I've been using Metro on a Samsung Series 7 Slate as my main PC/laptop/tablet for a couple of months now and don't quite see OLPC in there. But then, I've not used XO. FWIW I love Metro. The little UI touches like changing the volume or brightness make Windows 7 feel somehow... inadequate.
As for VS - yup, 2010 was slow. I actually went back to 2008 because even the Express editions were too slow on my little Vaio P-Series.
When you swipe in from the right side of the screen (in both Metro and from the desktop) you get the search, share, start, devices and settings icons. Touch settings, and you get WiFi, volume, brightness, notifications, power and language icons, from which you can make changes without closing the current window/app or having to open a new one.
Doing all of that in Windows 7 meant going to a whole herd of different places to do that sort of stuff.
Metro is just so much easier than moving down to the system tray with a mouse, or having to right-click the desktop, or having to go to the start menu.
> Touch settings, and you get WiFi, volume, brightness, notifications, power and language icons, from which you can make changes without closing the current window/app or having to open a new one.
So the settings charm is like android notification tray on steroids? That's pretty cool! I'd like to see this added to windowsphone too! :)
As for VS - yup, 2010 was slow. I actually went back to 2008 because even the Express editions were too slow on my little Vaio P-Series.