Eight
We all know that Microsoft has had a tradition with Windows, in which each good version is followed up by a horrible one. Windows 2000 was a good OS, ME was… Well, we all know. XP was (and still is) a good OS, Vista, well, even Microsoft admitted that it was crap. Windows 7 is good. But Windows 8…
Of course, somewhere along that line we could also mention Bob, but Bob was never officially released. Microsoft Bob was an attempt at a very easy-to-use version of Windows. You probably know the annoying paperclip from MS Office? The one that you feel compelled to axe-murder the nearest person every time he came up to offer you a tip? Yeah, he’s actually a leftover from Bob. Now imagine what the rest of Bob was like.
Anyway, I’ve read a few things about it before, and today a lenghty article has been published on the Dutch IT-news website Tweakers.net. It goes into details about the new interface that Microsoft is putting on Windows 8, called Metro. It is supposed to be (and well, actually is) the biggest makeover since Windows 95 (and quite possible earlier). It also looks like the most epically-sized mistake Microsoft has made since Windows 95.
Sure, the Metro interface looks all shiny. Integration between applications is definately something I can appreciate. And if this whole Metro interface ended up on smartphones and tablets, there’s not much negative stuff I can say about it. On such a device, the interface will work, and it’ll be all pretty and nice and great.
But not on a desktop.
The first big mistake is that apparantly, the Metro interface is just shoved down your throat and you can’t easily get around it. The “classic” interface with a desktop with icons and a task bar is still there, but is considered an application within the Metro interface, and not one you can go into by default. It’s no secret that running with multiple monitors has not always been optimally supported in Windows (the ever-present lack of native support for a taskbar on those extra monitors is a perfect example of that), but I fear that in Metro, the extra screen space that people like me have come to love can hardly be utilized at all.
Guys, the whole reason why I have more than one screen is that I have more space to put stuff in, not so that I can have the same things only with bigger icons and more empty space (which seems to be the trend that Microsoft has been following lately, along with many others).
Bringing in HTML5/JavaScript/CSS as a platform to develop Metro-applications is language abuse of pretty much the worst possible kind, and using Internet Explorer as the platform to run it on is arguably even worse. I can foresee Microsoft getting serious legal issues because with this, they are once again forcing IE down people’s throat rather than letting you choose which browser to use. The infamous browser selection screen, and especially the debacle that led to its creation, is an issue that is going to roar its head and spew fire like it hasn’t done before.
Just about every single existing application is going to be marked as legacy/outdated in this new Metro interface, and the new application store (yes, yet another one) will again be a perfect opportunity for Microsoft to siphon cash from the pockets of hard-working developers.
The perfectly good explorer-interface from Windows 7 has been desecrated by forcing the infamous Ribbon UI on it. The fact that the world has widely shown its disapproval of the ribbon once again doesn’t seem to bother Microsoft in the least. They’ll do whatever the fuck they like and what the actual users want is certainly none of their concern.
Casual computer users will probably accept the new interface that comes with Windows 8, be it with a bit of getting used to. But unless Windows 8 has at least the option to turn Metro the fuck off and just use the desktop environment that we’ve all come to know and love (which is especially true for power users), Microsoft’s latest stillborn creation will be right up there alongside ME, Vista, and quite possibly, Bob.
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