[Windows 8 General] jasongw:
OK, so let's go item by item, shall we? :)

1. "Not designed for desktops". Let's consider for a moment the numerous posts on the Windows 8 Team Blog describing how it's been CAREFULLY designed for desktops. It's clear on that point alone that this item just doesn't have any weight to it. But more importantly, having used it on a desktop and a Macbook Pro, neither of which have touch screens, it's actually really easy to use. So easy, in fact, that I have a great example for later :).

2. "Not Enterprise Friendly". Let's ask ourselves: what does it mean for something to be "Enterprise friendly" ? I've worked in IT for 16 years, from desktop support to Systems Engineer, so I'll tell you. Enterprise Friendly means that the OS supports centralized, granular management by IT staff, is easy to customize in terms of features and security via centralized mechanisms, and has extensive documentation and support from either specialized staff or from the vendor. Windows 8 has ALL of these. It's clearly a VERY Enterprise Friendly operating system. So friendly, in fact, that you can still connect it to an Active Directory server from Windows 2000--an OS that released approximately a dozen years ago. I agree that in the short term, not a lot of businesses will adopt Windows 8, but that's because of the hardware, not the UI. Most OS upgrades happen along with hardware upgrades. Over the next 2 years, corporate adoption will be slow, but small businesses will adopt it both for the "ooh, shiny" factor and for the fact that many can't afford not to. Over the following 3-5, corporate adoption will skyrocket. The home PC market will take care of most of the "average worker" learning curve. They'll master the software at home, end of story.

3. "A New UI." This is probably Windows 8's greatest weakness AND its greatest strength. The new UI will intimidate SOME people--but not most people. It's so simple, so elegant, so easy to use, that the vast majority of people will easily understand how to use it. It's the power users and the hangers-on to old tech who will struggle, and they'll have mostly made it difficult for themselves.

Let me give you an example of why it's a good thing, though. I have a friend who's a graphic designer, and has been for about 30 years. He's in his early 50's, and has used Macs for most of his career, but a Windows 7 PC since 2 years ago. A couple of weeks ago, his PC died, and I cobbled together a temporary replacement to hold him over until I can get his motherboard, which died, RMA'd. For the sake of curiosity, I asked if he'd want to try Windows 8 since this was a temporary PC anyway, and he said with a shrug, "why not?" So I configured the system (an old Pentium D 915, 2GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, vs his Core 2 Quad, 8GB RAM, 64GB SSD with 1TB HDD) and installed his programs, gave him a very brief (literally, 10 minutes) tour of Windows 8, and sent him home.

The next day he called me. "Hey, about Windows 8." I got a little nervous as he said that. "Yes? Any problems?" I asked. "No," he replied, "It's ****ing brilliant. What the hell are the specs on this machine, because it's way faster than mine is!" I grinned. "Actually, that's a really old machine, not anywhere close to as fast as yours. How about the UI, any trouble there?" "Hell no," he said, "It's easy. Easiest UI I've ever used. Microsoft finally nailed it." That's from a guy who is 2 things: A graphic designer, and a MAC guy. Seriously.

4. "Desktop and Metro": See above. Microsoft made the right choice. There will be a learning curve, that's an unavoidable fact. But it's not a steep one, in part thanks to training people have already gone through on their *smartphones*, their *ipads*, *ipods*, and to a lesser extent, Android tablets. Touch has already become part of the dialog we have with our computers.

5. "Complex". Are we talking about the same OS? Windows 8 is butt-ass simple. I could choose many, many words to describe Windows 8--not ONE of them is "complex". Are things moved around? Sure. Do some things work differently than in the past? Absolutely. Will people who've been trained and practiced on older versions, and learned to use deep features in those versions, find some frustration? Without a doubt. The average user? They'll be just fine.

On the last point about power, I just called my friend mentioned above to ask, "Hey, have you had any trouble figuring out how to turn off the power on your PC?" His reply? "I don't even mess with it, man, I just walk away and it goes to sleep."

People will adapt just fine. They adapted to Windows 95. They adapted to iPods/iPads/iPhones/Android phones. They'll adopt to this, too. don't be such a worry-wart :)