Touching is Believing ... On a Small Scale

Following the iPhone and its success, Microsoft has decided to bring the touchscreen goodness of a coffee table to its next version of Windows. See here. But is this really a good idea?

The idea of a desktop touchscreen is a tricky concept. Once a developer figures out that fingers are not mice, and that user interfaces should not be designed by the developer, they have to realize that the size of a finger pretty much breaks backwards compatibility with menus. Microsoft has built an empire based on vendor lock-ins and corporate we-absolutely-have-to-use-this-piece-of-legacy-software-that-only-works-on-windows-ness, and if they brand Windows Seven as the we're-so-cool-we-don't-need-a-mouse OS, they may become dead in the water.