I have been playing with Windows 8 for a few days now and think it is quite possibly the best thing to ever happen to the Linux community.
Anyone else played with Win 8?
Yes, I did. I'm actually typing this on Windows 8. I tried the Customer Preview and loved it. There are so many improvements in W8 (memory management, scheduler, multi monitor support, file copying, networking and so on). Now it's on most of my workstations and also on my laptop (which is a Convertible and has a touch screen). The new interface still has some oddities, but for a first version of a completely new desktop after 18 years of evolution it's actually very good.
I also don't understand what the fuss is about re. the Start Menu button, because quite frankly for everyone who is not mentally challenged it should really not matter much if you click on a button on the lower left corner or just move the mouse in the lower left corner (or use the Windows key). The What-once-was-called-Metro interface can easily be treated like a full screen start menu, no need for a touch screen. But then, the same mob is screaming "burn it!" with almost every version of Windows since Windows 2.11, so nothing new here. I stopped listening to their whining when they repeated all the Vista nonsense that occasionally is still spread around (it was BS then, and is still BS today).
I also can't see why W8 should benefit Linux, because at the end of the day, an OS is not a purpose in itself (well, for some it is I guess) but is a means of providing the software infrastructure for running applications, and it doesn't matter how good or bad Linux is, if the applications aren't there no-one gives a damn (aside from the fact that even most current Linux distros still exhibit far worse issues than a missing Start button). Not a problem if the stuff that's available for Linux is good enough or one can write its own applications (that's why the embedded folks love Linux), tough if one needs certain commercial applications or wants a system that 'just works'.
The decline in consumer PC sales are mainly because of tablets, and also to a big part because most PC vendors couldn't be arsed to come up with proper computers for the Windows 8 launch (all they did was taking last year's models and stick Win8 on them). And corporate PC sales are stagnating because most companies have only now upgraded from Windowsxp to Windows 7, and this also only because MS is dropping support for XP soon.