Tom Warren at The Verge:
Microsoft is once again planning to alter the way its Start Screen works in Windows 8.1 Update 1. While the software giant originally released Windows 8.1 last year with an option to bypass the “Metro” interface at boot, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the upcoming “Update 1” for Windows 8.1 will enable this by default.
Defaults are telling. If this pans out, it’s hard to see this as anything but a concession of their ‘no-compromises’ strategy. The awkward symbiosis of Windows on a tablet: touch & keyboard/mouse together, tiled Modern UI apps and traditional Desktop side-by-side. It isn’t really working out they way they hoped it would.