It's true for Windows RT indeed, but the article was explicitly referring to Windows 8. And AFAICT myself WinRT has always been presented as a new API designed

It's true for Windows RT indeed, but the article was explicitly referring to Windows 8. And AFAICT myself WinRT has always been presented as a new API designed for new kind of Windows applications (i.e. Windows Store apps). It doesn't make the other APIs obsolete in any way for the other kinds of application, just like the CLR didn't force anyone to write managed code. See this chart from Build 2011 for example : http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uUSc-JjjBDs/TnWkasRU74I/AAAAAAAAAVM/LEw5eIIA4Mw/s1600/win8-new-platform.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uUSc-JjjBDs/TnWkasRU74I/AAAAAAAAAV...