"People (non-techies) have no interest in new learning curves."
Yeah, you get that and I get that, but the dopes at M$ keep changing the UI with every iteration. XP had the Playskool interface, then Vista was all about the special effects, (7 fixed Vista,) and now 8 is all about cutting the special effects and getting back to business, but instead of staying with the tried and true UI from Win2K or XP, they go all Metro and figure the same UI for a smart phone should work on a tablet, laptop, and desktop. Doh!
M$ has all the momentum, (and it has served them well,) but they are doing their best to squander it fast!
Who writes their business plans? Monti Python?