Interesting.
When you use VS11 Beta to create a new Metro app on a Windows 8 Consumer Preview machine, you get a prompt that requires you to ?obtain a developer license? to create this type of application on this OS.?
After logging in with my live ID, I get this confirmation dialog which asserts I am now able to create a Metro app on Win8.
This wasn?t a big deal, but I do think it?s interesting that there is a record in a DB somewhere that maps my Live ID to the fact that I am creating a particular type of app for Windows. Maybe I am now registered to win an iPad 
.
I wouldn’t call this “interesting” so much as “foreboding”. Call me a pessimist but it looks like they’re going down the same path they did with Windows Phone 7… ie: you can use their tools all you like but if you want to distribute anything you’ll need to pay an annual fee.
No idea, but I agree that this doesn’t feel awesome.