Why I think the desktop *shouldn't* look like Metro

The Windows desktop has a whole bunch of UI toolkits all of which look different, from the widely-used GTK and Qt to the single-application dalliances of programs like Winamp. This was made worse by the fact Microsoft changed the Windows look three times in as many versions between Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista, meaning a lot of busywork for developers who weren't using the toolkits available out of the box making new themes for their toolkit's theming engine.

If Microsoft make the desktop Metro-y, that'll all happen again - developers will run around making their desktop apps look "right" again and ultimately wasting their time. The desktop is going to go away, and Microsoft are making a concerted effort to get everyone to move their development efforts onto Metro and spend less time moving deckchairs on the Titanic.

I disagree. Microsoft gave early access to Visual Studio 11 and therefore generated time for developers to play around with it and, if necessary, adjust their applications.

Also, I find the UI just as important as performance and functionality. This is part of the whole look and feel of an operating system.

Well, we've been using the Aero interface for six years, probably a decent amount of time for a developer to code and design software to reflect that.

Microsoft is shifting software design to metro, on the phone, on the PC, and on the Xbox. It's where the world is a-going, and I doubt it will be gone soon.

The only way to make things less jarring is by bringing metro into the desktop as much as I don't like the flatness and oversimplification. But they could always do metro in a more dimensional way such as what they've done with Internet explorer 9 back and forward buttons where there is dimension but keeping with the simplicity and removing all the unneeded gloss and glow. Or the zune software buttons for "ok" and "cancel" just enough dimension that it's not flat and too simple. Right now it looks awkward with the glassy glossy aero and the flat metro or they could bring some dimensions to the tiles and make them feel less flat but even then they'd have to bring the metro elements into the desktop so that we can have a similarity throughout the whole experience.