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Windows 8: Yes, it's that bad

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iphigenie:
Any major change of UI will normally get reviled - people hate every time a website changes anything, facebook, twitter, any! People hate changes to gnome, the new UI on Ubuntu. People hate when an app changes or a browser changes...

Or at least, one hears about the haters most. Then people adapt and on average figure out "hey, this is actually pretty good for ..." and find solutions for the bits they cant adapt to.

And it's probably worst of all for anything that isn't cool. You're supposed to hate windows, you're supposed to make excuses why you use it (facebook is slowly the same too)

zridling:
The real problem with futzing with the Window UI will be the business class. This is where Microsoft is crossing the Rubicon, encouraging people just to stick with Win7 and not upgrade. They're not going to work on spreadsheets and among all their MSOffice documents with their fingers, nor will they want to take the time to bypass the Metro screen every time they logon. As for the Surface, be wary there, too. Apple found out the hard way that people just want a cheap, usable, tablet they can carry around; just ask Amazon (Kindle) and Google (Nexus 7).

mouser:
..nor will they want to take the time to bypass the Metro screen every time they logon.
--- End quote ---


*IF* it turns out that the only thing you have to do in windows 8 to get back to a normal desktop is click something after it boots, after which you have a full desktop experience and never have to deal with metro stuff, and there are no larger consequences, then this whole dust-up is yet another ginned-up silly exercise in complaining about the most trivial of inconveniences, and everyone is getting the knickers twisted for absolutely no reason at all.

However, that is a big giant "IF", because it seems to me that having two kinds of interfaces (metro touch-centric vs desktop) is going to be a schizophrenic situation for developers and microsoft itself, and it's hard for me to envision their not being serious consequences for this approach -- like splitting the windows developers into first and second class citizens with the new microsoft app store stuff, etc. Or requiring users to shift between different modes of using their computer based on what application they are using -- creating a daily conflict of user interface standards.  We shall see..

Renegade:
I must confess... I have on more than 1 occasion looked for touch screen monitors. They're pretty overpriced though.

But there are times when I wish I could use a touch interface on my desktop as the nature of the work flow would improve. Not always, in fact seldom, but there are cases.

But somehow I doubt that I would get what I wanted. :( All we'll see is more games and "apps" and web crap. It will be a while before computers actually get a seriously usable interface that integrates different input methods. The key will be voice, which is so locked down right now that it is completely unusable by anyone except the largest software houses/vendors. e.g. Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Google, etc. Nobody else can realistically use voice because the model is so completely broken and skewed against innovation. I've ranted before about voice. Same applies, but worse. (I've been working on voice for a while now, and get to peer a bit deeper into the abyss than most...)

Anyways, for Metro or whateverthehellitscallednowbecauseofsomeassaninepatentcopyrighttrademarkipbsnonsense, I can see situations where it would be nice to flip between the two.

iphigenie:
it seems to me that having two kinds of interfaces (metro touch-centric vs desktop) is going to be a schizophrenic situation for developers and microsoft itself, and it's hard for me to envision their not being serious consequences for this approach -- like splitting the windows developers into first and second class citizens with the new microsoft app store stuff, etc. Or requiring users to shift between different modes of using their computer based on what application they are using -- creating a daily conflict of user interface standards.  We shall see..
-mouser (August 16, 2012, 01:35 AM)
--- End quote ---

This situation is quite common - it exists for games developers (mouse, gamepad, touch, joystick), it exists for phone app developers (2 types of touch interface and non touch as well). It hasn't killed those ecosystems, so I suspect with sufficiently solid frameworks and SDK it will be fairly easy to adapt apps to touch/no touch options on the PC too. At least you'd hope MS has thought about that and plans to make it easy for devs.

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