Yes, really
"Are you saying no one will be able to write a defrag or registry editor for Windows 8 using Metro/WinRT?"
Yes, REALLY.
"How then will we defrag disks and edit the registry?"
On an Intel machine, you can still do those tasks from a "legacy" application. On an ARM machine, you don't need to do those tasks because 1) they are almost all going to be using SSD and 2) since nothing can touch the registry except the OS, you don't need to do it from your apps either. There MAY be system tools to do it if needed for support.
"Given that many will still be operating without a constant network connection, how would they save their work?"
There is still local storage, but you are basically limited to AppData and My Documents. I never said that Metro/WinRT "can't write to the local disk", I said that the functions you are used to (such as File.Open) are gone. Instead, there are ways to request a file be written to or read, and they are highly secured.
"Or, are they saying that the Office suite will not be Metro/WinRT based?"
There is already a Metro (but not WinRT) Office, it comes on WP7 phones. At the very least, I'd expect that to be available. Nothing has been publicly announced though.
J.Ja
