Windows 8 is going to feature the Metro UI, the same one that they use in xbox and windows phone. I would hate that , i love the traditional windows GUI with the taskbar and desktop. Of course, Windows 8 will still have that, but the main and initial UI is Windows Metro. Plus it is adding support for the ARM archetecture, witch i am all for, but i personally dont want to see the demise of the traditional x86 platform. Does Anyone think the same? I am personally afraid that desktops will eventually be replaced with tablets and netbooks, which would be awful. it would be the end of the buildable, expandable, wonerful, desktop... I want to hear your ideas on this subject
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("missed the windows 8 megathread" - postal))[/highlight]
x86 isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And Metro is just in the start menu, you don't need to spend more than a few seconds there, and I can confirm that you'll spend 99% of your time on the original UI, or as much time as you use on clicking the start button and selecting whatever you're looking for today. Personally, I don't find it stupid at all - you're making the objective improvements a minority. Boot time, general responsiveness, reset, refresh, etc. Everybody is making a much bigger deal out of the new start than they need. At least in my honest opinion.
And did this require a new thread? The Windows 8 megathread is full of these kind of posts - often longer.
Desktops for certain users (ie those who do nothing more than browse the web and check email) will be probably/eventually replaced by tablets somewhere in the future, but not other people who use workstatations or similar. Microsoft would probably be the last company to drop x86, and that won't happen any time soon.
As for the start screen, it may look different and everything, but usage wise, it's just a large start menu. You use it the same way you use the start menu now. Hit the winkey (or click in the bottom left corner) and click the icon of the program you want to open, alternatively just type into to search.
There are some things to get used to in the start screen though, such as searching separates Settings (Control Panels), Files, and Programs into three different sections (primary reason being to show more of a certain type on the screen at once). Shutting down/restarting isn't as upfront as it should be (maybe it'll be brought forward in the RC/RTM).
Not to mention tiles and icons are essentially the same thing, unless you use Metro apps (which is completely optional. Even then they're hardly different, just styled differently and can give live info), they're just larger.
Get used to it. windows 8 is just a transition as it gives both metro apps and the classic desktop ui programs.
When windows 9 comes (or maybe they call it Windows Metro) they will have expected every developer to have made a metro version of their software. And the desktop will be completely gone.
Actually windows 7 and windows 8 aren't that different. Windows 8 is all about that clean look and immersion. There are no ugly bars and buttons, everything is fullscreen. The buttons and bars are still there ofcourse, you only have to move your mouse to the edge and they will pop up.
And the Metro 'start' screen is just the same as your desktop, only your icons have been replaced with square buttons.
[QUOTE=Sergesosio;36058085]When windows 9 comes (or maybe they call it Windows Metro) they will have expected every developer to have made a metro version of their software. And the desktop will be completely gone.
[/QUOTE]
No it won't.
[QUOTE=Panda X;36058249]No it won't.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, that is a HUGE assumption.
The desktop will never disappear. As long as there's a demand for it. And I will be one of the people demanding it.
I doubt we'll see ever the desktop going, the desktop is a big thing in OS's, even mobile phones have a sort of desktop (iPhones homescreen, androids homescreen, WP7 start), removing the desktop is like removing a great portion of the OS and would cause a lot of controversy.
[QUOTE=fruxodaily;36060186]I doubt we'll see ever the desktop going, the desktop is a big thing in OS's, even mobile phones have a sort of desktop (iPhones homescreen, androids homescreen, WP7 start), removing the desktop is like removing a great portion of the OS and would cause a lot of controversy.[/QUOTE]
If you think that Android, WP7 and iOS have desktops, your argument doesn't hold up, as the metro start menu fullfills exactly the same purpose. The real innovation behind the desktop was that it wasn't necessarily just a bunch of icons, but also "windows" and so on - you could have more than one program open in the same workspace.
[QUOTE=Sergesosio;36058085]Get used to it. windows 8 is just a transition as it gives both metro apps and the classic desktop ui programs.
When windows 9 comes (or maybe they call it Windows Metro) they will have expected every developer to have made a metro version of their software. And the desktop will be completely gone.
Actually windows 7 and windows 8 aren't that different. Windows 8 is all about that clean look and immersion. There are no ugly bars and buttons, everything is fullscreen. The buttons and bars are still there ofcourse, you only have to move your mouse to the edge and they will pop up.
