Microsoft already has a reputation for releasing and patching. Looking further afield, test drives of Windows 8 have been predictably mixed. Some just say it is rubbish, others wax lyrical about what a revolution in operating system (OS) it is. Most do not go that far. If there is a theme to them it is that there is considerable hump (three to five days) to get over initially but once you do, it's a good OS.

The easiest way to avoid any problems? Perhaps, sit back and wait for a year until the software is stable, then consider upgrading. Then there's Surface, the tablet Microsoft is manufacturing and selling itself. The reviews so far are positive. Is it an iPad killer? Probably not? Will it be a competitor? Probably, yes.

In the real world all this translates to: Microsoft and Windows fanatics and Apple-haters will rush out en masse and buy Surface and adopt W8 for their home computers. Business will be probably be slower. As Vaughan-Nichols writes, "Everything that everyone on your staff ever knew about how to use Windows is gone."

How many businesses will be willing to have every staff member spend three or four days being instructed in how to use, and come to terms with, Windows 8?

So Microsoft may no longer be a software company but software is still going to rule its fate. If W8 staggers then Ballmer's goal of "firmly establishing one platform, Windows, across the PC, tablet, phone, server and Cloud" is highly unlikely to succeed, at least in the short-term.