Support NeoGAF

[Anton Sugar]

Wow, Ballmer is 300% more tolerable as a counterpart to Gates.

 

[Wiktor]

Bill Gates is a genius, but he was never cool.

Gates is propably the best thing that happened to the world in last decade, so he's still amazing
That said, while not necessary hip, he does seem like a very nice guy (unlike Balmer or Jobs, who both always emanated very high asshole-levels)

 

[FromTheFuture]

Bill Gates is a genius, but he was never cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqfjiuqVrV4

 

[enzo_gt]

Bill Gates is a genius, but he was never cool.

Bill Gates is very cool. Motherfucking technology OG right there.

 

[Windu]

Can Windows 8′s Metro succeed on the desktop?

The biggest cloud hanging over Windows 8 is how desktop (and notebook) users will react to the new Metro user experience (which I’ll refer to as MoSh to differentiate the new “Modern Shell” from the app model and Store change). What we’ve seen in the Developer Preview, hints of later builds, and descriptions from Microsoft has already caused a lot of discussion. In a few days we’ll see the Consumer Preview, with its updated and near final implementation of MoSh. The Consumer Preview is likely to be downloaded, and used on a daily basis, by millions of people. The demographics of Consumer Preview users will lean heavily towards Power Users, meaning that those least likely to be happy about MoSh will be the ones putting it under a microscope. These are also the key influencers, so while we can expect they’ll be more negative than the general PC user population their views can’t be dismissed because they will heavily influence Windows 8 adoption. If they are too negative overall then Windows 8 is in trouble. Some will be (and already are) very vocally opposed to MoSh, but we don’t yet know if that is a small minority, substantial minority, or majority. Over the next few weeks we’ll find out.

I’m cautiously optimistic about MoSh’s chances. Before moving on to explain why I should acknowledge that what I say here may have some conflicts with my “Devil’s Advocate” piece aimed at developers. In that piece I picked a specific example of where Tablets come into the picture, and I time-compressed the reactions of the IT hierarchy to many of the changes being introduced with Windows 8, to make a point. Now I’m back to discussing short to mid-term reality.

Let me explain my own usage pattern of Windows. Going back to Windows 3.1, the first version I used regularly, I’ve had the same usage pattern. I always maximize the window I’m working on to take up the full screen. 10″, 15″, 20″, 23″ or larger monitors make no difference. Alt-Tab is my best friend as I rapidly switch back and forth between windows. Sometimes I need two windows on the screen so I can reference one while typing in another, but I hate when they overlap and I have to continually move things around so information I need is not occluded. So my norm is 1-2 non-overlapping windows. When I’m doing software development my pattern changes a bit. Then I like having more than one monitor so I can keep the window I’m concentrating on open on one and use another to keep a few smaller, non-overlapping if possible, windows open as well.

The co-founder of my old SaaS startup likes to chide me about my lack of desire for monitors much bigger than 20″ (although I’ve recently grown quite fond of a 23″ monitor) because his usage pattern is quite different from mine. He likes huge monitors, and the more of them the merrier, so he can have as many windows up on them at the same time as possible. One of my observations though was how much time he had to spend moving windows around on his monitor(s). To me it seemed like the more real-estate you gave him the more time he wasted managing it.

So there you have two people, who have been working together off and on since the 1970s, who represent two ends of the spectrum on how they use Windows’ windows. One question is, whose usage is more representative of the general population of Windows’ users? Certainly if you walk around a software developement shop I think my co-founder’s usage pattern in more common than mine, but what if you walk around the more general user population?

Let me throw out some anecdotal evidence. I go to my Insurance Agent’s office and observe both his, and his employees’ computer usage. In every case they have the app they are using in full screen mode and switch to other full screen apps as they need them. I go to my Dentist and Doctor and observe both the back office and medical personnel using that access pattern. I walk into retail stores and observe the sales people and how they use their PC and it is that full screen/app switching style. I hear call center personnel talking to themselves as they work on their PC and you can tell they are looking at one app at a time. I glance over the shoulder at travelers on airplanes and see a single application taking up the entire screen of their notebook . I watch my wife and she mostly works on a single app at a time. Anecdotally, I see few users who make regular use of Windows ability to display large numbers of windows on the screen at once. Even when I see people using multiple windows, such as those who need a lot of information being displayed at the same time (e.g., security traders) they are using non-overlappingwindows. Of course this is anecdotal data, and a very narrow slice at that, but the data Microsoft collects through its Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) telemetry is extensive and gives them a good picture into actual usage patterns. If it matches my anecdotal data then a design that optimizes for having a very small number of non-overlapping windows makes sense.

