On Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Bill McCarthy < [email protected]> wrote:
> IMO, windows 8 is close, but it could be a lot better. I love the windows > phone like UI **concept**, and I love the idea of the similarities between > the different form factors, BUT the current release preview looks to me to > be designed for content consumption not content creation. Where, for > example, is My documents gone ? > > I find it paradoxical that we can have threads dealing with 3, 4, 5 large monitors to cater to an OS that expects a target of, at best tablet size. > There's some weird divides between "desktop" and "metro" that really only > make sense to developer geeks who understand these are different runtime > platforms: but forcing that differentiation onto consumers seems wrong to > me. Why should they need to care if their app is "metro" or not? Why do > running apps all appear when you hit alt+tab, but yet only one subset > appears in the windows desktop taskbar, and another subset in the "metro" > taskbar (nb the metro taskbar only shows one of the two apps that are > running if one of them is docked) > It's all about efficient use of large screens. And Metro just isn't. > > I think consumers' reaction will be mixed. Tablet users (especially those > with windows phones) will like win 8. Agreed. If Win8 can handle being 4th to market in a fairly mature marketplace. Being third wasn't terribly useful for us. (disclaimer, this is not the opinion of my employer, but is personal - assume this disclaimer applies to all my comments, actually.) > Existing users of win 7 that do a lot > of content creation are more likely to have that initial negative reaction > like Greg posted about, one that I've seen a lot of other people express > too. > > Win7 is adequate or better for desktops, Win 8 is less so. > I do believe it can be made a lot better. The problem to me seems it's more > like running "metro" windows with traditional windows in a VM. There needs > to be better integration.. > > I really strongly believe that with just a handful of changes the > experience > could be a lot better: > > 1. Make the start menu screen a pivot app with pivots that include > "running" > applications, "My Documents" . (maybe include recent, favourites etc). The > "running" pivot pane would include all running apps as is currently in the > ALT+TAB list. > > 2. Get rid of the metro left pane taskbar (no longer needed if (1) is > implemented, and show all apps in the windows desktop taskbar > > 3. Allow metro apps to be run in windows !! That is, allow them to be > run > in a sizeable window alongside desktop apps. (via right click menu, and > allow for that preference to be saved) > > 4. Allow for flexible docking. The current "docking" for metro apps is way > too limited. > > 5. Include the start button on the desktop, and when pressed, show the > metro > start menu screen but show it as not quite full screen, so as it has the > appearance of a window (eg top,left at 10, bottom and right in about 20 > then > add a bit of a drop shadow) > > > There's probably more that could be done to improve integration eg why > doesn't the DPI settings also update the metro settings instead today you > have to change metro to "Large" separately and "Large" isn't the same > slight > magnification as 125% is; why isn't screen resolution in computer settings, > instead you have to get to it via desktop or search for control panel etc. > I > like the idea of simplification but the current bits feel more like > duplication. > > Anyway, I think win 8 is close, but all the good work done behind the > scenes > to make windows 7 better will be lost to negative reactions to the metro > addition. I'm still hoping they will make some more changes but it doesn't > look like it from the preview, instead it looks like they are rushing to > market (realistically only four or so months left to make Christmas for > retail devices). I haven't given up hope yet though; I'm hoping for a > windows 8 mango release if worse comes to worse, but will still be sad to > see so much negative reaction to the first release. > > > All of theses are somewhat hacks to make it perform like the previous version. -- Meski http://courteous.ly/aAOZcv "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. Sure, you'll get it, but it's going to be rough" - Adam Hills
