A description I won't be able to forget in months

[Rufus]

"Calling the above “ugly” isn’t fair. It’s not ugly. It’s what happens when Ugly and Stupid get drunk and make a baby inside Fukushima’s minimum safety perimeter."

From http://www.extremetech.com/computing/120497-windows-8-wont-kill-the-desktop-but-dont-worry-were-still-screwed

[AntiProtonBoy]

From the article:

Windows 8 jettisons this in favor of a totally flat menu with unintuitive color coding and a mystical mess of functions. The only good news is that Desktop mode is more-or-less identical to Windows 7 (with UI improvements) outside this new Start Screen.

So Windows 8 has start panel which can be turned off... is that all what the complaint is about? Meh.

[McMonster]

I've just played with Win8 yesterday, the changes are much greater than that and I must say they really need to try harder to make it usable. I must say I don't like this new trend to "tabletize", "cloudize" and "mobilize" everything, not the way it looks now with sudden desktop and usability changes in major software environments, they're too fast and too pointless so far. The evolution of classic desktop environments (say until WinXP) was slower but much more natural.

[george graves]

OP -  don't be a drama queen.

[Ajahn Lambda]

IIRC, it's called "Metro," and that brings the word "metro-sexual" to mind instantly. 


Everything about the interface reeks of a flamboyant, pretty man, wearing a silk scarf and prancing about in loafers.


So, right on target, Microsoft!

[McMonster]

I study computer science, about a week before any preview versions appeared one of my lecturers said he expects Windows to die in favour of Android in about 5 years. Now I'm really curious if he's right.

Though I'm sure Win8 gets better with final release. I cursed Win7 when I first tested beta, now I'm living with it as the main OS, had to drop Linux on desktop completely because it's useless on my new laptop and I hated GNOME 3. Now even GNOME 3 is starting to get usable.

[sacherjj]

I study computer science, about a week before any preview versions appeared one of my lecturers said he expects Windows to die in favour of Android in about 5 years. Now I'm really curious if he's right.

Lord, I hope not. It is a complete nightmare to develop for.  Targeted Blackberry for the first half of its life, then switched mid stream to target the iPhone, so it isn't sure what it should be.  And it is very hard to make a UI on it that doesn't look like road kill.

[Bored@Work]

For some month I have a Windows 8 preview running in a VM. And Metro is horrible on the desktop. In my opinion it requires a lobotomy to get the right state of mind to use it. You can try for yourself

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

[IanB]

For some month I have a Windows 8 preview running in a VM. And Metro is horrible on the desktop. In my opinion it requires a lobotomy to get the right state of mind to use it.

Yeah, Metro sucks big time on the desktop. But some commentators are saying Microsoft expects to get into the iPad-like tablet market and that eventually there will be 10x more tablet and phone users than desktop users.  On phones and tablets Metro is a good fit and meets usability requirements. So Microsoft is optimizing for the larger user base and desktop users will in future take a back seat. The Windows desktop will become the techy, geeky hidden interface for nerds, just like the command line is today.

[Rufus]

The Windows desktop will become the techy, geeky hidden interface for nerds, just like the command line is today.

Someone who doesn't exclusively use their computer for social networking, youtube, itunes, and playing angry birds is the future definition of nerd?

Metro is crap on the desktop, hardly surprising something designed for a phone with touch screen doesn't work well on a 30" LCD and mouse. Hopefully it won't be forced on everyone in a final release and Metro will be just another example of Windows garbage which you never use but can't get rid of.

The Windows 7 start menu is shit enough to need replacing never mind Metro, thank god for http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/ which already has some Windows 8 support.

[Bored@Work]

Yeah, Metro sucks big time on the desktop. But some commentators are saying Microsoft expects to get into the iPad-like tablet market

Of course they all sniff the sent of money is in the air. Ubuntu is going the same route with the universally hated Unity desktop.

and that eventually there will be 10x more tablet and phone users than desktop users.

I think this is were they draw the wrong conclusion. Sure, people buy mobile gadgets like hell, but that doesn't mean the desktop will go away. There is such a massive user base, especially in the corporate environment. Tablets and phones will be an addition in that environment.

The latest figures I have seen is that desktop and laptop sales (or was it volume?) is down by 15%. That is significant, but dead is something else.

The Windows desktop will become the techy, geeky hidden interface for nerds, just like the command line is today.

I would not classify Word and PowerPoint users as geeks. And Office is a huge source of income for Microsoft. They are endangering that income when they piss off desktop users.

