@_Whitetigress It seems like Win8 is more like iOS/Android for Dummies, and I don’t feel that having portable devices and desktop machines sharing a UI is a good thing. Most desktops and laptops lack a touchscreen while most tablets and many smartphones lack a keyboard. Add in the differences between a touchscreen and a mouse, and I see that there is a need for separate UIs; something that Win8 lacks.
There is a reason that my phone doesn’t run the same UI as Ubuntu and the iPhone/iPod Touch don’t run a pared-down OS X. Several reasons, in fact, the power differences between an ARM A5 and a Core i5/i7 among them.
Also note that the UI for Ubuntu isn’t made by Canonical. GNOME, KDE, and Unity are all developed elsewhere and far from Ubuntu-exclusive, and that doesn’t even count things like Mac4Lin and Win4Lin.
FWIW, I think the best simple UI was the older, pre-Unity versions of Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix. It reminded me vaguely of Mini-Finder from Mac’s System 6.x days.