@RoyalCrown: I'm pretty sure that was simply grammatical ambiguity. He was referring to Windows, no Linux when he made the OSX comment.
Also, to the people talking about the start menu restriction to non-touch, I would virtually guarantee that if it's in the OS it'll be enabled by a simple registry hack sooner or later. Not ideal, I know, but registry hacking is hardly the most difficult thing anyone here has done.
As for cloud OS, the major reason is it's going to be a solution for businesses. Buy a bunch of crap-ass android boxes or something for like 20c a piece, and you can use full-blown Windows for what is probably minimal cost. There's probably going to be a lot of IT controls implemented as well.
I don't see it for much of a consumer solution, it's probably going to be marketed as corporate, sort of like how AWS does double duty, but it was marketed to corporations.
@Queenslander: Yes and no. I'd be willing to try Linux's less polished solution to use if my games library wouldn't be impacted, that's true, but Linux is a geek's operating system that is largely not designed for average users. Sure, they could use it. At the same time though, a lot of the excellent OS features people take for granted are unecessarily difficult to work with or implement in Linux - Shortcuts being a prime example. Some do it well, like Mint, but seriously... why in God's name have they not simply programmed an option to drag an app out of your "start" bar (for lack of a better term) onto the desktop?
Just one of many small usability problems that continually push me back to Windows. If it worked with my games, I'd be happy to have a go at Mint, but it doesn't, and therefore I'm not going to invest the effort.