All the smart guys left

[commodorejohn]

Because spastic, hipper-than-thou editing, zero real information, and music that sounds like an ad studio's attempt to mash up every single genre that's "popular with the Kids These Days" into one song is totally a winning formula. And bonus points for the continued pathetic "hey, maybe this will get people to use Silverlight!" attempts.

You know what's really sad? The infamous Windows 386 Sexless Porno was more informative about the actual product, better-directed, and more entertaining than this mess.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noEHHB6rnMI[/youtube]

[commodorejohn]

I am waiting to see how they (Microsoft) are going to sell this crap to corporate users. Either as a Windows Vista II or Windows ME replacement or a way to lose even more productivity from staff who prefer to spend their whole working day on social networks.

That's the big question with this whole thing. Microsoft have insisted "oh, don't worry about it, we've got that covered, we're just not going to say how," but I rather doubt it - if they had something to allay business-user concerns, why would they not be letting it out, if they plan to launch this thing this fall? I honestly kind of suspect Windows 8 is going to make Vista look like a success...

I know of plenty of businesses that haven't even upgraded to Vista or 7 yet; I wonder how many skipped versions it will take before Microsoft gets the hint that people really just want the XP interface back, on top of better underlying OS versions?

On a final note - Am I the only one who believes that Windows 8 is like MS BOB? A dumb interface for idiots who don't deserve to own a computer.

No, sir, you are not. Not in the least.

Idea. Why don't they use a games console style GUI such as the one on the Xbox instead of trying to turn Windows into a smart phone?

Either way they'd be forcing an inapplicable UI paradigm onto desktop and laptop computers for no good reason...

[commodorejohn]

There's nothing wrong with the video, it's just that folks here aren't the target audience.

Uh, no, there's everything wrong with the video. The music is annoying crap that doesn't have any idea what it wants to be other than "moderne," the animation is directionless, non-fluid awkward start-and-stop that moves like a newbie Flash animation, and the whole thing conveys next to no real information about what this thing is actually going to be like in daily use (i.e. the entire point of the video.) Even putting aside the question of Windows 8's actual merits, this is an ugly failure of an advertisement thrown together by soulless marketroids. Whoever their ad agency was, they should fire them.

You can opt for a more standard desktop. Most people will just do that unless they are on a tablet or phone. Its just like having two window managers in linux I suppose. You can choose which ui you want to use.

You can't make it go away entirely, though, not without employing third-party hacks. Metro Team want you to APPRECIATE THEIR WORK, DAMMIT!

Will be "free" on 80% of computers sold world wide and Joe public doesn't install different OS. This is the Microsoft trojan effect, doesn't matter if it's sh1t

Didn't save Vista from losing the public-opinion war hard, and Vista was more palatable than this to business customers at least. Microsoft had quite a patch in the mid-2000s of learning the hard way that they aren't as unstoppable as they think they are; I expect this will be another repetition of the same lesson. Nobody had to switch to Linux or Mac to make their point, all they had to do was stick with XP...

[commodorejohn]

The fact that I checked out the link on my Android phone and it couldn't display the video because they used a stupid proprietary Silverlight format was fail enough for me.  But then again, I am the only person in the world who uses a smartphone to browse the web, right?

And the only person in the world who doesn't have Silverlight installed because absolutely nothing uses it! Clearly!

[commodorejohn]

Win 7 is just Vista which uses less RAM but in the corporate world forcing everyone's workstation specs up by 1gb or 1.5gb to run the same business apps was not acceptable at time of Vista launch. Same number of consumer laptops/PCs were sold so the Trojan effect works.

For me and many others XP does the same job so upgrade sales on Win 7 vs Vista reflects marketing not quality of product, and marketing bullcrap about how fast and efficient 7 was with lies like "as fast as XP" by clueless "engineers" helping sales.

