[citation][nom]alxianthelast[/nom]@super, you may be ignoring hardware partners who have already been jumping ship (if the biggest isn't HP). And others that have just short of called out Microsoft on their current train wreck (lack of vision). The more MS pushes a UI that is difficult for users to adapt to and software developers (games and productivity) to support, they too will jump ship by favoring general purpose Linux flavors or proprietary operating systems.[/citation]
Hogwash. All of it.
OEMs have not jumped ship on Windows 8 for PCs. A couple of TABLET OEMs have expressed displeasure at the Surface, but that has nothing to do with Windows 8, that is only because they know that MS will be able to undercut them on price because they don't have to shell out $100 per tablet to pre-install it. HP has definitely not done anything of the sort. They are planning a Windows 8 tablet as well as a full line of PCs. You require sources for your "information".
Metro is not difficult to adapt to. If you find it so, that's a personal problem, not a usability problem. Developers will not have to support Metro if they don't want to, so there nothing for them to adapt to. Also, where do you get your information that Metro is difficult to develop for? I've seen nothing to support that claim anywhere. Again, sources.
Lastly, if you think people are going to be upset because of the non-existent usability issues with Windows 8, why on God's green Earth do you think they would move over to Linux of all things? That's not a lateral shift, my friend. That's going from using Windows 7 to trying to surf the internet on a rabid bear while trying to ride a unicycle over the grand canyon. Linux is about as mainstream user friendly as a nuclear reactor. The thought that Grandpa is going to throw up his hands because he can't master the windows key, or the scroll wheel on his mouse and install Ubuntu is ludicrous at best.
The only people I have seen complain about Metro are pseudo "power users" who can't even navigate Windows 7 without a mouse, and since those people are the same people who had a third grade tantrum about Windows XP when it was first released and 2 years afterwards were calling it the greatest thing since sliced bread, I don't think their opinions are worth too much.