What is Metro?

[Fredledingue]

I noticed all you do is complain.

What else could I do? As long as they don't make Metro optionable, I'll be complaining. My voice doesn't count? True. But I'm among the 600 million of w7 users who will feel the same. When there will be 1% of windows users (about 10 million poeple) complaining maybe Microsoft will think of requestioning their all-for-Metro strategy. That will come very fast.

Windows is whatever Microsoft says it is.

No, it's whatever the users say it is. If we say it's pile of crap, then it is. Our view is what matters. If we say it's W7 with a gadget layer over the desktop then that's how we see it and that's how we experience it. MS should shut up their face and listen to us. We are giving them money to code softwares, not the other way round. The day Microsofot pays me, for a job or whatever, then I'll be listening to what Microsoft has to say. No problem. But as long as it's me who, collectively with others, is giving a job to the poeple at Microsoft, then it's their job to listen to us, and meet our demands. They can also ignore our complains and as a consequence ignore our money too. But then, they shouldn't pretend to make a revolution.

 

[Colonel Travis]

MS should shut up their face and listen to us.

 

[TheGrantFitz]

MS should shut up their face and listen to us.

View attachment 8178

Neeeeever!

 

[Mystere]

No, it's whatever the users say it is.

No, it's whatever Microsoft says it is. They own the trademark. They pay the programmers. They pay the graphic designers. They pay the marketers and the project managers and whatever else. They own it. It's theirs. If they want to turn it into a bike for fish, then they can.

MS should shut up their face and listen to us. We are giving them money to code softwares, not the other way round.

And there's your problem. You do not pay Microsoft money to code software. You pay Microsoft for a product. If you don't want that product, you don't buy it. If you do like it, you pay them. You are not in charge of what MS delivers.

When you go shopping for a car, you don't buy a Ford Taurus and demand they give you a 500 instead. If you want a 500, you buy a 500. If you want a Taurus, you buy a Taurus. Microsoft is selling something called Windows 8. If you don't want it, don't buy it. That's the limit of what your money can do.

If you want an OS designed exactly the way you want, then I suggest you hire some 10,000 programmers to give it to you. Otherwise, your measly $200 wouldn't even get a single programmer to show up. Windows is a product, it's not a custom piece of software designed specifically for you. So don't act like it is.

 

[Mustang]

Whenever any criticism is levelled at W8, the stock answer is: If you don't like it, don't buy it. Which is really an admission that such criticisms are indefensible; and the answer is a red herring, because it doesn't deal with the actual issues.

The demurrings in this forum have been levelled at M$ in the hope of getting their attention; as well as discrediting false representation of W8 to be something it's not.

However, in reality, the "don't buy it bleating" is actually the best response, because not buying it is the only thing that might get Microsoft's Ostrich head out of the sand.

This ties in with the much touted perception of M$ being entitled to chase the market that returns the most $$$$. And I agree. So the only thing that will get their attention is market failure.

In reality there is no need to say anything, because the writing of failure is aleady on the marketing wall.

 

[Max Peck]

In reality there is no need to say anything, because the writing of failure is aleady on the marketing wall.

One thing's for sure. It's going to be very interesting to watch this play out. I've been part of this industry for about 36 years now and I don't think I've ever seen a product release (by anyone) that has been as divisive as this one has been.

I personally don't like the new system myself (and have said so several times - sorry!). However, I'm fortunate in that the work I do will not be critically affected by the presence of Win8. I write business intelligence code, mostly, and anything I develop is for the desktop which runs everywhere from XP on up into the Windows 8 desktop. So I can afford to sit back and watch in a pretty detached sort of way.

I don't know if Win8 will "make it" or not. Most people I talk to don't even know that there is a Windows 8. Most of my fellow developers feel like I do: it's an experiment that may or may not succeed.

