Buy windows 7 now or wait for windows 8 (for parents PC)

You do have a point, but the Metro thing is definitely about Metro AG. And Metro as both a concept and a label was never meant for general public consumption.

As far as Microsoft is concerned Metro and WinRT is just Windows, and that's how it will be marketed. Windows RT will only run apps from the Windows Store, not only run "WinRT" or "Metro-style" apps.

And no, Microsoft can't name a product for toffee. Although "Surface" is pretty good.
 
theheyes said:
You do have a point, but the Metro thing is definitely about Metro AG. And Metro as both a concept and a label was never meant for general public consumption.
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Well yes and no. I've no doubt there's Metro AG behind some of this, and that's more than likely how the new UI had been informally christened "Metro" which I don't think MS ever did intend.

However, it was more than a codename, concept or label as it was the name for the overall design language - obviously this wouldn't be targeted at consumers, but was clearly used publically and not as a codename.

It's hard to find traces of that now, but a few documents remain:

http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/tutorials/windows-phone-7/metro/

And no, Microsoft can't name a product for toffee. Although "Surface" is pretty good.
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A good name, but again ruined by the fact they've used it on totally different products!
 
So Microsoft doesn't even keep a name for a particular thing but moves it about a bit. very confusing.

I think 'Metro' is now called 'Windows 8 Interface' and the apps are called 'Windows 8 Applications'. Very snappy titles!
 
prescott28 said:
So Microsoft doesn't even keep a name for a particular thing but moves it about a bit. very confusing.

I think 'Metro' is now called 'Windows 8 Interface' and the apps are called 'Windows 8 Applications'. Very snappy titles!
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Yep, not that the original surface was a released product - it was a concept touch surface coffee table design - very cool in itself.

And the Windows 8 Interface and Windows 8 Applications is very poor...doesn't suggest much confidence of continuity when they move to a new version of Windows does it? A universal name that was independent of the Windows version would have been much better.
 
prescott28 said:
MS didn't 'remove' the Start menu. They merely moved it. All the Start menu is now shown as tiles in Metro. It doesn't take more than 5 mins to sort out the tiles and arrange and group them and you have a 2 click access to programmes - 1. click bottom left corner to go to Metro, 2. Click the tile for the program you want. It is quicker than using the Start menu.
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You can pin as many apps as you want to to the classic start menu and it's quicker to do so, then not only do you have all of your favourite apps but you also have every other button you may need within the same menu.

With Windiows 8 MS have turned the start menu into several screens and pop out menus that do basically the same thing as before only a lot less efficiently, I don't know how people can defend/praise that.
 
I'm pretty sure you could actually buy those Surface tables if you wanted one, it was definitely a real product.

ChileanLlama said:
Well yes and no. I've no doubt there's Metro AG behind some of this, and that's more than likely how the new UI had been informally christened "Metro" which I don't think MS ever did intend.
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Microsoft definitely did want to use "Metro" in developer and IT pro circles - it wasn't a codename in the traditional sense. But it was never destined for the general public - that's what I'm trying to say.

The name ended up running away with itself a little anyway when people started tacking it onto their apps. Do we really want Metro-everything? MetroTwit, MetroNote, MetroCal. It might do us all a back-handed favour in the long run not giving "it" a concrete name.
 
theheyes said:
I'm pretty sure you could actually buy those Surface tables if you wanted one, it was definitely a real product.
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You might be right, but think it was an extortionat amount for any normal person. Not sure if they were really for sale of if they just put a price on to scare people off asking :D



theheyes said:
Microsoft definitely did want to use "Metro" in developer and IT pro circles - it wasn't a codename in the traditional sense. But it was never destined for the general public - that's what I'm trying to say.

The name ended up running away with itself a little anyway when people started tacking it onto their apps. Do we really want Metro-everything? MetroTwit, MetroNote, MetroCal. It might do us all a back-handed favour in the long run not giving "it" a concrete name.
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Yep, then we're thinking the same thing then (see earlier) :)

Oh I don't have a problem with a design name, like Ford have Kinetic for their styling themes. MS just went way overboard themselves with "Metro style" in every other sentence at events, got picked up by every man and his dog and it got carried away. Just needs to be a clear distinction and clarity over what the design name refers to. That got lost with Metro.
 
We could do with a proper name or the whole what has been called 'Metro' though, The longwinded name Microsoft has come up with is too much of a mouthful. I'm no fan of 'Metro' but a suitably snappy word ought to be used for it.
 
Oh yeah, it was definitely something out of an individual's price range. I'm sure a few bars (as gimmicks) and education institutes bought them but the technology (like a lot of Microsoft stuff believe it or not) is ahead of its time.

The thing with those MS events, even though they were publicly available, they really were developer and IT pro conferences and the Building Windows 8 blog is an MSDN blog. If they didn't really hammer home the Metro design style/philosophy everybody would be trying to replicate WIMP interfaces and then everybody suffers.

If you look at the general public/consumer events, like the Surface announcement, they do actually say "Windows 8 apps" and of course with the Metro AG now they're not even allowing people to say it at Technet.

It's really the technology sites that peddled the Metro name more than anybody, and to be fair who could blame them. Writers need words.
 
I understand and agree to an extent, but MS are surely not that naïve that they thought it would remain in-house when they put it on public websites and discussed it repeatedly at shows that they know, and in fact use to publicise their products to the public - like the CES.

Look how many times it comes up on Steve Ballmer's session, which is also on the MS news site: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/exec/steve/2012/01-09CES.aspx

They used it so many times, writers were bound to pick up on it.

While I take your point about the Surface announcement it was probably after they'd decided to make the change. Anyway, I think we generally agree, and what's done is done, the cynic in me thinks MS are using this, at least in part, as an opportunity to disassociate themselves with the negativity Win8 seems to have generated in a lot of areas. Clean slate and all that...(oops is that a HP trademark?)
 
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