It's simple: No. Before I begin, I have to again point out the absolute reek of insecurity coming off of this post. You're always going on about how much you like Linux, yet you never miss an opportunity to take a cheap shot at Windows. You like Linux, it works for you, so why can't that be enough? Why can't you simply be content that you've found something that works for you and accept that other people have different preferences? The constant need to run down the primary competition, Microsoft and/or Windows, just makes you look like a sad pathetic little man. Your actions are screaming the complete opposite of what you're saying with words. I'm sure you'll take that as me casting some kind of aspersions, but really I'm trying to help. Watching you is like watching an addict spiral out of control on their way to rock bottom. It's not the sort of thing a non-sadist or sociopath (in the clinical sense, meaning a complete lack of empathy) would take pleasure in. I'm sure you'll just break this olive branch over your knee like all the rest, but in all honestly, take some time for a little introspection. Ask yourself why it should matter what anyone else does; you claim to get a great deal of utility from Linux, so why is that not enough? How does my using Windows rob you of any of the utility you claim to get from using Linux? If the answer is none, why then do you insist on running down a product you don't even use? You're not fooling anyone, save maybe yourself, with the constant bluster.
Anyway...
BOB was designed to be an interface replacement over Windows 3.1 and had some good ideas, it just overreached for what computers of the day were capable of.
Windows 8, when you get beyond the Sycophant's Talking Points, or have any sense of software development and/or marketing (quick tip: marketing is not just advertising), is the second phase of the convergence idea that I believe was started under Bill Gates and continued under Ballmer who passed it on to the new guy who's last name I can't spell off the top of my head.
Phase 1 was getting all of the under the hood things lined up and working together. So you had the complete reworking of what was once Windows CE then Windows Mobile into Windows Phone, which uses more or less the same kernel as the Windows on your desktop. You also see the Xbox platform doing the same thing and the introduction of an interface very similar to Windows Phone with the introduction of the New Product Experience release of the Xbox 360 firmware. I don't think the Xbox 360 uses the same Windows kernel, but it's being phased out in favor of the Xbox One which does. So you have the three major platforms all working off what is essentially the same Windows code base. This has knock-on effects up and down the company which should be pretty self-evident to anyone with any kind of business sense if they stop and think about it for 10 seconds or less. Even if you know nothing about programming or software engineering, you should be able to appreciate the idea of having a common base for product development.
All of this is a truly monumental undertaking given that each product has different release schedules, market goals, etc. It's also a big help to developers, but it only solves part of the problem.
Phase 2 then involves making the UI changes. The name of the game in UI design is consistency. Think about it from the standpoint of Joe Average Software Developer. A few years ago if they wanted to write a program for Windows CE/Mobile and Windows PC, you essentially had to write the program twice, from scratch each time. Things like DirectX have solved part of the problem, making it relatively easy to port games between the Xbox and PC and even helped straddle the real-mode (DOS to Windows Me) to protected-mode (Windows XP onwards) switch for games. It's a start, but from Joe Average Software Developer's POV, the kind of holy grail is what Java promised and then failed miserably to deliver on: write once, run anywhere. If Joe Average can write a program that can then be utilized on the PC, Xbox and Phone/Phablet/Tablet platforms with little to no modifications, just stop and consider the potential ramifications of that for a moment. It's not quite "run anywhere" but it's still quite a bit closer than Java ever managed to deliver on. It frees up a lot of time for the developer that was previously spent on dealing with the slightly different dialects of different Windows platforms to spend on new features. Not to mention there will likely be fewer bugs because the behavior is much more consistent across platforms and you don't necessarily need to have a Windows Phone phone/tablet or an Xbox console to test your software. You can reasonably assume that if it works as expected on the PC it will work the same on the other platform targets because all the necessary changes are handled on the back end by Microsoft's developers. So now you don't have to buy a $500 console or an off-contract phone for roughly the same amount meaning a much shorter road to profitability as a small-time software developer.
You can also stop and consider some of the other implications this presents. Imagine a hotel, for example, where instead of expensive desktop PCs they might buy cheaper Xbox One consoles with the necessary software side-loaded. They could have a bank of consoles in a server room somewhere and allow guests to play games that are streamed up to the TV in the room with a controller that is in every room or could be rented as a premium service. Great little additional money maker for the hotel when you have a family with kids who are being a bit annoying, not to mention if one of the units at the reception desk goes down, they've got this ready supply of replacements. You could even put one standard in every room and get rid of expensive proprietary systems hotels use now to rent videos on demand or check out from your room. You could use the Kinect system's voice recognition to help control things in the room like turn the AC up/down, change the channel on the TV, turn on/off the lights. You could even use the Kinect system to do things like turn the TV and lights off and reset the temp in the room when the Kinect sensor doesn't detect any movement for a certain period of time. Maybe instead of lights forever being on in hallways, have the lights turn on/off in response to a person's movements in said hallways, which would probably make the whole project pay for itself within a year or two on utility bills. That's just a couple of a near infinite number of possibilities anyone with vision enough to look past the surface could exploit. Just because the Xbox is marketed primarily as a game console doesn't mean it can't be repurposed for other tasks. You just need a little vision to see what could be, like the engineer who mentally takes apart any mechanical device they may come across, not merely what is directly in front of you, such as a child who refuses to eat some bit of food because of the outward appearance.
Microsoft is in the middle of Phase 2, but whether or not the full potential will ever be realized is uncertain at this point. Part of the blame has to rest with Microsoft for failing to properly market Windows 8 before it launched. Developers and people who are interested in the technical side of things were suitably excited for the release, but Microsoft did a very poor job of communicating this to the general public. It's been a failing of Microsoft's since the Windows 95 launch. However, there are also quite a few people who haven't even used Windows 8 but talk about how bad it is like they're some kind of expert. If Microsoft had done a better job of communicating that Windows 8 is the first visible step in a process to the magical land of convergence, or even some of the rather significant technical improvements, it probably would have mollified a lot of people.
It's always amazing how quickly the "Windows 8 sucks" types shut up when you start pointing out some of the improvements in Windows 8 that are addressing PRECISELY the areas people have been complaining about for years. They say Windows is bloated, well Windows 8 not only uses less memory compared to Windows 7, it uses memory significantly more efficiently and also is something like 1GB smaller in overall disk footprint compared to Windows 7 -- I may be off on the exact figure, but it is smaller. They say Windows is slow, well Windows 8 boots significantly faster than Windows 7, has a number of tweaks that makes more efficient use of every clock cycle of a CPU and makes heavier use of the GPU improving both system performance and battery life. They say Windows is insecure, well Windows 8 adds some significant security features like an improved DEP and the introduction of ASLR not to mention some further hardening of the driver model that started in Vista and a lot of more generalized improvements. I think if Microsoft had done a better job of communicating this, not to mention where they're trying to take the Windows platform, people would have seen Windows 8 as the transitional release that it is.

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