> For the desktop, look at Metro as a way to have some content-focused apps and games that come to life directly on your desktop through live tiles. Don't look at them as replacements for heavy-weight, traditional desktop applications. That's not their point.
I don't think Microsoft has communicated this at all. I don't think there is any definitive statement that the desktop is not being deprecated, and will continue to exist and be developed for.
They don't need to issue a definitive statement on it, because that's not a possibility.
Why would Microsoft set a 250+ billion dollar ecosystem on fire (third party Windows desktop software) when it's responsible for locking in all of Microsoft's enterprise customers?
It's probably fair to assume that the desktop won't be going away soon by the fact that they've improved it on Win8 (there are a lot of non-metro improvements in Win8 - surprised?). If the desktop were there right now purely temporarily then I doubt MS would have spent time improving it.
Maybe one day they'll nuke it, but they have a long way to go.
> For the desktop, look at Metro as a way to have some content-focused apps and games that come to life directly on your desktop through live tiles. Don't look at them as replacements for heavy-weight, traditional desktop applications. That's not their point.
I don't think Microsoft has communicated this at all. I don't think there is any definitive statement that the desktop is not being deprecated, and will continue to exist and be developed for.