Steam Goes Metro

"If Windows 8's new UI turns out to be even slightly successful then it is a safe bet that monitors and computers generally will come with touch built-in"

@Brian Hill Only members of the limp-writed Steve Jobs echo chamber say that desktops and touchscreens don't work. I have news for you: there are millions of people in the service industry that use touchscreen controls every day for point-of-sale and line-of-business apps. Almost every other non-computer touchscreen doohickey is usually wall-mounted too, as are conventional hardware-button control panels for machinery or even your household thermostat, and the iPad is designed to mimic real button controls on a device - that was the original design philosophy. In any case, desktop computers are in steady decline. Microsoft knows this. The laptop is now the transitional device between a desktop and a more personal mobile device like a tablet or phone though. It is a "safe" purchase decision for any consumer now. In a few years time, that may change though. Speaking of which, what happens now with Surface? I'd like to see Windows 8 in a "big-ass table computer". I don't see how this would be hard to build though: take one ~40" LCD TV with touch digitizer (or make your own), one glass top, one Windows 8 PC device (an SFF PC would work), contruct a table enclosure, et voila: one Windows 8 Surface PC that makes one helluva good coffeetable discussion piece.

How many cashiers do you see sitting down? (As in, arms are not level with the screen). Or engaging in sustained continuous use of the touchscreen? The reason why touchscreens work in those environments is because the amount of time you are using the touchscreen is limited; cashiers spend most of the time scanning things and bagging things and only hit the touch screen towards the end. It's not the same as trying to use a touchscreen to manipulate the gantt chart for your company's next big project. The desktop is not dead and is not going anywhere. People have been spouting that nonsense since shortly after the IBM PC came out. At some point, people have to stop listening to chicken little. There are plenty of business desktop users who are NOT going to be replacing them any time soon. For example, my company works with the pharmaceuticals industry. We sell customized computers bundled with lab equipment. They will not, under any circumstance, accept a laptop (let alone a tablet) because laptops have a greater chance of walking out of the building. They won't even accept a computer with a burner; it has to be a plain optical drive. These are computers that are being used in conjunction with proprietary research data that they do not want leaving the building. The other big advantage of the desktop is price. They are cheaper than laptops. And they run the software your business needs, unlike tablets. I seriously doubt that the iPad is going to be running a full-fledged Fortune-500 grade ERP system anytime soon. At best, the iPad can be used to provide limited supplementary to an ERP.

Until such time as there is a direct brain to computer interface, we need tactile tools to perform work on a computer. That means a keyboard and a pouting device. Have you ever tried to type a document on a tablet? Wow, where'd my screen go? It's all keyboard and little box for the text. Okay, you can attach a keyboard to your tablet. Excuse me, that's a laptop. So when that magical day arrives and we no longer need to touch our computer, I will gladly part with my desktop. Until then, Apple and Microsoft, stop trying to be push tablets on people who need computers. Toy tablets are fine for consumers and people who only want to consume content or join the waste of humanity called social networking. I have no problem with change. I just want that change to better my experience somehow. This tablet fetish going around, is like taking someones Masserati away from them and giving them a Ford Taurus. Sure a lot more people buy Fords, but it's really not a replacement to a Masserati. But the thing is, you don't have to make that choice in cars. In computers though, if a company like Microsoft or Apples goes in the wrong direction, there's not that many choices to replace them. You can roll your own, but then you have compatibility issues. Seriously though, Microsoft needs to give a lot of consideration to maintaining a Professional Windows version, and a fischer-price version for consumers.

Brian, Enough. There's no tablet here. It's just a screen. Windows 8 works very well with keyboard and mouse, not just with touch. These screens, and all other Windows 8 UIs, are designed very much for that. Please. Get over it. This isn't a tablet.

Ok seriously, the argument of "Tablet + Keyboard" is a "Laptop" therefore it is stupid and you should buy a laptop instead is totally bogus. Can you detach the keyboard from your laptop? No. Point made. It's different! How many times do you seriously need a real keyboard other than to type really long paragraphs? I want a Tablet because it's bigger than a phone, therefore it's more laptop like, but as portable, therefore usable on the go (laptops are difficult to hold without a table and too heavy to hold in your hands). But I also want the Tablet to occasionally act as a PC, with a physical keyboard and all, hence the need for a separate keyboard. It totally makes sense, and it does things better this way than a laptop would, and is often cheaper for the quality of the experience you get (snappiness of the OS, instant-on, battery life).

Ironically, isn't Win8's built-in app store designed to make services like steam obsolete?

Win8 is awesome. Civ 5 is Win8 touch enabled, so why not Steam? Can't wait. Even if you don't use touch on your PC, Win8 is still cool.