I've not used it extensively but found it confusing. My Father (non-techy) absolutely hates it. He hated Vista too but likes his Win 7 box.
Very dangerous for MS to screw around with this as inertia and familiarity are a huge force in keeping them dominant. In their position the worst thing they could do is force big changes, which is what they've done.
As another random anecdote: my technically not-inclined girlfriend loves it. Finds it super easy to use: use the desktop mode for her architecture apps, and metro for all her personal stuff.
I even like it, although I did just wipe it on my new laptop for Ubuntu 13.04 - it's quite nice to use in my humble opinion.
Nope, stock standard. The way to think about it, is that Metro IS the start-menu.
So, hit the Super (windows) key, and start typing, just like you would to quick launch via Windows 7's start-menu.
Pin your most used desktop apps to the bar in Desktop mode, and I promise with those two tips, you'll find it quite a bit easier to handle :)
Now, hot corners on the other hand... those are a bit annoying. I will add that all this is on a laptop: having gestures enabled is a big plus. I also use a trackpad for my iMac and have one on my desktop at work, so I kinda can't live without them, and Windows 8's are pretty decent. Not OS X level yet, but getting there.
I found myself having to poke around in the program files directory in explorer (very sub-optimal) in order to find out what was actually installed on the machine.
Fair enough, that's something I've not run into myself :) Although, hit the Super key, bring up the Charms bar (swipe in from right on a trackpad, mouse in top right hand corner with a desktop) and there should be an Applications menu that lists them? It's just a standard vertical list of all applications. I think that's where it is, anyway, let me know.
See the thing is, intuitive is an odd concept. We've learned how Windows works over the years, so now it seems "intuitive", but from observing people learning PC's for the first time, this sort of stuff is just as hard for them on 7, 8, or XP!
Now: that's the cause of the problems with Windows 8. We've all had to go back to square-one. Windows 8: the great equaliser ;)
There's a few things I don't like in it, just like every OS. But, it's not bad, I think. Good luck!
Well yeah, what's intuitive is indeed subjective and depends entirely on what the user has already learned, which harks back to my first post - changing things so much is a very dangerous game for an incumbent whose market-share pretty much relies on them not upsetting their users.
Many of their users have taken many years to learn how to operate previous iterations of Windows satisfactorily, and switching stuff around frustrates them.
Myself I'll be sticking with Debian/XFCE because I like it and I don't feel like I'm constantly being told that I'm doing it wrong!
I've not used it extensively but found it confusing. My Father (non-techy) absolutely hates it. He hated Vista too but likes his Win 7 box.
Very dangerous for MS to screw around with this as inertia and familiarity are a huge force in keeping them dominant. In their position the worst thing they could do is force big changes, which is what they've done.