How about the Start Screen vs Start Menu controversy? In the Building Windows 8 blog Microsoft talked a lot about how their telemetry suggests that the new Start Screen approach is far superior to the Start Menu for most users. What about anecdotal data? Let’s start with one of Windows’ user experience failures. When Windows XP shipped it was stripped of all desktop icons except for the recycle bin. The recommendation (and guidance to software developers) was to not use desktop shortcuts, but rather to just use the Start Menu for all application access. And the first thing nearly every user did was ignore Microsoft and create desktop shortcuts for all the applications they regularly accessed. Software developers briefly made the default installation not put a shortcut on the desktop, but most reversed that decision on future updates. Look at many users’ (Windows XP, Vista, or 7) desktops today and they look a lot like the Windows 8 Start Screen! Now personally that is not my access pattern. I generally run applications I’ve pinned to the task bar or by hitting Start and typing to cause a search for the app. It is rare for me to actually walk the Start Menu hierarchy. Now my pattern might be reflective of Windows 7 users, but obviously isn’t reflective of Windows XP users (who have neither feature). The sprinkle lots of shortcuts on your desktop pattern is extremely common all the way back to Windows 95. And so for most users it seems that MoSh’s Start Screen actually is an acknowledgement of their actual usage pattern. Having search so well-integrated means that my usage pattern should adapt to it quite readily as well. Moreover, after a few years of iPhone, iPad, and Windows Phone usage the Start Screen paradigm may be very comfortable for me.

The anecdotal evidence and hard data seem to support the choices Microsoft made in designing MoSh. But is that enough to insure that the Windows 8 user experience is well accepted by desktop/notebook users? Hardly. There are two problems. First, while you can optimize for the 70%, 80%, 90%, or even 98% of users that may leave the other 30%, 20%, 10%, or 2% terribly dissatisfied. Not only might you lose those users, they could end up “poisoning the well” so that even users who should be thrilled by the new user experience won’t give it a chance. I know, for example, that if I tell friends and family that I don’t like Windows 8 I can cause at least a dozen people to stick with Windows 7 or abandon Windows for the Mac. And that’s not even getting into the thousands who might be influenced by my blog entries. Second, even though you create something new that you objectively know should thrill the majority of users, change is hard and those users might reject change.

The jury hasn’t even heard all the evidence on Windows 8′s new user experience yet, so figuring out if it can succeed or not is difficult. As I’ve said, I’m cautiously optimistic. But it could fall flat on its face. Over the next few weeks we’ll get our first true look at how users feel about the new user experience. I’m sure many people at Microsoft are holding their breath.

my usage pattern is similar to his, i usually maximize my windows. (i have chrome maximized right now, i use multiple monitors as well btw). I don't like overlapping windows either. I have started using win + # to launch certain apps on the taskbar and i always seem to use win + search. I don't use alt tab much though. I think Microsoft has taken the right approach to please the masses but it will be interesting to see the reaction to the CP considering it will be all power users.

 

[Anton Sugar]

Can Windows 8′s Metro succeed on the desktop?
my usage pattern is similar to his, i usually maximize my windows. (i have chrome maximized right now, i use multiple monitors as well btw). I don't like overlapping windows either. I have started using win + # to launch certain apps on the taskbar and i always seem to use win + search. I don't use alt tab much though. I think Microsoft has taken the right approach to please the masses but it will be interesting to see the reaction to the CP considering it will be all power users.

I wonder about this. I can't stand having windows un-maximized, but I think just about all of my coworkers have specific window sizes they like to use.

 

[kehs]

For me it's s only for browsers and notepads that I don't have maximized, for some reason.

Everything else is always maximized.

I do hope that MS does something about cycling through recent apps, that swiping in from the side, one by one is garbage. It'd be better to swipe in a group and then slide over to the one you want.

 

[Windu]

in the dev preview i found that you could just click on the left side to bring them over. You could click through them really fast. But i haven't seen any indications of bringing over two at a time.

I'm sure there is some keyboard shortcut for this too though.

 

[clav]

I do hope that MS does something about cycling through recent apps, that swiping in from the side, one by one is garbage. It'd be better to swipe in a group and then slide over to the one you want.

in the dev preview i found that you could just click on the left side to bring them over. You could click through them really fast. But i haven't seen any indications of bringing over two at a time.

