I have to agree with Brad here 100%. As another "power user", I just can't see how this is the least bit useful in a professional, let alone multi-monitor environment.
/begin rant
I see HUGE wastes of screen real estate with fullscreen weather widgets even on single, small resolution monitors. But I'm running three 30" monitors as one desktop, so each screen is 2560x1600 (like Brad's). Even if this garbage is restricted to one monitor, 2560x1600 to show the friggin WEATHER?!
I can't believe they are expecting grandma and grandpa users to figure out (let alone REMEMBER!) that swiping this invisible edge causes X to happen, and touching that invisible corner causes Y to happen, etc.
Let alone the fact that ALL of these apparently core UI memes will NOT work with more than one monitor. Do I swipe the leftmost edge of monitor 1 (my primary for games and the leftmost monitor of the three) or monitor 2 (where my taskbar and start menu are located)? And just how big is that invisible corner I am supposed to find without my mouse traveling over to monitor 1?
And how do I any of this if I am running something like Multiplicity Pro?
More obvious questions for professional users:
Can I make the background of the metro widget page transparent, so I can see my desktop behind it?
Can I make that page persistent, so that it's basically a "Tiles"-like uber widget, which I can leave up on monitor 1 if I really feel the need to?
Removing the start icon from the taskbar is ASININE. On a touch tablet/phone, you have the home button to press, always. Where is the matching mouse paradigm for desktop users? And no, hitting the Windows Start button on the keyboard is NOT the same. Windows should always have multiple vectors of utility.
But, on the bright side, since I run just about every Stardock customization there is on my uber-desktop, all I really need working in Windows 8 is ObjectDock (I can replace the start button/menu/taskbar, etc. with that), Deskscapes (because I need my animated backdrops on each monitor), and Multiplicity (because I actually have five monitors on my desk, driven by three computers).
Sure I'd like to turn all my windows to pure glass with Windowblinds, organize my desktop icons with fences, and change all my icons to the gorgeous Marathon (black) set with IconPackager, but I can live without those for a while if I have to.
And while all of Metro makes sense in the touch tablet/phone arena, I think the following is how these Metro widgets should look and work in the desktop environment.
http://fediafedia.deviantart.com/art/Omnimo-4-1-for-Rainmeter-158707137
Maybe they will by the time the final version hits the airwaves. But right now, I'm not seeing it...
/end rant