I’m using Windows 8.1 on my desktop for a few months now, and as far as usability, it operates more or less the same as XP which I used for about 10 years.
It has some really nice features, spell check on FR for example.
Well spellcheck is in my Firefox browser and that’s anywhere, Windows or otherwise.
I’d like to see Red Hat see if it can make some hay out of this. Provide a Windows to Linux migration path for the embedded world. Microsoft could be high tech, there is no fundamental reason it couldn’t, but right now it is just high shortsighted business. That is a human choices problem.