[podopie]

This "my desktop should be a tablet OS as well" situation is boggling my mind.

I'm an avid Apple user, and I'm not a fan of the direction Lion went, and the continued direction Mountain Lion is going. I use a notebook because I want a notebook: a keyboard for easy terminal usage and more efficient browser hunting, a mouse or touchpad for manageable selection tools, drawing, etc. I don't think I've ever pressed F4 (Launchpad, I think it's called?) on purpose, especially when Alfred or even Spotlight do the exact same thing much faster.

Windows took this in a stranger direction: let's make it two completely different experiences, but make the unifier the most difficult thing in the world to find. I haven't played with this release yet (played with the previous 8 preview), but if there's an easy switch button (probably is the Windows key), I'm all ears. Otherwise, let's move on. I'm not quite sure who they're targeting here.

The Chromebook/box announcement that came recently is, I think, the most interesting take. Seems like Google's idea was to build Ice Cream Sandwich with the desktop in mind. But here, we lose real apps. I'll tunnel and use Vim when I need to, but Sublime is too powerful for me to pass on. If I want to play Diablo 3 or Portal, forget about it. Then again, Google's looking at a completely different market than OS X or Windows 8.

[ax]

No surprise it's boggling your mind if you haven't used it. If you want to stay in desktop mode, you can, with the minor exception of having a start menu that displays more stuff and takes up one monitor worth of space.

Windows key brings you to the start screen or from the start screen back to the app (or desktop) you were viewing. Winkey + D displays the desktop.

[tehayj]

I think the reason why they force their Metro UI on people is to warm them up to the whole way it works, so that in the long run some people might even buy Windows phones.

I hope they get it right. Would love to see Windows becoming a true alternative to Android (if its not such a walled garden as crApples).

[jsz0]

I don't get the hate towards LaunchPad. It's a totally optional feature which actually helps out most normal users. I use it because I have a ton of apps installed and sometimes I just don't remember what an infrequently used app is named. Especially true when I'm buying things from the App Store. I got a great SFTP client the other day and I have absolutely no clue what it's called. I know the icon is a forklift. Great app but if you put a gun to my head I couldn't tell you the name of it. I don't SFTP enough to have it sitting in my dock 24x7x365.

[SpikeDad]

Sigh. How can this be Hacker News and folks not get the obvious strategy from Apple on OS X and iOS. The App Store and Gateway have nothing to do with any desire of Apple to penalize or restrict power users. It's ONLY purpose is to give a sense of familiarity to iOS users.

Because now, it's Apple's job to bring into the Macintosh family the 50 million iOS users who expect a device from Apple to work at all times and for a large variety of software which is vetted by Apple to be at a mouse click. No installation, no malware, no fancy configuration necessary.

It just works is migrating from iOS to OS X. Power users had better get used to it.