When tech punditry got its first look at the Surface tablets back in June 2012, most tech observers believed calling the new tablet "Surface with Windows RT" was a bad idea. Not only did it sound terrible, but it all but guaranteed to confuse consumers used to dealing with just one flavor of Windows.
Microsoft mercifully started calling the tablet Surface RT, as did everyone else. Even so, Surface RT was still stuck with a fundamental problem. It offered a version of Windows 8 that looked like Windows 8, but wasn't. Unlike its x86-based cousin, Windows RT shipped with a handicapped desktop that could only run Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office and do little else.
Microsoft is finally making moves to rectify what it should have done in the first place: Remove or at least downplay the existence of the desktop on Windows RT.
We saw the first step of that approach when Microsoft recently introduced the RT-based Surface 2 without the RT moniker. But it appears Microsoft is going even further than that. The original Surface RT, which is still being sold, is now simply called Surface.
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