[IanB]

The Windows desktop will become the techy, geeky hidden interface for nerds, just like the command line is today.

I would not classify Word and PowerPoint users as geeks. And Office is a huge source of income for Microsoft. They are endangering that income when they piss off desktop users.

I tend to agree with you. And in fact Office will still run under the desktop interface in Windows 8, it will not be converted to Metro.

I'm just observing where Microsoft may be headed with all this. Very often decisions are driven by thoughts like "How can we find new markets to expand into and continue to grow?" rather than "How can we make things better for our customers?"

That's the peril of the stock market. Sometimes the customers get trampled underfoot in the stampede for new markets. And that's also how big companies eventually die. New companies come along and steal the market from the old players by giving customers an alternative that more directly satisfies their needs.

[Simon]

I hate to think what windows 8 will be. I mean seriously we are just getting into windows 7, what does windows 8 actually do ? I'm quite happy with the user interface as it is, although in vista/7 they did a great job of macking settings hard to find, i guess with 8 we will just have to give up. There is no need to keep changing thing unnecesarily, this "new" interface remind me of my recent experience with ubuntu where when using one desktop theme i actually had to run a search for the shutdown "app" like it was a lost data file  and finding programs meant looking for them too.

[Sal Ammoniac]

It's easy to understand Microsoft's move to Metro in Windows 8 in an historical context. This move to a new UI isn't anything new. Anyone who has been around a while probably experienced a sense of deja vu when Microsoft announced that Metro will be the new default UI in Windows 8.

Remember back in the mid-90s when Microsoft ignored the Internet until it started getting ubiquitous and then panicked and tried to make everything look and work like a browser?

Fast forward 15 years and Microsoft is way behind iOS and Android in the smartphone market, hence they panic again and overreact and try to make everything look like a smartphone, whether it makes any sense or not.

[Simon]

so my dual monitor setup with 2.5 million pixel available in screen real estate is going to be reduced to looking like some poxy smartphone with a pew thousand pixels ? screw that, when will microsoft grow up. They just got around to making the user interface about right with 7 now they will ruin it again

[IanB]

so my dual monitor setup with 2.5 million pixel available in screen real estate is going to be reduced to looking like some poxy smartphone with a pew thousand pixels ? screw that, when will microsoft grow up. They just got around to making the user interface about right with 7 now they will ruin it again

'fraid your dual monitor setup is gonna be obsolete, mate. This is where the future is going:

80V??BIG PAD???

"BIG PIG" -- now that is language I can understand... 

[Simon]

oh I wish, for the moment I have to be content with glueing monitors together 

[Bored@Work]

so my dual monitor setup with 2.5 million pixel available in screen real estate is going to be reduced to looking like some poxy smartphone with a pew thousand pixels ?

You got the idea. Although, there is a register setting to start an old fashioned desktop.

But, the issue is no just with the Metro desktop, but with Metro applications. Have fun running them all in full screen mode, even on the old desktop, because that is how Mero applications run. That is a step back to the days of Windows 3.1, when CPU power, memory and screen estate didn't really allow to use more than one application at the same time.

[Simon]

so my dual monitor setup with 2.5 million pixel available in screen real estate is going to be reduced to looking like some poxy smartphone with a pew thousand pixels ?

You got the idea. Although, there is a register setting to start an old fashioned desktop.

But, the issue is no just with the Metro desktop, but with Metro applications. Have fun running them all in full screen mode, even on the old desktop, because that is how Mero applications run. That is a step back to the days of Windows 3.1, when CPU power, memory and screen estate didn't really allow to use more than one application at the same time.

Looks like microsoft are making their usual progress - backwards. Oh well I'm almost pleased that my windows 7 key has been blocked and I will need to [not] reactivate windows in 6 days because i will be putting linux mint on instead. When all of my programs are freewares I might as well get the freeware OS too and i'm not even tempted to go back to the old Vista disk I bought and paid for !

[siliconmix]

well that came out of his pocket smoothly.he should have a word with his tailor

[T4P]

so my dual monitor setup with 2.5 million pixel available in screen real estate is going to be reduced to looking like some poxy smartphone with a pew thousand pixels ? screw that, when will microsoft grow up. They just got around to making the user interface about right with 7 now they will ruin it again

Umm , well , smartphones ... My android (Optimus Black P970) has 384k pixels , go figure .
My farewell'd (actually , my parents took it now even though they use a Optimus 3D and a HTC Magic plus a HTC Sensation) LG Optimus Swift GT-540 had 176.2k pixels ... Not bad , not like YOUR few thousand pixels count .