Support NeoGAF

[scorcho]

That is a clusterfuck of a window right there.

The ribbon doesn't have to be maximized, and I'd be surprised if that's the default setting OOTB.

 

[FLEABttn]

How was Windows 98 bad?

Terrible memory management. You could BSOD the thing on command practically.

 

[Fernando Rocker]

I'm getting spoiled by Mac OS X (I use it at work... Windows at home).

Mac OS X looks to clean compared to Windows.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I'm getting spoiled by Mac OS X (I use it at work... Windows at home).

Mac OS X looks to clean compared to Windows.

I don't know if Finder is any better than Explorer. But yea, it has avoided some of the UI pitfalls being discussed here.

 

[Fernando Rocker]

I don't know if Finder is any better than Explorer. But yea, it has avoided some of the UI pitfalls being discussed here.

Also... I just can't work anymore without Spotlight, Exposé and the coloring labels.

 

[Zombie James]

If I want Microsoft to borrow anything from OSX it's the font smoothing. Cleartype looks like ass compared to the fonts in OSX. gdipp helps, but it's buggy as hell.

 

[scorcho]

I don't know if Finder is any better than Explorer. But yea, it has avoided some of the UI pitfalls being discussed here.

Finder isn't as robust as Explorer in features or options, but that is partially mitigated by spotlight and third party utilities like Alfred. Even after using OSX alongside Win7 for nearly two years I still find the transition between using Explorer and Finder jarring.

 

[Vicetrailia]

So is this OS gonna be expensive?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Finder isn't as robust as Explorer in features or options, but that is partially mitigated by spotlight and third party utilities like Alfred. Even after using OSX alongside Win7 for nearly two years I still find the transition between using Explorer and Finder jarring.

Agreed on all counts based on my experiences.

 

[brotkasten]

is that the actual UI or are they just showing the differences? I'm hoping they unify it that can't be how they would send it out

We have no idea what the actual Windows 8 UI will look like. The build they've shown is over a month old, we know that there will be a new design for the taskbar and some kind of metro lite interface and that's it. Some of the overreactions are really hilarious, because nobody knows anything.

 

[lunarworks]

How was Windows 98 bad?

Windows 98 carried with it a sort of Stockholm Syndrome.

It was a good, feature-filled OS. Leaps above Win95, really. However, its favourite colour was blue. A certain shade of blue. One that it would take great joy in showing you as often as it could.

At the time, though, we "dealt with it". System crashes were just part of computing. Anyone who uses a modern OS would be pulling their hair out, but back then it was just the way things were.

So is this OS gonna be expensive?

Which "Edition"?

 

[Zombie James]

Which "Edition"?

That's going to be a whole new bucket of worms...

There should just be three editions:

Windows 8
Windows 8 ARM
Windows 8 Server

That's it.

 

[MCD]

I'm fine with two editions: Home and Pro.

Ultimate, Starter and Basic are all bullshit.

 

[lunarworks]

I'm fine with two editions: Home and Pro.

Ultimate, Starter and Basic are all bullshit.

But at Microsoft its our mission to provide added value for our partners by adding premium features*GUNSHOT*

 

[RevDM]

Any idea of a release date yet? I will need a new computer in the next year

 

[njean777]

I wish Microsoft would take a hint from apple and only charge 30$ for a new OS, also I don't know how I feel about windows 8 so far. I have had a touchscreen pc and it was horrendous with windows 7, touching the screen is not fun at all so I do not like the direction it is going so far, even with the tiles interface, touching the screen just doesn't work. Unless you are using a phone. A full blown tablet interface on a desktop pc does not work, MS knows this first hand, apple put some features on Lion but did not make it a full blown tablet OS on desktop.

 

[brotkasten]

Any idea of a release date yet? I will need a new computer in the next year

Nothing official, but it's probably Q4 2012 for enterprise customers and Q1 2013 for end-users.

 

[LCfiner]

I wish Microsoft would take a hint from apple and only charge 30$ for a new OS, also I don't know how I feel about windows 8 so far. I have had a touchscreen pc and it was horrendous with windows 7, touching the screen is not fun at all so I do not like the direction it is going so far, even with the tiles interface, touching the screen just doesn't work. Unless you are using a phone. A full blown tablet interface on a desktop pc does not work, MS knows this first hand, apple put some features on Lion but did not make it a full blown tablet OS on desktop.

they can't really do this. Apple makes their money off hardware. the software money is like sprinkles on ice cream.

