickly. Even so Silver thinks the changes will only offer the chance to start the machine purely in the desktop mode, bypassing the tiles; he doesn't expect the Start button back.
Please Note: there are not just Tablets and PCs, there are Servers, Desktops, Laptops (of various sizes from luggable to ultralight), Tablets (from large screen
to phone size) as well as some specific form factors like Kiosks, Transportables, Tables, Wall sized screens, etc. Each have a particular benefit, they don't all need to look like an oversized phone.
The whole "Windows 8 issue" is now getting so much attention that our local newspapers are reporting how Microsoft's leaders have made a mistake, and seems
that Microsoft are the only ones who just cannot realise this, or maybe just don't care what their customers want.