Nothing evangelist about MVPs. In fact, if you could be at an MVP Summit, you'll hear plenty of discussion about things that are wrong. I've heard Ballmer say many times "You're among our biggest critics". I personally have criticized Microsoft many times.

As for the Start button, I've never said it's right or wrong to have removed it. I know it's causing lots of discussion and many people aren't happy. I simply try to tell people how to use the UI they are given and what I tell them is, "You now have a start screen".

Aero glass was removed because it doesn't fit with Microsoft design philosophy. Being a right or wrong choice is a matter of personal opinion.

>Craig the group you are in (have always been in) is Microsoft evangelist drum beater.
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>The removal of the Start button is beyond stupid because it was the #1 starting point for millions of end-users to get to their programs. If I removed a thing like that from our products we would go out of business. MS will survive this because most people will only see Win8 when they get a new PC.
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>The problem with Windows 8 is not Metro - its the removal of the Start button. Instead of removing the Start button they should have added a Metro button. Then one could still switch between desktop modes without being frustrated. But clearly MS want to force users off the desktop into using Metro apps which ... see next point...
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>The other problem with Win8 is the endless chatter back to MS that the installed Metro apps and OS does. Who knows what's all being sent back plus all the end-user usage activity being collected. Run an outbound firewall and see how often explorer.exe wants an internet connection plus all the other W*.dll and W*.exe applications. It's like Grand Central - Comodo firewall is overheating.
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>The end of the Aero glass interface is just a design choice to match the Metro look. I liked Aero but its just an opinion.