MS makes all their money on software. there's no real need for them to cut those OS prices.

As for win8 on tablets, I could be interested in a win8 ARM tablet since then I would expect the same weight and battery life as the iPad, but i would also see myself spending all my time in the tiles/ metro UI. if i ever got shoved to the backend aero desktop UI, it would be pretty shitty. I hope that would not happen accidentally (say if a metro program crashes)

 

[njean777]

they can't really do this. Apple makes their money off hardware. the software money is like sprinkles on ice cream.

MS makes all their money on software. there's no real need for them to cut those OS prices.

As for win8 on tablets, I could be interested in a win8 ARM tablet since then I would expect the same weight and battery life as the iPad, but i would also see myself spending all my time in the tiles/ metro UI. if i ever got shoved to the backend aero desktop UI, it would be pretty shitty. I hope that would not happen accidentally (say if a metro program crashes)

I understand they are mainly a software company, but still would be nice not having to pay 100+ for a new OS. I am in college and could get a discount for the new OS, but still I think about the average consumer that may want it when it comes out and has to pay 100+ for a new OS.

I do not mind some things coming to the desktop from the tablet, but to radically throw it in a customers face is not the way to do it. Apple had launchpad on Lion (which is crap BTW) but they do not make you use it at all. With this tile thing will it be the same way?

 

[Anteater]

So they pretty much just put all the features people uses into the ribbon bar, I'm sure it's useable, hope they work on it some more and have better placements (I think some of the buttons could be better placed, like the select all is on the far right, while some of the file editing is on the left), and better looking appearance, I personally would probably have it collapsed.

I've always thought developers are trying to keep the interface simple to save screen estate, was the reason they got rid of the file/edit bar by hiding it, I hope everything including the ribbon could be customized though, I never liked the giant bar (the one with the stop, forward, backward buttons) in image viewer, etc, I don't think you could make it smaller or hide it, I think there were a few elements with win7 UI that you couldn't hide (not in win7 atm so I can't check), so if they add more to it, I think it would be terrible.

 

[gcubed]

So they pretty much just put all the features people uses into the ribbon bar, I'm sure it's useable, hope they work on it some more and have better placements (I think some of the buttons could be better placed, like the select all is on the far right, while some of the file editing is on the left), and better looking appearance, I personally would probably have it collapsed.

I've always thought developers are trying to keep the interface simple to save screen estate, was the reason they got rid of the file/edit bar by hiding it, I hope everything including the ribbon could be customized though, I never liked the giant bar (the one with the stop, forward, backward buttons) in image viewer, etc, I don't think you could make it smaller or hide it, I think there were a few elements with win7 UI that you couldn't hide (not in win7 atm so I can't check), so if they add more to it, I think it would be terrible.

the ribbon is customizable in Office, i would assume it is here as well

 

[brotkasten]

I understand they are mainly a software company, but still would be nice not having to pay 100+ for a new OS. I am in college and could get a discount for the new OS, but still I think about the average consumer that may want it when it comes out and has to pay 100+ for a new OS.

I do not mind some things coming to the desktop from the tablet, but to radically throw it in a customers face is not the way to do it. Apple had launchpad on Lion (which is crap BTW) but they do not make you use it at all. With this tile thing will it be the same way?

People don't see the value in an operating system and that really bugs me, because the same users have no problem with paying 30-60 bucks or more for some hours of entertainment (new movie or game release). $100 for a piece of software that you're using every single day for the next two or three years is not too much.

 

[DataStream]

. if i ever got shoved to the backend aero desktop UI, it would be pretty shitty. I hope that would not happen accidentally (say if a metro program crashes)

Given that Metro Apps are primarily HTML5/CSS3 (and some likely silverlight I'm guessing will be revealed at build), I assume that the metro shell will handle running apps like tabs in a multi-threaded browser and it will just autoclose the tab on crash (reverting to the start tile experience). Anything else would be really really stupid.

 

[Tobor]

People don't see the value in an operating system and that really bugs me, because the same users have no problem with paying 30-60 bucks or more for some hours of entertainment (new movie or game release). $100 for a piece of software that you're using every single day for the next two or three years is not too much.

That's not necessarily the public's fault. For most consumers, the OS they use on a daily basis is seen as free since it came with purchased hardware.

