Well, I for one don't think windows eight was designed to succeed in the marketplace, it was really designed - via UEFI SecureBoot - to throw a monkey wrench into the widespread adoption of GNU/Linux by the average consumer. That's why you won't really see ballmer weep at the poor sales numbers. The fact that microsoft was able to pull that off without a massive anti-trust probe by either US or EU regulators is, I think, being regarded as a quiet success of windows eight during water cooler conversations in Redmond.