Paul Thurrott tears Windows 8, and Microsoft apart:

The reason this happened is that while Sinofsky had the maniacal power and force of will of a Steve Jobs, he lacked Jobs' best gift: An innate understanding of good design. Windows 8 is not well-designed. It's a mess. But Windows 8 is a bigger problem than that. Windows 8 is a disaster in every sense of the word.

This is not open to debate, is not part of some cute imaginary world where everyone's opinion is equally valid or whatever. Windows 8 is a disaster. Period.

I grew up in a house where we used only Macs, and as a result was a somewhat blind follower and proclaimer of Mac OS X at school and with friends. I would often get into overly-heated arguments about how terrible Windows was and how everyone should convert to using Apple computers. Back then, I would have loved to see Windows make such a massive stumble, to be rejected fiercely by even its longest supporters, but now it’s just a bit sad. The war between Apple and Microsoft is over. Mac vs PC is a fairly outdated argument in the face of new technologies. Now watching Microsoft fail is almost painful, and I truly hope that they’ll find a way to return to relevance.

The young nerds of tomorrow will still be blindly arguing about the technologies that their parents chose for them. I hope Microsoft finds a way to stay in those disputes.