 

[gcubed]

Given that Metro Apps are primarily HTML5/CSS3 (and some likely silverlight I'm guessing will be revealed at build), I assume that the metro shell will handle running apps like tabs in a multi-threaded browser and it will just autoclose the tab on crash (reverting to the start tile experience). Anything else would be really really stupid.

didnt they say they are moving away from silverlight and into javascript and HTML5 for windows 8? I thought there was a developer uproar around that

 

[DopeyFish]

People don't see the value in an operating system and that really bugs me, because the same users have no problem with paying 30-60 bucks or more for some hours of entertainment (new movie or game release). $100 for a piece of software that you're using every single day for the next two or three years is not too much.

especially windows... where they are absolutely nuts in backwards compatibility

the amount of engineering behind every windows release is nuts

 

[DataStream]

didnt they say they are moving away from silverlight and into javascript and HTML5 for windows 8? I thought there was a developer uproar around that

They said they are moving to JS/HTML5, they chose not to really talk about silverlight at all. Given that WP7 is still using silverlight apps and there is likely to be universal applications I imagine at Build they will announce their silverlight strategy in full.

I would not be surprised if we find out that Silverlight is actually running the "shell" and the apps run inside silverlight instances even if they are HTML apps (similar to flex with webkit or iOS apps with webkit).

 

[clav]

Terrible memory management. You could BSOD the thing on command practically.

Yeah who could ever forget this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLhuF3L48U

People tend to forget that Windows 98 relaunched with Second Edition (SE).

 

[njean777]

People don't see the value in an operating system and that really bugs me, because the same users have no problem with paying 30-60 bucks or more for some hours of entertainment (new movie or game release). $100 for a piece of software that you're using every single day for the next two or three years is not too much.

I don't see the value in it because windows has basically been the same since vista, I never had the big problems people had with vista, Windows 7 changed a little and I paid 100 bucks for an OEM version for my gaming rig. Windows 8 is shaping to be windows 7 with little tablet influences sprinkled throughout the OS. (correct me if I am wrong)

Maybe I am biased for apple (ok I am) but going from snow leopard, to lion was a big change for me, the OS works much better with my macbook pro now and I use a lot of the new features it provides. But I only paid 30$ for it, not 100+. I may end up getting Windows 8, but I just do not like paying 100+ for something I may or may not use. Their are RC builds but for the average consumer to be able to try it out means going to the store and playing with a pc that has it on it. Games provide demos (sometimes), music you can preview on the internet, same with movies. For an OS you really can not preview it without buying it.

 

[clav]

I don't see the value in it because windows has basically been the same since vista, I never had the big problems people had with vista, Windows 7 changed a little and I paid 100 bucks for an OEM version for my gaming rig. Windows 8 is shaping to be windows 7 with little tablet influences sprinkled throughout the OS. (correct me if I am wrong)

Windows 8 info is still scarce at the moment. We will learn more about at BUILD where supposedly Microsoft may release a public beta phase similar to Windows 7's pre-RTM phase.

No one is forcing you to upgrade. We still have users on this board on XP because they feel it's appropriate to their needs. I even have a friend who likes to boot his Windows 2000 powered machine every week.

 

[Vanillalite]

That's not necessarily the public's fault. For most consumers, the OS they use on a daily basis is seen as free since it came with purchased hardware.

THIS! I'm not really sure the price matters to the general public. Outside of a few people that decide to upgrade the general public hardly ever buys Windows standalone anyways. They just get the new version when they get a new comp. Only people that really pay for it are mainly harder core nerds and people who build their own desktops. Everyone else just gets say Win 7 when they buy their new shiny laptop, and the same thing will be said for Win 8.

PS: This isn't talking about the business sector of course which is a different beast all together.

 

[Raistlin]

Pausing file transfers...really? Why am I worried about pausing transfers that happen in three seconds over usb3 or thunderbolt since the only computers that'll be using W8 are machines from late 2012, a time when nobody is even transferring files anymore. GG, Mike Rowe.

smh

can I have what you're smoking?

Still giving up a pci-e 4x slot and adding more cost than usb3 .


If i really wanted to I can just use multiple usb 3 devices and transfer faster.


We will see how it shakes down as more devices come out supporitng both of these standards .

I'm not sure why this debate keeps happening. While lightpeak can be used for simple accessories like HDD's, etc. ala USB 3.0, it is a faster, super-set of functionality.