From my limited viewpoint I see that there will be some early adoption of the thing as people buy tablets based on it. Existing desktop users (like myself) won't bother with it until they buy a new machine and even then many will "downgrade" to avoid it. Large corporations and government agencies will probably ignore it for a long time. That nuclear power plant on the corner ain't gonna retool the control room with Win8 consoles: forget it. I would be real surprised to see NASA install it. I can just see big block color squares on the consoles at Mission Control! The CIC and Primary on the aircraft carriers aren't going to go to a smartphone interface to control flight ops and you're probably not going to see Metro running on the floor of the NYSE. People who use these machines for serious and complex work are not going to want to retool just because Microsoft decided "no more chrome".

The change to Windows is not about technology this time it's purely about Marketing. Steve Ballmer is pissed off that he missed the iPad revolution and is now trying to beat Apple at their own game.

Like I said ... this is going to be (correction, is) fun to watch!

-Max

 

[phailyoor]

The change to Windows is not about technology this time it's purely about Marketing. Steve Ballmer is pissed off that he missed the iPad revolution and is now trying to beat Apple at their own game.

Like I said ... this is going to be (correction, is) fun to watch!

-Max

Watching a complete slaughter might now be so fun...
Google got it's share by going against apple, by building something different and better. MS is building something that looks different, but functionally is more "apple" than actual apple products...

 

[Max Peck]

Watching a complete slaughter might now be so fun...
Google got it's share by going against apple, by building something different and better. MS is building something that looks different, but functionally is more "apple" than actual apple products...

Did you mean to say "might not be so fun"?

More "Apple" than Apple products? Hmm ... interesting way to put it. How so?

-Max

 

[phailyoor]

Watching a complete slaughter might now be so fun...
Google got it's share by going against apple, by building something different and better. MS is building something that looks different, but functionally is more "apple" than actual apple products...

Did you mean to say "might not be so fun"?

More "Apple" than Apple products? Hmm ... interesting way to put it. How so?

-Max

Well, a WinRT tablet threatens to be more locked down than the iPad. The APIs and such are somewhat more restrictive than in iOS.

Also, I'll take my last statement back. HP touchpad was hilarious to watch, and I have a nice android tab because of it. Let's hope Windows RT flops even more spectacularly.

 

[Fredledingue]

If they want to turn it into a bike for fish, then they can.

Indeed: They proved it with W8. (ref to the geometricaly shaped fish in the first screenshot - LOL -)

You do not pay Microsoft money to code software. You pay Microsoft for a product.

Micrososft is paying their programmers with the money recieved from their customers. So they can't ignore this source of money. But I admit that I'v ben paying for w7, and when I did so, I didn't pay for w8 or for the developement of w8. But Micrososft used my money to stich W8 nonetheless. Of course they can waste their money in whatever they want, it's none of my business.

 

[johnpombrio]

There are a ton of "features" in Windows that I completely ignore. I never have used libraries, the Start menu, Windows Media Center, UAC, Restore, and a bunch of other parts of Windows. I also don't use Metro, charms bar, edge interfacing, and I skip the start screen ( thanks to Skip Metro Suite Settings). To me, if I SKIP using Metro and Charms, they are just a "feature" that I don't use. Now some people love the Start menu or Restore or libraries and good for them but I don't hear folks yelling that Windows is a failure because they are included in Windows. All of Metro can easily be ignored, soo... ignore it.

 

[Fredledingue]

Johnpombrio, Technicaly you are right it's easy to kill Metro. However the problem is more than that. The problem is the attitude and vision at Microsoft which goes against customers'interrets. MS wants you to use Metro, they want you to use the App Store, Bing and other commercial traps.

thanks to Skip Metro Suite Settings

Will they dare blocking Metro Start Menu killers or dare preventing Windows to boot if you bypass Metro in the future? The way they are talking we have reasons to fear. Until now all the features you don't use were not strategical ones. Metro is strategical to MS. Metro is what they bet money on right now and what they rely to boost they revenues on, not on OS sales anymore. So far what MS wants you to see is this:

---

 

[mdmd]

MS makes that available (fun time) only if you want it. They are not a hideous monster. They just want to offer a cool product that is beneficial to them and the user. The computer is NOT for serious desktop professionals ONLY. If anyone wants to load a dock launcher or start button, they can.

