As someone who said good riddance to the Windows platform about 10 years ago (for Mac OS 9, which ought to tell you how fed up I was), I have to say that I'm genuinely excited to see Microsoft coming up with fresh UI conventions, both with Windows Phone and now with Windows 8. They could have gone the Google route and copied iOS, but they didn't. Likewise, they could have gone the Apple route and rested on making modest changes to their existing desktop OS, but again, it looks like they aren't.