We won't be sending video over USB. We won't be attaching an external GPU with USB.

You mention that you're 'giving up' a PCIe slot ... errr ... that's the point actually. It's a plug-n-play external interface to your PCIe bus.




The should, and hopefully will, coexist.

 

[Raistlin]

It better be. Not that I plan on ditching Windows 7 any time soon, but seriously, the Ribbon is terrible in Office.

It takes some time to get accustomed to, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of regular Office users will attest that once you get used to it ... you are actually more efficient versus the prior menu system.

 

[Technosteve]

iso support eh, will we see programs being delivered on DMG like image files? also people that zip dmg files should be shot.

 

[lunarworks]

People don't see the value in an operating system and that really bugs me, because the same users have no problem with paying 30-60 bucks or more for some hours of entertainment (new movie or game release). $100 for a piece of software that you're using every single day for the next two or three years is not too much.

The problem is that Microsoft is extremely inconsistent with their pricing.

You can buy a Windows disc off the shelf at Best Buy for $300, or it can come with an actual computer you just bought for $300 (the OS itself counts for maybe $15 of the total price.) You can buy a full-version "OEM Pack" for $50 at a computer hardware store, or you can buy a $150 "Upgrade" from Walmart.

The pricing structure seems completely arbitrary.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Did they mention anything about putting the partition's free space back into the status bar, or the space taken up without having to click "more details?" I'm still not sure how they managed to downgrade Win 7 from XP.

 

[Anteater]

iso support eh, will we see programs being delivered on DMG like image files? also people that zip dmg files should be shot.

What about those guys that rar the zips!? I hate them so much..

 

[Nero3000]

I'm fine with two editions: Home and Pro.

Ultimate, Starter and Basic are all bullshit.

You only ever had two editions to choose from.

- Starter was only ever sold in developing countries
- Home Basic on low cost/performance systems, of which were few - never in a box
- Ultimate/Enterprise (same thing) was only ever sold through volume licensing/OEM and besides it only contained enterprise features such as DirectAccess and BranchCache which no home user would ever use unless they had a window server 2008 in their home

 

[Nero3000]

there was some crippling bugs in the RTM version of Windows Vista, if you would rather use that then XP with all SP's installed you are crazy.

What were the bugs? I forget.

The things in Vista I miss (using XP):
- System wide instant search
- Start menu search
- Prefetch
- Better memory management
- 64 bit excel + increased memory
- IE9 browser
- Live previews, and better window management
- Mobility centre
- Previous versions

some enterprise features which i wish my company would use from Vista/Win 7:
- Bitlocker
- DirectAccess

 

[ThatObviousUser]

You only ever had two editions to choose from.

- Starter was only ever sold in developing countries

The Dell netbook I'm using right now is using Windows 7 Starter.... (It'd be Chromium if the darn thing recognized my Wi-Fi drivers...)

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Seems Tested feels the same way about this Ribbon shit as many of us.

 

[kehs]

smh

can I have what you're smoking?

It's the truth bro, people don't move files anymore, they access them. Even less so when they finally launch in December.

Welcome to Da Cloud.

 

[gohepcat]

It's the truth bro, people don't move files anymore, they access them. Even less so when they finally launch in December.

Welcome to Da Cloud.

Ahhh the Home users. I keep forgetting that there are people who do not work in offices sand don't really understand enterprise use of windows.

My group (about 150 users) move about 20GBs of data a day.

 

[scorcho]

Seems Tested feels the same way about this Ribbon shit as many of us.

the fact that the ribbon can be minimized makes the article academic.

the tradeoff between having a relatively useless information box on the bottom to the ribbon on top is worth it for the functionality gained. if Win8 ships with the ribbon hidden by default, even better.

 

[dLMN8R]

Seems Tested feels the same way about this Ribbon shit as many of us.

That doesn't make any sense. He's bitching that Explorer is confusing because it has so many buttons, but then admits that a ton of the exposed functionality is really cool and stuff he didn't realize was possible in Explorer.

He starts the article saying he hated the ribbon until he actually used it, now he could never go back....so he approaches the ribbon in Explorer with skepticism? How about a little trust and understanding that maybe Microsoft knows what they're doing here after they previously proved him so substantially wrong?

The rest is just a confused jumbled mess where he seems to try to speak for this blob of "joe user" while simultaneously (constantly) admitting that some of the stuff is actually really cool.


