What the hell are you talking about?
WTF is a minimal hardware windows platform?
and Windows 8 can do everything you said.
I was hating on Windows 8 for months before it came out, and then I tried it out on MSDN-Academic Alliance and let me tell you, it is just Windows 7.. but better, smoother... granted the UI gets in the way a bit here and there but it's not all that big of a deal. There are bugs still present right now (i.e. bluetooth audio slows down, wireless USB dongle connection issue) but I'm sure they will be ironed out if Microsoft wants Windows 8 to be close to what they were expecting.
I was a hardcore Linux user as well but each different Linux distro has it's own set of problems and Windows has always been the middle ground where most of the solutions to those problems are consolidated into one and there for me to use.
Back onto topic, as to steam is moving to linux because it can't compete with Windows store. Honestly, I'm sorta taking the side on windows this time. You know why? Because steam has always been the game distribution giant and THAT'S IT.... I DON'T WANT MY 200 dollars software licenses to be on steam! Are you mad????? imagine some productivity software you bought on steam was inaccessible because you have no internet, or steam server is down or busy. Do you really want to risk you job or productivity on that?
I have been ok with steam being the game distribution giant because there are competitors like gamersgate, gog.com and desura. Not good enough to bring steam down but enough to keep them on their toes.. if steam gets both the game world and the software world we just going to have another apple or microsoft on our hands... do you really want that?
