I'm unenthusiastic, verging on worried. I'm ... huh. Does this really need to happen?



Some details.

[T]he interface is different: so much so that it's almost unrecognizable from the standard Windows we all know so well. The taskbar is gone, the desktop is gone, and in their place is a very Windows Phone 7-style system of tiles. [...]

The fact that Microsoft is planning to make the Start Screen your center of operations when using your computer highlights the fact that they feel that Live Tiles and the Metro UI is the way to go. They're minimizing the traditional desktop-with-icons interface, and in the video, the desktop is only referred to for use with legacy applications. Microsoft seems to think that if they leave the desktop behind, no one will miss it. The rest of us aren't convinced. If the bet doesn't pay off, all of Microsoft's new features will amount to something users turn off or find a 3rd party utility to disable so they can get back to work. In the worst case, it's so integrated in the OS and people dislike it so much that they'll stick to Windows 7, and Microsoft has another Windows Me on their hands.