Where some see a problem, others see an opportunity. 
The problem, Pacov, is not on capitalizing on other people's mistakes. The problem is when other people's mistakes and/or intentions are so serious they can bring down your company too. Brad has already been through that with IBM's OS/2.
Windows 8 is not about Metro. Windows 8 is about Microsoft wanting to kill the Desktop so it can start anew, but this time controlling the destiny of everyone else and profiting from it at 30% a pop: they want to turn the Windows Store into an App Store, but they can't do that until you can't sell your stuff except through them.
If they can accomplish that, they will be making money not only from their own software but from *everyone else's* too!
Better yet, they will be controlling the market from top to down, they will be the only ones providing the tools for building Metro apps, they will decide what - and who - goes and doesn't go into the Windows store, and they will be profiting directly from the success and hard work of others.
In other words, they saw what Apple did and they want to become like Apple.
They can't do this while Desktop apps are the standard, because desktop apps are based on an 'open' architecture. Developers of desktop apps don't depend directly on Microsoft (other than Windows), they can buy their tools from anyone they want and they can sell them through anyone they want, or even directly to the end user.
So, Microsoft is calling the Desktop 'legacy' now, and their intention is to kill it. Destroy it, rip out it's blessed little heart. That''s why they are practically forcing people to move to Metro by removing the Start Button, etc...
The problem is that by doing it this way they are making it obvious to everyone that they don't care how many businesses and lives get destroyed in the process. They weren't like this in the past, but in recent years they've done it with classic VB vs. Dot NET and they're doing it again with Silverlight vs. HTML5. Now they are even doing it to the user's themselves with this Desktop vs Metro thing.
As an end user you might think this 'lives getting destroyed' statement is an exaggeration, but it really isn't. There are many thousands of developers whose businesses and lives (and the lives of their families) depend on Microsoft technology not changing overnight. They invested thousands of hours acquiring the know-how on certain technologies, know-how that is at the base of the very existence of their companies. They trusted Microsoft when Microsoft told them that the technology they invested so much time - and their lives! - on was the future.
Well, it's now obvious to everyone that Microsoft's 'vision of the future' can change in the blink of an eye, since they are neither innovators nor do they have a clear well defined path. These days Microsoft goes after everything that shines, changing directions all the time, and damn the consequences to those left behind.
They weren't always like that, there was a time when backwards compatibility was critical to Microsoft. Remember Active Desktop? Active Desktop was a flop from the word Go, yet Microsoft supported it until Windows Vista, at which point Active Desktop had already died of old age. Remember how long Windows kept support for 16 bit Win3.x applications? Etc...
This was the old school Microsoft, represented by responsible developers like Raymond Chen. Unfortunately at some point the 'let's start everything from scratch' faction at Microsoft won and they are now running the show - and bringing the company to the ground, in my opinion. Much, I'm sure, to the chagrin of many people within Microsoft itself.
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