Windaz 8

[AtW]

So is this Metro tulip or what?

[NickFitz]

Can anybody work out how to actually close an application having started it? This is often the way with phones and tablets too: you can never figure out what's running.

That's because the system takes care of all that for you. Such devices are designed for normal people, who don't understand the idea of things running and being closed or open and all that; they just want a device that lets them do what they want to do, when they want to do it.

Obligatory car analogy: most people don't want to have to know or care what gear their car is in. They want to press that pedal to make it go, and that one to make it stop. Only those who are actually interested in the car per se, rather than as a tool to get from A to B and back again, care about gears. (This may not be quite true of drivers in the UK, where automatic transmission has historically been less common, but almost all American drivers can't use a manual transmission. And, in fact, most UK drivers don't understand anything about gears, it's just something they had to learn to make the car go.)

[VectraMan]

That's because the system takes care of all that for you. Such devices are designed for normal people, who don't understand the idea of things running and being closed or open and all that; they just want a device that lets them do what they want to do, when they want to do it.

I think you'll find normal people understand the concept of closing something when they've finished with it. E.g. switching off the TV when they go to bed; turning off the oven when they've finished cooking; switching off the engine when they've arrived at work. Nobody uses the vacuum cleaner and then just walks away assuming the system will take care of it, all the time wondering what that loud noise is.

I was thinking about how my Dad would use it. He doesn't really understand about windows and the way more than one thing can be running at once*. He always closes whatever he's using before moving onto the next thing, and I think Metro would confuse him. It's not obvious how you close anything, and it's not obvious once you have something open how you get back to the menu to do something else. What it needs is a Android style back and home button on every screen, because normal people do generally understand that.


*He does understand gears though.

[scooterscot]

There is a registry tweak to turn the metro interface off,

Registry? Tweaking? What on earth, with OS X I just start using it.

[Spacecadet]

Registry? Tweaking? What on earth, with OS X I just start using it.

it is 12 months away from being released

[Cliphead]

Windows, Linux or whatever else I have the bulk of my work is done with a command line. Music software I need Win but no need to move away from Win7 or even XP for that.

[d000hg]

Registry? Tweaking? What on earth, with OS X I just start using it.

That's right, start using it and stop having any control over it.

[russell]

I watched the keynote, I think they should split the OSes into desktop and tablet. But then there is probably no compelling reason to upgrade from 7.

[stek]

That's right, start using it and stop having any control over it.

On the contrary, Finder, Applications, Utilities, Terminal, su to root and full control

I'm playing with IOS5 and iCloud at the moment, even in beta status it just 'works' Having said that, Pages or Numbers will never replace Word or Excel, unless they can open files without screwing formatting up...

Keynote pisses on Powerpoint though!

Really though, let's be honest, for sheer usability and pleasure of use, Windows is pants, Windows 7/8 is STILL Windows NT 3.5 - OS/2 with knobs on. Ok OSX is Unix (like) I know and that's old but it has stood the test of time.

Mac OS9, let's not go there!

[d000hg]

I watched the keynote, I think they should split the OSes into desktop and tablet. But then there is probably no compelling reason to upgrade from 7.

I get the impression for desktop that will kind of be the case anyway, with the benefit you can run mobile/tablet apps on your desktop.