Surface 3 - New direction, higher prices and crappy i3

[persia]

Another problem is that Windows Store apps suck on the desktop, so being able to run them on a desktop is meaningless.  Apple got it right, tablet and phone are different to desktops and laptops.

And touch screens on laptops and desktops will always be secondary to trackpads (or I suppose mice).  The price of the touch interface on the two or three 27 inch or larger monitors you have on your desktop would be better spent on a 4K screen instead.

[persia]

Windows 8.1 looks a lot like Windows 7, especially if you don't use any Windows Store Apps.  Yeah the "Start" ball (actually a Windows logo ball) takes you to the tiles, but really that's the only difference.  Well that and the search area for apps is to the side rather than an the bottom of the menu.

Windows Store apps appear on the task bar even.  And you can create shortcuts on the desktop to them.

[persia]

If you run Windows Store Apps you will need to run the modern interface.  Windows Store Apps do not run in the Desktop.  You can see them in the task bar and pin a shortcut to them but they actually run in the modern interface.  It's still two headed, though not as confusingly so.

The Windows Store has you sign up for an account, in the same way Apple's App Store does.  That's why you sign in with it, it wouldn't make any sense to sign into the store with an account that is local to your computer.