I don't know if they could be more pretentious even if they tried:
"Mercury rejects the Desktop Metaphor and App Ecosystems as fundamentally inhumane. "
2 pages later...
"Every Module can be defined and redefined using its Locus (the action bar). Locus combines the power of a Command-Line Interface with the convenience Natural Language Processing and the discoverability of GUI."
So they reject the inhumaneness of the Desktop metaphor, but replace it with another (Locus - what even does that mean?). At least I know what an action bar is.
Then, it touts itself as a complete replacement of the old paradigms, focused on touch interactivity, but:
"You can tap the Command key to toggle the display of available actions if you are unsure of where to start."
The command key? Is this built for Apple devices only? And if it's touch centric, why do I have a key?
They’re just designing another tablet UI and renaming everything.
Instead of applications, virtual desktops, and launchers we have “flows, modules, and spaces”
It’d be cool to see more natural language support in OS interfaces though!