As a user of both windows phone and windows on the desktop; I'd be much happier if the desktop start screen experience were more like the phone one.<p>Phone: Here is a surface, arrange and size your tiles as you like, anywhere in available space.<p>Desktop: Here are groups, size your tiles and we'll auto arrange them in sequence in the group they are placed in.<p>You can be a touch more creative with the windows phone variant; and the experience is more intuitive when you're shuffling your tiles around.<p>Then again, the windows phone start screen does not react to screen orientation changes, meaning the surface you place your tiles on will never change size or orientation. I can see how the concept of groups answer the "how do we arrange to fill screen when orientation changes without bothering the user too much" question quite neatly; but I hope another few meetings around the drawing board on this issue can produce a more personal experience (rather than the current compromise).<p>I'd be happy to enable an option to have more customization options, even if it meant laying my tiles out twice (once for portrait, once for landscape).<p>I hope they don't do away with the start screen completely; I've gotten used to it and rather like it. Operating a surface taught me it's value.