Well Windows 8 looks retarded so I won't be getting it anyway. I assume switching it off is some kind of fail-safe, in case some massive idiot manages to break something so badly that he needs to use a browser to fix it but all of the browsers are gone or something. Internet Explorer is a pretty shady program though, so I'm not convinced by that excuse.
Although a problem with the Antitrust law was that Microsoft couldn't bundle it's free and extremely useful Anti-Virus software with their Operating Systems. So loads of idiots either got viruses or paid for some shit like Norton.
The pretentiousness of all of the Linux users when news like this appears is always amusing in it's arrogance. There are reasons people use a popular company-run Operating System over a less popular Open Source one. Microsoft have put a hell of a lot of money into making sure programs that are built shoddily or around a bug that is no longer there, so that they will work properly. Open Source doesn't do that, and because it never had the bugs in the first place even less programs will work. Windows controls as much of your computer as you want it to, switching to an almost unknown system with a smaller user-base essentially just serves the purpose of making them feel like they're special in some way.
Next they'll be saying they should ditch the controlling OS' all together and just go back to typing in the commands themselves.