“With Windows 8 and its radically redesigned Metro interface, Microsoft is offering software developers a new set of challenges and opportunities. Rather than reusing tactics from building for previous versions of desktop Windows, developers are creating applications in the style introduced on Windows Phone, and making them work across the larger screens of multitouch tablets and keyboard-and-mouse-driven PCs. With the Windows 8 Consumer Preview out, many developers have already built preview versions of the apps they plan to offer Windows 8 tablet and PC users. We spoke with the creators of Photobucket’s Windows 8 application to get their take on the Metro development process.”
The article explains the developer benefits and by proxy the user benefits of Windows 8….proof that this is not just a face lift…..and amazingly the discussion from the ars readers is intelligent and even handed.
I see very, veeery emotional responses to the whole Windows 8 matter. Fortunately, when you provide true data, the overly-vocal emotional people have to shut up or change tones, or be revealed to the public for the uninformed & biased bunch they are…
Metro is something that really messes up with people on an emotional level, evidently.
All the negative usability comments are always completely out of place since you are perfectly able to use the classic desktop if you feel it’s more suited for certain operations.
And as you correctly said, it’s not just a matter of face-lift here.
I’m probably the only one in the internet completely happy about the direction of Windows 8 (save for the outdated graphical look of the classic interface), and it pisses me off to see all the doom-calling about it, because it’s a case of a user-base acting against its own interests.
I’ll tell you where I see Metro as inferior for desktop environment. At any given time it is showing you less information. Desktop – you see the clock, network status,volume etc. at a glance. Look at IE since it exists in both Metro and Desktop mode. In Desktop you see your URL and tabs at all times you just mouse over and click the tab you want. in Metro you first have to get the tabs on screen. Everything has to be bigger in Metro so your fingers can touch it. Again, this causes less info to be on the screen. This lack of information on screen is the basis for why Metro is only good for small screen which may even be the majority of screens out there (if not now then in the near future) but it still means it is a worse interface for a desktop user with a 22+” screen.
BTW, I installed Win 8 Consumer Preview on a PC (not a virtual box) just after it was released. so I talk from my own experience.
Edited 2012-03-15 13:43 UTC
Agreed. The Mail app is painful to use, except for quick glances at the inbox.
But as we both know, we’re not in the majority of users. Desktops are already a minority — and large screens are an even smaller minority.
The iPad ships in one screen size. The Kindle Fire ships in one screen size. Even the e-ink Kindle essentially ships in one screen size (the 9.7″ Kindle has been abandoned since generation 2).
Windows 8 Metro is optimized for 10-12 inch screens. Might scale up to 15″ or so, but stick with desktop apps for anything much larger.
The idea behind Metro is that you should focus on one task. Why would you want to see the clock or volume or network status when you are typing a letter? It is quite common to play a game or watch a movie in full screen. Metro does this for all tasks
But if you don’t like it, there is still the classic desktop where you can run all your current apps. Although you will see Metro-styled apps with a focus on 1 task appear there as well.
I do agree that Microsoft needs to address large screens (or multiple screens) better. I hope they will show something in this area in a beta/release-candidate a few months from now
They either have something ready for Desktops now or you will have to wait for Windows 9.
I think they can do a lot more in the department of modality sensing. The metro style Start screen is good no matter what the function, but they should allow metro apps to be windowed on a desktop and push developers to only develop winRT so their apps will function in both a desktop centric/w windowed Metro apps and Tablet centric/Phone centric UI.
Why not? I glance at the clock every now and then without even thinking about it – and I do miss it when it’s gone.
I talk from experience as well…I use it on my personal laptop and find it very easy to use.
For the information availability argument….for the computer buying public as a whole, that is a good thing. regular users like simplicity.
From a productivity stand point, it is a good thing as well….people are more productive with fewer distractions.
I think the public would be happy to know the time!
You talk from your experience, but is that experience comparable to the one you have on the classic desktop? Very far from it. And in fact you don’t talk about the various key and mouse bindings of the Metro interface.
Plus, are you aware that you’re putting a 1 vs 1 comparison for two GUIs that are not competing?
And look at the votes to the comment! Your comment having 7 votes and mine having -1 is a clear signal that I was right in the assessment: it’s all a fanboy mechanism in place. Fanboys who see their product threatened. And don’t see that their reaction is the only thing threatening it for real… Oh well, let’s see in a few years what the same people will say.
And speaking of years: we all have years of experience with the classic desktop, 0 experience with the Metro UI. How could we compare the systems (and most of all their “functionality”, which here translated very much into “being mechanically accustomed”) without bias, unless, well… Trying to take this fact in consideration, something which nobody does?
To nobody in particular.
What if your single task is to write a letter to the Central Bureaucracy? You have crunched the numbers in a spreadsheet and you need to reference those numbers to construct your arguments. Hermes Conrad is helping you out through IM and he is talking about emails he send you. You also want to have your Legalese for Dummies ebook at hand.
What are you going to do? Temporarily copy paste your six page spreadsheet and three emails from Hermes into the letter you are writing? Wouldn’t it be nice to turn your IM client into an always-on-top window in the corner of your screen, have the ebook open in a virtual screen where you can take a quick peek as needed, and have your letter on one side of the screen and your reference materials on the other.
Sure, your grandmother couldn’t handle all that, but she’s not the one drafting letters for the Central Bureaucracy. You are. Real tasks are always like this. Even goofing off has you playing Minesweeper while a funny cat video loads in your browser.
If the unwashed masses are such a huge morons that they can’t ever be expected to learn to use a windowing system, how come they can nowadays use Angry Birds, Farmville and Facebook?
Agreed