 

[Fredledingue]

mdmd, I agree but again, we are talking about Microsoft's intents for the present and for the future, their commercialist vision and stubborness. It's not like we can't hack w8 to make it better. Please read my above post one more time.

The computer is NOT for serious desktop professionals ONLY.

Around me, I don't know a signle person who has bought a computer and doesn't have a professional or semi-professional or geek/advanced use for it. Even 10 years old kids need a PC for their homworks sometimes. There MAY be poeple who use computers only for leisure and never for anything serious. I think of those who use it as a game console but from what I'v read W8 is a disaster[sic] for games. (link somewhere in this forum). So those who don't play graphic intensive games and rather tweet, chat, facebook, blog, shoot live pics etc are unlikely to use W8 for desktop because they have a tablet/iPad or a smartphone already.

START... Desktop

Yes, that pretty snapshot above is what would my Start Screen look like if I was forced to use it. But at the risk of repeated myself it's not what Microsoft hopes you do with it. They take 30% on every App Store sale. 'nuf said.

 

[Coke Robot]

I don't know what disaster gaming is on Windows 8, other than the "disaster" Gabe Newell and Valve are making it out to be because Microsoft, they feel, is stepping on their turf. My gamer friend was telling me that Microsoft refuses to work with, so that probably is causing more angst for them. 8 is better than 7 for gaming simply as it's all around more resource efficient.

As for those app, yes, 30 percent is taken. They are the ones providing the store as the host. It's no different than WalMart or Target doing the same. Even then, a good chunk of apps right now are free. There aren't a lot of paid ones.

There's an article that does a good job at reasoning why Windows 8 came out the way it did. If Microsoft made a touch OS, like taking Windows Phone and cut the Phone out of it and put in Tablet like android and ios, we'd have yet another phablet that isn't any better than the others. Now, as they want the world to use Windows 8, that suggests they could be forcing it. Or, it could suggest they want a major change to the PC, so they can continue developing Windows in their fashion.

 

[johnpombrio]

Well, gaming with Windows 8 on the desktop has been benchmarked and compares favorably with Win7 and beating it in several games. Valve's biggest grip is that innocent little Games for Windows box in Metro. It suspiciously is very similar to Steam and Blizz methods of gaming and is controlled entirely by MS permission to have a game put there.

 

[Kat]

If it won't play well with openGL games and
some older DX9 games (and it doesn't) then
it isn't much use to me for gaming.

So, it looks like, at least on one machine, I'll
be remaining on 7.

 

[Sinvar]

All this games works fine on my computer, I just installed DX9 and all the problems disappeared.

 

[Fredledingue]

I don't think an OS install can stay out-of-the-box if it lacks crucial features for its user. Poeple are going to act very swiftly to fix the issues and unofficial patches are being developed almost instantly the moment a problem is noticed. The reaction to that is amazingly fast and effective. I'm sure that all the issues about W8 we are talking about now will be forgotten and long fixed in a few weeks or months and a perfectly able and customized W8 OS will be a given. It's just a shame that Microsoft can't do it. That beneolent poeple or organisations must do the job for them. But OK, we'll survive.

 

[Coke Robot]

Out of the box 8 isn't as different than 7. In 7 with the start menu, I had to change it so the amount of links shown isn't 10, it was closer to 15 or more so I could see more of the All Programs list without scrolling. I also had to clean it up by getting rid of the superfluous shortcuts. Then, I had to change the view again so Downloads and I believe Videos along with removing a few Control Panel links.

Now in 8, I have to pin my Libraries (I can pin my three custom libraries unlike 7), some Explorer links, Task Manager, Control Panel, and removing the superfluous tiles out of view and cleaning up the All Apps screen. The benefits? I can swiftly get across my programs and apps and folders quicker and easier than 7. It's liking combining the original purpose of the Desktop with the organization of the start menu as I can group tiles together.