there are some new standard Win+key shortcuts for use inside apps (Win+Z brings up the toolbar that appears when you swipe the top/bottom edge and Win+I brings up the settings bar that appears if when you swipe the right edge, though these can also be invoked by hovering the mouse to the right edge of the screen or right clicking).

After 2 decades, Microsoft finally realises that combining the CTRL and META keys was a horrible idea? Now if only Linux distros would realise this too...

And not break shortcuts either... (I'm still trying to figure out why Alt+Tab broke when I installed Ubuntu 12.04, the shortcut is in fact assigned, for the record)

Why should anyone be upset about getting more with their OS?

It's not about getting more with my OS, it's about getting more than one OS bolted together.

If my new MacBook had arrived with iOS bolted onto the front, I'd have been equally miffed. Instead, Apple took a bunch of awesome UI improvements from iOS, and merged them seamlessly into their desktop operating system...

"I just wanted a pizza! Why on earth would I want free garlic fingers too?!" "Why would I want to play Blu-Rays/DVDs on my PS3/360? It's a game console not a video player!"

A free copy of Microsoft Office is awesome added-value, in exactly the way that a preinstalled copy of McAffee isn't.

Not all features add value (or perhaps more politically correct: they don't add value for everyone).

iOS isn't as different from any desktop OS UI-wise.

I sense that we have very different definitions of either the phrase "desktop", or the phrase "UI".

You don't consider fullscreen one-at-a-time apps to be a different paradigm than multiple user-placeable windows?

I would consider a problem with a mode distinctly different from a problem with the nature of being multi-modal

So, this is my problem: Windows 8 is continuously and inconsistently multi-modal. You have a handful of apps that run in Metro, and a handful that run in Desktop. You can't ever see both on screen at once (unless you have multiple monitors), but have to toggle between them.

On my Mac I also have shiny-new fullscreen tablet-inspired apps. But on my Mac, I can choose whether to put them in fullscreen or not, and pretty much all applications support the new fullscreen mode.

Even worse, if you want to adapt your app to run in the shiny new fullscreen metaphor, you can't ship them without going through Microsoft's approval process. That's a paradigm that may have worked well for Apple in the mobile space, but they didn't really attempt to enforce that on the Desktop - many of my favourite apps aren't even adaptable to the guidelines in a meaningful way.

Looks ok on Phone/Tablet. From mobile indie developer perspective i see it as opportunity.