In the end, it ignores the important part where Explorer isn't meant to be used entirely by regular users all that much anyway. Sure they'll end up there from time to time, but they can ignore (or use) the UI with the big shiny buttons, and pro users can use the new features exposed by the ribbon that they previously didn't realize existed.

 

[Slavik81]

That's going to be a whole new bucket of worms...

There should just be three editions:

Windows 8
Windows 8 ARM
Windows 8 Server

That's it.

Why? There was only one version of Windows 7 that mattered to 95% of consumers: Home Premium. Anyone who actually needed other versions knew that they needed other versions.

OEM vs Retail and Upgrade vs Full are vastly more confusing distinctions.

Yeah who could ever forget this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGLhuF3L48U

People tend to forget that Windows 98 relaunched with Second Edition (SE).

Bill Gates was pretty good there: "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet."

 

[brotkasten]

Another day, another post.

Designing for Metro style and the desktop

We thought it would be good to take a moment to talk about where we are heading in terms of the user interface of Windows 8.

By now you've seen two different elements of the Windows 8 design—first, a Metro style user interface we showed previously and in a video seen by millions of folks. And recently, we have described in this blog some of the enhancements we’re making to familiar Windows desktop tools such as Explorer and the copy file dialog. We’ve seen a lot of dialog about these changes.

Some of you are probably wondering how these parts work together to create a harmonious experience. Are there two user interfaces? Why not move on to a Metro style experience everywhere? On the other hand, others have been suggesting that Metro is only for tablets and touch, and we should avoid “dumbing down” Windows 8 with that design.

This is a balancing act, and one we’ll be talking quite a lot about in this blog in the coming months. Having both of user interfaces together harmoniously is an important part of Windows 8. As a starting point for the discussion, here is how we approached the design of Windows 8 from the very beginning.

We started planning Windows 8 during the summer of 2009 (before Windows 7 shipped). From the start, our approach has been to reimagine Windows, and to be open to revisiting even the most basic elements of the user model, the platform and APIs, and the architectures we support. Our goal was a no compromise design.

This is an ambitious undertaking—it involves tools, APIs, languages, UI conventions, and even some of the most basic assumptions about a PC. For example, how do you isolate applications from each other, or prevent applications from stealing all your battery power? How can installing (and removing) apps be as quick and painless as changing the channel on the TV? How do you attract the broadest set of developers possible to a new platform? How do you build a touch-first interface with a unique point of view?

When we showed the first demos of Windows 8, we introduced our new Metro experience—fast and fluid, immersive, beautiful, and app-centric. We are certain that as we show you more in the coming months you will see just how deeply we have reimagined Windows. Metro style is much more than the visual design as we shall see.

Image showing the Metro UI with the word "Start", and several tiles representing different apps in Windows 8.

At the same time, we recognized that Windows 7 has been a huge success. Not just as measured by sales figures or by the number of people using it, but also by the depth of usage. Hundreds of millions of people rely on the Windows 7 UI and existing Windows apps and devices every day, and would value (and expect) us to bring forward aspects of that experience to their next PCs.

In this light, the role of the Windows desktop is clear. It powers the hundreds of thousands of existing apps that people rely on today, a vast array of business software, and provides a level of precision and control that is essential for certain tasks. The things that people do today on PCs don’t suddenly go away just because there are new Metro style apps. The mechanisms that people rely on today (mice, physical keyboards, trackpads) don’t suddenly become less useful or “bad” just because touch is also provided as a first-class option. These tools are quite often the most ergonomic, fast, and powerful ways of getting many things done.

We knew as we designed the Windows 8 UI that you can’t just flip a bit overnight and turn all of that history into something new. In fact, that is exactly what some people are afraid of us doing. Some have said that is the only path to take. Yet, even those who have fully embraced tablets also own a laptop for those times when they need more precise control or need to use one of the apps that are mission critical (and are still being developed). In people’s desire not to carry around two different devices, “remote desktop” programs for tablets and phones have become popular but extremely awkward attempts to harness the usefulness of the Windows 7 desktop within a new form factor.

Why not just start over from scratch? Why not just remove all of the desktop features and only ship the Metro experience? Why not "convert" everything to Metro? The arguments for a “clean slate” are well known, both for and against. We chose to take the approach of building a design without compromise. A design that truly affords you the best of the two worlds we see today. Our perspective rests on the foundation of the open PC architecture that has proven flexible and adaptable over many significant changes in hardware capabilities and software paradigms. This is the flexibility that has served as a cornerstone through transitions in user interface, connectivity, programming models, and hardware capabilities (to name a few).