I'm sure there is some keyboard shortcut for this too though.

dLMN8R hinted about a feature still not yet revealed/leaked that every user will be happy when it does.

I think it has to do with multitasking.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

For me it's s only for browsers and notepads that I don't have maximized, for some reason.

Text and print get hard to read when the lines have too many characters in them. Also most web-pages seem to be designed around like 800*600 desktops meaning you would get a lot of white on screen for no good reason.

Well on 4:3 screens, I'm always maximised while 16:9 go for half at max.

 

[MrBig]

anyone know how the metro env handles multiple monitors? I had the dev preview running in a vm and didn't test it.

 

[giga]

If I was using an 11" Macbook Air, I could see myself using full screen or maximized apps. But at home when I'm working on a high resolution 24" monitor, I rarely let any apps use the full desktop. It's not an efficient use of the space available. I like being able to keep a large browser window open while still monitoring my twitter feed or chats.

Never maximized:
Browser
Mail
IM
Twitter
Finder windows
Text, pdf, excel, or other documents
RSS Reader

Always maximized:
Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Lightroom

 

[Windu]

anyone know how the metro env handles multiple monitors? I had the dev preview running in a vm and didn't test it.

the start screen on one screen, desktop on the other. I assume it works like that one more than 2 as well. Wonder if they changed this in the CP though. I think having the use of more than one monitor for the start screen would solve a lot of user's problems with the new environment.

 

[lunarworks]

If I was using an 11" Macbook Air, I could see myself using full screen or maximized apps. But at home when I'm working on a high resolution 24" monitor, I rarely let any apps use the full desktop. It's not an efficient use of the space available. I like being able to keep a large browser window open while still monitoring my twitter feed or chats.

Never maximized:
Browser
Mail
IM
Twitter
Finder windows
Text, pdf, excel, or other documents
RSS Reader

Always maximized:
Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Lightroom

That's the Mac way of doing things. Even under Windows I loathe going full-screen, unless it's some app where I need all the screen space I can get. (Design stuff, mostly.) But, the typical Windows user hits that Maximize button by reflex.

My boss has a 24" screen on his desk, and he runs Firefox maximized. He even uses Windows Explorer maximized. I find it revolting.

 

[Steelyuhas]

My main issue with Metro with KB + mouse in the dev preview was switching apps/multitasking. Other than that, I thought it was pretty nice and very fast once I got used to it.

If they put something in there for multitasking for KB and Mouse, I will be very happy.

 

[biosnake20]

Amazing Windows 8 Metro desktop mockup via The Verge user sputnik8

 

[Divvy]

Amazing Windows 8 Metro desktop mockup

Saw this on the verge, looks amazing. I hope they make a custom theme on Win7 or 8 for it.

 

[show me your skeleton]

oh man, way to ruin every official windows ui ever.

 

[Complex Shadow]

Amazing Windows 8 Metro desktop mockup

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/9029/desktopoy.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/5892/explorer1o.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2771/33753313.jpg

i want thisssssss

 

[Zombie James]

Except for the oversized titlebar area and min-max-close buttons, it looks great.

 

[Uno Venova]

Windows 8, visually speaking was already unimpressive, this just makes it worse. Someone at deviantart please make something close to that STAT.

 

[lunarworks]

Beautiful, but it would never happen. The middle management would get a hold of it leave their fingerprints all over it.

 

[Nobility]

I want it. I want it now.

 

[a secret-boss]

Is that an Assassin's Creed loading symbol next to the word Window

 

[Divvy]

What does it take to create your own windows skin anyways? Is it programming task or a graphic design task?

 

[Mr_Zombie]

I'm not a fan of all those big fonts, but overall it looks great. Clean and simple.

I don't understand why Microsoft didn't change Aero to at least replace those semi-transparent windows full of gradients and/or highlights with a bright solid color. If the default Windows 8 skin look like this, the metro UI would really fit nicely.

 

[dLMN8R]

You'd be surprised at how design-oriented the entire team is for Windows 8. The notion of "middle management" taking things over seem pretty nonexistent to me - pretty much every team is beholden to a single team of "design overlords" that review every piece of UI from every team to ensure consistency in everything from the look, spacing (literally down to each pixel), and the model of user interaction.

I don't know what's happening to the Desktop, if anything, but from what I've heard, the lack of modification for BUILD at least was more about time than anything. Windows 8 is such a dramatic overhaul for the entire OS that it's getting crazily down to the wire for practically every feature.

