I cannot believe how out of touch a lot of the comments here are with the general market:
"Windows 7 works fine for me. I wont upgrade to 8. They are just making a stupid looking interface."
The Windows interface SUCKS for tablets and mobile, anything with touch and it makes sense to create a ubiquitous interface rather than different ones, ideally they'll mirror the interface across the cloud and you'll have a seamless experience. Windows 7 is ok, but use some imagination about how a tiles based interface could be better. And it won't just be able UI it's also about back-end functionality, cloud connectivity, etc.
"Let me SCREAM that I do NOT want to STAND in front of my PC."
You obviously won't be required to, are you familiar with mouse gestures ala Opera? If so, imagine something similar for Windows, that could be highly efficient.
"I like my current interface just fine, and don't like the tiles. The tiles would be fine if everyone used the same apps for the same things, but we don't. We as users can put our own apps on the desktop, where we want them."
And there is a good chance you'll be able to do likewise with Win 8, the difference is largely replacing both icons and widgets with tiles, the key is bringing you live information very visibly so you don't even have to open up apps in many cases.
"Nothing wrong with the start menu- it gives you access to features and controls that are not used as frequently, without cluttering up the desktop."
And I'm sure there won't be a tile for every app, tiles will be like folders, you'll be able to go levels deeper just like folders to organize clutter better. Have you tried WP7? Think of the same thing.
"But how the heck is someone doing CAD or Geographic Information Systems supposed to use MS Kinect supposed to be able to access all the buttons which are quick links to all the tools we use."
Can you seriously be asking this? Have you watched the demos? When you go into applications like CAD, or Excel, etc. etc. etc. the experience is identical to what you have now on your computer. Hence using a mouse and keyboard will still be the norm when sitting at a computer. You might add voice control or kinect functionality just like there is the capability for voice controls in Win 7.
"People endure touch screen interfaces because of this, not because they think it's a better interface."
Actually, a touch interface is by far better than anything else for mobile devices and not just because of screen real estate but because anything else would be one more thing to carry (hence why digital pens haven't had much success, though they'll need to be incorporated into the tablets of the future because there are things you can do with a pen that you just can't with a finger), because to use anything but a finger would add an extra unnecessary step to the process, etc.
"If Microsoft want to be forward thinking, they should be focusing on a interface that can detect when someone is talking to it and respond accordingly with 99.99% accuracy"
There are a thousand reasons that hasn't been the direction they've taken, for an example, try using voice controls on Win 7. What are drawbacks? Frequently I want to be typing or surfing the net while talking on the phone, or listening to music, or simply not disturbing people around me, the list goes on. Voice has a place, but hardly a dominant place.
""Of course, Microsoft can't change computing alone."
It did it before, and likely will do it again."
No they didn't, that's Apple who tries to change the world alone. Microsoft has always succeeded by working with partners to create change. Why did Mac flop when Windows rocked? Because Microsoft actually had software and software creators for Windows, while Mac was just a nice interface without any content.
"However, I don't think that anyone would install this OS on a traditional PC."
The majority of the world will run this OS on a traditional PC within just a few years, because for all the complaining we hear here from people who evidently don't even understand it at a basic level, it actually makes things easier (because live data comes to you without you needing to open applications), more user friendly (so the masses can adopt it), and more consistent across platforms (which again cuts down the learning curve, suddenly you have the same experience on mobile, tablet, Xbox, desktop, and probably ultimately cloud).
"The general windows user wants to have more control over their system, not less. I think the basic rationale for going for windows over macOS has been that it gives you more control and less gimmick."
No, the average windows user is your mother, think what she wants. Here's the thing about Microsoft and Windows. They have never succeeded because of the end user experience they provided. They have succeeded because of the platform they've built for developers and power users who have in turn used it to create great experiences for end users. Every time someone makes a program that runs on a Microsoft platform they are selling Microsoft and the biggest selling feature of Windows has never been the windows experience itself, it's been the applications that run on Windows (which is also why the graphics crowd has long preferred Mac, because there were better graphics programs available for Mac than PC). Oh sure, they've improved the user interface, and there have been issues of stability and security but really, content is king. And you'll notice when Microsoft makes great platforms for developers (.NET, SQL, Direct X, Windows, DOS, WP7, Silverlight, Xbox, etc.) they thrive. When they try to build products that stand on their own (Zune, their phone system whatever that was called, etc.) they've gotten destroyed. That's part of why Win 8 and unifying it with mobile and tablets is so critical for Microsoft's success. Because having a platform where development is the same on PC as on mobile means you have a massive developer community that builds apps that will run on mobile, which helps to sell their mobile platform. And the biggest reason Windows Phone will beat Apple or Google has nothing to do with the fact that the user interface is nice and pretty, though that's nice, it's that development for Windows Phone is better than any of the other devices, which pushes developers to create more amazing software for that platform, which in turn sells that platform. The Win 8 strategy is probably best understood in light of Xbox, which has been a huge success for Microsoft. On the surface it's very simple, easy and nice, underneath, it's fantastic for developers and has broad platform support and innovation (it's not kinect that's so great, it's what kinect allows developers to do that's so great, and it's that advantage, which will help Microsoft continue to win against Sony and Nintendo, likewise for Xbox Live and now the integration with mobile). Same with Windows 8, it's not what Windows 8 is that's so great, it's what developers are able to do with it. Such as live tiles, bringing live data to the user without the user needing to switch to the application, bringing data to the user in the places they care about as opposed to within an application (for example a People Hub as opposed to in Facebook, so all the communication with a person can be brought together). It is for all these reasons that Windows 8 is going to rock and work exceptionally well because Microsoft is picturing a new future not so much for the end user, but that developers can bring to the end user.
"I think the only real potential here is to use a beefed-up Kinect that is more responsive and more accurate and have some excellent voice recognition software. Get rid of the keyboard and mouse altogether."
Let me ask you, how much time do you spend in your start menu? Personally, I spend almost none. Most of my time is spent within applications and even those applications I launch from pinned icons on the taskbar. If you don't spend much time in your start menu what makes you think you'd spend a lot of time in the tiles menu? The tiles menu provides at a glance information and serves as a portal to other information, the mouse and keyboard will still work fine in this interface, in fact the keyboard might even be more useful for navigating tiles, highlight one, use the arrows to switch quickly and hit enter to enter, how hard is that? In many respects easier than trying to navigate the start menu that way.