When I used OS X for the first time, I couldn't figure out how to do basic things either. In fact, as it stands now, I am not entirely certain how to shut off an OS X computer either.
Happily I'm on Linux and everything makes sense :).
Not really. Think back to your first encounter with Windows 95. What was the first thing you noticed, the first time you opened the Start menu? The fact that the bottom-most line read "Shut down" is probably high on your list. That was all you needed to know, and you certainly didn't have to "get used to it."
Interfaces need to be highly intuitive, or else highly discoverable. It doesn't sound as if Metro qualifies as either.
Unless you're running Gnome 3, where you have to log out then shut down, since there's no shutdown button while logged in. That's one thing Unity has over Gnome 3.
Yes, it's not a very discoverable feature. You basically have to find out about it on the Internet somewhere.
Also, I was being a little bit facetious. The reason everything makes sense is because I've customized everything, so I'm the one who placed the shutdown button where it is.
Even so, I'm lazy so I use reboot/halt from the command line instead of the buttons anyhow.
> I am not entirely certain how to shut off an OS X computer either.
sudo halt
I was talking from the UI/mouse-driven perspective. I'm not entirely sure where the shutdown option/menu on OS X is. Of course, I regularly don't use macs, so it shouldn't be a surprise--it's not like I have a computer which I just don't know how to shut down!
Or, press the power button once, get a restart/sleep/cancel/shutdown dialog (shortcuts: r/s/esc/return)
One way that they could have gradually introduced Metro in a way that would keep familiarity of use to old users and almost total backwards compatibility would have been to replace the desktop with Metro (i.e. the wallpaper and desktop icons). They could have then kept the start menu and panel[1] at the bottom (and perhaps default it to have auto-hide on). They could have even allowed windows to open up over the metro tiles, and then the familiar 'Show Desktop' button on the panel would be how you get back to the full metro screen.
There wouldn't be two modes and they'd still have a very similar appearance to what Windows 8 actually looks like today without having to confuse people used to the old way of doing things. The tablet and mobile version would then not have the start menu and panel, but everything else would look and feel the same.
They could even have implemented it in a similar way to their ancient 'Active Desktop' technology, except fullscreen and without the traditional icons.[2]
[1] I'm using the Linux term here. I really have no clue what they call the bar at the bottom because I haven't used Windows regularly for many years.