Unfortunately, touch is a priority (not exclusive) to the OS model and would be ineffective with an orby menu.
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for a touch OS to be ineffective if the option is given to use either touch or traditional alpha-numeric cascaded start menu. It does not diminish the capabilities or effectiveness of touch/Metro in any way.
In actual fact that's exactly what I am using right now in Enterprise W8 with the '
Ex7forW8' hacked orb start menu, which has a simple toggle switch to use either W7 Explorer with Orb start menu, or W8 explorer with Metro.
The difference with this hack is that when installing it's necessary to insert the W7 disc so Explorer 7 files can be copied into the W8 OS. This means you get all the advantages of W8's increased speed, security, etc, etc ... but still retains the desired Explorer 7 features. One click and I'm back into native W8.
Without wishing to debate it, as far as I'm concerned a cascaded alpha-numeric start menu will never die because it's more efficient than a tile menu ... period. No doubt many will disagree, and that's their prerogative, but I stand by this statement. Given an efficient operator, equally knowledgeable in both tile/alpha-numeric start menus, and a diverse set of inter-related, multi-function tasks to perform simultaneously, I have no doubt the time taken would be significantly greater using tile.
I am equally convinced that if there was another company on a parity with MS offering an equally good OS with an orb start menu, and office with list instead of a ribbon, a very large percentage of consumers would swing over.
People will adapt to MS because there's no where else to go. But that doesn't mean it's necessarily more efficient or embraced ... simply endured and learnt to live with. People learned to live under a Communist regime because they had no choice. It didn't mean it was a better system, or that they liked it.
History also shows that over a given period of time fashions go through a cycle. Bell bottom trousers through to stove pipes and back again. Cars with ignition switches and a separate start button, to start button/ignition combined, and now back to ignition switch with separate start button in BMWs and others. With all tile menus we're back to the early windows versions; but it will eventually go full circle and come back to alpha-numeric cascaded start menu.
If W7 has reached the peak possible efficiency as an OS in it's overall strucure, (not including improvements to sub-structures for security, speed, etc), then there would be no more new models coming out and MS would have nothing new to sell. I can use Office 2003 just as efficiently, if not more so, than Office 2010. So why have I got 2010? Because some sub-features are improved, and compatibility issues with interactions for spreadsheets when doing things like tax returns, etc.
The big change in W8 is that it is a foray by MS into the touchfone/tablet/hybrid laptop market. And no one blames them for doing that since the traditional desktop has almost reached saturation point, while the portable device/phone market is evolving at an exponential rate.
That does not mean the tradtional desktop is going away. It's not a case of either/or. It's a case of both/and. Almost everyone I know has both portable and desktop. As mentioned elsewhere in this forum, I am a memeber of a world wide self-help organization, and help members in my area who have computer problems on a pro bono basis; so my observations are not limited to my own group of personal friends.
It is amazing how many persons, including myself, who still use XP for one reason or another. It might be as simple as a favorite legacy game, or being able to put background sound, picture or color in an email ... features not aviailable in WinLiveMail. And the lsit goes on.
That's what I want to avoid.
