Having watched the day one Keynote from Microsoft, and Jensen Harris’s overview of the leading 8 principles in Win 8, I now have more questions than actual answers. Namely, can we ever expect Microsoft to separate rather than encapsulate the legacy PC desktop from the Metro one?

My comprehension quickly gets foggy as soon as I envision the vast spectrum of current Windows customers crossing paths with Windows 8 for the first time. Questions like, why two IE browsers exist on the same device, but don’t keep tabs in sync. Or why virus protection is still necessary if Apps are completely vetted for security? Why is one layer so utterly different then the other layer?

Is the desktop actually an application within Metro, or is Metro an application with the desktop? It’s a hall of mirrors, one encapsulating another, encapsulating itself, ad infinitum. Which one’s real/authentic/original/______?

Further reading:

• Steven Sinofsky - Keynote Day 1

• Kyle Baxter - One Platform to Rule Them All

• Jason Snell - Windows 8, iOS, and the future [via John Gruber]