[pdonis]

I think one key factor is that, whereas this article talks about making Windows easy for home users being a priority because of the huge untapped market there at the time, home users are no longer a real concern of MS: they make their real money from large corporate deployments of tens or hundreds of thousands of copies of Windows, not from individuals. MS basically assumes that, once everyone is using a Windows computer at work, they will have a Windows computer at home as well, and that they will learn how to use it at work because they will have to, and their employer will train them as needed to be able to accomplish work tasks, which will then give them enough basic knowledge to use their home computer. In other words, MS has outsourced the job of training people how to use computers to their corporate customers, so their design process no longer worries about it.