I gonna assume the world's largest retailer, Sauron,..I mean Wal-Mart are not in you area...

No, they haven't ventured here as yet, but with Woolworths and Coles strong footholds on the market, I doubt they'd think it worth it to try setting up here.

Aldi, the German supermarket chain set up here a few years back, and though they have a number of successful stores nationwide, they've barely made a dent on the Woolworths and Coles Duopoly.  mrs s and I shop at Aldi these days because I/we dislike the duopoly so much, and in the process we actually save ourselves quite a bit on groceries.

Ah, German. Then that makes sense. They moved to Nashville, Tn years before I've moved to New Jersey and I went there a few times, they're set-up was different than other grocery chains but the prices were great...

Read this:  http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-dont-call-it-metro-call-it-windows-8-7000002392/

Then read this: http://www.zdnet.com/not-all-apps-that-run-on-windows-8-are-windows-8-apps-got-it-7000002428/

Once you've digested that, watch this: 

  to Doc.

That's the other thing that bothers me about Win 8, umpteen useful apps going through Microsoft's Apps Store... and ONLY through Microsoft's Apps Store.  Not only are 3rd party apps writers being held to ransom by MS collaring a good percentage of any available profit, Windows 8 users become more and more a captive market to the Microsoft machine.

The other worrisome thing about all this is Microsoft's apparent move to phase out the traditional, legacy desktop. It seems that 3rd party legacy apps writers are being encouraged to instead write apps for 'don't call it Metro anymore, call it the Windows 8 UI... meaning that as the legacy desktop gets less and less use, Microsoft can use the figures to claim it is redundant and pension it off for Win 9. However, it will be an engineered progression to the 'don't call it Metro' UI, rather than a natural one.  Nevertheless, it is what MS wants, so it will happen regardless of what the majority of users want and/or need.

For mine, Microsoft is digging its own 'market share' grave, but that again is also worrying.  I mean, does anyone really want to switch allegiances and become the captive market to Apple?  It would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire, with "you'll get what you're given and there'll be none of that cross-platform, outside app shit with us"...and quite simply Linux won't be able to step up to the plate with a functional replacement OS to Windows that's dumbed down enough for mainstream usage across all walks.

Yes, I fear the days of the traditional desktop PC are numbered.

Maybe Stardock needs to provide the easy-to-use Linux distribution, as Stardock has said they are capable of in the OS thread.     

And boy, in Australia don't we know how anti-competitive duopolies are in practice.

Yes, you only have to take a look at the effects of Coles and Woolworths on the retail landscape to see just how stifling such duopolies are with regard to competition, fair pricing and customer service.  The thing is, they service just our neck of the woods and we do have alternatives like IGA and Aldi... and more recently, online grocery shopping from overseas. 

When it comes to operating systems for desktop computers, however, there's only two players worldwide [because Linux and Google's OSes aren't even on the same page as Windows or OS-X].... meaning, if Microsoft and/or Apple want to stick it to us, like MS is doing through Win 8, then there is nobody to stop them and there's nowhere else to turn for a viable alternative,  Microsoft knows this, and that's why we're getting "don't call it Metro anymore" whether we like it or not.... whether we need it or not. 

To me, that is sheer arrogance at its very worst, and MS is banking on Apple not significantly increasing its market share, meaning the alternative to Win 8 is most likely a previous Windows release... another win, win situation for MS.  With virtually all the balls in its court, MS can gradually reduce and/or cease support for earlier Windows editions, thus forcing users to eventually migrate to Win 8 and that gaudy UI, like it or not.  Sadly, we have come to a stage where PC's are essential to so many facets of our lives, both business and personal, and MS knows this.  Yup, it has us by the short n' curlies and can pretty much do as it pleases.

But if would definitely be cool if Stardock decided to throw a custom Linux distribution curveball...  Stardock doesn't have to do everything MS expects considering how totally uncool and uncaring it is being to practically its entire user- and developer-base with its current monopolistic actions.

The bigger curve-ball would be for Stardock to ditch customizing for Windows and convert to doing Macs... but pigs 'd fly first, me thinks.

What would make things interesting is if MS' manufacturing partners, like HP, Dell, etc, all did their own market research and refused to load Win 8 on new PC's because it revealed they'd lose money hand over fist if they did.  More interesting is what the manufacturers do if our predictions are correct and Win 8 completely fails to win over the market.  Do they combine their resources and take a class action against Microsoft to recoup their losses, or do they just move on and try to recoup them through consumers by hiking up their prices?

More to the point, what do they move on to if Windows 8 [and subsequently 9, 10 and 11] are a complete disaster?  Hmmm, this brave new move [or should I say foolish one] could very well signal in a very new era for personal computing, and not necessarily a particularly bright one