But the marketing thing was basically my point - Vista had plenty of actual drawbacks when it came out, but it failed as bad as it did through sheer force of word-of-mouth; early adopters found out it couldn't run for squat on low-to-mid-range systems they already owned and XP ran better even on the high-end rigs, and people buying new computers that were actually designed to run Vista got the word and started demanding XP instead, so much so that Microsoft was basically forced by OEMs to extend XP's product life well beyond what they'd ever intended for it. It was bad enough that all they had to do to sell the successor was to release nearly the same damn thing but make sure they called it nothing even resembling "Vista." Even now, Vista is still an industry punchline. That's how hard they lost the battle for public opinion.

And the astonishing thing about Windows 8 is that it appears to be losing the fight before it's even released, and Microsoft are just sitting on their hands doing nothing about it except saying "hey, trust us, when was the last time we stunned and disappointed you with a steaming pile of crap?" At which point everybody laughs and says, "Vista, dumbass!"

(And I totally agree about XP - that's why I'm still using it. Got a fresh install on my new Core 2 Duo laptop, and a partition set aside to investigate alternative OSes, in case Microsoft doesn't get the hint and bring back the classic interface by the time this one wears out.)

[commodorejohn]

It's an up beat, catchy tune. It fits with the  scheme of the video. They could have use classical music or R&B, but  that wouldn't make sense would it?

It's a scattershot attempt to hit a dozen different genres without  actually going to the trouble of being any one of them, and as a  result it fails at each. It's like a Seltzer-Friedberg "comedy:" it  works on the theory that a cursory reference to something is just as  good as understanding the real thing and incorporating it. (Hint: this  is not true.) Time was they would hire Brian Eno to come up with a  simple, coherent sound statement; now they're just chopping random bits  together willy-nilly in FruityLoops.

It's not directionless in the least. It shows a plausable, real world usage of the setup.

I give you credit for following that; did you have to watch it more than  once to piece it together? It didn't stick on any one thing long enough  for me to tell what the hell was going on.

It was extremely fluid

Wasn't awkward in the least and it didn't look anything like a "newbie" flash anim.

It was awkward. The screen drags move like pulling a cinderblock across  concrete; all velocity and no acceleration. It looks like what Flash  newbies come up with when they first learn about motion tweening. I've  never even designed a touch interface, and I know that's  not how you do it, and not how you do animation in general.

Wrong, what it's like using the system was the entirety of the video.

Then they're in deeper trouble than I thought.

The video was designed to highlight an array of features to an  audience of non-technical, Joe average consumers who are primarily  interested in using the device for entertainment and communication. The  target audience would be put off by anything longer than a minute that  wasn't upbeat and looked cool.

Ah, the  "viewers  are goldfish" principle. I don't believe the mythical "average  person with a thirty-second attention span" exists, and if they did  they'd be so braindead you wouldn't need an advertisement to sell to  them; all you'd need to do is have the salesman talk at them long enough  for them to forget what they were talking about and then go "sign  this."

Folks like you who foam at the mouth every time you see the word
"metro" on the screen aren't the target audience. Of course you hate it,  it would never be possible for them to put together a presentation  you'd find interesting.

I'm never going to be interested in Metro, true, but it would've been  entirely possible for them to put together an in-depth, aesthetically  pleasing presentation of something I'm not interested in. This isn't  even trying.

It's just different. And different doesn't necessarily mean "bad". There will be many drawbacks for people insisting to use Win 8 as it was one of its precedessors, but it won't be so bad for people accustoming to the new interface.

As Bob says, it's bad design, pure and simple. Tablets are not desktop/laptop computers and laptop/desktop computers are not tablets, it's as simple as that. Trying to develop a hybrid interface for both is a fool's errand, and forcing the result on desktop Windows users is a recipe for pissing people right the hell off.

[commodorejohn]

The metro start screen doesn't replace the start menu, all of the functionality that is currently part of the start menu is seperated out & you can use Windows 8 without ever using the start screen.

