Having used Windows 8 for the past day or so, I'm definitely warming up to the Start menu being replaced by the Start Metro screen. It feels very similar to Ubuntu's Unity launcher. That said, for the times that I know I'm only going to be quickly launching an app by typing the first few letters of its name, I wish they had an optional "mini" panel for it, possibly with its own keybind. Dock it onto the left side of the screen, or make it a front-and-center popup like Alfred/Gnome-Do/Quicksilver/Launchy.