There’s been a lot of conversation and about the presence, or lack thereof, of the Desktop in the Windows 8 build for ARM processors. If you’ve given Windows 8 Developer Preview just a few minutes of your time then you know it’s still required and there should be no debate.
Let’s keep it short and simple. I hate wasting time on something that isn’t in the wild yet. There is a Control Panel in the Metro UI. It allows you to simply and quickly configure some essential settings. But try to do anything beyond that … and well … you’re sent packing to the traditional Control Panel that runs in desktop. The same goes for just about any system tool. Debate over. The rights and wrongs of it are nothing but contributions to the carbon footprint.
IMO the desktop will be with us for quite some time. We’ll likely see a Windows 8 R2 in a few years, and maybe Windows 9 might be the one where the desktop could become an optional feature. That’s all guessing so who the hell knows.