That's not what I've read; if you could make the Metro Start screen go away normally, why would there be a third-party hack for it? Or did they change that in response to protest, finally?
 

I don't think the start menu is that important, I spend very little time using it each day.

Well, that's lovely for you, then. I do.

[commodorejohn]

I think it was time for a shake up from the old outdated interface.

I don't give a rat's ass if designers want to play with new concepts, but when they take away the tried-and-true fallback (or bastardize it,) that's going too far. I'm already perfectly happy with the old interface, thanks, I don't need some art student-turned-UI designer at Microsoft telling me what I should be interested in.

[commodorejohn]

Wow, taking things a little serious I think. MS are not trying to tell you anything, there's nothing wrong with the "tried and true" but things have to change otherwise we would stay in the same place.

Advancements wouldn't be made if the human race stuck with the same thing. As for the tried and true that's still there, the old desktop remains for older applications and for people to still use.

If I'm overly-serious and irritable, it's because you're telling me (and Microsoft is telling me, by taking away the old interface) that I'm somehow wrong to want what I want. I was happy with XP; the designers had their new niche to play in, and the legacy interface worked just like I was used to from Windows 98. They started taking away the legacy interface in 7 (which is the main reason I haven't upgraded, aside from really having no need,) and now they're going even further with it. They're taking away the option that works best for me because they've decided for me that I no longer need it.

And to say something like "Advancements wouldn't be made if the human race stuck with the same thing" is naive. It's the kind of mindset that doesn't care where something is going as long as it's going. Change is only merited when the new thing is an improvement over the old thing (and even then, the hassle cost of switching has to be outweighed by the overall improvement.) Even stagnation is better than blindly endorsing a devolution of the user interface just because it's new.

The start menu is even there in an improved manner, just hover the mouse over where the start menu use to be and hello a newer version of one appears :-)

I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be rude, but if you've actually looked into the Start screen and you honestly think it's an improvement in anything but a touchscreen scenario (and, I suspect, even then,) you're an idiot. Have you looked into this beyond the promo shots? It's not New Magic, it's a space-hog version of the existing Start menu - which means that every program that adds its own shortcuts will still be adding crap to the Start screen. It's not going to look like this, it's going to look like this; it's basically the Start menu if you auto-expanded every subfolder and put lots of padding in between entries. It's a waste of space and a stupid design. And you can't get rid of it.

I think people need to remain open minded and give things a try. Change should not be feared or put down, wait for it to be released for awhile.

Again, I wouldn't care what they do if they'd just leave the legacy interface alone and untouched and confined their slipshod experiments to the new crap. But they aren't.

A year or two from now I predict most people will have a different view.

What are they going to do in a year or two? The thing that would most seriously improve Windows 8 (and people's reception of it) is to bring back the legacy interface; even the 7 Start menu would be an improvement. When the best thing that can be done for your design is to get rid of it, that says something.

I love 7, but it needs to evolve like most things do. I use to hate the new ribbon menu in Office 2007/2010 but since using it for awhile going back to Office 2003 etc and the interface feels outdated and slow.

But this is basically the problem with nerfing legacy UI; sure, you might like the ribbon, and good for you with that. I despise it. It's not a case of not having used it enough, we've been stuck with Office 2007 at work for two years now. I still despise it; the spatial organization is bad, menu items that were easy to find in 2003 are a scavenger hunt now, and Office's always-problematic Toolbar Wasteland Syndrome has now expanded to a full-on mega-toolbar that you can't get rid of. It eats up screen space, it eats up time, and it eats up happiness. Saying "well I like it" is great, but it doesn't do anything to endear it to me, or any of the countless other people who hate it.

It's the same thing with Windows 8; if you somehow like to have your Start menu expanded into a wasteland of every entry every installer decided to put in there, with padding, scrolling across screens' worth of data just to find what you're looking for, then...well, you like it, but saying you like it doesn't change anything about it that others are objecting to.