Microsoft showed off early prototypes of the new operating system at the All Things D conference yesterday. It has a much more tiled look, like a Windows phone, and follows in the continuous path of de-emphasizing the Start button. The actual launch is still many months away so there’s no point speculating on features but it is designed for touch screen interfaces. That’s great for tablets but a bit obtuse for desktop machines that don’t have touch screens. I mean, it’ll still look fine and work with a mouse or a touch pad but it really makes you think that someone may have finally shaken Microsoft awake and told them about tablets being kind of a big deal. OR it’s Microsoft’s wager on a touch screen laptop/desktop future.