Windows 8 is a very disciplined direction. Doesn't mean: a good direction, but a unified GUI and an answer to ARM-based tablets was the strategy. Good? The market will decide.
Unified GUI?
Ahahhahahaahhahahahaahhaaahahaha!
Oh wait ... Unified GUI? ... AAAAhahahahahahahahahahah!
Man, fire up start screen, start typing 'print'. Nothing found. Go to desktop, go to control panel, in the search box type 'print'. Oh wow, it found printers and devices. Half of things on W8 are found in one place, half in another. Does that sounds unified? The amount of annoying crap in W8 is astounding. Open Office on W8 RT, and try to save a file. Good luck if you got fat fingers, UI elements are from desktop. Oops? Oh and don't even get me started on Windows Server 2012 UI.
W8 is a Frankenstein OS, it is as far from Unified GUI as you can get.
Disclosure: I use Windows Server 2012 as my desktop.