Sure Microsoft may bring it back but what remains to be seen is how great or dismal job they do of bringing it back.
The last time they said they were bringing the Start button back, they didn't get it right exactly. Nor the revived Up button which now doesn't work to open a new window with Ctrl+Up.The Start screen search in Windows 8.1 for example is in a sorry state - several issues with it 1. it doesn't even find custom Control Panel items, 2. You can't paste directly at the Start screen 3. It's horribly slow now 4. there isn't enough place to display unified results now unless you press Enter in which case you're taken a new screen which shows them with more style, less substance 5. Bing results affect the system quick commanding functionality. So in 8.1, they broke the Start menu search completely. Although the underlying Windows Search platform doesn't seem to be broken as Classic Start Menu performs just fine. Microsoft is always taking one miniscule step ahead but causing a dozen regressions which take the OS several steps backwards.
