Conclusions
Most of you probably still do not care about Mac OS X but with seeing some of the early news about Windows 8 it is clear that Microsoft (at least in some respects) is attempting to mimic the Apple model. And it is definitely a good model to follow (in many cases).
Hopefully the PC community will place pressure on Microsoft to offer Windows 8 (at least the home and enthusiast version) at a price point that will encourage people to upgrade. Also, the community needs to place pressure on Microsoft to make sure that their “interface enhancements” are something that can also be disabled for the people who are used to how things are. With Mac OS X, if you do not want to use Launchpad and the App Store, you do not have to, but that is not to say that at some point in the no-to-distant future you will be forced to use them.
There has to be a Windows App Store at some point in the future; I believe it is a great way for Microsoft to increase the revenue that they have (which is not to say that they do not make money, they make loads of it), but something like that would benefit consumers as well as the shareholders. It will increase the barrier of entry for someone wanting to write a software program for Windows, but there are also some great benefits by paying the developer fee and having Apple (or Microsoft) to host the software for you.
The future is coming quickly, and there are going to be significant changes to computer operating systems in the not-to-distant future. Both Mac OS and Windows are very mature systems, so UI changes and enhancements are going to be the only real way to differentiate the systems from each other, and also encourage users to upgrade.
