Well, I’m not going to keep beating a dead horse…
Microsoft has decided that the desktop and windowing is dead, and they want to continue down the path to the eventual destruction and removal of windows from Windows. They have done nothing to dispel that idea, and indeed based on conversations several pundits have had with them, concur.
I don’t see 8.1 as anything more than a temporary appeasement of the customer outcry over the single screen at a time metro metaphor (remember DesqView and others?)
I will not move to Windows 8.x. I am fine with Windows 7 for now. Unless there is a drastic change, eventually I will probably have to migrate to OS X, or Linux/FreBSD for my desktops.