Cerian Knight

My bad... I was actually referring to the three options of #6 (Add a Start Menu).

In any case, the point is that waving options (the ones that actually works) in front of MS before release will potentially result in a better shipping product... or at the very least there are simply more 3rd party options to choose from.

dilettante

Far easier and more productive to just stay with Vista or Windows 7 until they come to their senses (Windows 9?).

Qua

I'm not sure why you are making such a big fuss about the move from Windows 7 to Windows 8. There has been no changes to the desktop whatsoever. So any productivity you had on Win7 will equally be there on Windows 8.

The choice is rather simple. If you have a touch device it makes sense to get Windows 8. If you want to do Metro development it makes sense. Finally if you want to use Metro apps it makes sense. If you're interested in none of these, then there are no one forcing you to upgrade.

PlausiblyDamp

I must admit to being really anti-Windows 8 after seeing the Metro UI demonstrated and held off installing any of the beta version for a long time, I am sure I have posts on here somewhere that will testify this.

Last week I finally installed it just to see what it was like and in all honesty Metro was nowhere near as bad as I feared. The initial metro screen has a few useful shortcuts Chrome, VS and desktop given priority and a bunch of others I occasionally use - logging in and clicking one of these is no harder than clicking on an icon on the start menu / taskbar.

If I want the full windows environment then the desktop is almost identical (the lack of a start menu is a shock but I virtually never used it for anything other than the search box anyway).

After using it for a week I find it works fine, has no performance issues and I no longer really notice the Metro start bit other than to glance at the email / calendar reminders before opening the desktop or launching an application from there.

Cerian Knight

Apparently the title of this thread is wrong... it may not be called Metro:
http://www.zdnet.com/is-metro-now-a-...ft-7000002052/

dilettante

Yeah, mixed bag of news on that front.

And here I was hoping "Ding dong, the Witch is Dead" but it looks more like a Curley Shuffle on the nomenclature instead.

AtmaWeapon

Yeah I don't know what's up with Microsoft. It confuses me too.

dilettante

Weird. First rumor is some trademark, etc. infringement. Then that is contradicted. Then something about some sort of conflict in an EU country.

"Press" meandering, comparisons with the ".Net fiasco" where everything was being branded as ".Net" whether or not it was even related, etc.

Maybe they've outsourced their marketing now as well as their programming?

AtmaWeapon

Well, to their credit, the rename isn't an official announcement so much as a memo to employees to stop using "Metro" and stay tuned for the new name.

Cerian Knight

Well, it seems now we should just call it "Windows 8"... and by the way, there is no option to 'Boot to Desktop', in order to bypass the front screen. I'm tired of posting links for this. Hopefully, that's a wrap on official press, as the relevant milestones have been crossed.

dilettante

Well you can't just call it Windows 8 because "Metro" has never meant "Windows 8."

There is a distinction between the desktop (see MSDN articles which state "Applies to Desktop Applications" in so many places now) and the blocky, big-font, monotone, sandboxed, WinRT-based opaque Gadget panel that covers up the desktop in Windows 8. Right now MSDN still calls these "Metro Applications" but that could change any time now I suppose.

The distinction isn't a trivial one, and you ignore it at your peril even more than latecomers who awake to UAC troubles in the post-XP era.

dilettante

I suppose there is another way to look at it too, since Microsoft Marketing wants everyone caught up in their tangled underoos:

Millions of applications can now be labeled as "doesn't work on Windows 8" when of course they'll actually run fine there - if users can ever find them after installing them.

"Ignore that man behind the curtain" booms the Great and Powerful 8, with a ball of smoke and flame and the rumble of thunder.

Hmm, will they have to drop the Emerald Curtain as well due to infringement?

Rockoon

I've heard this complaint quite a bit..

On the one hand, does anyone here still boot to a command prompt? The point is that things do change over time. We adapted and made it work to our advantage, right?

On the other hand, its clearly a play by Microsoft to influence the adoption of metro applications, and of course their app store in the process.

AtmaWeapon

I learned today that there are three terms Microsoft is urging people to use instead of "Metro". I don't have a source because it was an email, but I'm sure it'll make the rounds soon.

They prefer "Windows UI", but allow "Windows Experience". There was also talk about using "Windows Store Apps", but that came with several paragraphs explaining to be careful to only use "Windows apps" if you mean "both desktop and Windows UI apps" and from there it just got crazier.

So yeah. "Windows UI" or "Windows Experience". I kind of liked Metro.

dilettante

Funny!

"Experience" was what the XP in Windows XP and Office XP were supposed to mean.

It clearly is not the "Windows UI" since it is made up of the WinRT layer on top of Windows (Win32).

Maybe they should shoot for "Windows NUI" (new user interface) - though "new" wears out darned fast.

But it would be nice to have a "handle with a good grip" and "Metro" seemed to work great for that. A two-syllable word would be their best bet even if they have to get silly.

Cerian Knight

Paul Allen actually using Windows 8 is a good thing:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Pau...oft,18096.html

I strongly recommend that OSes should actually be tried by people (in high positions) willing to provide constructive critique before release.

AtmaWeapon

I don't really agree. People in high positions tend to be (like us) power users very susceptible to "You moved my cheese!". I think the most powerful demonstration of whether Windows 8 sinks or swims would be to make commercials with plain old people doing things that couldn't be done on Windows 7. Think like this:

• Elderly person describes how they use their Surface tablet to Skype with their grandkids. Bonus points if they can describe some Windows UI apps that have good large font support so they can do things they couldn't do on Win7 due to eyesight.
• 4-year-old describes how they like to play with their tablet and shows off some of their digital artwork. "I can't do this on my friend's laptop. You can't touch the screen!"
• Business executive shown slinging spreadsheets across 3 monitors, then grabs his tablet from the dock and runs to the subway. While watching a Netflix film, he uses a snapped window to make a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant, where he proposes to his fiancee. Windows 8, where you can do both your work and your play on *one machine*.

What most computing platforms don't do that Apple /does/ do is show off how their device makes the things you do easier. Android boasts about their big screens and bigger CPUs. Apple shows people ordering movie tickets and takeout Chinese. Microsoft has comedians crack about churros. Which one sounds like something worth buying?

dilettante

This guy makes the same point re. advertising:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK_M5gRMP1I