Is the new start screen really supposed to take over on the desktop? The more I play with it the more I don't really think so. I mean, if that's what Microsoft's aiming for they have done a horrendous job on that front.
I mean, I can't really think of a single reason to stay in Metro, every app in there is fucking near useless, even Microsoft's offerings. Email's usable as a light user and I guess the news ticker's alright but are they even really trying to coerce desktop users into Metro? Wouldn't that require a concentrated effort on their part?
The more I look at Metro, on the desktop, the more I think it was a trojan horse for the store, which we always knew, but I mean, for the other way around. I don't feel like MS is really trying to replace the desktop with Metro on desktop PCs but they wanted Metro to be front and center enough to help entice users to make apps for their mobile devices that may just happen to also be used on a desktop and so in a haphazard fashion up and replaced the standard start menu with it as opposed to making it it's own executable like, say, Windows Media Center.
Metro's a fine UI for a tablet or phone but it's not great for multitasking at all, that some people can totally live on it on a desktop is cool, I have no qualms with that, I always felt that some people always had more computer than they need when all they wanted was email, web browsing and viewing photos and shit. So the multitasking is less than ideal. I defy anyone to say that of what apps there are that they are functional enough to where you could abandon the classic desktop or web version of whatever it is outside a few radio streamers or some shit. So I think the capability of most apps is also less than ideal. Microsoft also not playing nice with a lot of video and audio formats also limits metro's appeal.
I just don't think Microsoft's really trying to corral all of us into Metro like some think. On the plus side I also think that all of the fears of MS trying to lock down the PC and Windows 8 being some harbinger of doom for steam and the like's probably not even close to true. I think as a desktop user we should just treat it like an obtrusive start menu that takes up way too much space but goes away once you choose what to run, replace it, or just pin shit to the taskbar.
The lock screen is a very nice addition though.