With Windows 7, Bile actually had a fairly cohesive set of security functions that didn't bug the shite out of you, but he still had 65% of the PCs in the world still running XP.
Since he never offered the XP people a decent upgrade deal, they didn't upgrade. Plus, their systems really weren't strong enough to run Win 7 at any decent speed.
Linux runs really good on old systems, it ZIPS on my old white box (a good bit faster than the XP that came on it does).
Windows 8 is supposed to be able to run on a tablet -- we shall see if it does or if it limps along due to gross system BLOAT (another Microsoft innovation).
Microsoft is finally getting in the tablet game -- and back into the phone game (for the 3rd time no less). It has some major competition from Apple and Android, both of which are Unix derivatives that are inherently LAN/internet/multiuser/secure from their get go.
More code and software programs have been written in the last 4 years for Apple IOS and for Android tablets and phones than were ever written for PCs in the past 10 years. And some of it is pretty durn clever stuff, taking advantage of the new ARM chipsets with their decent inherent graphics capabilities.
Now, you give this sort of capability to the folks who are building phone/tablet games and suddenly your phone gets some pretty compelling games for you to play wherever you are.
They are building modern first person shooters now for tablets and phones, and the race/wave rider games are getting pretty extreme now.

There is a lot of growth and change going on -- in the phone space more than in the PC space. Before long you will be able to side load and play a console game on your phone (and there are LOTS of those that folks remember and love).