They are not abandoning desktops. They are answering the market trend to touch screen desktops, and at the same time streamlining the OS for use on different devices to maintain continuity in functionality, UI, and ease of use. I have been testing it since the first beta, and now my touch screen monitor works seamlessly with it. I have found that navigation is faster and it still allows for the use of the KB and mouse. They know they will not be away from desktops for a long time to come. Many businesses will not be able to transition to tablets alone for a while, perhaps never for some. Regardless of the user experience, IT departments and administrators will always need the power of a desktop for network administration and server maintenance. Tablets and even most laptops do not have the power or longevity to handle heavy tasks, and moreover cannot be run for long periods of time (eg days, weeks, or even months) continuously. I also find that your premonition of abandoning the desktop is odd since you are on a programming resource site, and if you are a developer, you may have noticed that good development, even test-driven design, doesn't bode well on tablets or even laptops. It requires a powerful desktop. I tried on an I5 3.2gHz laptop, and it crapped out after 15 hours of continuous load compiling and testing. I had to move back to a desktop with an I7 3.6GHz with 12 gig using win 7 and win 8 64bit just to mesh C# with Metro and not get irritated by the latency from the limitations of a laptop. Basically, good programmers will always need a powerful desktop... At least in the foreseeable future.