Oh that explains a lot!
Thank you :)

observations:
- install a start menu replacement to get application menus back. Application menus are handy when one has a number of applications with similar names.
- disable search and system speed jumps. Don't use it anyway, and it's pointless for a programmer like me.
- constant delays in performing tasks
- chrome can open 1/10 the tabs of linux on same hardware. That's perhaps a bad sign.

I've actually found my ability to work effectively on this platform has degraded to the point I just don't anymore.
I now use windows as a game platform and occasional (and frustrating) web browsing.
With Steam (etc), the issue with not being able to find my applications anymore stopped being relevant - I stopped using them under windows at all.

so when I want to do real browsing, real programming, or pretty much anything other than playing games, it's back to Mint for me. (because I similarly find unity and other "tablet" interfaces - interfaces less useful and intuitive than either IOS or Android - pointless)

Microsoft has hurt the tech industry, repeatedly and badly
And much of their tech has been in place to prevent innovation, invention and change.
Their arrogance and low esteem of computer users seems to keep growing
particularly given how incredibly -bad- the interface is for windows 8. If it corrupted data slowly, it'd be comparable to ME + Bob.

you're assuming "documents" == unique names. Obviously you've never worked with source code. It's very clear that every "search based" desktop has never actually been tested by anyone who programs for a living.
doesn't work too hot with my mathematics or - frustratingly - history references.

Metro lacks the user friendliness of a pet rock.
Learning curve is high enough that an old windows user like me (since the early 90s) can't figure out how to open an application or find where anything I have installed is.
No menus, no help, no interface, no organization, no context, no structure and too many ads.
I can't help anyone running windows 8. I can't find applications, documents, programs or interface. I'm not sure what that great scrolling walls of ads is, but it doesn't seem to relate to anything resembling functionality - it's easier to find an installed app using "google play" than it is to use that.

And forget "power user". I DO know how to open a command shell, and replace the scrolling wall of stupidity with a terrible second-rate wannabe menu that injects ads everywhere. (which is to say, pretty much every start menu replacement)
I don't actually -need- the start menu - the folders of windows 3 were actually more or less ok.
If I were running a tablet with this stupidity, it'd probably be tossed across the room.

It managed to build an interface almost as terrible and in your face as Ubuntu's "Unity". Except that it takes 50-90% of your CPU to run windows 8 and Unity only prevents you from using it.

I'm not sure who designed either system, but they should be kicked out of user design and forced to go back to school, perhaps in something useful like sales.

Yes, this.
I work at a company that has standard C++ across all supported platforms
and my own projects are largely C (and occasional use of C++).

hooking into interface, UI or devices is platform-specific but that's not a surprise - underlying technologies have diverged quite a bit between platforms.

- I use a desktop for a lot of tasks simultaneously - but usually one task where interruptions mean a loss of 20 min to 3 hours work, depending on how important and attention-consuming the task. This is priority #1 for me. Gnome 2 and KDE are both acceptable, as is Windows 95+ (but not 8) and MacOS. Mobile tends to be acceptable.
- I need to be able to organize files : database/file management interfaces should make sense and function. (Windows 8 does not make this easy to find, and KDE and Gnome 3 actually have the best). Mobile misses this entirely.
- Ability to organize tasks when multitasking. Task switching needs to make sense, and multiple desktops are quite handy when having to do cross referencing or coding. I am a programmer - having one desktop for browsing, another for code editing and testing and a third one for communications is pretty much my ideal basis. Classical desktops (Gnome 2 and KDE - and I find Gnome 2 slightly better) do this quite well. Newer systems have lost this. Lacking multiple desktops tends to keep me out of Windows or MacOS, for the most part - although the latter is ok at them.
- Saving and restoring of state, particularly for console sessions. A lot of what I do still takes place in terminals, particularly when managing outside servers. Gnome 3 lost this - in a fit of "bug fixing" all infrastructure was removed and there is no real support for this now. KDE is ok, MacOS is quite excellent. Android and IOS are VERY good at this and I sure wish ssh and console was more usable on those platforms.
- Recovery after failure. A number of issues can cause - with power failure coming at the top, but not excluding non-fatal hardware faults. Mobile is quite excellent, MacOS is quite excellent and KDE is ok. Without the ability to handle state, Gnome + Windows do not have this.