Those above mockups are awesome, but just out of professional experience I see a whole lot that makes such a theme simply unfeasible to achieve due to the legacy technology used for the Desktop, and many other considerations.

You have to remember that this stuff isn't just about the visual look, those screens are rearranging key parts of the UI. Every single change like that requires a huge amount of work to make compatible with Accessibility features like screen readers, magnifiers, and similar 3rd-party utilities. It has to be backwards compatible with millions of old applications. It needs to support localization for languages that take 3x the amount of space as English. It needs to support right-to-left languages and bidirectional languages too.

Every piece of UI has a ton of necessary stuff behind it, whether obvious or not.


Again, I don't know what's actually happening on the Desktop. At best, you'll see a new color theme on the existing UI controls to make things more metro-ish. But something like what you see above? There's no way in hell that could happen without adding months, if not a year, onto the development cycle. It makes more sense for a 3rd-party utility that doesn't have to consider accessibility or globalization instead. Go bug Stardock

 

[Tuck]

Amazing Windows 8 Metro desktop mockup via The Verge user sputnik8

Holy fuck, I want this.

 

[Nemo]

Yep, I wish they just basically took W7 UI. Made it a bit more stylized and in tone with metro with the minimalism and just make every icon a bit bigger so it can be touched with your finger. That would be perfect.

That user concept does that exactly

 

[dLMN8R]

Yep, I wish they just basically took W7 UI. Made it a bit more stylized and in tone with metro with the minimalism and just make every icon a bit bigger so it can be touched with your finger. That would be perfect.

That user concept does that exactly

That user concept actually significantly overhauls key parts of the UI. It's not a simple re-styling. He changed the layout of almost everything along the way too.

Not to mention the fact that it makes Explorer practically useless.

 

[jagowar]

Yep, I wish they just basically took W7 UI. Made it a bit more stylized and in tone with metro with the minimalism and just make every icon a bit bigger so it can be touched with your finger. That would be perfect.

That user concept does that exactly

But that would be horrible on a touch screen just like w7 is.... metro is an amazing touch screen interface and that is the primary change for w8. The old mouse interaction model is on the way out. They are making the right decision to abandon it now and start working on touch first as the interaction model.... will allow them to refine it over the next few yrs and stay ahead of the competition (osx and linux).

Now if you are talking about the classic ui then I agree.... they should have swapped to a more metro look and feel for the classic ui but I get the impression w8 is 95% about the new start screen and it would be pointless to spend time redoing the classic ui when they can put more time into the new star screen and all the underlying functionality.

That's the Mac way of doing things. Even under Windows I loathe going full-screen, unless it's some app where I need all the screen space I can get. (Design stuff, mostly.) But, the typical Windows user hits that Maximize button by reflex.

My boss has a 24" screen on his desk, and he runs Firefox maximized. He even uses Windows Explorer maximized. I find it revolting.

I run most apps full screen.... the only ones I don't are explorer and things like the control panel. Anything that stays open is full screen for me. I actually kinda don't like the mac way of doing things from my experience using them at work.... all these little windows and since they overlap its can be confusing to tell where one ends and the next begins (and then if you click too far it gets buried and you have to go digging through them all to get back to the one you wanted to keep open). I have noticed alot of mac users in my office do this too and have to use expose or go click the icon to get back.

 

[Blackhead]

You'd be surprised at how design-oriented the entire team is for Windows 8. The notion of "middle management" taking things over seem pretty nonexistent to me - pretty much every team is beholden to a single team of "design overlords" that review every piece of UI from every team to ensure consistency in everything from the look, spacing (literally down to each pixel), and the model of user interaction.

I don't know what's happening to the Desktop, if anything, but from what I've heard, the lack of modification for BUILD at least was more about time than anything. Windows 8 is such a dramatic overhaul for the entire OS that it's getting crazily down to the wire for practically every feature.

Those above mockups are awesome, but just out of professional experience I see a whole lot that makes such a theme simply unfeasible to achieve due to the legacy technology used for the Desktop, and many other considerations.

You have to remember that this stuff isn't just about the visual look, those screens are rearranging key parts of the UI. Every single change like that requires a huge amount of work to make compatible with Accessibility features like screen readers, magnifiers, and similar 3rd-party utilities. It has to be backwards compatible with millions of old applications. It needs to support localization for languages that take 3x the amount of space as English. It needs to support right-to-left languages and bidirectional languages too.

