I think they made a mistake combining the 2 OS's. Microsoft, like any other incumbent, they prefer to continue to work on top of the old technology. And that pretty much always turns out to be the wrong strategy when disruption happens. It's like Nokia deciding to improve on Symbian instead of going full force on Maemo or Meego later on.

The Windows7/desktop mode is creating problems and confusion for the Metro mode, and the Metro mode is frustrating those who want to use the desktop mode. This is why it's never good to combine the 2 worlds: the dying one, and the new one.

This is something Steve Jobs also saw, and it's why he kept Mac OS X and iOS separated: one OS for the old world, and one OS for the new world. As the old one fades into the background, the new one gets more and more popularity. That's how you make disruption happen, and how you can embrace it. But Microsoft seems to repeat every mistake in the book. I'm not saying they're not on the right track with Metro, I'm just saying they're choosing the wrong strategy for it, and it will probably ultimately fail.

I found Windows 7's learning curve bad enough coming from XP (never used Vista). I used to know where everything was in XP, and I still don't know where a lot of stuff is in Win7, and I've been using it since beta. Imagine how bad the learning curve will be for a "normal" user when they get all that plus the Metro stuff being forced on them, when all they expect is "Windows". Microsoft is in a very vulnerable position with this paradigm transition. It would've helped if they kept them separated.