The core Windows team has made some good improvements to help performance, boot time, etc. and there are indeed a number of new features I think many people would appreciate. It's just sad the whole Metro debacle may have spoiled everything - but only time will tell. People can get used to a lot when they don't have alternatives.

I'm just as sad that Windows Home Server 2011 is the end of that product line. It's a heck of a nice server OS for home or small business use, being basically a low-end version of Server 2008 R2 with some extras for media streaming and similar consumer features. But the mis-steps the "decision makers" at Microsoft made on WHS 2011 also made it unpopular with users of the previous version. Perhaps the slow adoption led to its demise.

Still, hard to beat a Server edition of Windows that is as low as $45 in OEM SKUs.