Re: OS !== UX && OS !== CPU
Isn't this where Microsoft was going with Continuum on Windows Phone? Plug it in and you get a Windows PC. Though I'm not sure if it ever offered an actual desktop. Anyone with a Windows Phone who used it able to tell me more?
Continuum gives you a standard Windows desktop.
The start menu just contains your regular home screen tiles, with All Apps off to the right as usual.
Applications are restricted to "fullscreen" only (apparently there's an app that allows you to tile windows across the display), and their UIs reflow to fit the display. There's still a task bar at the bottom though, so it's easy to switch between running apps as usual, and alt-tab works as you would expect.
The Continuum dock (it can work wirelessly too, apparently) has a couple of USB ports and a few video outs too (Display Port and HDMI, I think - I've only used it with HDMI), so plugging in a mouse and keyboard basically works as you would expect. You can still use the phone display as a touch pad and keyboard if you don't have those handy though.
There are a few problems with it - I haven't found an easy way to access things which are wired to physical buttons, like the volume controls, for example, and you can't right click on a task bar button to close an application (you have to activate it, and then click the close button in the title bar), but I think CShell will probably help solve the latter.
Apart from those minor problems and the lack of tiled applications, it's actually pretty fucking awesome IMO. When Andromeda comes out and has Win32 on ARM support, a lot of people really won't need Windows desktop machines anymore.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
