According to research company Gartner, the Windows Desktop and legacy Windows software will become less important in future releases of Windows. While Microsoft doesn't force developers to start developing for the new technology introduced in Windows 8 such as the Metro interface, Gartners expect that they will. Gartner also expects that until 2015 most business users will continue to use their desktop and desktop browser running applications as they currently do, but by 2020 the Metro interface should have become their first choice.
While Windows 8 is still part of the Windows family, Gartner feels that going from Windows XP/Vista/7 to Windows 8 (RT) with the Metro GUI can be compared to moving from DOS technology to Windows NT. They think it's a technology shift, where the technology shift from DOS to Windows NT took almost 8 years and the technology shift from current Windows versions to Windows 8 might require an equal amount of time.
