Microsoft won't back away from a radical overhaul of Windows and is determined to kill the decades-old, decades-rich desktop, analysts agreed today.

From Computerworld:

The experts were reacting to a leak of a preliminary build of Windows "Blue," the code name for the anticipated summer upgrade to the five-month-old Windows 8. That build, which has hit file-sharing websites, includes numerous cosmetic fixes and feature improvements, all in the "Modern" user interface, or UI, the tile-based, touch-first half of Windows 8 formerly called "Metro."

By all accounts, Blue will not include any modifications to the "Classic" UI, the one that resembles Windows 7, unless Microsoft drops them into a later build.

 Windows 'Blue' shows desktop's days are numbered