Every piece of UI has a ton of necessary stuff behind it, whether obvious or not.


Again, I don't know what's actually happening on the Desktop. At best, you'll see a new color theme on the existing UI controls to make things more metro-ish. But something like what you see above? There's no way in hell that could happen without adding months, if not a year, onto the development cycle. It makes more sense for a 3rd-party utility that doesn't have to consider accessibility or globalization instead. Go bug Stardock

Legacy is going to be the death of Windows. This is their best chance to make a clean break and Microsoft is blowing it.

 

[Windu]

Legacy is going to be the death of Windows

well good thing they are moving away from it

 

[dLMN8R]

Legacy is going to be the death of Windows. This is their best chance to make a clean break and Microsoft is blowing it.

I don't see why a clean break is necessary? Windows 8 has a completely new, modern, and extremely capable platform built from the ground up, and retains legacy in a separate silo that doesn't affect that modern platform in any way at all, if you don't want to use it.

But for the literally hundreds of millions of people who do rely on it, they're covered too.

 

[Zombie James]

Legacy is going to be the death of Windows. This is their best chance to make a clean break and Microsoft is blowing it.

I thought/hoped the inclusion of an XP virtual machine in Windows 7 was a sign they would start from a completely clean slate in the next version (legacy apps handled by emulation).

 

[Wiktor]

That user concept actually significantly overhauls key parts of the UI. It's not a simple re-styling.

The problem is that from the current screen it seems MS didn't even go for simple restyling. Conidering userst themselves have little problem making their own themes was it really that hard to just get rid of the areo?

 

[Gattsu25]

Amazing Windows 8 Metro desktop mockup via The Verge user sputnik8

Wow, looks amazing when Windows actually uses the original Metro aesthetic.

Not such a huge fan of the modern Metro.

 

[KtSlime]

I hope MS has the smarts to hire the guy who made this mockup, cause so far what I have seen of Win8 has not even been half as good as this.

 

[MrBig]

Except for the oversized titlebar area and min-max-close buttons, it looks great.

I'm browsing and touching them on my tablet and it's just the right size. Add a tickbox for smaller buttons and restoring the titlebar and the concept would be perfect in that regard.

 

[dLMN8R]

The problem is that from the current screen it seems MS didn't even go for simple restyling. Conidering userst themselves have little problem making their own themes was it really that hard to just get rid of the areo?

Well yeah, I agree that it would be nice to have a simple re-styling, but I already describe above why even a simple re-styling isn't "simple".


There's till a chance though. Styling like that doesn't happen until even closer to release. For Windows 7, forget about styling - the new taskbar in Windows 7 wasn't even revealed until the beta, and that's a much more major feature than the subsequent restyling it saw.

 

[Windu]

Solitare with Gamer Points? OOooo

http://winunleaked.tk/2012/02/windows-8-consumer-preview-release/

 

[Nemo]

But that would be horrible on a touch screen just like w7 is.... metro is an amazing touch screen interface and that is the primary change for w8. The old mouse interaction model is on the way out. They are making the right decision to abandon it now and start working on touch first as the interaction model.... will allow them to refine it over the next few yrs and stay ahead of the competition (osx and linux).

Now if you are talking about the classic ui then I agree.... they should have swapped to a more metro look and feel for the classic ui but I get the impression w8 is 95% about the new start screen and it would be pointless to spend time redoing the classic ui when they can put more time into the new star screen and all the underlying functionality.

Yeah I feel that. I've been playing with the beta W8 and pretty much only used desktop mode. My only gripe was that they icons weren't bigger.

That user concept actually significantly overhauls key parts of the UI. It's not a simple re-styling. He changed the layout of almost everything along the way too.

Not to mention the fact that it makes Explorer practically useless.

If the new layout works for the best regarding touch input I'd be OK with that. But why can't it work this way on explorer?

---
IMO, the main reason I bought a Windows tablet was for the program support, plain and simple. If Microsoft goes for more than a restyling of the OS I think a lot of people won't even care about that program support. They'll mostly play with it as if it were a new tablet OS. Especially when they buy an ARM tablet. I just feel MS should make the program support their main competitive advantage going into the tablet business, otherwise well what's the point when you are into the game this late?

 

[VanMardigan]

That's the Mac way of doing things. Even under Windows I loathe going full-screen, unless it's some app where I need all the screen space I can get. (Design stuff, mostly.) But, the typical Windows user hits that Maximize button by reflex.

