Am I the only one who thinks Microsoft is nuts with the whole Metro UI on a PC thing?
I mean it may be a good UI for tablets, but I did not buy two 24" widescreen monitors to run IE in fullscreen. When I use my PC I don't care about active tiles or what's the desktop at all. I have apps to run and work to do.
And I am not about to replace my mouse & keyboard with touchscreen on the desktop anytime soon (if ever).
Simply put tablets and PCs are not the same thing and are not used in for the same purpose. They need different GUIs.
They just replaced the pretty but useless wallpaper on the desktop by a full-screen version of the start menu. Start typing 'wo' and you get the link to Microsoft Word (and WoW, and your 'wonderful.jpg' file, etc), just like in the old start menu.
The main 'revolution' in this Metro UI is that it's a tiling window manager, one that was made user-friendly with gestures to manage tiles. It leaves the WIMP desktop metaphor to an easily accessible legacy mode (and MacOS). Tiling WM are not especially keyboard-unfriendly, nor reserved to small screens.
Personally, I think Microsoft is moving in the right direction.
This is what is called 'Over playing the game'. The user has a problem X, you observe your competitor is providing a solution Y to solve the problem.
Now instead of moving towards Y or inventing a better Y. What you basically do is over do Y and project it as a solution to every problem the user ever has.
The Tablet and phone need a UI that can be easily used with a 'finger touch'. The Desktop needs a UI that can be easily used with a mouse for bulk work. These are two different use cases for different devices.
Just because iOS is cool, Apple didn't start using the same for Desktops and laptops. On the same line Google has a separate OS for OS for net books(ChomeOS) and separate for mobile devices(Android).
Also the market is heading in a different direction when it comes to mobile devices. Its not about selling an OS! Its about giving away OS for free or a nominal charge to sell awesome hardware or ads on your search servers.
UI solves only one part of that problem. And apps? What about apps?
Microsoft simply can't throw out their native program base. When .NET was released, they promoted the idea that it was going to be the Windows API in the long run. But most commercial applications (including Microsoft's) are still written for the native API. While .NET was a success for custom applications.
I expect pretty much the same from Metro. It will be adopted for certain uses: small and touch devices. For the rest I doubt it'll get in the way.
I believe Microsoft is trying to atrract developers to the new interface, but "native Windows" is there to stay.
Besides the whole touch silliness, the Metro UI looks basic & childish... it looks like a PlaySkool or Fisher Price product. The "tiles" looks very simple and boring looking. It looks like a extremely low-level freeware package.
I can't believe they are doing something this bad. From a person who has never used, touched, or even seen (except on TV and online) a Mac... if this is the way Windows is going, I'm ready to switch right now to an extremely overpriced Apple machine.
Windows 8 has the metro UI, as well as a win7 like UI to use with mice, and keyboard.
Don't like the Metro UI, just run the regular windows-looking desktop
I'm afraid that's really not an option if you want to target all Windows 8 devices, as (I believe) many new Windows 8 devices would be Metro UI only. The Microsoft folks already use the word "legacy" with the desktop UI.
In other words, Microsoft means to say "please use Metro, but if you have legacy code don't be angry with us, 'cuz you have the desktop UI option... but not on all devices"
So the legacy mode will be available on both intel, and arm devices, which I believe will make up all windows 8 devices.
'Legacy' desktop applications would probably need to be recompiled to run on arm devices.
You are definitely not. I use Windows 7 primarily and I'd never even dream of replacing it with Windows 8 in its current state as a horribly thought-out mishmash of design principles.
So let me start this one off by saying "developers! developers! developers!"
This isn't Windows 8 RTM, this is Windows (7-to-become-8) Developer Preview where they show off where they are heading, give you a chance to get a feel for it, get a feel for the design-language Microsoft is putting out here and allow you to adapt your applications to this new format.
Because this is really such a new format, you need to play with it to get it.
So yes, this is very incomplete. In it's current state it is not intended as a production OS to replace Windows 7 either. It's a developer preview. It's supposed to bring developers up to speed on the Windows 8 platform and how you build for it.
Lots of people are treating this as a beta, almost like an RTM, and I honestly think people doing that is missing the point entirely.
I mean it may be a good UI for tablets, but I did not buy two 24" widescreen monitors to run IE in fullscreen. When I use my PC I don't care about active tiles or what's the desktop at all. I have apps to run and work to do.
And I am not about to replace my mouse & keyboard with touchscreen on the desktop anytime soon (if ever).
Simply put tablets and PCs are not the same thing and are not used in for the same purpose. They need different GUIs.