Good thoughts. It seems both Microsoft and Apple are on a kick to make all devices with a screen behave the same. It doesn't work.
MS has taken a lot of heat from users about the ugly tiled interface of Windows 8, which MS pushes as "One experience for all your devices." Does it work for the Windows Phone (one of their many coma inducing product names), and Surface? For their phone, pretty well. It's meant to be an active interface like the iOS and is really the only good way to use a small device. For the Surface, it's okay with or without the keyboard if you don't have a mouse. With either, the MS tiled interface just doesn't work as well as Apple's iOS.
But then there's the desktop style of computer. An OS meant to be used as a touch screen interface simply does not work. It couldn't be any more inefficient. Most users hated Windows 8. MS responded in 8.1 by sort of letting you back to the desktop, but not really. Millions of users have paid the $5 for this little app to completely remove the Win 8 tiled interface. That many people wouldn't do it for no good reason. And the reason is that a touch screen interface has no place on a desktop computer.
It was particularly galling to Windows users that all through the Win 8 public beta, a simple one click check box allowed you to bypass the tiled interface so you could use Win 8 like Win 7. Then for unexplained reasons, MS took away that option for the actual retail release. No real reason to, just gone. Why take the option away from users? What difference does it make to MS how YOU want to use YOUR computer? The whole idea is for users to be able to customize their working environment in a way that is the easiest and most efficient for them. Not how someone says you should be using it. Give users all of the possible options and let them choose.
Years ago the idea was tossed around at Apple about a touch screen OS. Jobs said no. No way would anyone want to constantly reach across to a vertically standing monitor to select menu items, etc. A mouse is simpler and much more comfortable to use. Arm fatigue would drive people nuts.
Lion has been called Apple's Vista. I'd say I have to agree. It was a full on attempt to push an iOS interface onto a desktop computer. Complete with Launchpad so your screen would be full of tiled icons like an iPad. Every app I had open when I shut down launches again next time? Who made that decision? As far as I know, the OS can't read my mind and know that I wanted them all open again. The worst part for many users was autosave. Really, you're going to save my files for me? Who says I want those changes saved? You moved or removed Save As from its decades location and keyboard shortcut? Why? Apple got at least hundreds of thousands of calls on that one alone.
At least Apple (mostly) listens. Mountain Lion brought back ways to undo just about every one of those maddening iOS like "features". Save As can be put back in its traditional place with a very simple change in the System Preferences. You can kill all relaunching of apps on a startup or restart. Scrolling can be put back in the traditional direction (based on the direction the scroll bar moves, not the content). A check box added to the System Preferences allows you to close a document without the changes being automatically saved by first asking if you want them saved.