My boss has a 24" screen on his desk, and he runs Firefox maximized. He even uses Windows Explorer maximized. I find it revolting.

I hate working with overlapping windows or poorly formatted "snap to" browser windows. I have everything full screen and just use the taskbar to switch between apps. Unless I'm writing a paper and have some research pdf open, I don't even use the split screen built in to Windows 7. Windows 8 seems to be closer to how I usually run my desktop.

 

[Tuck]

I'm not convinced the desktop is on its way out. Maybe its because I haven't tried the Metro UI yet, but I think home PC's need a desktop, and Microsoft is making a mistake with it.

The way I would have handled it:
Tablets - The metro UI as is, no desktop.
PCs - Metro UI as is, plus desktop, redesigned just like that concept about, with better integration with the start screen.

I have a 25" monitor. I love having multiple windows open. Especially when I'm doing work and have pdfs, excel and Firefox open, at once, on one screen. You *need* the desktop for something like that.

Microsoft strategy here is a bit.. dangerous. And it confuses me.

Either way though, leaving the desktop with aero was a horrible aesthetics decision.

Also I'd like to mention that I've gone and looked at some of the windows 8 apps, and their UI is a bit disappointing. The Metro UI in the concept looks much more like the Zune application for Windows. I think someone mentioned this above as well.

 

[KorrZ]

Microsoft strategy here is a bit.. dangerous. And it confuses me.

Either way though, leaving the desktop with aero was a horrible aesthetics decision.

Baby steps. Look at all the people freaking out already over just the new Start Screen and it's drastic change from the start menu. The main thing they've been able to point to to calm down the "power users" is that the desktops remains pretty much just as we've all come to know and love. If they just completely revamped the desktop style to something like the above pictures, I'm almost positive there would be a giant uproar ("MS is changing everything! the sky is falling!!") even though it looks incredible. I think once they nail down the Start Screen and getting people used to it, that's when they'll start messing with the desktop in Windows 9.

 

[Tuck]

Baby steps. Look at all the people freaking out already over just the new Start Screen and it's drastic change from the start menu. The main thing they've been able to point to to calm down the "power users" is that the desktops remains pretty much just as we've all come to know and love. If they just completely revamped the desktop style to something like the above pictures, I'm almost positive there would be a giant uproar ("MS is changing everything! the sky is falling!!") even though it looks incredible. I think once they nail down the Start Screen and getting people used to it, that's when they'll start messing with the desktop in Windows 9.

Perhaps, but I don't think restyling the desktop is that big a change. They did it in Vista, albeit to a lesser extent.

 

[kehs]

Baby steps. Look at all the people freaking out already over just the new Start Screen and it's drastic change from the start menu. The main thing they've been able to point to to calm down the "power users" is that the desktops remains pretty much just as we've all come to know and love. If they just completely revamped the desktop style to something like the above pictures, I'm almost positive there would be a giant uproar ("MS is changing everything! the sky is falling!!") even though it looks incredible. I think once they nail down the Start Screen and getting people used to it, that's when they'll start messing with the desktop in Windows 9.

The people freaking out are the same type of people that freaked out over the Win7 taskbar.

 

[KorrZ]

The people freaking out are the same type of people that freaked out over the Win7 taskbar.

I think it's a little bit more widespread than that. Freaking out over the Win7 taskbar is just crazy. The Start Screen is a drastic change from anything that came before it in Windows.

 

[Zombie James]

The people freaking out are the same type of people that freaked out over the Win7 taskbar.

My main gripe with the Taskbar is that it's too damn large by default. Thankfully they added the "Use small icons" option. A minor issue compared to Win8.

 

[eastmen]

My main gripe with the Taskbar is that it's too damn large by default. Thankfully they added the "Use small icons" option. A minor issue compared to Win8.

It might have been to big on 17 inch monitors but on 24-30 inch monitors it was just right.


Windows has to strike a three way balance of legacy support , current trend support and future support. Normaly what people hate in one verison is something they don't want changed 3 verisons later.

Windows 8 is fine to me. I'm able to learn it quickly and in all honesty i bet touch 24-30 inch touch screens become the norm on desktops soon and 12-17 inch ones on laptops . The screens are already mass produced from 2 inches up to 10 inches , they will only get cheaper as time goes on.

I honestly don't get why we are stuck at 1920x1080 on monitors anyway. We should have gotten way past that , esp the 22-27 inch range