We believe there is room for a more elegant, perhaps a more nuanced, approach. You get a beautiful, fast and fluid, Metro style interface and a huge variety of new apps to use. These applications have new attributes (a platform) that go well beyond the graphical styling (much to come on this at Build). As we showed, you get an amazing touch experience, and also one that works with mouse, trackpad, and keyboard. And if you want to stay permanently immersed in that Metro world, you will never see the desktop—we won’t even load it (literally the code will not be loaded) unless you explicitly choose to go there! This is Windows reimagined.

But if you do see value in the desktop experience—in precise control, in powerful windowing and file management, in compatibility with hundreds of thousands of existing programs and devices, in support of your business software, those capabilities are right at your fingertips as well. You don’t need to change to a different device if you want to edit photos or movies professionally, create documents for your job or school, manage a large corpus of media or data, or get done the infinite number of things people do with a PC today. And if you don’t want to do any of those “PC” things, then you don’t have to and you’re not paying for them in memory, battery life, or hardware requirements. If you do want or need this functionality, then you can switch to it with ease and fluidity because Windows is right there. Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.

Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. You don’t have to compromise! You carry one device that does everything you want and need. You can connect that device to peripherals you want to use. You can use devices designed to dock to large screen displays and other peripherals. You can use convertible devices that can be both immersive tablets and flexible laptops.

Which brings us back to the improvements we’re making to the desktop experience: we believe in the Windows desktop. It powers the experiences today that make a Windows 7 PC the most popular device in the world. So, even if we believe that over time many scenarios will be well-served by Metro style apps, for the foreseeable future, the desktop is going to continue to play a key role in many people’s lives. So we are going to improve it. We’re having a good dialog about what folks might think about our design choices but also wanted to put these choices in a broader context of the unmatched utility of the desktop.

Our design goal was clear: no compromises. If you want to, you can seamlessly switch between Metro style apps and the improved Windows desktop. Existing apps, devices, and tools all remain and are improved in Windows 8. On the other hand, if you prefer to immerse yourself in only Metro style apps (and platform) and the new user experience, you can do that as well! Developers can target the APIs that make sense for the software they wish to deliver. People can debate how much they need or don't need different aspects of the product, but that has always been the case. All of this is made possible by the flexibility of Windows.

This is just the beginning of the discussion. There’s so much more to talk about as we dive into details about the Windows 8 UI. We’re delivering a whole new experience, reimagined from the chips all the way to the user experience, to enable new scenarios, new apps, and new ways of using a PC.

--Steven

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/31/designing-for-metro-style-and-the-desktop.aspx

The probably most important part for the people who worry about the different UIs on a tablet.
And if you want to stay permanently immersed in that Metro world, you will never see the desktop—we won’t even load it (literally the code will not be loaded) unless you explicitly choose to go there! This is Windows reimagined.

...
if you don’t want to do any of those “PC” things, then you don’t have to and you’re not paying for them in memory, battery life, or hardware requirements. If you do want or need this functionality, then you can switch to it with ease and fluidity because Windows is right there. Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.

 

[kehs]

Another day, another post.


http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/08/31/designing-for-metro-style-and-the-desktop.aspx

The probably most important part for the people who worry about the different UIs on a tablet.
And if you want to stay permanently immersed in that Metro world, you will never see the desktop—we won’t even load it (literally the code will not be loaded) unless you explicitly choose to go there! This is Windows reimagined.

...
if you don’t want to do any of those “PC” things, then you don’t have to and you’re not paying for them in memory, battery life, or hardware requirements. If you do want or need this functionality, then you can switch to it with ease and fluidity because Windows is right there. Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.

No way bro, it's just a skin overlay theme gui what happens when you bsod and fall back into desktop you might die.

 

[Zombie James]

I was hoping they'd announce dropping Aero.

 

[clav]

Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.

Wish he clarified this. Does that mean explorer.exe gets axed when metroui.exe or whatever the metro inspired interface exe runs to save resources?

This is just the beginning of the discussion. There’s so much more to talk about as we dive into details about the Windows 8 UI. We’re delivering a whole new experience, reimagined from the chips all the way to the user experience, to enable new scenarios, new apps, and new ways of using a PC.

Oh ok. Wait for BUILD.