I can think of innumerable times when I wished I could combine touch screen, mouse and keyboard on my notebook. Windows 8 offers that possibility in spades. I anticipate a slew of new displays for desktops as well as new notebooks, netbooks, and tablets that use this multi-input expansion.

From a maintainability perspective, MS has been moving in this direction all along... one OS to maintain, tweak and enhance. Did you notice that SP1 was for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008? If you haven't watched the YouTube video of Windows 8 developer demo, you would find it enlightening.

Final thought... could be a good time to start monitoring LCD touch panel manufacturer's stock ;>).