While I miss desktop isolated task switching and the ability to return to the last task I was working in under KDE (IMO that's a bug), this is largely why KDE is now my default desktop of choice.
I really wish I could do most of my programming tasks on mobile, but there's no infrastructure for it - they have no ability to handle multiple tasks.
I kind of miss the multiple consoles of nongraphical linux - but it's a bit hard to do things like web browsing there.

Windows 8, Unity and other such "interfaces" are not desktops and have moved away from the ability to perform routine (as in : continuous and important) tasks.

Very much "pot calling kettle"... USA and Russia are both famously historically "guilty" of this, as well as accusing each other of this.

however, all of the signs of psychological projection, in the more precise dialect.

*aside* even considering that, it's still safer to do business in the USA, for the most part. At least the illegal detentions, seizures, etc actually are well enough documented that folks who are at risk can usually avoid entering. Russia's still not very much into the concept of "free speech".

Especially since the USA (from perspectives of Canadians at least, and probably other countries that DO have a left and right) - doesn't have a "left". At best it has an "extreme right" and a "somewhat more moderate right"

In Canada, internet access is a "basic right" (what this means is kind of complicated, but basically everyone needs to be able to access internet, legally ... at least unless they are incarcerated already).

So under our law, this allowance for access is easily within reading such rights.

Not a lawyer, but worked for Canadian ISPs since the '90s.

As much as the Vancouver area, and British Columbia in general are beautiful places, with many wonderful people - justice here isn't entirely working. Whether it's our somewhat US leaning government on the other side of the continent messing with the codes, or that BC economically crashed at the end of the 80s thanks to US interference ... things basically aren't perfect.
If you keep cutting police and keep increasing their load, coincident with cutting education and increasing their load too - no one has any time left anymore unless there's overwhelming evidence. ... and thanks to Anonymous, there's now sufficient evidence for the authorities to investigate.

I've known people who've been harassed the same ways, and justice was not found. ... and people continue to bully, harass and even sexually assault the same kinds of ways.
and we all let it happen, or even do it ourselves.
I hope they've got the guy who started it.
They're not going to touch the hundreds of people at her schools that bullied because of it - probably.
maybe they'll make it easier to find and rescue victims before it's too late. And some justice beats none.

While touch IS coming to desktops, it's not here now and it won't be on the majority of desktop systems - perhaps ever.
Don't design for a tablet if you're designing for a desktop.

That's particularly aimed at Gnome and Unity, who seem to be ignoring desktops when it comes to new designs.

If you're going to be adding accountability, be sure of the origin of the security weakness. If it originates in management, in outside requirements or in other ways is part of the contract - the developer shouldn't be held responsible.

games: world of warcraft and all the myriad clients based on the Unity3D engine do count as "fat clients"

trick is : a fat client needs to provide something a thin client can't. On mobile this would mean handling disconnects and offline well (which thin clients aren't particularly good at) - or services not yet available (like fast 3D rendering).

Java is still somewhat competitive because it can deliver capabilities not present in thin.
Flash is not competitive anymore - it offers little not present in html5 and is closed from some markets.

This is one of those things that run in circles. One interesting historical example: X11 terminals being replaced with X11 desktops, and then the X11 desktops working thin clients once more.

That is : the problem of finding a device (say: server, virtual server, coffee maker, whatever) without having to enter an arbitrary number of digits.
DNS is essentially context-free and centralized.

I would make an OS a lot less dependent on DNS actually functioning, require such a service to be secure (but oh, how to manage the keys?) and make it easier to plug in local address books of references, and easier to transfer such between computers. (perhaps something like zeroconf)

The counter trick is how to keep this from being hijacked to any great degree. Minimize harm.