Incompatibility with the applications and games that I use is one thing that keeps me away from using Linux. Ubuntu is a good basic OS considering that it's free and user-friendly if you want to do basic things with, and you can dual boot or emulate OSes to use your apps with it (or use Wine). However, it often doesn't work correctly, and if you're going to do that then what's the point? May as well just stick with Windows.
Valve are going in the right direction by making some of their games compatible with Linux, though. If more companies do that then Linux may become a viable desktop OS alternative if Microsoft and Apple both screw up majorly in future.
As for Win 8, people shouldn't really blame Microsoft by trying to be innovative. Tablets are the future of computing for the masses, since most people only want to browse the internet on the go, whereas desktop PCs will only be for people who want to do more than that. MS wanted to make an OS to bridge the gap between several different devices. It's just the interface doesn't seem to work so well on desktop PCs, and as some replies in this thread highlight, most people hate drastic changes that they've been used to for years...
I think it's 'cause the Tablet format is such a drastic change to everyday computing and nobody is really sure how to tackle it properly - Though it seems kind of silly to force desktop users to use a touchscreen GUI. Windows 7 is still supported for now though, and is better as a desktop OS.
My only concern is where MS are going with this and that I hope they won't move away from the desktop PC format too much - Which they probably won't if there is still demand for it. There are lots of things you can't do on a tablet. Perhaps they simply need to address that there's a big difference between tablets and desktop PCs, and try to integrate them in a different way rather than treating them as the same.
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