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“Bold” is close. Insane is more like it. I have been a Windows developer for 20+ years. Windows 8 RT (the tablet variant) will be an unmitigated disaster. Windows 8 on desktop will as well. The branding confusion on the tablet variant will be a major source of buyer’s remorse (”what do you mean my new Windows 8 tablet won’t run my Windows programs - that is why I bought it !”). The bipolar switch from desktop to Metro to desktop will doom Windows 8 desktop to the dustbin along with Microsoft Bob, Windows ME, and Vista.

Ya know, I really like Win7. I've had Windows, Mac OS-X, and Linux as my primary operating systems over the past decade or more. They all have their plusses and minuses.

With Win7, Microsoft finally produced an operating system that was the equal of OS-X in terms of stability, security, and usability. I've been using it 10 hours a day for years now at work, and finally I'm as at-ease with my work desktop as I have been (for longer) with my Mac at home.

And so what does Microsoft do when it's time for Win8? They blow Win7 sideways in yet another ill-advised effort to compete in the mobile/media space.

Microsoft's attempts to be relevant in that space remind me of two things:

MS as the domestic batterer. The dedicated Microsoft fanboys are the battered spouses. Every time some new MS mobile or media product comes out, the fanboys gush over it ("This is fabulous! This is the Apple-Killer!"), and when it falls on its face like all the previous ones, they pick themselves up and wipe the blood off their faces yet again. And the cycle repeats.
MS as the demented maniac, who personifies the definition:
in-san-i-ty, n., Doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.

I really would like to see Microsoft succeed in the mobile/media space. But they'll have to get rid of Ballmer to do it. That man, and the business philosophy he has imposed on Microsoft, will never succeed. They can only stand on the top of their hill (the 90% desktop share) and fend of attackers.

With Win8, they've fallen off the hill, and will end up fighting in a space where they cannot compete as well. It will be interesting to see how Windows survives this poor decision.

For my part, I'm sticking with Win7 until hell freezes over.

“Bold” is close. Insane is more like it

Nothing bold about it. Windows 8 will sell hundreds of millions of units, in the desktop and tablet versions. That is a given.

“Windows 8 RT (the tablet variant) will be an unmitigated disaster”

Chuckle!
First of all, the Windows RT is the ARM version of Windows 8(albeit it will be a tablet). The Intel version will be for both tablets and desktop(switchable between the two). The desktop version will run the over 6 million programs that run on Windows 7, and we are talking about real programs (like corporate programs that run real businesses and have millions of lines of code), not some funny little iPad “Apps”. Kinda makes the 500,000 so-called “apps” on iPhone look like tiddlywinks don't it?

“(”what do you mean my new Windows 8 tablet won’t run my Windows programs - that is why I bought it !”). “

The Intel version of Windows 8 will run both legacy Windows 7 programs(in desktop mode) and Windows 8 metro tablet “apps”(in tablet mode).

“The bipolar switch from desktop to Metro to desktop will doom Windows 8 desktop to the dustbin along with Microsoft Bob, Windows ME, and Vista.”

How much you wanna bet on that?