The new filesystem UI stuff is a welcome change, however. (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/23/improving-our-...)
And then I let her play with my WP7 Mango phone and her opinion completely turned around. A pretty good example of the contrast between user interface and user experience, in my book.
It does seem like if the WIMP interface to Metro can be made to work well, that many many users will flock lemming-like to Metro-style apps.
As a developer, I want to be where the users will be.
Why do you say that without even giving it a fair chance?
They haven't even revealed how it will play with a keyboard and mouse.
With 3 large monitors and lots of multi-tasking, I just don't see this being preferable to the desktop / window metaphor status quo. Not to mention 25TB of files to keep organised.
I realise this will all still be possible by running the "desktop app" (explorer.exe?), I just don't expect to do anything but run that straight away.
Again, I'm sure this will be excellent for small form factor and casual users (provided it's implemented well, which microsoft seems to be putting a lot of effort into), but for someone who uses a desktop for a large part of the day (for both work and otherwise) I don't see Metro as viable.