And the Metro 'start' screen is just the same as your desktop, only your icons have been replaced with square buttons.[/QUOTE]
Spoilers:
You need a desktop environment to make anything else (devices to the programs running on the device). A touch environment where the main goal of the OS is to answer to iOS and the iPad is not a development platform that everyone and their mom will instantly jump on in under 2 years.
[QUOTE=jordguitar;36064359]Spoilers:
You need a desktop environment to make anything else (devices to the programs running on the device). A touch environment where the main goal of the OS is to answer to iOS and the iPad is not a development platform that everyone and their mom will instantly jump on in under 2 years.[/QUOTE]
Not exactly. You need an environment that is easy to navigate. But even with a broken environment you can have a development platofrm.
Just take early commandline UI's
What the desktop did, was make the early UI's more accessible.
Just take a look at filesystems.
You have the same filesystem in all 3 aproaches (metro, desktop commandline)
The difference is how it can be accessed. In the commandline there's very little feedback and it's fairly tough to navigate. The visual desktop environment suddenly brings in a visual feedback. A nicer way of navigating. The metro environment then obscures the base filesystem and instead tends to deal with filetypes and metadata.
You could already see this movement happening with audioplayers. How many people do you know, that navigate their music collection by folder structure, or even file names. The sheer majority do it via the metadata and most audioplayers are geared towards that nowadays.
Who is forcing us to switch to Windows 8?
Oh, nobody? Then keep using Windows 7.
[QUOTE=DonnieLewis;36056039]Windows 8 is going to feature the Metro UI, the same one that they use in xbox and windows phone. I would hate that , i love the traditional windows GUI with the taskbar and desktop. Of course, Windows 8 will still have that, but the main and initial UI is Windows Metro. Plus it is adding support for the ARM archetecture, witch i am all for, but i personally dont want to see the demise of the traditional x86 platform. Does Anyone think the same? I am personally afraid that desktops will eventually be replaced with tablets and netbooks, which would be awful. it would be the end of the buildable, expandable, wonerful, desktop... I want to hear your ideas on this subject[/QUOTE]
This part of your post, I really don't like. Why do you even care? x86 is a shit architecture and if you could have the same processing power with an ARM chip at the same cost there's no reason at all to use x86 except compatibility with previous software, which would be a moot point if everyone had ARM computers.
Computer architectures aren't a matter of nostalgia, this shit actually matters a lot.
I might just be completely dumb and uninformed, but isn't x86 pretty good for what it is? It's not, to my knowledge, incredibly complex (like Itanium) and it's still pretty powerful (a place where ARM doesn't excel). I might just be way off, but it seems okay.
[QUOTE=gparent;36065688]This part of your post, I really don't like. Why do you even care? x86 is a shit architecture and if you could have the same processing power with an ARM chip at the same cost there's no reason at all to use x86 except compatibility with previous software, which would be a moot point if everyone had ARM computers.
Computer architectures aren't a matter of nostalgia, this shit actually matters a lot.[/QUOTE]
You'll notice that people that get angry or worried about these features are 99% of the time not developers, and have never worked with the technology in question. For example, people who hate Metro apps have most likely never programmed a Metro app or programmed anything at all.
On the topic of Metro apps, it seems that most people are failing to understand what the purpose of them are in the first place. Metro apps are intended to provide a way for developers to create basic visually appealing applications that have a small feature set, and a small amount of relative data. Microsoft is trying to give developers a way to create their simple "iPad/iOS-esque" applications. It's not meant to replace desktop apps, and MS is not dumb enough to think that it would.
Additionally, as I've explained before, MS needed a way to expand their OS to tablets, and netbooks. Rather than create a mess of three operating systems like Apple decided to do, Microsoft simply wanted a way to create an OS that translates to tablets, and everything else. This is a good thing: MS can now one large team working on improving everything rather than have 3 operating systems. That way, everyone can be on the same page without having to worry about problems like "will I get the new Android update? will the iOS device I just bought get the next update? will this app work on my device?". Anyone with an iOS device or Android device will happily inform you of how they worry if they will be getting the newest OS version.
You see, by pushing the same OS across all devices, MS is also ensuring a base hardware requirement as well. We all know that MS did a pretty good job keeping the requirements for Win8 really low, right? I'm willing to bet that Win9 will have the same requirements as Win8. I'm also willing to bet that updates will be taking a new direction in Win8. I'm curious to see if MS will re-brand service packs and instead push OS features in later updates.
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