With WinRT available to developers out there, it's now apparent that you are not supposed anymore to access, even for read-only purposes, to files on a local system the way you wish and the way it has always worked before.

Microsoft locks you into silo-ed applications that are only provided access to the user documents' folder and a few others.

Vendors out there who had a software whose added value was to do stuff with files scattered on the local system will not be able to do that anymore. Microsoft makes them out of business.

Of course, big vendors will still be able to have their way. Small vendors though are collateral damage to Microsoft's reinventing itself.

It's a euphemism to say that I am not glad Microsoft is pursuing this road only to compete with Apple. Taking with it all the open ecosystem that made Windows the wonderful thing it was.

I guess we are at a turning point for the software industry, particularly small vendors, and I hope Microsoft will fail miserably with Windows 8 so it can sees the light again and understand it's not doing any good to people out there.

There is a market for locked down operating systems. There should remain a mass market for open ecosystems.