It takes one to know one.

The MSFT stock price disagrees with you.

You have no evidence to support the assertion Xbox hasn't broken even. That's where the discussion ends.

From the last quarter (Q3) - http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY13/Q3/default.aspx

"The Entertainment and Devices Division posted revenue of $2.53 billion, an increase of 56% from the prior year period. Adjusting for the recognition of revenue related to the Video Game Deferral, the division’s non-GAAP revenue increased 33% for the third quarter. Xbox LIVE now has over 46 million members worldwide, an 18% increase from the prior year period."

I call shenanigans.

Yeah there's been some failures as well as successes.

Because http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-no-longer-the-windows-company-does-wall-street-agree-7000015573/?s_cid=e589&ttag=e589

MSFT stock is up, and the company is making more profits than ever. For all the arm-chair predictions of certain doom, the people that count are rallying behind the company.

Sorry to break it to you Slashdot, but for the people here that have predicted the glorious end to the evil empire, such as TFA submitter (who amusingly can't even get the product-names right; what does that say about quality of analysis?) are way off the mark. Investors disagree with you - http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-no-longer-the-windows-company-does-wall-street-agree-7000015573/?s_cid=e589&ttag=e589

Now this is a hugely unpopular opinion which anti-MS geeks don't like being confronted with so I expect to be censored/buried by "-1 Overrated" anytime now. Good times! :)

Heh, if you think Win8 can't open more than one Window at a time then that's all I need to know about following this discussion up :)

I wish you all the best with KDE!

Yes, it was basically "it's changed - I don't like it". Same thing happened between 3.11 and Win95 and despite even less options to revert back, the world kept turning. Please read mine.

I understand people don't like change, which Windows 8 certainly is, but what I don't get is why some self-confessed-geeks can't seem to see how that in literally seconds you're back to the comfortable old way of using the OS while also enjoying the benefits of 8 over 7 - the speed and memory-footprint improvements must surely be worth more than the 1-2 minutes of customisation Win8 takes if you want ye olde Win7 look & feel back.

WinKey+D and you're back to Windows 7. Or a single-click from the start-menu. Or in 8.1 you won't even have to do that.

Don't like the start-menu? Don't use it then - in seconds you've got your old menu back. Also Win8 noticeably uses less memory than 7; the shell upgrades are nice and frankly if you're stuck at "this isn't working as I want it to" then you should hand your geek-badge in because really....this isn't difficult. There's some nice things in Windows 8, but yes, some things have moved around too.

Honestly, the way I see it it's a way of standarising the UI across platforms while giving users a way of falling back to the old UI too. Yes, the start menu looks different but it still works the same way and based on stats, many people rarely used it anyway. Don't like metro? Don't use it. Want your old start-menu? There's a tonne of options to get it back via 3rd-party apps in seconds.
The value of Win8 comes when you have multiple devices - with each one having a familiar UI if wanted. I've got a Win8 tablet which I barely use the desktop for and a desktop that I've uninstalled every metro app (almost) for, but my settings and the occasional app is nice to have synced over all devices. If I want to play Angry Birds on the desktop I can (and sometimes do) but as normal usage, I rare leave the desktop. 1 platform with 2 optional modes - it's not as bad as some people here want you to believe.

"Hmmm my favourite OS start menu has been modified in ways I don't entirely appreciate; better move all my apps and data to another OS entirely" - said no-one ever.

It's true it's a change, and that general tends to be where most of the complaints I've heard come from. Still though; WinKey+C will get you to the config panel anywhere and it's 2 clicks from there. Or in PowerShell Restart-Computer does the business too. Aside from that, is there any need to regularly reboot? Same with shutdown - hit the power-button or close the lid and you're done. Implicitly commanding the OS to shutdown is kind of a 90's thing to do to be honest - would you do it on an iPad for example? Unlikely.

2 options: if you're a heavy start-menu user for some reason, there's plenty of OSS packages to revive the old menu. Like really, in less than 60 seconds you can have it back. Second option; pin programs to the start bar or desktop. Neither one is a big deal and against this small downside (for some) you have smaller memory footprint & a faster OS on almost all metrics. I find it incredible that self-confessed geeks have such an issue with this very small speed-bump that actually benefits many others who use it.